-Associate Producer / Sound Designer

What point of view will Trespasser be, and what will the screen look like? 

“It’ll be first-person,… but not like Quake, Duke, etc.. You have complete control over the players head,… meaning you can look down and see your own body, what you’re standing on, yada yada…”

Will you be able to beat the game, and if so what will happen at the end?

“Of course. It will be difficult, but you definitely can. What happens? Well, your only objective is to survive and get off the island,… so you can probably imagine.”

Will there be any cheat codes in Trespasser (i.e. god mode, all weapons, etc.)?

“Sure. ‘All weapons’ really isn’t feasible, because what each player considers a weapon is different. To some, a crowbar is a great weapon and others may prefer a chair! We’ll proba-bly include some cheats to acquire specific weapons (shotgun, pistol, tranquilliser gun, etc.) Also, Trespasser doesn’t have typical action game inventory management. As Anne is a real-world physical model,… you can only carry a limited number of objects (i.e. you can’t carry a rocket launcher, shotgun, nail-gun, super nail-gun, grenade launcher, lightning gun, small nuclear device, and the kitchen sink at once). You will have to tactically decide which objects to keep with you & at which times.”

There has been talk that the character you play will be very difficult to control. Is this true, or will you be able to control the character similar to Quake?

“We think we designed a solid UI. Quake made the natural and appropriate improvements on Doom, and a lot of new gamers had a substantial learning curve before becoming proficient. We want to take the next step. As with anything new a learning curve is always present, but we’re taking great efforts to minimize that curve.”

Will the island be separated into sections wherein you will need to accomplish a goal?

“Most games in this genre are separated into dozens of levels due to technical constraints. Constant level changes pull you out the game and remind you, “YOU’RE PLAYING A GAME,… THIS ISN’T REAL”…. we didn’t want that. Trespasser is one giant, seamless level. The coolest thing about this design is it allows the player to backtrack to any spot on the is-land they want (without having to load a previously saved game). So, if you find a weapon you’d love to use against a pack of dinosaurs you had to evade mile back,…. go get ’em.”

What will the environment be like (i.e. rain, cloudy, sunny)?

“This is another feature which is simple to include, but really difficult to represent realistically. Rain, for example, looks shitty in real-time games because it’s hard to render realistically. If we have time to devote to things like rain, we’ll definitely include it. This isn’t to say Tres-passer doesn’t have weather changes,… we’re all about realism and making the player use the environment to their advantage. The beach area’s may be overcast and breezy, the open plains being a nice spot to get some sun, the jungle a bit darker and foggy, the mountains having strong wind gusts, yada yada.”

How much will Trespasser: Jurassic Park cost?

“Looks like $49.95.”

Will there be skill levels and if so how much will they differ?

“To be determined.”

Will you have to take care of your body (i.e. bandage a wound, splint a broken bone, etc.)? If so, could you die of a cold?

“If you hurt your legs, you’ll slow down. It’s an action / adventure,…not Sim Nurse. Die of a cold,…um,…er,…nah. I feel confident saying that scurvy will not be you’re cause of death (more likely a predatory killing machine).”

Since multi-player games are so hot, what gave you the idea to do a single player game?

“Two part answer.

First, we’re a team of traditional gamers, so single player gameplay is of utmost importance. The great majority of all gameplay takes place in single play mode. While this trend is chang-ing and being geared more towards multi-play, games (unless directly marketed for multiple players) are still designed for one player. Most consumers don’t have a LAN at work or a kick-ass modem at home, so creating an enjoyable game for them is really important. It’s two completely different approaches. I played all the way through Duke Nukem before ever playing against my buddies at work. Quake, on the other hand, I played about 5 levels by myself and got bored. Now, I’ll only play Quake if it’s a death match. This isn’t to knock Quake, it’s the best multiplayer game I know (and we play at night quite often), but Duke Nukem has soooo much more interesting design & style, that’s it’s a clear win in single play.

Secondly, multiplayer simply doesn’t fit into the development schedule. We don’t have the luxury of shipping the game when we feel like it. No, people have invested a lot of money to have Trespasser done by a certain date. We would have to compromise gameplay to add multiplayer capability in time, and we refuse to do that. Trespasser is so technically aggres-sive & far ahead of what anyone else is trying, that we think you’ll be more than satisfied.”

Can you say if there will be a multiplayer add-on yet? Is Dreamworks prepared to make a sequel to Trespasser if it is such a success?

“If a product is a success, there’s always a sequel (which is usually not as good as the origi-nal). If we don’t feel we can make a better game than the original Trespasser,… we won’t. If we decide to make a sequel, yes,…. it will have multiplayer capability.”