Adam Foster of Minerva (Part 2)

[Munro]

This is part two of Samon's interview of Minerva creator Adam Foster. Part One can be found
here.
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Halflife2.net: What inspired you to go ahead with MINERVA? Where
did the plot originate?

The Minerva character derives from a Half-Life mod I was working on, named Parallax
- like most of my projects, the mod bloated out of control, and the only thing
to ever get released was a smaller side- project, named Someplace Else. So while
the Minerva in that is most definitely the Minerva of today, she wasn't called
Minerva then.

Parallax had its own back-story behind the events of Half-Life, and I always felt
it a shame not to use it in some way - so when messing around with Half-Life 2's
modding tools, I had the sudden idea to resurrect a certain old character, update
the back-story (interestingly, very few changes were needed to make it fully compatible
with Half-Life 2's developments) and generally start mapping again, more in the
style of Someplace Else. Short, well- defined projects with an ending always in
sight. I work better that way, alas.

(That 'MINERVA' name? I think I'd read Cryptonomicon, or something like that,
and liked the description of Minerva/Athena given therein. I'd suggested 'MINERVA'
as a name for a big, shadowy organisation for use in the Nightwatch mod for Half-Life,
but that idea was forgotten by the rest of the team. But I'd kept a certain liking
for the name, and now it's in use for an entirely different reason in my Half-Life
2 mod.)

Halflife2.net: The MINERVA plot line is certainly an interesting
one. Do you have a clear sense of where you are going with it, the characters and
setting?

When I started Metastasis, it was intended to be just one map. There are still
remnants in its construction which betray this - but only if you know where to
look. Building downwards, I realised I had plenty of space to work with - both
from a gameplay and a plot- foreshadowing point of view. So I took the lone, comparatively
small Horrible Secret concealed by the Combine, and added a friend. A far larger,
nastier and dangerous friend - one which has had just a little foreshadowing at
the end of Metastasis 2...

I didn't have a particularly clear idea of what Minerva was going to do when I
started work on Metastasis (also, consider that it started as the 'Flatulent Geographer'
practice in displacement maps and terrain construction), but I've now got a full
story arc in my head, with major plot revelations upcoming at points you'd think
had been planned all along.

(Actually, it's a certain conversation at Valve which really solidified the plot
for MINERVA - I don't *think* they were feeding me arcane secrets from some kind
of Story Bible, but I guess my own pieces of apocrypha may well be completely
compatible with their work. More by accident than design!)

Halflife2.net: You once tagged Valve's design as 'each little bit
is its own set-piece' (or something to that effect...?). Would you apply this to
MINERVA and its design goals?

It was seeing the slightly-unfinished Episode One that showed me Valve's true
intentions in game-design. Nothing sinister, I'm afraid - it's all about *gameplay*.
Carefully tuned, polished but otherwise independent segments of gameplay are lovingly
strung together into a cohesive whole, making up the final game. MINERVA's design
strategy is a bit more cack-handed. Basically, I build some kind of interesting
world, working on applying the gameplay to it at the same time. It's a little
backwards. If I had a rough checklist giving the order in which I think up my
maps, it would go something like this:
<ol>
[*]Events. What actually *happens* in the map, and what the overall aims are.
[*]Plot. Not quite interchangeable with the first - I'll mangle the plot around
to fit in with fun events.</li>
[*]World design and architecture. The general layout of the place, into which
gameplay is applied.</li>
[*]Gameplay. Hideously important, and will definitely affect decisions higher
up - but in my case, it's mainly something which comes *from* the former.</li>
[*]Geometry and visual polish. When I'm getting happy with the rest of that
lot, I'll tidy stuff up and declare a particular room 'done'. But if I can't
make something look nice, it'll potentially get axed and redesigned.</li>
</ol>

Bear in mind a lot of this runs in parallel, and is iterative - I really couldn't
remove any sections without something horrible happening. I'm always wandering
round my unfinished maps, looking for both visual improvements and gameplay opportunities
- then filtering down through the stages again and again...

Halflife2.net: MINERVA is a fairly action-packed, atmospheric and
story-driven series. Can we expect you to be exploring other visual themes and settings
in the near future? For instance, a map focused on horror ala Ravenholm.

I've been having to limit myself in the styles of gameplay present in the maps
so far. Here's that 'events' and 'plot' thing in action - yes, a greater variety
of monsters to fight could be nice, but the player is supposed to be infiltrating
a heavily-guarded Combine facility!

I think this has meant I'm avoiding the usual single-player mapper's mistake of
trying to cram everything into one map - and it does mean that yes, I have plenty
of space to work with entirely different gameplay styles in future. The final
Metastasis episode should be a somewhat ... refreshing change?

As soon as Metastasis is finished and Chronoclasm begins, you'll be leaving the
confines of a certain island and visiting some other locations in the Combine-ravaged
world. It's an amazing universe to play with, and I'm having great fun.

Halflife2.net: Given the chance, what would you change in HL2,
or Episode One?

More stunning vistas, and more chance to visit the places shown from afar. Episode
One felt a little claustrophobic, in that there was rarely an opportunity to explore,
or at least see areas of the city beyond acres of rubble. A few more chances (in
both games) to wander the streets a little more would have been nice - the final
games gave an *illusion* of depth, but City 17 was such a deeply, subtly beautiful
place that I'd have loved to have stayed longer...

Halflife2.net: Zombines. On a scale of 1 to 10.

A rating, eh? Awesome out of ten! Anyone else would have stuck a headcrab on a
soldier and made it slightly stronger, slightly faster and slightly more damaging.
The true way to design enemies is to give them distinctive, fun new behaviours.
Like, suicide charges with live grenades! (My trick is to shoot the grenades out
their hands when they're still some distance away. With a bit of luck, it'll blow
up both them and their cohorts...)