Articles

Atma:
The Mythic Light of India

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.”