ECTS 1998 Ubi Soft Entertainment Press Kit (Europe)

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Text File | 1998-08-21 | 24KB | 775 lines

COMPANY CONTACT: Carrie Tice 11-331-48-1852-38 ctice@ubisoft.fr Tonic Trouble What's Changed Since E3/What You'll see in the Final Game Questions and Answers Regarding Tonic Trouble 1- Ed is more lively and has more actions Ed already had a vast repertoire of possible actions including running, jumping, hanging, flying, swimming, and fighting with his stick. We've added new animations with two goals in mind: - Give Ed even more personality, making him more lively and likeable - Widen the gameplay possibilities. a) Give Ed more personality, making him more lively & likeable To achieve the 1st goal, specific animations were added to better suit specific situations. ┬╖ When Ed is waiting: - He shivers when he is in a freezing place (such as the Glacier Cocktail) - He looks bored and taps his fingers - He puts spray in his mouth ┬╖ Possible attacks or death sequences for Ed: - Electrocution by lightning strike or electric device - Burned by flames or lava - Crushed on the floor by big rolling stones or heavy objects - Free falling into space - Frozen into ice - Death on the ski slope ┬╖ Exiting one map to another: - Ed is swallowed by a gate - Ed unzips a door ┬╖ Other animations: - Finding the stick after defeating the Suitcase-Robot - Succeeding in a combat - Gathering the 6 objects asked by the Doc - And many more! b) Widening the gameplay possibilities. ┬╖ Attacking with the stick Previously, Ed could only attack while standing and jumping. Now, he can now attack with his stick while walking and running. ┬╖ Using the blow-pipe In addition to the first-person mode, the player will now be able to have a third person view-point when he is using the blow-pipe. Ed will also be able to move while shooting in a third person view, which enhances the combat possibilities. The blow-pipe will be accessible in these 2 modes while flying. 2- Improved Playability and Control ┬╖ On the N64, Ed will direct automatically towards the direction to which the player leans the control stick (see Mario or Banjo-Kazooie for example). This will allow players more comfort in the handling of the character and the ability to achieve more dynamic movements. ┬╖ We improved the control of existing actions which were more challenging to handle: - Jumping: Easier to direct; more dynamic - Flying: Easier to accomplish. The player will be able to brake, and go back up in the air thanks to upward whirlwinds ┬╖ The camera has been adapted to this new control mode, allowing players to have better vision. The player will be able to circle Ed with the camera, and have four different positions behind Ed: One very close to Ed to go easily through narrow corridors, and three other positions at the same distance from Ed, but at varying heights. 3- Enhaned Storyline & Game Navigation a) In-world guidance Most worlds are now being introduced to the player by a character. For example, when the player is with the Spy when entering the Vegetables' HQ for the 1st time, this narrative introduces the situation: "SsshhhhΓÇª Agent xyz here, my contacts have informed me of your visitΓÇª You're standing on Vegetable HQ. The vegetables don't want the world to be like it was before. That stray can has freed them from 200 centuries of stews, soups, salads and other veggie dishesΓÇª They've got wind of your project for getting the can back, and now they've joined forces with Gr├╢gh. They've pinched the Doc's springs and hidden them in their patch. Keep an eye out!" Other characters will intervene to give hints to the player, or help him find his way. Additionally, some visual indications have also been added to guide the player, especially in the South Plain, which is the crossroads of most worlds. b) Storyline & Cinematics The additional characters have allowed us to include more dialogues. Those dialogues are sometimes necessary to guide the player, but they will above all reinforce the whole storyline. From the Vegetable's HQ, cinematic scenes will be played before entering levels. During such sequences, a character will remind Ed of his mission, and recall what is going on in this specific world. Therefore, it will reinforce the story behind each of them. 4- More Depth in the Gameplay a) Deepening the environments As mentioned previously, the gameplay was improved thanks to Ed's new control and moves. But we also intensified the gameplay within the 10 existing maps by providing: 1. More interactions with objects and the setting. There are: - Platforms to direct - Doors to open - Notches to activate - Targets to reach - More objects to moves such as: Crates to move with a magnet, stones to lift, etc.. 2. More clues and puzzles to find: - Discover the right combination of buttons and recreate Gr├╢gh's face on a jigsaw in the Pressure Cooker - Players must now deliver the Doc in the Doc's Cave - There is a big mechanism to fix in the Glacier Cocktail - There are walls to turn, players must create floods to open pathways, and empty a swimming-pool in the Pyramid 3. There are more enemies to defeat 4. The use of special powers has been intensified. Once Ed gets a new power, he will have to make greater use of it. For instance, the chameleon power will be used 9 times. 5. Adding special effects To better integrate Ed in his environment, these special effects were added : Footprints Bubbles under the water Snow and rain Air/vapor trails while flying or gliding Trails and impact effects when using the blowpipe b) Two new maps Two new maps were added to increase the intensity of the end of the game: - A Big Boss Map: Once the player reaches the last world (Land), he must run a track race with the huge Tower where Gr├╢gh lives. This is a map with lots of pace and action, which needs speed from the player! After the track race, a final fight will pit Ed against the Tower. - A Bonus map (optional): To access this action-orientated map, the player must gather a certain number of bonuses from the game (which is not compulsory to finish the game). The bonuses will sometimes be displayed in such a way that the player will have to go back to certain maps with the right powers to get them. It is based on 3 capabilities: - One part on sliding - One part on shooting with the blow-pipe - One part on flying TONIC TROUBLE Q&A Background on Ubi Soft Entertainment's New Action-Adventure Game Q: What platforms will the game be available on? A: PC CD-ROM, PC DVD-ROM and Nintendo 64. The PC versions will be among the first games specifically designed to utilize Intel's new Pentium┬« II processor platform featuring Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) technology, but the minimum system requirements are a Pentium processor 120 MHz and higher with a 3D accelerator card. Q: What are the release dates for each platform? A: Q4-1998 for the PC CD-ROM and N64 versions of the game. The DVD-ROM version depends upon the growth of the hardware market. Q: Is the game optimized for a 3D accelerator? If so, which cards? A: Tonic Trouble is optimized and specially designed for 3Dfx, Nvidia Riva 128C, and ATI Rage Pro and Intel 740, both AGP supported cards. Additionally, the game is compatible with any card supporting D3D Direct X version 5. Q: How has the game taken advantage of the combination of Intel's new Pentium┬« II processor and Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) Technology? A: The graphics benefit from the technology's many-polygon abilities and rich textures; the sound benefits from greater audio capabilities; and more characters can be on the screen simultaneously. Q: Will there be a multiplayer option? A: No. Tonic Trouble is an adventure with numerous puzzles to solve. This genre is not a good candidate for multiplayer play. Q: What is the target age range for this game? A: Like Rayman, Tonic Trouble is designed as a cross-generational game. Likely players will be ages 12 to 97. Younger players will have fun with the game, but only experienced gamers will have the understanding and sophistication to do well. Q: How long has the game been in development? A: Pre-production began in July 1996. Q: What is the basic plot line? A: A violet-colored extraterrestrial named Ed accidentally drops a mysterious can during a scientific exploration of the galaxy. The can's contents unleash a series of mutations that affect humans, plants and animals alike. Ed must rescue the can from Grogh the Hellish, a ne'er-do-well who harnesses the can's powers to declare himself Master of the Earth. Along the way, Ed encounters a CD-worshipping village, strange killer vegetables, a desert of upside-down pyramids, an Atlantis-like underwater world and other wonders. Q: How many worlds and characters does Tonic Trouble have? A: Tonic Trouble contains 10 graphical environments, each split into several maps. Each map has a very specific atmosphere built around a specific item; these include an Egyptian pyramid, a ski slope, a factory in a giant cooking pot, a glacier full of giant fruits and sangria, and a deep canyon. Each map requires special skills. In the canyon, the player must fly well; in the glacier, he must be a good skater; and so on. The game also contains approximately 40 characters, various objects and a number of secret levels. Q: We have yet to play the N64 version-what are the differences between the PC and Nintendo 64 versions. A: The PC and the N64 have different technical requirements and capabilities and both versions were developed to specifically push the respective platforms to the limits and offer the player the same gameplay. One of Tonic Trouble's key features is its extremely rich textures. The game engineers for the N64 version have managed to achieve textures that are much richer and more detailed than other N64 games. People will simply be amazed. The N64 version of Tonic Trouble was designed to utilize more abstract shapes, versus the typical geometrical, flat polygons seen in other N64 titles. All characters backgrounds etc., have been manipulated to maintain the graphic integrity of the game. The result is that although the polygons for the N64 are about half of what is found on the PC version, the player will be impressed! Tonic Trouble for the PC begins with a six-minute introduction that looks like an animated film. The N64 version is two minutes long. Q: Tonic Trouble seems to be the most ambitious N64 conversion to date. How can you fit a game developed with DVD in mind on an N64 cartridge? A: The differences between the N64 and DVD-ROM version of the game are extremely subtle. Essentially, the N64 version reduces the amount of MPEG-2 video and shortens the musical score to ten distinct tracks. The remaining musical tracks, however, are simply spectacular. What sets Tonic Trouble's musical score apart, is it changes to reflect the character's emotions in the game, while other games have several tracks that repeat incessantly. During fighting scenes, the music is intense and nerve-racking; when the player is frightened and alone, the music is slow and melancholy. We have retained a full two-minute introductory sequence - longer and more complete than any other N64 title to date. Q: What innovations did Ubi Soft's new 3D integration tool bring to Tonic Trouble? A: Says Gregoire Gobbi, World Wide Project Manager for Tonic Trouble, "The game was built with a proprietary 3D integration tool and modular, scaleable engine developed by 50 Ubi Soft developers over an 18-month period at a cost of $4 million. We have since named this tool 'Architecture Commune Programmation (ACP)' which puts creative control in the hands of the game designers rather than the programming team." The result produces more complex characters, graphical environments and problem-solving challenges. Characters change behavior and expressions; game settings are richer; gameplay becomes more interactive. Q: Does any other company use a similar proprietary 3D integration tool? A: Not to Ubi Soft's knowledge, with the possible exception of Nintendo. Q: How does this new technology affect the characters? A: In a game such as Mario 64, the characters other than Mario are one-dimensional behaviorally; they may attack, but they cannot change their mode of attack, facial expression or actions. In Tonic Trouble, all of the characters react differently at different times. Instead of having one carrot that repeatedly makes a face at the main character, for example, the carrot will continuously change its actions and facial expressions. It may chase, run away, jump, scare, etc., according to the situation. This is possible because of the advanced artificial intelligence of Ubi Soft's new 3D integration engine. Q: How does this new technology affect the game environment? A: All the graphical environments have an added dimension, and players can interact with the backgrounds. For example, in other games, characters that fly have no point of reference to the ground. In Tonic Trouble, they have a full view of the ground while they are in the air, and this gives the player sensations that cannot be achieved with simpler graphics. The backgrounds also contain secret passages, and sometimes the player must make some part of the background move to go forward or explode obstacles. Backgrounds are used to give both playability and visual sensation. Q: How does this new technology affect the gameplay? A: Ubi Soft's new 3D integration engine allows interactivity and freedom of movement beyond anything seen before in gameland. Gamers can go absolutely anywhere in an environment. In addition, characters take on a life of their own, appearing and reappearing throughout the game depending on the player's actions. Characters don't exist simply for Ed to run into; they exist independently. There is a character named The Nut, for example, who loves to sit on flowers. He is doing this even before Ed meets him, and Ed must figure out how to use The Nut's odd habit to help him open a secret trap door. This is the first time that technology has allowed this level of interactivity in a game. Q: Who created Tonic Trouble? How many people were on the team? A: Tonic Trouble was co-conceived by Michel Ancel, the primary creator behind Ubi Soft's blockbuster Rayman action-adventure game, which recently was named one of Sony PlayStation's Greatest Hits. Now 27, Ancel joined Ubi Soft when he was 17, designing early games such as Pick'n'pile and Jeu des B├¬tes. He originally handled both programming and game design himself. By the time he developed Rayman, he headed up a 16-person creative team. For Tonic Trouble, which required the development of a new 3D integration tool, the staff ultimately comprised 120 people. Q: What were the game's designers trying to achieve? A: Says game designer Pierre Olivier Cl├⌐ment, "Games like Duke and Quake are my favorite games at the moment, but even in these games, the main goal is only to kill the enemy. As a gamer, I want to be able to think-to rationalize my every move. I want characters that are more intelligent than any other game. I want to engage in puzzles that require trial and error and deep thought in order to solve. With Tonic Trouble, the game design team was able to do whatever we wanted to reach these goals." Q: What advances does Tonic Trouble offer in the arena of game music? A: Typically, games have several tracks, which repeat too often. Typically, the music changes based only on the player's place in the game. Tonic Trouble offers 10 long tracks, and the music changes to reflect the character's responses to the action. During fighting scenes, the music is intense and nerve-wracking; when the player is frightened and alone, the music is slow and melancholy. The Tonic Trouble music is the product of one musician; five in-house sound editors, and six months of work. In addition to these features, the PC version of Tonic Trouble utilizes Dolby sound to further the game's "total immersion" process. Q: How were the graphical worlds created? A: All graphical environments are texture mapped. The graphic artists first made roughs on paper, then scanned them and used software such as Painter and PhotoShop to define the colors. The team then used two 200MHz PCs with 3D Studio Max to model the maps. The textures were created in PhotoShop. The last step was to settle the light in each scene. Team member Geoffroy DeCrecy explained, "Our inspiration came essentially from the cartoons of the 60s. We wanted the simplicity, energy and efficiency you can find in this kind of graphic universe." Q: What secrets and tricks are built into the game? A: As in the original Rayman, players are rewarded not only by bonus points and access to secret levels but with the gradual acquisition of tricks and powers that will be required later in the ame. For example, Ed's main weapon is a stick that initially can be used only to hit enemies. Through the course of the game, the stick transforms itself into various tools allowing Ed to navigate through water, lift heavy objects and more. The player must be clever to take advantage of all the information and tools he is given. Q: Why is Ed an unusual hero? A: In the beginning, Ed is the antithesis of a hero. He is a nobody; a simple alien employed in a menial position on a spaceship. He is puny, clumsy, and quirky in his movements. In order to win the admiration of others and to acquire powers, Ed must work with both friends and foe, and win the support of other characters. He becomes more clever and self-confident as he learns new tricks and powers. Q: What inspired Ancel's vision of Tonic Trouble? A: As he demonstrated in Rayman, Ancel prefers fairytale worlds and fantastic Tolkien-like adventures to the metal and concrete cyberworld of many games. For Tonic Trouble, he was particularly inspired by the storyline of LucasArts' Day of the Tentacle and by the interface and travel-through-another-world feel of Zelda for the Super Nintendo. The story concept for Tonic Trouble revolved around two central themes: The idea that the hero makes the first mistake rather than coming in as a white knight to save the world from a villain or natural disaster; and the thought that a haphazard accident can turn conventional patterns of behavior upside down. That is why the vegetables in Tonic Trouble start eating the animals, a deadbeat drunk rises to power, and so on. It is also the motivation behind the surprise ending of the game. Q: Why are both Tonic Trouble and Rayman non-violent games? A: In working on the Rayman cartoon, Ancel and his team re-discovered unique ways that cartoon-makers are able to convey heightened emotion through the creative use of humor. That lesson carried over to Tonic Trouble. "You can achieve the same sensation of fear, suspense and excitement without having to be a Doom-type of shoot-'em-up-and-watch-'em-bleed game. Other games are doing this already, so there is no reason to join in. We want to be different," Ancel says. The carrot who is a central character in Tonic Trouble, for example, meets his maker by getting chopped in half-a wry reference to the vegetable's usual fate in the kitchen. Q: What else does Tonic Trouble have in common with Rayman? A: The way the humor is developed, the gags, the unexpected surprises, the wacky elements and the fresh, colorful, imaginative graphic environments. Q: How does Tonic Trouble differ from Rayman? A: Rayman was introduced in 1995. Tonic Trouble is able to take advantage of 3D technology and other technical advances. As a result, the creative team was able to deliver greater character definition with many polygons and textures, plus a vast array of character expressions which make for more interesting animations. Other differences include Dolby sound, the long introduction, the more sophisticated use of music and a greater emphasis on adventure than action. Additionally Ed is an Anti-Hero and Rayman is an original Superhero archetype! Q: Why is Tonic Trouble more of an adventure game than an action game? A: In an action game a player's dexterity in movement and action determines the survival of the character. It isn't always necessary to know the plot in order to play. Tonic Trouble is plot- driven and success depends upon the player's skill in getting information. The characters in the story have the clues Ed needs to find the toxic can, and one fellow named 'The Doc' has the magic stick Ed needs to survive. Ed must interact with the characters to proceed. The player still needs good reflexes and control, but this is not as important as being curious or suspicious of why the designers placed certain elements in certain places, etc. Q: How will the DVD version of Tonic Trouble take advantage of the DVD format? A: DVD's extra space permits the game's longer introduction and additional music tracks. In addition, the DVD version will be encoded with 5.1 channel 3D Dolby digital (AC-3) sound. John Loose, Multimedia Production Technician for Dolby Laboratories Licensing Division says, "Ubi Soft showed the world the immersive nature of Dolby Surround in ground-breaking products like POD and now has gone one step further with Tonic Trouble. The cinematic sequences in Tonic Trouble, mixed in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound, are as good as anything coming out of Hollywood today. The soundtrack to Tonic Trouble is an excellent example of the convergence of the interactivity of the computer gaming industry with the production values and emotion of Hollywood films." Q: Will Tonic Trouble utilize the Nintendo 64DD? A: Not at this point. The 64DD is still under development; Ubi Soft has yet to receive a developer kit for the technology and Nintendo has not been concrete in its release date. Q: Will new levels and characters be available? A: Yes. The PC version of the game will have a direct link to the Ubi Soft Web site (www.ubisoft.com). Players will be able to download new levels and characters for continued playability, and to access a slew of other bonuses and giveaways.