The dead walk again and innocent women are disappearing. What is going on? No one knows but it is your job to find out and put a stop to it. This is the premise of Cleric a new puzzle based FPS which uses the Serious Sam engine. All of the info you ever wanted on Cleric is contained in the following interview with Matthew Doyle CEO and Lead Designer with Plutonium Games. Enjoy reading it.
Q. Describe Cleric in a hundred words?
Cleric puts you in the role of Reverend Father Aronos Schuler in 16th century Russia. Something is terribly wrong in the ice locked port town of Novo-Kholmogory. The dead walk the streets at night and all the young girls have been taken into the wilderness. The town calls upon Aronos as a man of god to find the missing girls and put an end to the undead plight. As he begins to unravel the mystery, Aronos must overcome his own internal struggle. He is not a man of faith, despite his position. You decide the path he takes as he learns who he really is and what or who he really believes in. How you play the game dictates how the story ends.
Q. What has influenced Cleric?
Lots of things: 1970s zombie movies, The Exorcist, Russian history and folk lore, the Resident Evil games, the Thief series for PC, and the Bible to name a few. Cleric grew form an initial idea of playing the role of the ultimate good guy against zombies: a priest. It has become far greater in scope than that now while still retaining the same basic idea.
Q. Has the limited success of other horror based FPS put you off at all?
Not really. Partly because most horror based FPS games are just that: FPS games. Cleric is not really a FPS. We are using a first person shooter engine, but the style of game play will not be like your typical FPS. The problem I think with most horror based FPS games is that they emphasis the whole run, shoot, kill theme over what makes for good horror: story, and atmosphere. Cleric will have these in abundance.
Q. Can you tell us something about Cleric that no one else knows?
Cleric will have 4 endings. How's that for a scoop!
Q. Was it hard getting people to back Cleric?
It is hard. We still don't have a publisher at this stage, but our currently paying our bills with private investment funds. That is not hard to get. Our investors believe in this project as strongly as we do. Our only hurdle towards getting a publisher right now is finishing our demo. We are currently hard at work on this and plan to have it done before the close of the year.
Q. What will Cleric offer that other FPS don't?
An interactive story that doesn't feel like it was thrown in as an afterthought. Conversation trees much like an RPG. Multiple endings that are influenced by the way you play the entire game, not just by a definite path you choose toward the end. A massive game world that is largely exterior. A truly "human" player character with flaws and limits that will affect game play. On the technical side, we are considering adding stenciled shadows and per pixel shading. Per pixel shading will only be implemented if we have the time and resources, but stenciled shadows is fast becoming a must have. It is difficult to have a truly scary game without good lighting and shadows. We also intend to implement multiple hit locations and dismemberment in combat.
Q. Will it be a more puzzled-based FPS than say Serious Sam?
Yes. The only thing that really ties Cleric to Serious Sam is the fact that we are using their engine. Beyond that, it is an entirely different style of game. Emphasis is not on killing everything you see. Sometimes running will be your only option. There will be a great deal of appropriate and innovative puzzles. We call them appropriate because all of our puzzles makes sense in the game world. No puzzles for the sake of puzzles.
Q. What about the multiplayer aspect of the game?
It is more of a "Thief" type game, where story, immersion, and unique gameplay are its primary selling points. However! After much thought, I have decided that there will be multiplayer. In fact, the players will be able to raise undead creatures to fight for them in multiplayer. They will only have access to the miracles that they have learned in the single player game. So, if you finish the game, you will have every possible miracle at your disposal in multiplayer, making you a formidable opponent. This is primarily done to keep players from seeing all the miracles before the single-player story has been completed.
Q. Why should we rush out and buy Cleric?
To support first time independent developers! Seriously though, we're making Cleric as game lovers ourselves. We're making a game that we would want to play. It has a very original story of which many have said would make a great book or movie. It has unique game play elements that haven't been done before. The environment is rich in Russian history and culture. Lastly, Cleric will have very strong replayability.
Q. When can we hope to see Cleric in the shops?
Our original plans were for December 2003, with a public playable demo being released in October. However, this may change once we pick up a publisher.
Craig Gallagher
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