DGD: Tell us about Icarus and how it was developed, and how you used it.
Mike Gummelt: We knew from the beginning of the project that we would need complex interactions and complicated sequences to take place in the world of Voyager that we were creating. ICARUS was born out of that necessity. The system needed the ability to not only do the simple tasks of making non-player characters (NPCs) speak on cue and walk to certain locations on demand, but also be able to deal with the player altering and interrupting these requests. In many first-person shooters, scripted sequences only occur when the player cannot interfere with them. For instance, the player is watching the scene unfold through a camera shot, or the event is happening in an area that is not accessible to the player. But Elite Force needed to take the next step. If we were really going to make the player feel like a part of the action, like part of the crew, we needed to let them affect their surroundings as if they were really there. So ICARUS was built with this goal in mind. Not only is the system able to carry out simple instructions, but can quickly and properly reroute commands, pause commands, or interrupt and discard previous commands in light of new ones.

An easy example would be one of the crewmen, diligently working in the hallway of Voyager. His normal behavior is to scan a section of the wall he's working on, and then cross the room to enter his findings into a waiting computer terminal. He repeats this process as long as his task demands. But should the player approach him and talk to him, he'll pause from his work to chat, or simply tell the player he's too busy to be bothered. He may at that point go back to work, or he may instead choose a new task to busy himself with. When he switches tasks and what he switches to are all things that the designers have the ability to control. And there are more stimuli for the NPC than just talking to him. Shooting, blocking, bumping and setting events in motion are all stimuli that the NPC can respond to. This allowed us to "pre-load" a large set of abilities into just one NPC, so that it could respond to multiple situations in predetermined ways. Added to this was the ability to make generic abilities and behaviors to save us time in development. We could create just one "I've been shot at!" behavior, and use it generically on multiple NPCs. One of the most important factors in immersion is feedback to actions by the player. If a player shoots a friendly NPC, that NPC should cower, run away, or perhaps even fight back. ICARUS allowed us to make sure that the game world responded properly to the player's actions in a multitude of situations. Ultimately, it was the ability to have as much, or as little control of in-world objects as we needed that made ICARUS work for us.

GD: It's been stated in the press that Paramount would not allow an inordinate amount of gore -- what other restrictions in art or characterization did they place upon you?
Brian Pelletier: It was actually more our decision to not add so much gore. Our goal was to really capture the essence of Star Trek, and since the Star Trek TV shows and movies don't have a lot of "gore," our game didn't have it either. Our goal was to stay true to the Star Trek universe. Paramount was very supportive of the creative process. We made the game how we wanted to, and as long as what we designed stayed within the confines and context of the Star Trek image, we were fine. There was a case where one of our characters was a real loudmouth buffoon and Paramount said that a member of the Starfleet academy would never act like that. So we toned him down, but still kept a little of that loudmouth edge. When all was said and done I would say that they might have actually lifted some of their restrictions in order to make a better gaming experience.

TALK ABOUT THIS STORY NOW ON THE DIGITAL GAME DEVELOPER

DGD: Will Trekkies be drawn to an action game?
Brian Pelletier: Yes, they will definitely be drawn into Elite Force. Although the game emphasizes the action, it is only one of the many elements Elite Force has in store for the player. Star Trek fans will quickly be drawn into the world of Elite Force because of what goes on around the action - the true 3D or virtual Star Trek environments are the most noticeable. Every Trekker has wanted to know what it is like to walk around a Star Ship or walk through a creepy Borg cube. You can even walk up to any of the main crewmembers and have them talk to you. Having the actual actors provide their voices really enhances the realism of the conversation. The plot is also complex, with lots of changes and twists as the game progresses. Our goal was to make the gamers and Trekkers alike feel like they were a crewmember of the Starship Voyager, and from what we are hearing from fans and reviewers, I think we accomplished this. We've given Star Trek fans what they've always wanted - to partake in an actual episode of Star Trek and be part of the Universe and experience it virtually.

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