Page 13 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #21 Free Edition

of them was controls and mobility and so we integrated fast and fluid movement to provide the sensation that the player was jogging and not walking heavily. We also exag- gerated jumping abilities to allow the player to make soaring leaps. These amplified abilities allowed us to take a fresh approach with level design and open up the environments to accommodate a combination of fast-paced combat and platform jumping gameplay, creating a fast-paced experience that required dexterity with the controller and the feeling that you had super-human abilities.
“Another area was the overall structure and progres- sion of the game. I wanted to avoid a linear experi- ence, and instead offer a feeling of exploration and accomplishment, so we designed the ‘artifact system,’ in which the player discovered artifact items to gain permanent new special abilities which allowed access to areas of the game previously impossible to reach. The world map was added to help reinforce the setting of the game world and navigate through the structure of individual levels. All of this was similar to Metroid and several other games, so it wasn’t a new concept by any means, but it was a new approach for first-person console gaming.
“We also intentionally avoided showing the main player character outside of first-person (except for the intro and ending story sequences) to promote the feeling that each individual playing the game felt like they were truly taking on the role of the hero. I believe the com- bination of these things, exaggerated player mobility, non-linear artifact-based ability progression and with- holding the visual identity of the player character during the game helped make the experience more unique and more immersive.”
With these gameplay mechanics in effect, Powerslave is a different animal from the three other games using the same engine. However, the game’s best feature almost never happened. Even wilder, it opened the floodgates for the team’s creativity as well. “There was a technique in the game we called the ‘bomb boost,’ where you look straight down, jump up, and toss an Amun Bomb to get a boost up to high areas not normally accessi- ble,” McNeely said. “This was discovered by accident in
our studio by our team toward the end of production for the Saturn version. We considered removing the ability but realized it could be used to our advantage to enhance the game, so we quickly went through the stages and built-in new secret areas and hid the Team Doll idols as rewards. It was risky because we were so far into development, but it worked out and the result added a lot of extra gameplay to the product overall.
“We built on this even further by adding Lobo-flight mode to the Saturn version, unlocked after collecting all the Team Dolls and Dolphin and Vulture modes in the PlayStation version. It’s funny to think that all of these extra secrets and rewards started as the result of a last-minute accidental discovery. We also literally got into character to make a lot of the character assets for the game. All of the enemies and first-person weaponry art were created using a combination of digitized clay models, handmade props and human actors and then touching them up. To make the Mummy, I dressed up in a mummy costume and we used a video camera to capture all of the frames using a makeshift set in a garage with a few desk lamps and a black felt backdrop. One of our artists dressed up as Anubis (The God of Death) and we digitized my hands to be used for all of the first-person weapon art, including touch-ups to make the final hand art look veiny and rugged.”
The team’s fun didn’t end there either, as their cre- ativity even surprised the publishers they worked for. “All of the secrets in the game have been revealed, but one that most wouldn’t know about is the title screen Easter egg in the Saturn version that was secretly implemented by our lead engineer. He covertly added a feature that switched the regular title screen art with a
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