Q&A with Nick Newhard
Nick Newhard is a successful game programmer and developer who has
worked on several popular computer titles, including Dark Sun:
Shattered Lands for SSI and Edmark Corporation's highly acclaimed
edutainment title, Thinkin' Things. Newhard has spent 12 years in the
software industry and is now senior game developer at Monolith
Productions in Kirkland, Washington.
GAMECENTER: The lead character of Blood, is he a reformed servant of
evil, or is he still evil and simply looking to vent some
frustrations and kick some butt? Can you clarify it for us?
Nick Newhard: Blood's character is not so much evil as he is amoral.
He's in it for the power and will destroy anything in his way--
including Tchernobog.
GAMECENTER: Due to the nature of Blood's environment, do you expect
any negative public backlash? Church groups and so on?
N. N.: Let's hope so.
GAMECENTER: How do you plan on handling it?
N. N.: By selling more copies of Blood.
GAMECENTER: What new weapons can we expect to see in Blood? 
N. N.: We just added the napalm cannon. It uses destructible gas cans
for ammo and launches fiery missiles that leave smoke trails that do
massive concussion and fire damage in a large area of effect. That
was a mouthful.
GAMECENTER: What exactly is the Hellstaff, and how does it work?
N. N.: The Hellstaff has two attacks powered internally by ectoplasmic
energies or externally by the player's own health. The primary attack
rapidly fires ectoplasm blasts that drain health and can paralyze
multiple targets within a small area of effect. This is similar to
the Stone Gargoyle's attack and, coincidentally, Duke's freeze ray.
The Hellstaff's secondary attack is close range. It can be used on
anything, paralyzed or not, and sucks the soul out of whatever it
hits. This attack also recharges the Hellstaff if it kills the
intended victim. As the Hellstaff is fired, it is drained of
ectoplasm. Once the weapon's energy reaches zero, the player's health
is used to power the Hellstaff.
GAMECENTER: What about the voodoo doll?
N. N.: It picks the closest target to the player and hurts it. Some
monsters are more...affected by voodoo magic. Zombies, for instance,
are greatly affected by the voodoo doll and disintegrate when
destroyed by its power. In Bloodbath [multiplayer] play, the voodoo
doll attacks have a different effect. For instance, a stab to the
groin does a monumental amount of damage. Stabbing the voodoo doll in
the eye will blind your victim for a short time. Fun gameplay is still
important, though, so we don't just blank the screen to blind the
other player. Blood darkens the screen cumulatively, so the more eye
shots you get in, the more blind the victim becomes. Sometimes you can
even make the other player lower his weapon by nailing him in the
shoulder. The voodoo doll truly rocks in Bloodbath mode, but the
napalm launcher and Hellstaff really have our attention right now.
GAMECENTER: How many weapons will there be?
N. N.: Ten, but many of them have alternate firing sequences. Some of
them can be used with a Guns Akimbo power-up, which gives the player
two of each weapon.
GAMECENTER: I've read some things that stress the humor of the game.
What makes Blood so humorous?
N. N.: We've tried to strike a balance of extremes in Blood's
gameplay. Single-player mode is a dark, haunting, and dangerous
atmosphere created by the realistic levels and creatures that inhabit
them. Bloodbaths are more fast, furious. I guess what I'm saying is
that it's the play that is humorous, not just one thing like comments
made by the character.
GAMECENTER: Is the game divided into levels? How will players go from
one level to the next?
N. N.: For the most part, levels progress visually; in other words,
each end-level area fits the theme of the next level.
GAMECENTER: With a name like Blood, we're expecting some pretty gory
stuff. What can we look forward to?
N. N.: Lots of gibs and spurting blood. You can blow off the Zombie's
head then kick it around like a soccer ball. The flying heads leave
stringy trails of blood behind them. We even have a soccer field map
for testing.
GAMECENTER: How are you working multiplayer gaming? What will Blood
support?
N. N.: This area is the most subject to change. We are considering
adding drop-in network play for the registered version. This may or
may not come to pass. The problem is that the game has been based on
the older network model used in Duke from day one. For now, count on
Duke-style networking, but hope for better drop-in network play and
possibly TCP/IP support.
GAMECENTER: How have you expanded beyond the Build engine? What new
tricks can we expect environmentally? Traps? Tricks? Visuals?
N. N.: The biggest advance in Blood lets us create maps that are truly
three-dimensional. The renderer is the same as the one used in Duke
3D, but we enhanced it to allow it to display sectors over other
sectors. This technique was later adopted by the Shadow Warrior team.
The engine coder recently added another sprite-drawing technique that
will out date even polygon technology used by some of the newer games.
Our sprites look more detailed without the square edges found in low-
polygon-count sprites in those other games.
GAMECENTER: How soon can we expect to see the finished product? How
about shareware?
N. N.: We are shooting for shareware completion before Christmas.
That doesn't mean it will be released before or at Christmas, though.
The release dates are determined by 3D Realms, and the schedule could
easily slip if we decide to add more features to the game, like drop-
in network play.
GAMECENTER: Finally, what do you think will set Blood apart from the
other first-person games out there?
N. N.: The gameplay is the thing. Blood is being created by the best
development team in the industry. As hard-core gamers, we have the
highest standards for Blood for gameplay and realism. That's why we
are planning to add features like drop-in network play this late in
the project. We intend to make Blood the best damn multiplayer horror
game on the market.
Copyright; 1996 CNET Inc. All rights reserved
Mike.
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