Dead Island AU Interview

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IGN AU: Dead Island focuses heavily on melee combat. Can you tell us a little about the melee mechanics?

Pawel Kopinski: Melee combat is severely underappreciated and rarely used in the FPP genre. In Dead Island we're adding much more depth to it. In real life it isn't easy to obtain firearms in a holiday paradise. Many guns that had been there were already snatched by other survivors. This means that players will need to improvise weapons from objects found in the environment. Any item that can be picked up can also be used in a fight. The type and size of the object determines the fighting style. There's a world of difference between slashing in close quarters with a combat knife and throwing an LCD panel from a distance.

All of this is reflected in thousands of varied animations depicting hundreds of fighting moves in different styles. They are determined by the nature of the weapon: its size, weight and the type of damage inflicted on the target. Thanks to our advanced multilayer damage system the effect each weapon has on enemies is also realistic. Blunt weapons cause fractures and internal injuries while sharp objects cut into skin and tissue. Last but not least we're developing an innovative control system that allows precision without getting in the way of fun.

Unwanted houseguests are like fish... wait, what was that quote again?

IGN AU: Is it tricky to make melee combat work in first person? How do you ensure that it's just as entertaining as gunplay?

Pawel Kopinski: There's definitely a challenge there but it's offset by some very important advantages. Not being able to see the entire character model as it engages in melee is a downside for some people. We're sticking with the FPP view because it's an important part of our idea of storytelling in Dead Island. Seeing the world with the eyes of the main character allows players to really immerse themselves in the onscreen events. One could argue that TPP camera offers a wider view which makes fights easier but on the other hand FPP enables much more accurate targeting. With our ultra-precise damage model aiming at the right spots really makes a difference. The necessity to go toe-to-toe with the terrifying undead means that players are in for a very intense experience.

The only way to ensure the highest quality and great fun is extensive playtesting. We're creating countless iterations of each scene, pretty much like movie directors, until we're 100% satisfied with the results. Another important factor is the drive to perfection and attention to detail. We're using both rotoscopy and motion-capture to create flawless animations that are much more important in close-up melee than in any gunfights.

IGN AU: Dead Island sounds very much like it will feature a lot of 'sandbox' elements – using everyday items as weapons, setting environmental traps for zombies, and so on. Can you give us an example or two of some of the coolest weapons you can wield and traps you can set?

Pawel Kopinski: We don't want players to think in terms of specific weapons and specific traps. Rather we'd like them to look around a place and immediately know what they can use. If it can be picked up by a human in real life, it's a weapon. Traps can involve all sorts of mechanics. Stuff can be thrown or dropped onto enemies, enemies can be pushed off ledges. There's electricity, gases and liquids that can be combined to ruin the zombies' day. One of our favourite weapons is an iron º. Of the more standard variety, machetes are very handy in combat.

In a world where almost anything can be a weapon you just had to go with the crowbar, didn't you? Freeman wannabe...

IGN AU: Tell us about Chrome Engine 4. What are its technical strengths? How are you utilising it to enhance Dead Island's gameplay?

Pawel Kopinski: Chrome Engine in its fourth edition is an impressive and flexible tool. It has all the features expected of a world-class 3D engine and we're putting them to good use in Dead Island. The multilayer damage model with its realistic simulation and rendering of skin, tissue and bone injuries provides frightening per vertex visualizations worthy of the horror genre. It also adds more depth to combat allowing players to target specific areas and inflict crippling damage.

Top-notch visual effects like dynamic lighting, shadows, volumetric gases and interactive environments allow us to create the atmosphere of mystery and fear. Another feature we're still working on is the A-Life system controlling the behaviour of zombies and NPCs, contributing to a vision of chaos in the face of the epidemic.

Another very useful technical feature is the ability to render large numbers of fully animated 3D characters on screen without compromising performance. If you're thinking about huge hordes of zombies displayed with efficiency that no other FPS can match, you're right.

IGN AU: We've seen the real-time deformation tech for your characters – how difficult was it to develop this system and keep the game running smoothly?

Pawel Kopinski: It took a lot of hard work on all stages of development. Prototyping, coding and testing technology that hadn't existed before was a real challenge. It did pay off in the end, didn't it? We have a reliable, working system that will offer great flexibility in all of our future titles.

Good luck eating my brains now... sucker.

IGN AU: Will Dead Island have co-op through the main game? Will it have adversarial multiplayer modes? If so, can you tell us about any of them?

Pawel Kopinski: We're not planning any multiplayer modes at the moment. Dead Island is focused on an intense, storyline-driven single player experience. It would have to be designed from the start as a co-op game or the multiplayer mode would be only very loosely linked to our core gameplay. We didn't want the former and we definitely don't want the latter. There is a solid zombie multiplayer game on the horizon that doesn't feature any significant single player fun so there's plenty of room for Dead Island.

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