Hill Project interview

France-based developer Gaming Side recently announced that it's working on Hill Project, a futuristic 3D shooter for the PC. Very little information about the game is available on the company's official Web site, so we caught up with CEO Magnier Nicolas, game designer Roussel Denis, and technical director Chavasse Antoine to find out more about the game.

GameSpot: You've come up with an interesting plot for Hill Project. Is that purely incidental, or will the game be story-driven?

Magnier Nicolas: The story will be very solid and immersive, but the game will still be enjoyable if you don't get into it. We really wanted to add a real background to the game. All the characters in the game have a story that will condition their reactions. The characters are neither good nor evil, but they're not neutral either. The plot that we unveiled is the very beginning of the game. The storyline will be more complex, the objectives will change, and there will be lots of developments. So we can't say too much about it without spoiling it.

Roussel Denis: What we can say is that it will be about secret organizations, manipulations, and revolution.

GS: Among your concept art for Project Hill are sketches of a male character and a female character. Can you tell us about them and what their role in the game will be?

RD: There are many more characters than that!

MN: There are more than these two characters, but those are the main characters.

RD: The player controls Wolfgang, who was one of the best pilots of his generation and became a smuggler.

MN: Wolfgang will meet a little girl called Ileen at the beginning of the game. She's actually the energy source of the player's ship, the Swimmer.

GS: Can you give us some idea of the kinds of enemies and boss characters players will be up against in Hill Project?

MN: The players will mainly fight against drones. They're just automated ships without pilots.

RD: Some of them have advanced behaviors--they act differently depending on the actions of the player.

MN: For the bosses, we really want them to be huge, like in the old-school games, and we want there to be several ways of defeating them.

GS: Could you tell us about the RPG-style system you're employing to allow players to upgrade their equipment and stats in Hill Project?

MN: The RPG elements will be very simple. We want just to make the game deeper than other shooting games.

RD: The storyline will have multiple branches, depending on the performance of the player.

MN: The game will also include an experience system for the weapons and the ship. If the player shoots a bunch of enemies with a specific weapon, he'll be able to use it more effectively, and the weapon itself will become more powerful and may also evolve. The player will also be able to gain new weapons and lots of upgrades for his ship, useful or not.

Chavasse Antoine: It lets the player experiment with different play styles, by trying different equipment strategies--will he focus on firepower, damage resistance, or the ability to dodge enemies and hits faster? It's his choice. And he will have to make an appropriate choice depending on the challenge or the level he's going to try to beat.

GS: Is Hill Project a shooter that players will need to beat in a single sitting, or will they be able to save their progress?

RD: We'll follow the usual RPG rules, where the player can save his progression and his experience level regularly. Also, the number of levels, which is much higher than in traditional shooters, will necessitate regular saving. Of course, bonuses may await players who complete the game without ever saving.

GS: Any chance of a multiplayer mode in the game?

MN: Multiplayer mode? I can't imagine a shooting game without a good multiplayer mode. This is an important point to us, and rest assured that it will be rich.

RD: Multiplayer gameplay has not been looked into deeply as of yet, as we first focus on single-player mode.

MN: But each player will able to import his own ship during a multiplayer game, with his own weapons and upgrades.

GS: If you had to compare Hill Project to an existing game in terms of gameplay, which would you say it's the most similar to?

RD: I'd say that the gameplay poses itself as the evolution of Sylpheed released on Sega CD in 1993--keep a 2D gameplay notion, but riding a 3D universe.

MN: Ikaruga is also one of our references for its subtle gameplay and neat realization. But we don't want to just make a rip-off of old games with updated technology--we really want to bring some innovation to the genre.

GS: So what are the features of Hill Project that will set it apart from the competition?

RD: The RPG features will bring an evolution notion, very rare in classical shooters, as even after he's completed the game, the player can still have his ship and weapons evolve in the various proposed game modes. He can also undertake various challenges to complete his item collection.

MN: During the game, the player can undertake challenges in the levels he unlocked previously to gain new weapons and upgrades. The challenges will be as varied as possible, like "Complete this level with more than 10,000 points," or "Shoot only the blue drones."

RD: As he gains experience, the player may find rare items that will open secret stages. Those will unveil the more complex parts of the story to the player, making it more immersive. Lastly, the 30 envisioned stages, as well as the different game modes, promise a more significant life span than traditional shooters.

MN: Yes, but without drifting away from the precise and fast-paced gameplay that made the old shooters successful. The difficulty of the game will be also more balanced than in other shooting games. Everyone will be able to enjoy the game, the hard-core gamer and the casual gamer.

CA: I think the two most prominent features are customization and collecting items.

GS: You've confirmed that a PC version of Hill Project is currently in development. How likely is it that we'll also see console versions of the game?

CA: Actually, we're currently working on a PC version, because it's more convenient to start like that, but after E3, we will continue the console development. The game is made for the console market.

GS: How long has Hill Project been in development? Do you have any idea when we might see a playable version of the game or when it might be finished?

MN: We're still in preproduction. But we'll have a playable version with a few levels before the end of year. I hope that the game will be released for Christmas 2004, but it really depends on when we find a publisher.

GS: Thanks for your time.