Hidden: Source

[Munro]

A group of toughened elites, heavily armed with the most high-tech weaponry are
pitched against a single, mysterious being. I have to admit it’s not exactly the
most revolutionary idea; predator style hunts are practically a genre in themselves…
but they are incredibly fun, as I‘ve learned from playing The Hidden! [br]
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Suicide42: First of all, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer
my questions; it’s a pleasure being able to talk with you! Before we get stuck into
the main discussion, there’s something I just have to ask. While you were mostly
following the concepts laid down by the original Half-Life 1 modification (for those
of you who don’t know, it was a University project led by Mark Wherrett) I’ve always
wondered what you drew inspiration from in order to evolve subject 617 from concept
to nightmare. Was it long nights in front of a television with a bag of popcorn
and a stack of horror films that gives 617 that extra outlandish touch, or did you
develop his character by simply discussing what would make the game frightening?

Ging: As with everything in the mod, we base most of our ideas off amalgamations
of movies, games and anything else that we find cool or interesting! Several of
us are chronic movie buffs and we've spent many an hour over the past few months
throwing ideas around in impromptu design sessions. Though ultimately, some ideas
don't make it in because of gameplay issues (like thermal vision goggles and the
like.) [br]
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Boxy: Yeah I'd say 617, actually most of the mod, is basically an amalgamation
of everything we think is or would be 'cool' to have. Obviously movies are going
to make a huge impact on what we create and how the mod eventually ends up looking.
We also like to take the cream of the community ideas and put those in as well.
At the end of the day we are creating the mod for them as well as ourselves!

Suicide42: I’ve heard you’ve all been hard at work in the lab - chopping
617 up into tiny pieces, with the intention of re-assembling him in time for the
next update, along with a chilling array of new abilities and devices to scare the
pants of those I.R.I.S. members. Can you outline what improvements you’ve made to
Subject 617?

Ging: We've finalised his abilities at last, unleashing the full potential
of 617 by allowing him to cling to walls, feed from corpses, pick up and interact
with physics objects and perhaps most importantly to pick up corpses, carry them
around and pin them to walls / ceilings for "storage". We have counter-balanced
this with a stamina system, slowing down his game play slightly to allow for a
more "scary" approach. [br]
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Boxy: Yep, the more varied interaction with the environment was a big step
forward, notched up the fun factor a hell of a lot. Nothing more amusing than
using IRIS bodies as human shields, throwing items around the map to confuse,
disorientate and plain simple scare the IRIS team, or turn round a corner to find
half the team strung up like a scene from Predator. The stamina bar is undergoing
testing as it will have a big effect on how the game mechanics work, so a lot
of tweaking is required to get it 'just right' before Beta2 is released. [br]
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Ed: Along with many other graphical overhauls, my part in the 'new' Hidden
was to create a new higher poly mesh and to paint his texture from scratch. In
the development of Beta 1, I was still learning new skills and techniques all
the time, so for the characters (both I.R.I.S. and Subject 617) we had to knock
together what we could from photographs which never sat well with me. Once I had
learnt how to paint organic material such as clothing, faces and bodies, it was
obvious all the characters would need completely redoing for Beta 2.

Suicide42: Looks like a lot of I.R.I.S. members will be phoning in sick when
the next update is released. Talking of I.R.I.S, I’ve noticed that the character
customisation is intentionally simple, which makes the experience more focused on
getting frightened rather than deciding which combination of guns to carry. Even
so, extra content is always appreciated… will you be implementing any new features
to the I.R.I.S. team, such as weapons or player models?

Ging: Right now, we've not got any further new weapons or player models
planned - though we've discussed it and have a few ideas up our sleeves, just
nothing concrete yet. [br]
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John: We’ve tweaked the weapons for this new release; textures, models
and animations have all been updated and a new pistol added to the shotgun load-out
(the FNP-9). [br]
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Boxy: The community fancied a different pistol for the Shotgun class, and
at first we were against any extra weapons as we wanted to keep the game as simple
as possible. Eventually the FNP9 was suggested; the team mulled it over and thought
it would be nice to segregate the classes a bit so we added it. Other than that,
there are no immediate plans for extra weaponry, there’s not much that we could
add that would change the game enough. The IRIS team have become much less cartoony
from Beta 1 to Beta 2; they are based on a more professional SWAT look now.

Suicide42: Now, onto maps; there’s some brilliant level design in The Hidden:
Source. Will you be adding any new maps to the fray, and if so, what are they like?

Boxy: Beta 1 shipped with five maps, Beta 2 will ship with a total of eleven
maps, including two tutorial maps. There are also 'ovr' versions of three of the
maps for the second game type OverRun on top of that being ovr_Docks, ovr_Derelict
and ovr_Executive, so technically you could say we have fourteen maps in Beta2.
The new maps for Beta2 are Derelict, Manor, Highrise, and Discovery but all Beta
1 maps have also been revised and overhauled with custom textures and models as
the team felt there was too much HL2 content in the mod.

Suicide42: Excellent, it must take a lot of time to make a map; I’d imagine
the hardest thing is actually designing something that can inspire fear into the
players. How do you go about doing this?

Boxy: I would say that the fear is made by the players in the map rather
than the map's design itself. The maps are merely designed so that 617 has the
opportunities to scare the IRIS team such as have physics objects appropriately
close to ledges to throw off, or have breakable scenery that gives the world more
realism and interactivity. There are certain effects that add atmosphere to the
maps that we could not use such as fog and volumetric lighting as it made 617
far too easy to see, which is a shame.

Suicide42: Presently, there is only one game mode that’s applied to these
great maps. Are there plans for any more styles of play in the future?

John: Beta 2 introduces the ‘Overrun’ game-type; every time the Hidden
makes a kill the victim comes back as another Hidden! It’s a fast and frantic
last-man-standing style of play which offers a little light relief from the classic
mode. It’s also ideal for new players trying to gain a little practice playing
as the Hidden.

Suicide42: Finally; if you had all the time in the world, plus endless resources
and you were told to create the ultimate Hidden: Source map… what would you create?

Boxy: With no limits, that’s a toughie...I'd probably be forced to go mad
on draw distances, normal mapping and all the effects possible within the Source
Engine. Id attempt to make some insanely detailed world, make everything interactive
and destroyable, giving the Hidden plenty of opportunity to mess with the IRIS
team's heads. The other problem is every mapper knows you never finish a map;
it just gets 'completed' for release. There’s always more you like to add, so
even given all this infinite time and resources, I'd still want more... [br]
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Ging: I just figured I'd steal a final word... All this art talk is making
me uppity! Just looking back, we're suitably impressed at the amount of work that's
been done by the team in the past seven to eight months in every aspect of the
development, it's hard to believe that the "gameplay taster" brought anyone into
our community, let alone the amazing group of people we have right now! We're
hoping that Beta 2 will go a long way to putting us "on the map" in regards to
the modding community!