Half-LifeGunman Chronicles Q&A

Even though it first released well over two years ago, Valve's Half-Life continues to sell well to this day, undoubtedly due to its brilliantly executed storyline and impressive use of sound and 3D technology. The game has produced a lot of user-created mods that are keeping Half-Life fans busy until the ultimate release of Team Fortress 2 and the rumored Half-Life 2. Developed using the Half-Life engine, these mods include Counter-strike and Team Fortress Classic, and they improve upon Valve's original technology with each successive release.

The latest game to make use of the Half-Life engine is Gunman Chronicles, a story-driven first-person shooter currently in development at Rewolf Inc. What's unusual about Rewolf is that the company is composed of a group of talented individuals who literally work on the game from different countries all over the world. Originally founded by Herb Flower, Rewolf (Flower spelled backwards) eventually grew to a team of artists, level designers, and programmers all using chat and FTP programs to exchange files and ideas. Their work was first showcased in a 1999 San Francisco press event held by Sierra that was meant to highlight a number of Half-Life user-created mods. Gunman Chronicles stole the show.

Gunman was originally supposed to be a single-player-only mod that would be available for free download upon completion. Earlier this year, however, Sierra announced that it would be publishing the game as a retail product. Since then, Gunman Chronicles has undergone numerous changes, including the addition of a multiplayer component. We caught up with Rewolf's president, Herb Flower, to talk about the impressive piece of work and to discuss its evolution from a simple mod to a full-fledged retail game.

GameSpot: Sierra announced a few months ago that it would be publishing Gunman Chronicles as a retail game. Since that announcement, how much of the development has been transferred to Valve?

Herb Flower: Valve hasn't taken over development. They're very busy with their own stuff. What they've done for us is given us some office space for some of the team to work together in Seattle, and given us some help with scheduling, testing, marketing, etc. Basically, helping us ship our first game.

GS: Gunman originally started out as a Quake II mod, right? Why did you end up using the Half-Life engine as the basis of this total conversion?

HF: Half-Life is the mod maker's dream-engine. Gunman is a better game than we could even imagine back in the Q2 days. I don't think any other engine out there, even today, is as good for making single-player games as Half-Life's. Valve's constant support of the mod community has also ensured that the engine is kept up to date.

GS: How many members make up Rewolf? How did you manage to coordinate the game's development with the entire staff being literally scattered all over the world?

HF: There are about ten core members on the team. We used ICQ, e-mail, a private message board, and FTP programs back when we were simply building up content. Of course, as we got closer to finishing, a few of us got together in Seattle and worked together in the same office so that we could work more efficiently and actually use that content to make a fun game.

GS: Was the game worked on in everyone's spare time, or did some of the team members dedicate full-time hours to Gunman?

HF: Only two of us were full-time on the project. Everyone else was working after school or after work. I'm pretty sure some people probably put a lot more time into Gunman than they did school. (Don't try this at home, kids.)

GS: Does the game in its current state resemble the idea you had for the original product at all? Wasn't it supposed to be strictly a single-player game?

HF: Originally it was supposed to be a small DM game. Remember though, once Half-Life came out, everyone had to rethink their game's design. Gunman ended up being a full-sized single-player game that pushes the Half-Life engine.

GS: What kind of multiplayer modes will Gunman include?

HF: We'll ship with our own brand of deathmatch. It's got some interesting new gameplay because of the customizable weapons. And we'll be adding more gameplay styles after we ship.

GS: What's the plot of the game?

HF: I don't want to give it all away, but in short, you're one of the Gunmen, and your mission is to find the source of an interplanetary infestation of xenomes. You were among the first to see them, on a disastrous mission five years earlier. The xenomes seem to be improving now, as if someone was genetically engineering them, and somehow, though they're simply animals, they're spreading from planet to planet. If the secret behind the xenomes infestation isn't found soon, they'll take over the entire western spiral arm of the galaxy. Your mission starts with a suspicious military signal originating on an uncharted planet.

GS: Are the Gunman and Half-Life universes connected in any way?

HF: No. These guys have never even heard of Black Mesa.

GS: From what we saw, the weapon system in Gunman Chronicles was originally incredibly complicated. Some weapons had a huge number of configuration combinations. Is this still the case?

HF: The weapons are still customizable, with an average of four variants per weapon. The user interface has been tweaked quite a lot to make it very intuitive for the player. We've also implemented training areas so folks can fiddle with the different settings before they head into battle. In the end, we think we've done a good job of giving the players choices and making those choices easily accessible.

GS: Some of the weapons in the game will actually malfunction if they overheat. Can all the weapons in the game get adversely affected somehow?

HF: Only a few of the most powerful weapons overheat. The mechagun can overheat when you've got it on its high-rate-of-fire spin mode, but you can find barrel coolers that keep the temperature down. If it does overheat, it will increase its firing rate and unload a big chunk of your ammo. Sometimes in a nasty fight, this is a good thing! The polaris blade will also overheat sometimes, but again this will result in some interesting effects.

GS: There are four distinct environments in Gunman, right? How many levels are these worlds split up into?

HF: There are somewhere around 70 levels in all. Some of the environments [are made up of more levels] than others. But we've packed each of them full of interesting scripts, events, and combat.

GS: Gunman was originally planned to be a free download. Is this no longer the case?

HF: Correct. As a full stand-alone product, Gunman Chronicles will be available from retail outlets beginning the week of November 20.

GS: Thanks, Herb.