On the Spot: George Broussard
3D Realms President
In the midst of losing four key designers from the Prey project - 3D Realms' encore title to its huge hit, Duke Nukem 3D - head honcho George Broussard talks about people, places, and things that go bump on the screen. Also jumping in with a few words of wisdom is William Scarboro, Prey's lead designer.
 
GameSpot: Did the personnel movement catch you off guard?

GEORGE BROUSSARD
3D Realms President
 George Broussard: We're not going to comment much on this except to say, that yes, we were caught by surprise, but we don't expect a big delay in Prey's development.

GameSpot: Was there a particular event that triggered the moves? Were they in any way related to each other?

George Broussard: As to events that led to people leaving, you will have to ask them. I hear they are doing a Quake level pack for their first project.

GameSpot: What do you think about these new companies sprouting up around the concept of licensing Quake technology?

George Broussard: I think it's a great idea for some companies that are either unable, or unwilling to invest the time it takes to create their own engines. This option gives them a head start. We've licensed our build engine seen in Duke Nukem 3D several times and have a few more licenses coming. We see engine licensing as a viable revenue stream in the future and have shaped our business around it. There will always be lots of people in line to license a great 3-D gaming engine.
"3-D gaming is simply the coolest way to play a game these days."
GEORGE BROUSSARD
 GameSpot: Is Quake as good as graphic engines need to get?

George Broussard: The Quake engine is the best one out there right now, but it certainly can be expanded upon a great deal.

GameSpot: What are the key differences between it and the Prey engine?

George Broussard: As far as gameplay goes, I think Prey will go considerably farther than Quake did, a lot like Duke 3D did to Doom. This isn't to say anything bad about Quake, but we want Prey to have a very dynamic environment with lots of interaction.

GameSpot: Such as?

George Broussard: We envision things like hopping into a shuttle craft and flying around a ship in space knocking out turrets, then landing in a hangar and continuing your adventure on foot. This is all pretty easy to do with the engine and unlike Duke 3D, the shuttle won't just slide back and forth across the level. You will literally be flying as in Decent, going anywhere you want to. This in addition to creating real world settings and objects to interact with will set Prey apart from others. Not to mention the very, very dark Sci-Fi theme complete with blood and guts and super high-tech weaponry.

WILLIAM SCARBORO
Prey 3-D Engine Programmer
 		William Scarboro: The Prey engine doesn't use a BSP tree for its hidden surface removal, so Prey levels won't be static. You can have everything moving everywhere. The Prey engine is a room-based portal engine, which means the level editor designs each level one room at a time and then defines the portals through which you can see out of the room.

GameSpot: A lot of players thought Quake's graphics were disappointing - partially because expectations were so high, partially because it took so long to be released and other great looking titles, such as Duke, came out in the interim. Prey is now slated for late '97 release. Is this long development cycle a concern? Is it possible to spend literally two years developing an engine and still have it be state of the art?
"We don't expect a big delay in Prey's development."
GEORGE BROUSSARD
 George Broussard: The Prey engine will be state of the art when the game comes out. We are always enhancing it. The base engine has been done for awhile, but we keep going back to it, and adding things like dynamic lighting, and that pushes the game design a little farther. You may work on the game for two years, but the base engine usually settles down [after] around 75 percent of game completion and isn't touched much more, except for optimizations in speed.
 
GameSpot: Did the success of Duke Nukem 3D surprise you?

George Broussard: In a way. You never really expect a number one game, but you strive for it, and do the best you can, then release the game. We obviously worked on Duke until we thought it was great, but you can never really predict the public's response. Needless to say, we are very pleased with the results.
GameSpot: Will we see a slew of Duke Nukem sequel games, a la Doom II, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom, et cetera? If so, when?

George Broussard: Yes. We are working on an add-on mission called the "Plutonium Pack" to be distributed through Good Times Interactive. It will be a new mission with about 11 levels, a new weapon (probably a microwave weapon that causes people to pop and explode a la Dig Dug), a couple of new enemies, new boss, all new music and level art. We expect it to be out sometime in October. Once that is done, we might start work on a full 30 level add-on with all new stuff, until the new Duke 3D engine is ready for use.
"...probably a microwave weapon that causes people to pop and explode."
GEORGE BROUSSARD
 GameSpot: What's up with this Microstar Software suit? They claim they know nothing about GT Interactive taking them to task on doing unauthorized Duke add-on levels. What's the deal?

George Broussard: GT is dealing with that for us, but our take on it is this: Our LICENSE.DOC file clearly states you cannot sell add-on levels for Duke and Microstar appears to have disregarded that. A similar add-on pack by Sierra was also stopped I believe, so I think the suit has some validity. But again, we turned all this over to GT, so we could focus on the business of making games. All this other stuff will drag you down and distract you if you let it.

GameSpot: When will the first person craze end? Is there really any new territory to be charted in this genre?
George Broussard: It will never end and is here to stay. 3-D gaming is simply the coolest way to play a game these days. Look at the PlayStation and Nintendo64. They built their entire hardware around making 3-D games run fast, so you know it's here to stay. The game designs will get more and more refined as time goes by, but there will always be room for first person shooters like Duke 3D. The trick is making them. It is a very delicate balance and that's why I think you see so few real quality 3-D games so far.