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Interviews
Why did you choose the name Vulcan for your company? Is there something in the title that is representative of your approach to the gaming industry?
We primarily chose the name Vulcan based on the Greek God of Fire, the metal forger, but it is true that Vulcan's directors are Star Trek fans and over time we adopted a more logical approach to running a software company and so our identity has geared itself more towards the Trekkie reference to Vulcan. However, our company logo still remains as the symbol of the hammer head hitting an anvil, creating sparks.
How long has Vulcan been together and when did you start developing for the PC?
Vulcan Software was established in l994 by myself (Paul Carrington) and partner in life, Lisa Tunnah. Our very first commercial game was called Valhalla & The Lord of Infinity. It was the first ever speech adventure for the Amiga computer. Valhalla achieved ‘retailer best buy awards’ for that year and became the most controversial release of its time, establishing Vulcan as a mainstream commercial software developer and publishing company.
From our humble beginnings through to the end of 1998, we developed and published 15 award winning entertainment titles for the Amiga. The ‘MiniSeries’ was our collection of floppy based games which included a seaside simulation in Hillsea Lido, complex puzzeling in Timekeepers, TimeKeepers II and Bograts, flight simulation in JetPilot , strategic warfare in Tiny Troops, multi-palyer carbashing in Burnout and two more speech adventures in the series, namely, Valhalla Before The War and Valhalla & The Fortress of Eve.
In 1997 we took the pioneering role of pushing the specifications of Amiga development onto the CD format. Catering for graphics cards, full digital speech, 3D rendering and multi language localization, we founded the ‘MegaSeries’ Amiga CD collection with the multi-player beat-em-up The Strangers, adventure puzzler's Uropa2 and The Final Odyssey and a first-person 3D shooter, Genetic Species.
Vulcan's 10 ‘MiniSeries’ titles and 5 ‘MegaSeries’ titles all received review scores over 90% and 1998 saw Genetic Species scoop 22 awards from Amiga press around the world, heralded as the fastest 3D title the Amiga platform had ever seen, outselling rival title Amiga Quake.
Due to economic changes and the constant decline of the commercial Amiga market, in January 1999 Vulcan made the decision to switch development emphasis to the PC platform and began implementing a massive overhaul and refinement of it's operating procedures and concentrated all of it's resources and energy into redefining the boundaries of 3D gaming technology for the PC market.
It’s been three years since you started developing for the PC. What have you achieved so far?
Three years later we are slowly coming out of this long development phase and throughout this time we have developed our own 3D engine and 3D game development tools under the name Mother3D. Using these tools, we have started creating our flagship entry into the PC market called Valhalla 3D The Curse of Infinity. It’s a first person speech adventure (FPSA) that is promoted as follows:
‘Prepare to be thrown into a world of lateral and logical thinking, shrouded in suspense, intrigue and atmospheric diversion. This first person 3d speech adventure will captivate your imagination offering true world physics and total immersion into confined locations. No more running around bland locations looking for the exit, this 3d technology focuses on the inward infinite, creating a world that is hard to leave and even harder to forget.’
It’s a bold claim but we’re confident we can deliver. We are hoping to launch the first episode of this game mid to end of 2002 and aiming for a demo around April time. Valhalla 3D The Curse of Infinity is of course, an extension of our original Valhalla series (from 1994) taking it from 2D simplicity to 3D complexity.
So Valhalla 3D The Curse of Infinity is going to be an episodic game?
Yes, and each episode will be digitally distributed direct to the users' computer over the internet. We plan to make the first episode free, with subsequent episodes based on a pay per play bases. For this grand plan to succeed, we needed to develop a special application that could distribute the episodes (as painlessly as possible) and so we have spent the last year developing the Vulcan Portal.
We released this application in beta stage in February 2001 and so far it’s proving very popular. The first reason is that the Vulcan Portal is free but mainly because it is also a community building application. The Vulcan Portal could be imagined as a gateway to everything Vulcan, primarily a way to download our games (present and future) but it also allows you to join a virtual community by the way of a 3D character who synthetically speaks. You have the ability to define how you look, either from default skins or creating your own, and can send/receive 3D voice mail to other Portal users (as well as the Vulcan staff) and collect daily 3D voice news from Vulcan which is also spoken to you by a 3D news reader.
The reasoning behind this special application is that a user has access to a community (of other users) formed around Vulcan products, whether it’s for help on a game, technical advise or simply to meet like minded people, express themselves, chat, get involved in (and be up to date on) Vulcan's development activities.
What are the Valhalla Classics?
The Valhalla Classics are something that we are excited about. Ever since we changed from Amiga development to PC development, we have been constantly hounded by our old Amiga fans (who also made the switch to PC) to convert our three original Valhalla Speech Adventure games to PC. We put it off for many years as we wanted to concentrate on our new 3D technology. However, luck would have it, the Vulcan Portal was at a level where it required a thorough testing of it’s digital distribution capabilities along with credit card processing and the formation of user accounts. We mmm’d and aaaa’d for a few weeks thinking how best to test this technology and then made an impulse decision to convert our old 2D speech adventure games to PC and use them as a guinea pig for the Vulcan Portal's digital distribution functionality. The PC versions of these games, now called the Valhalla Classics, bare witness to some major graphic and sound enhancements, but we have also placed a great emphasis on making the conversions as close to the originals as possible. The end result, a preservation of gaming history.
Why did you decide to develop an online game?
The Valhalla Classics are not online games. They are a single player experience and are simply distributed online. The three original Valhalla games each had four levels. We have taken all oaf those levels and created twelve episodes. Each episode can be downloaded from within Vulcan Portal and then played right inside that same application. The user only needs to be online when downloading the episode for the first time and can then play the episodes offline and at their own pace. We have structured it so the first episode is completely free to ensure that old fans can evaluate the changes and complete new comers to these adventures can experience the Valhalla Classics. From then on each subsequent episode is based on a play-per-play scenario, each priced at approximately $3.60. Breaking the game down into episodes not only makes downloading a quicker and nicer experience, it also allows the user to decide if and when to progress through all of the episodes.
How do you view the market potential for games delivered online?
Vulcan believes that ALL games will eventually be delivered online. I have been thoroughly active in this debate for many years and have always shouted the demise of physical product from a physical location. As we see more and more people with faster, better and cheaper connections to the internet we will also see the up rise in software products being exclusively delivered online.
The manufacturing savings of software is enormous and you are also cutting out the ‘share of revenue’ from the many middle men involved in traditional distribution. All of these savings can be passed directly onto the consumer, allowing them to get the same product, quicker and cheaper and on impulse direct from the people who made that software.
This I believe is the future and the only future for software distribution. This thinking is one of the reasons why we developed the Vulcan Portal. We know that digital distribution is the way to go but we are also aware that the experience of purchasing and obtaining the software needs to be easier, more reliable and fun for the end user. This was why we incorporated 3D speaking characters into our digital distribution application with a hole heap of clever technology to ensure that the acquiring of software was fun, secure and error free, (we are not 100% there yet, but definitely getting there!)
What is the storyline of the Valhalla Classics
The story that covers all twelve episodes is a meandering of historic events and change of rule and to blurb it all out (in one go) would be somewhat overwhelming and perhaps hard to absorb. The best way to set the mood is to outline the periods in which the episodes cover, for example, the first four episodes cover the period known as The Lord Of Infinity and is written as such:
The Kingdom of Valhalla is currently ruled by the evil Lord of Infinity, a mean spirited, devious and twisted man, who is feared by the people of the land. His rule is one of betrayal based upon jealousy. His predecessor was his older brother, the great King Garamond, who was the true leader of the kingdom but Infinity always believed he should have been king and so murdered Garamond (by electrocution) and crowned himself king, thus marking the period known as Valhalla & the Lord of Infinity.
This abominable act resulted in civil war amongst the people of Valhalla and Infinity ordered the death of all Garamond's followers and to drown the Little Prince, the two year old son of Garamond who was the rightful heir to the throne. But the Little Prince was never found. Unknown to Infinity, the Bishop of Valhalla had rescued the child, and fled to a neighboring kingdom.
Fourteen years have now passed, and whilst in exile, the Little Prince has learned of wisdom, the history of Valhalla and most importantly, justice. Now come of age, the Little Prince has returned to the castle of Valhalla on a quest to destroy his father's murderer and take his rightful place as King of this once beautiful land.
Armed with this knowledge, the best way to absorb the linear plot progression, is to actually play the episodes (in turn), as within each, you learn a little bit more background knowledge and also experience first hand the various characters within the story. We always run into problems explaining episodes five to eight to newcomers as this period goes back in time, and really only makes sense to people having experienced the first four episodes. But needless to say, in episodes five to eight you get the chance to play the evil character and in episodes nine to twelve you get to play the Little Prince all grown up.
Tell me about the research that went into the development of the Valhalla Classics.
Interesting question, one thing to bare in mind about the storyline, is that the development of these games were originally spread over three years, so it’s true to say it has expanded at a slow pace, and could be said that the storyline was made up (and continued) as and when needed. This approach has turned out quite useful as it allowed us to meander the story at will always using what went before as a solid foundation. In a way I guess it’s easier to do this than to think of the entire story on day one. It has also allowed us some creative freedom to explore new areas with each episode and keep it all fresh for the more determined players progressing through all twelve episodes.
The research for the puzzles was the hardest thing. We always had to strike a fine balance of logic and lateral thinking and be careful not to be too obvious and not too obscure, oh and try not to repeat ourselves too much. In the early days, we were never sure if we got the balance correct, as we always had some people say, ‘it was too easy’ or ‘it’s too damn hard’, but at the end of the day it’s down to the players own intellect that dictates the speed of progress. Eight years later, we now believe the mix of puzzle simplicity and complexity is just right. We get an awful lot more mail saying ‘how wonderful it was’ as opposed to ‘how hard it was’, and so take this as an overall gauge.
What do you view as the most exciting component of the Valhalla Classics?
I think it’s got to be the combination of two things, the first is the way in which the character looks up at you and speaks. These games are overhead scrolling worlds. A reviewer recently referred to the Valhalla Classics as ‘God games’, in the sense that you (the player) look down onto the main character within his world and in a way feel like a ‘God’ controlling his actions.
As these games are speech adventures then the main character is constantly speaking to you and constantly looking up to you, relaying his actions and opinions, and after a few minutes of play you are completely settled into this relationship, a relationship that is totally unreal but hard to explain as it feels kind of real.
The second component has to be the characters dry sense of humor, we have an absolute scream coming up with all the things the character can say (based on a specific situation) and must admit that the recording of speech is the most enjoyable part of developing these games. The PC conversion has allowed us to offer much more digital speech (than the old Amiga versions) and also at a better quality, and has allowed us to be more extravagant in the delivery of speech and diversity of wit.
Which episode is your favorite? Why?
Oooh, I think it has to be episode three (at present). By this episode, the Little Prince is getting rather cocky and used to his surroundings and so the dialogue is more boisterous. An example would be if you instructed the Little Prince to operate something that was obviously not an object that could be operated, he may look up and shout, 'must you fiddle with everything', enforcing his personality onto the player. Of course all this changes in episode four when he is getting more frightened nearing the evil Lord of Infinity.
Are you meeting your deadline schedule?
Yes and no. We now have three episodes of the Valhalla Classics available through the Vulcan Portal with the fourth episode due for release in the coming days. We did set ourself ten days for the conversion of each subsequent episode, but as with all software development the schedules go out the window as each new day passes and new challenges enter the equation.
Where did the idea for the story come from? Why multiple episodes?
The story originated from Lisa’s brain as mentioned, evolving from a simple concept that slowly expanded over the years. Since that time she has spent many a year fleshing out the background history and defining the changing events in Valhalla’s history making it more solid and believable. The reason for this is that we will be continuing this story within our new Valhalla 3D game and require the story to be established, giving us a good solid framework to work from.
We chose multiple episodes for several reasons. The first is that the episodes are easier to download via the Vulcan Portal being in small sections. The second is that it allows the user to decide when and if to progress based on their own enjoyment. And thirdly, we can set a very small fee for each episode. This not only proves great value for money (from the consumers perspective) but also allows a gamer to pay when they decide to play as opposed to buying the game all at once.
How do you feel that the Valhalla Classics fits into the overall adventure genre?
We believe that the Valhalla Classics fits perfectly into the adventure genre though admittedly they could be perceived as puzzle games (due to the amount of puzzles needed to be solved). The puzzles are all based on logic and the adventures own story progression. We always thought of Valhalla as the genre that proceeded the graphical point and click adventure games, as it made the objects within the locations more obvious and removed the moving of mouse pointer over a graphic image, instead offering a solid character to find, pick up, operate, consume, insert the objects within his immediate surroundings. The best way to define the style of the Valhalla Classics is to merge a crossword puzzle with a point and click and you are someway to describing the Valhalla Classics genre.
What will you and your team view as success with this project?
Our first ‘success’ will be to convert all twelve episodes of the Valhalla Classics to PC. Once achieved, I believe we can finally put to rest these adventure games (that have haunted us since 1994) and finally move on to our new 3D projects with a clear conscience. I think one of the reasons for doing the conversions is that, although the Valhalla Classics were hugely successful on the Amiga, the Amiga market was a lot smaller than what the PC market is today, and they never really got the mass exposure we think they deserved. Perhaps now being made accessible to PC adventure fans, we can at least say that 'they are out there' and any enjoyment gleaned from them (from PC users) is enough.
Another success will be the engraving of these games. What I mean is that they are (and will be) available for the mainstream platform for all time, solidifying the brand, and hopefully creating awareness for our forth coming 3D extension of this brand.
And lastly, it allows us to establish a solid technology of purchasing and digital distribution through the Vulcan Portal at the same time as offering a cheap and fun source of entertainment from the resurrection of these speech adventures from a bygone era.
Paul Carrington (Director Vulcan Software)
The Valhalla Classics
Valhalla 3D
The Vulcan Portal
Vulcan Software Ltd |
