WarBreeds Preview

Broderbund has returned to its roots...big time. Since getting out of the PC game business in the early 1980s and publishing fewer than one entertainment title a year in the early 1990s, Broderbund is now jumping back into PC gaming at a full gallop.

In 1997, Broderbund plans to release eight games, all 'A' titles. Seven, including Riven (Myst II) will come from outside developers. One, WarBreeds, is being developed in-house. It's their first in-house game since Prince of Persia II, three years ago.

"This year should really put us on the map as a games company to be reckoned with," says spokesman Mike Salvadore. "And WarBreeds will get a lot of attention because it's our own."

Broderbund's taking a lot of chances with WarBreeds. This real-time strategy title will compete head-to-head with Warcraft and Command & Conquer, two hugely successful product lines that not only define the genre but continue to push the creative and gameplaying envelope. On top of that, WarBreeds' designer has never created a computer game before and most of its programmers and artists cut their teeth on educational titles.

"All these programmers have been hard-core gamers for years - they just happen to have worked on Carmen Sandiego," says WarBreeds' designer Paul Tozour. "You can see why there's so much enthusiasm for WarBreeds. They all say 'Oh thank God it's not another Carmen.' "

Tozour joined Broderbund right out of Georgetown University, nearly three years ago. His double major in English and computer science fit his new assignment: to write the documentation for Broderbund's in-house development software. While immersed in that, Tozour's brain was working overtime on a nascent game design. A die-hard gamer himself who loves to "analyze gameplay dynamics," he wanted to come up with something unique.

"So many games out there now, with tanks, infantry, and big fighting robots, just bore me to tears," Tozour says. "I thought that a lot could be done with the concept of genetic engineering."

That's right. Genetic engineering.

WarBreeds is set on an alien planet and features four clans of genetically engineered beings, each with its own strategic characteristics and unique personalities: noble, lizard-like creatures; insect-like workers; agrarian swamp creatures; and a group of stealthy, radical-fringe beings.

After creating the basic design, the development team played C&C and Warcraft endlessly. Their goal: create something "to compete head-to-head on every level." In our interview they offered a laundry list of improvements. Here are a few:

- WarBreeds' huge range of customization. Within each clan there will be five types of individuals, including a shaman, and each clan member will have access to up to 25 "gizmos" - weapons, tools, and biotechnical devices.

- With genetic engineering at WarBreeds' core, the gaming universe and playing strategies will be distinctly different from the competition. Players need to find suitable "cropland" to grow energy pods that are converted to electricity in "power" plants. Clan members will build genetic labs to replicate themselves, and factories to produce all those gizmos. And how the power generators andfactories are interconnected is both a strategic and resource management decision.

- Most real-time strategy games reward the "meat grinder" strategy: churn out lots of units and use them as cannon fodder. WarBreeds promotes the concept of "veteran" units, those which survive battles and gain more power. "There's a pay-off associated with trying to keep your creatures alive," says Tozour.

- As for the game's artificial intelligence, Broderbund is taking another risk. The AI programmer has researched and programmed AI for six years, but this is his first game. Not to worry, say Tozour and company. They believe his work ups the ante in this genre. The AI is different for each clan and does not cheat. One result: intelligent peasants. There's no need to micromanage the underlings in WarBreeds, as opposed to the competition, where worker-types are " really kind of silly or stupid and always blunder intothe enemy."

- Overall gameplay should be more balanced. "In some games there are killer units and killer strategies that are so effective they render all other strategies obsolete," says Tozour, "while other strategies are so pointless you never use them." Not so, they say, for WarBreeds. It has a sort of "rock/paper/scissors" approach. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses; the challenge is to adjust your playing strategies as you manage or wage war against the four clans.

- WarBreeds will look much better than the competition. "Their graphics are two years old. Ours are much better." Broderbund's artists are using Lightwave to create their 3-D characters and 2-D geography. "This is going to have a really stunning visual impact," says co-designer Alan Wasserman. "It's unique. It'll have a very exotic and organic feel to it."

- Much of the resource management will be automated. You can specify what your factories should produce and exactly where the output should go immediately after it comes off the assembly line. Using a warp device, such deliveries occurinstantly.

- Forming alliances will be easier. No more wandering around aimlessly, hoping to stumble into units that may want to become an ally. Now, as players start each game online, they can opt to join forces at the get-go. Under a cooperative playing agreement, allied players can control other players' characters.

While multiplayer details have not yet been worked out, the goal is to have up to eight players hooked up, playing over a LAN, on the Internet using a dedicated game site, or with one person's computer as a server. Plus WarBreeds will offer modem-to-modem play.

Despite all the competitive claims and developer confidence, Broderbund is truly up against two entrenched powerhouses. Tozour is unfazed. "WarBreeds offers a wider breadth of gameplay, a very challenging experience - and we've increased the fun factor."