Atma The Mythic Light of India – Welcome to Just Adventure + – Articles — Part 2

by Harriet Gurganus 15 January 2002

Interviews

by Harriet Gurganus
January 15, 2002

Portions of this article have appeared elsewhere.

“Atma is the self…it is a personal journey into an ancient past, a mythical culture, a quest for enlightenment” The development group at 4D say that this game will be “an adventure where your powers determine your destiny, where war ends and your search for enlightenment begins…in the not too distant future”.
Shawn Maynard, President and CEO of 4D games, has taken some of his valuable time to tell us more about the game, about 4D and about the 4D development team.

Tell us about Vinayak 4Dgames.
“Vinayak 4Dgames was founded in 1999 as an innovative university computer animation co-op program. The idea was to attract talented artists, offering them not only a masters degree opportunity but a chance to contribute to a commercial product. “Vinayak is the ancient god of knowledge and wisdom. Vinayak us the inspiration that transforms the four dimensions of space and time into worlds of ancient mythological pasts, of mysteries in the present, and of unknowns that await in the future. 4Dgames are interactive playgrounds that thrill the senses, capture the imagination and instill the wisdom of the ages into every moment of game play”.
How did Vinayak 4Dgames come up with the idea for Atma?
“The idea for Atma was a collaboration of a number of people wanting to create a game that offered a substantive storyline based on the age old quest for enlightenment archetype. Also, the richness of ancient Indian mythology offered great game concepts such as Karma, meditation, Shakti (Kundalini), Yogic powers (Sidhis), etc. that have never been fully embraced or exploited in this form of entertainment to date.”
There have been many geographical adventure games over the years. What will set Atma apart from the others?
“This game begins where RealMyst left off. Where-as RealMyst took an existing traditional adventure click-to-move interface and gave it a real-time 3D look and feel, we started with one of the best 3D engines (Unreal “Warfare”) and have been building up the adventure game structure on top of the technology. The advances in graphics rendering in these new generation engines really begs for a new wave of adventure gaming based on much of the functionality that this kind of engine provides. I expect there will always be games with point-and-click pre-rendered look and feel (and I like those kind of games) but to me the partial lack of support for adventure gaming comes from the restrictions (mainly in freedom of movement) inherent in that kind of interface.”
Did you know about the game, Road To India, when you started the development of Atma? Do you see similarity between the games? Do potential similarities concern you?
“I came across the game (Road To India) when it was released. If you survey the exploitation of western and eastern cultural settings, India is among the few outstanding potentials that has been largely overlooked. So it’s nice to see a few offerings out there. Compared to the overuse of the old English castles we are a long was from market saturation.”
Tell us a little about the storyline for the game.
“You are Indrani, Goddess of Mystic Perception. You rule the heavens together with your husband, Indra, Lord of the Gods, in the floating celestial city of Amaravati.
“Disguised as a royal visitor, the evil demon, Prince Venadatta has come to offer a gift of Soma, nectar of the gods to Indra and Indrani. Indra drinks heartily and as Indrani (you) takes her first sips, Lord Indra chokes and staggers from his throne. Venadatta has tricked them into drinking corrupted Soma and stripped them of their powers. While Venadatta easily fought and subdued Indra, Indrani ran for her weapons but the drink made her weak and she collapsed. Venadatta could not kill the immortal gods so he has trapped Indra in a ‘crystal of ignorance’. As the helpless Indra watches, Venadatta hurls the semi-comatose Indrani from the celestial realm like a comet onto Earth. She struck in the remote Valley of Saints in the Himalayas, on the border of Mother India.
“With the kingdom overthrown and it’s King rendered powerless it is up to the now mortal FALLEN GODDESS, Indrani, to regain her powers, defeat Venadatta and reclaim the throne. This cannot be done by force alone but only through right and intelligent action can she resolve her mysterious past and choose the enlightened path to victory.
“This is a simple but powerful story. There are many subplots, special events and thematic mysteries that will only be revealed within the actual game experience.”
Do your god and goddess characters represent actual and specific religious, historic or cultural beings or are they an amalgam of imaginary characters”
“We are drawing from the Vedic culture and Indian Mythology. Some characters are actual historic figures and others are born of our story. Since many people are often named after gods and goddesses this mix blends naturally.”
How does the player progress in Atma?
“The player will solve puzzles and obstacles (tricks, traps and other distractions and deceptions that are either comically or maliciously invoked by the ignorant demons to keep you from achieving your goal). Each level allows you the opportunity to regain your lost powers and wisdom, and through your enlightened actions overcome the full range of the forces of ignorance.”
What sort of characters will the player encounter in the game?
“Gods, demons, wild animals, exotic mythical creatures, nature spirits and most importantly, a new you.”
Will the game have puzzles to solve and if so, what types of puzzles will they be?
“The core design includes a primary quest (main puzzle set) in support of a particular ancient Indian theme. This quest will be supported by many sub puzzles. The puzzles are primarily cipher (environmental) in nature.”
Will Atma be 100% adventure oriented or will there be an action component to the game? Linear or non-linear?
“There will be an action component to the game and it will be a nice mix of linear and non-linear.”
Getting the rights to Epic’s Unreal engine is quite a coup. Why did you decide on the Unreal engine for Atma?
“The new Unreal Warfare engine has a new terrain system and particle system (among other things). We looked at Quake and Lithtech and it was a tossup at the time. In the end, the team felt that the editor, tech support, experienced mod community, game code, etc. was most in line with what we needed.”
What sort of modifications are you making to the engine to make it work for your game?
“Well, as you know, the Unreal technology is designed for FPS gameplay. We have basically created our own adventure game structure on top of that. This includes developing our own conversation system and scripting language. Deus Ex was a recent example of how you can take an engine like this and tell a cool story. We are taking that deeper into the adventure game direction.”
What is the current status as to the progress of the game’s development?
“We are in the production phase of development now. Of course, the lines between that phase and the design and test phases are often gray. We expect most levels to be in beta testing by January of 2002.”
When will Atma be released and who will be publishing it?
“No exact date is known right now. No publisher is determined now either. As you might guess, resolution to the second question will affect the release date.”
Will there be a demo of the game released before the full game is completed?
“That is the plan.”
Finally, is there anything else that you want to tell us about Atma?
Atma is not about how you affect or interact with your environment. It is more than how the environment reacts and affects you. It is about merging these outer and inner worlds into one inspirational game/story experience, Out hope is that the player will have fun and come away with something more than numb fingers to think about.”