Rebelmind - Space Hack interview- by HC.Gamer

Questions answered by:

Krzysztof Krawczyk - Production Director and co-founder of Rebelmind, responsible for leading the development of Space Hack
Darek Rusin - Managing Director and co-founder of Rebelmind, responsible for sales & PR of Space Hack

- Thank you very much for answering my questions. Please, tell us a little about the history of the team and the members.

Darek Rusin: Rebelmind's history started in 1995, when we released our first title, Mega Blast (a remake of such great titles like Dyna Blaster or Bomberman). Then, in 1996 there was Dark Moon (an arcade-style shooter) and in 1997 Treasure Island (a platform/adventure game with pirates, ships and lots of gold). Timothy, our game for kids, was released in 2000 and the same year we secured a deal with CDV which resulted in an action/adventure titled Grom (released in 2002). After that we jumped again into children games (for a moment) and made Great Journey (2003) and now we're working hard on Space Hack (2004)! And that's the story so far...

- When did the development of Space Hack start?

Darek Rusin: We started working on Space Hack about a year ago, in April 2003.

- How did you come up with the idea for the game?

Krzysztof Krawczyk: The ideas usually come up spontaneously. It's a mixture of many books read, the films seen and many hours spent in front of the computer. It's usually an attempt to answer the question - what would happen if?
And this case was exactly the same. What would happen if people without any help from outside were to face bloodthirsty forces?
Each of us has his favourite game, which rules and mechanisms were created "exclusively for him". This is the way we hit the idea to place the whole story in action/rpg game reality. Looking in retrospect, I think it was a good choice.

- Please tell us about the plot and the main hero.

Krzysztof Krawczyk: Action of the game takes place in the distant future. Huge spaceships like Maximus transport prisoners to their "dream" penal colonies. The whole flight they spend in specially prepared biospheres, which are supposed to help them survive the first and the hardest period of their stay on the intact, unexplored planet.
Maximus XV has almost reached its destination, when the catastrophe happened. At once, all inhabitants and guards as well found themselves in a horrific situation. The Black Nebula, unfathomable gravitational formation which sucked the ship in, turned out to be inhabited part of space. Creatures, which attacked totally unprepared people, were exterminating them merciless. Most of biospheres' inhabitants got killed or eaten. A handful of people that remained alive decided to resist. The last resort is to get to the 'Mother' module. Its powerful engines may free those, who are still alive, out of that hell. The only men, who can undertake the task of finding the entrance to the 'Mother' is 'Space Hack' - the Space Marines officer trained in mortal combat. He became famous for bravado actions and was given the nickname that really says everything - 'Space Hack'. He landed in penal biosphere for not executing the controversial order, what turned out to be the salvation for the people trapped in The Black Nebula's guts. Where other people lost hope, he found the way to freedom.

- Will he be all alone during his voyage?

Krzysztof Krawczyk: While working out the idea of the game we considered creating the team. It has advantages and disadvantages. Finally we chose a single-person version. The lonely hero sticking to chosen way brings more dramatic nature that constantly growing unit of trained brawlers.
Besides, Hack won't be completely alone. He would discover traces and information about people, who lived in biospheres. These would be relations from battlefields and records of the first days of aliens' invasion. In many situations these pieces of information would be very helpful in performing the task.
Each time he returns to the 'village' to buy or sell something he would speak to people who live there. Friends and enemies as well would sometimes have interesting information to pass on. They would lead us to the gloomy secret of our biosphere.

- The Sci-fi world isn't very popular recently. Why did you choose this environment type?

Krzysztof Krawczyk: I agree. When talking about action/rpg or rpg, sci-fi isn’t popular. I would even say that it hardly exists. I think that creating the credible world in fantasy reality is much easier. We have so many ready-made models - just to take with both hands.
The main problem with sci-fi is that everyone associates it with the interiors of spaceships - sterile Star Trek rooms. Everyone knows how the spaceship interiors look like - they are uninteresting. How to put rpg game in there? It takes a lot of effort to change this model.
Our choice was the 'biospheres'. They are closed enclaves with earth’s flora and fauna - enlarged to monstrous size, able to house a few hundred of people. They transport prisoners equipped with simple weapon for self-defence. This mixture makes a really good effect, which we will be able to see soon.
In my opinion, sci-fi requires more creative attitude to the topic. We don't have the whole Tolkien's world in here, unfortunately.

- The expression "Diablo inspired" has appeared in press releases. Does it mean, that the game would concentrate on the action (slashing) or the role playing elements would get the bigger part of the gameplay?

Krzysztof Krawczyk: In our games we try to enable a good fun to many people. That's why we do our best to keep the balance between various elements.
I will say in short: so that the fight (action) could give us a lot of satisfaction, we cannot forget about the development of character and his equipment. One thing is resulting from the another and they are strictly connected. We may choose one feature, which we will develop and it has the direct impact on the fight.
We keep the balance with a slight bending to the action :)

- Tell us a little about the development of characters, skills and classes (if any)

Krzysztof Krawczyk: We kept the basic elements of character's development like: strength, knowledge, dexterity, vitality. These are the features, on which player has direct influence. There are also additional features, which depend on character’s development and equipment possessed at the moment. The whole system of character's development is based on good, tested methods used in other games. However we introduced new elements. One of them is that player doesn't have to stick to one development path. With the help of special biochips we can easily exchange values of particular features. I'll give an example. We were developing strength for example and our hero has become the master of two-handed ax, but we got bored and now we would like to shoot to aliens with super modern energy weapon. It is impossible in other games, because the development of one feature doesn't let you use the powerful enough weapon relating to other feature. You usually end up starting the game from the very beginning with a resolution of developing the other feature. Whereas in our system it is extremely easy. We just use the special biochip and exchange the value of 'strength' with 'knowledge' and in this very moment we are able to shoot. It gives great possibilities, because it enables trying all types of weapons without burdensome (for some players...) necessity of starting the game over and over again.

- What about the fighting system: would it be in real-time?

Krzysztof Krawczyk: The round system of fighting turns out to be useful, when we have the whole team and we have to plan the consecutive strategic moves precisely. "Space Hack" is a dynamic game and we didn't want to lose this impetus. Fights goes on in the real time, what requires from the player a lot of dexterity and concentration on what is happening.

- Now, the graphic: is the game's engine licensed or it is an own development?

Darek Rusin: Space Hack's engine is entirely our own development. It's the piece of technology that we've been developing since we finished Grom. It supports most of the features you see in other good games, but it also performs well on a relatively old hardware. The latter is very important to us and we're putting extra care to make sure that the game will have no problems running on setups like 800 MHz with GeForce2/MX cards and 128 MB of RAM.

- Will the game contain a multiplayer mode?

Darek Rusin: Well...no. Because of our short development time and relatively large cost of implementing and supporting multiplayer we decided against including it in the game at this moment. We are however considering making an add-on with new levels and multiplayer support, once the game proves to be commercially successful.

- When will Space Hack be released? Can we expect a demo version?

Darek Rusin: We aim to have the game completed in second quarter of this year but specific release dates are in hands of our publishers. We will be including information on where and when you can buy the game on Space Hack's official website, so make sure to check it from time to time.

As for the demo, there will definitely be a full featured demo version of the game, but it's hard to say when.

- Is there anything else you wish to say?

Krzysztof Krawczyk, Darek Rusin: Well, thanks for this interview and we look forward to further working with you on introducing Space Hack to you readers!

- Thank you for the interview!