convergence_trek

News Coverage of Convergence Development

Interview with the Star Trek Gaming Universe

The original article can be found here:http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~starmada/stgu/index.php?p=/interviews/convergence04-09-05

Following on from our previous feature on Convergence we catch up with Eric C. Reuter of Fusion Creative Design to talk about the updates that have been made to this modification for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen. Eric was one of the developers at The Collective who worked on The Fallen.

STGU: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Fusion Creative Design?

Eric C. Reuter: Well, I'm married for 21 years (to the same woman :-) and have a daughter, 18, and a son, 16. I live in the quiet coastal town of Barnegat, NJ. I've been active in the area of game design since around 1993, after some DOOM PWAD levels that I created attracted the attention of people at 3D-Realms. I've had the privilege of working with some great teams and on some terrific projects. These include Shadow Warrior (3D-Realms), Unreal (Epic Games) , James Bond 007 NightFire (Gearbox Software), Half-Life Opposing Force (Gearbox Software), and of course, Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Fallen (Collective Studios). If I had to select a few people in particular to thank and to credit, I'd like to mention Frank Maddin, who worked with me on my first real gig, and has been a friend ever since, and Randy Pitchford, of Gearbox Software, who gave me the opportunity to work with him and his great team of designers. Also, Tony Barnes of The Collective was instrumental in me getting and keeping a role as a level designer on what has become my favourite project of all time. If anyone's interested, my other interests include fine scale modeling, movies (huge movie buff), rocks and minerals (collecting), firearms (target shooting only, I can't kill anything except in a video game), weightlifting, aquariums, astronomy, guitar..a few other things....oh, and computers of course. Hopefully, anyone reading this is still awake...as I digress...

I formed Fusion Creative Design a few years ago as a company that I have hopes will someday become my full-time career, dedicated to providing professional design to the gaming industry. I may at some time expand to a point where I look to hire a staff of like-minded designers to perhaps create our own titles. At least, that's the plan. In the mean time, Fusion Creative Design is available on a contract basis for companies looking for experienced, professional level and game-world design for computer and video games.

STGU: What was your role when you were at The Collective working on Deep Space Nine: The Fallen?

Eric C. Reuter: My role was to help The Collective quickly bring the game to production. They were left with a large number of raw levels, in various stages of completion, and they needed someone to complete these designs, implement gameplay, tweak, polish and bring them through Beta testing and to release. Some of these had hardly any work done, some were about halfway there. This was far more challenging than creating levels from scratch. First off, I needed to figure out all of the things that the starting designer has implemented (and what they were thinking), and then work to create new areas, modify existing ones, fix errors, and generally work them to death so that they were as near perfect as possible. I worked with The Collective for the last 10 months or so of the project. My work can be seen in Kira's Bajoran Monastery levels and all of the Ulysses Interior maps for Sisko and Worf.

STGU: Did you get the chance to meet any of the Star Trek actors that did voice overs for the game?

Eric C. Reuter: No, unfortunately I worked the entire project remotely, from my home office. (Which I've done for every project I've been on, by the way). The E3 gathering where Nana Visitor (Major Kira) came and played an early version of the game was before my time on the project, so I didn't get a chance to attend...

STGU: Do you have any interesting stories from working on The Fallen?

Eric C. Reuter: Well, mostly it was just tons of work under a tight deadline, so there weren't a whole lot of funny or interesting things to relay. I worked many times directly in contact with Richard Hare, and there was a tremendous amount of discussion and planning for the implementation of specific aspects to each individual level. At one point, I was paged by Richard, while in my car and ended up having a half-hour cell-phone discussion (with the level design in my memory only, with no reference material to look at), going over some specific changes and things they needed to see in a matter of hours. It was a bit intense, as you might imagine. One (arguably) interesting thing to note, and I will never forget, is the battle I had with the Ulysses interior maps. I must have tweaked and rebuilt these (in the Unreal editor) 500 times. Maybe more. I swear. There were soooo many bugs with the geometry, causing HOM's, invisible collision areas, leaky waterzones, that I wanted to pull my hair out and douse it with gasoline. It got to a point that if I so much as added one small square brush, the whole map would go to hell. After all that, it was decided that the single map we had started with was too large and complex for the target system specs, so it had to be split into 3 separate levels....AAGGGGHHHHHH!!!. So, if you enjoyed these levels in the game, thank you!!!, they were hands-down the worst nightmare I've ever had in level design hell.

STGU: It seems that most developers who work on Star Trek games are Star Trek fans, is this the case with yourself?

Eric C. Reuter: Absolutely!. Been a fan since 1967. (I was 9 years old at the time). To me, to work on DS9TF, an actual Official, Star Trek game, complete with the voices of the characters, was an incredible thrill. I've loved Star Trek for almost 40 years....to be a part of that universe, in even such a small role, was an absolute honor. I've never felt more proud then when I first got a glimpse of my name on the credits rolling in front of Deep Space Nine.

STGU: What are your favourite Star Trek series?

Eric C. Reuter: Well, I have a certain fondness for The Original Series, as it made such an impression on me as a youngster. I remember having light-up models of The Enterprise and a Klingon Battle Cruiser hanging from my ceiling in my room. :-) I also greatly enjoyed TNG, as well as DS9. Hard to pick a favorite, it's really a toss-up. These 3 are all pretty much tied for #1 in my book and they all had a unique appeal. I would have killed for a DS9 movie, and not ever seeing that come to pass is a huge disappointment. So much potential there for a great story.

STGU: Who else makes up the Convergence Team?

Eric C. Reuter: The Convergence Team is as follows:

Eric Reuter - Concept/Story, Design, Level Designer, Textures
Lewis "Dyre Straits" Turner - Concept/Story, Testing Coordinator
Ken "DataCable" Quick - Programming, Menus, Dialogue, Graphics/Textures ,
Beta Tester
John T. "BadArm" Conte - Beta Tester
Marie "GhostWolf" Rycraft - Beta Tester
Barry "[SOF]Bear" Lowy - Beta Tester

STGU: Can you tell us a bit about the storyline that is planned for Convergence?

Eric C. Reuter: Convergence takes place on SRIII, site of the wreckage of the U.S.S. Ulysses, a matter of months after the conclusion of The Fallen. A secret rogue element from Starfleet has aligned itself with a like contingent of Cardassians, and constructed a secret facility on SRIII. They have been working on this facility since around the time of the crash of the Ulysses. The alleged purpose of the facility was to construct a weapon capable of being deployed for planetary defense. The source of power for this weapon system relates directly to the story of the Pah'Wraiths, and to the ancient Orb's that they fashioned. The weapon promised to be of immense power, and it could ostensibly be deployed to protect any civilization from attack, at least in theory. The Cardassians have other plans, however. All the while they have been working beside Starfleet personnel to construct this weapon, they have been planning to take it, by force, when the time was right. At the time Convergence begins, the Cardassians have unleashed their double-cross and attacked the facility. Grigari Trooper forces, monitoring nearby, intercepted the Cardassian signal from the facility to their waiting fleet, and they too are in route to attempt to take the weapon technology for themselves. Dominion patrols had detected signs of Verteron emissions coming from SRIII in the last few days, and are also sending a huge force to investigate the source, which can only come from an Orb. All of these races are converging on the facility at once, with nothing but a contingent of scientists and a small security team from Starfleet there to defend. One scientist was able to send and open channel emergency distress call in time. Starfleet has sent The Defiant, as well as a nearby Science vessel to the rescue. Shuttles from the Defiant and the Federation Science vessel have been sent to retrieve as many personnel as possible. (Beaming in and out from SRIII is unpredictable at best due to ionic distortion). The crew of the Defiant is there to do whatever they can to prevent this facility, and the weapon technology from falling into enemy hands, at all costs.

STGU: What sort of missions will the player be involved with?

Eric C. Reuter: The missions involve many different locales on and beneath the surface of SRIII. The missions will all involve rescue of wounded/injured personnel; Some will have Kira attempting to retrieve critical data to prevent it falling into enemy hands, Worf will have a number of demolition missions, planting explosives in case the facility cannot be saved, Sisko will work in various locations to actually restore enough systems in the facility to possibly use one of the prototype weapons to defend the facility. Each character will have numerous, varying objectives for each level. You may have to locate and restore the weapon's system plasma cores to full operation, locating the guidance systems computers in huge facility on the surface and restoring them to full functionality, preventing the Dominion from utilizing an earlier prototype of the weapon's plasma generators, (and discovering how to create the weapon for themselves...). You will also occasionally get the aid of security/away teams, when ODO can manage a stable beam-down to the surface, that is...and much, much more....you'll even get a chance to see Worf ice-skate...well sort of.

STGU: What are your main goals in creating The Convergence?

Eric C. Reuter: To produce a retail-quality add-on mission for one of my favorite games of all times. It's a labor of love, for me, and for all fans of DS9 and The Fallen. I really want fans to have a great time playing this, and having a chance to revisit DS9TF in an all new adventure.

STGU: Can you give us an update of what has gone on since the last release?

Eric C. Reuter: We recently decided to expand Convergence to about 20 levels. We have 14 completed, a 15th well underway. The reason we went "bigger" was for a couple of reasons. First, we all felt we needed this many to adequately complete the story arcs, and to bring the plot to a well defined conclusion. Secondly, all of the team is enjoying the mission so much, they wanted to bring more hours of gameplay to the finished product. (We actually had a vote on this, and majority decision won. If the team had voted for less levels, Convergence probably would be out by now..:) These last levels are going to tie together and wrap up the story for all 3 characters, and provide the means to get to the ending scenario.

We are also looking at implementing all new, custom dialogue for NPC characters such as the Starfleet Ensigns on away teams (and injured), and perhaps some of the enemies, to add more depth and to produce a more engrossing story. Obviously, we can't do anything new for the major characters, which is too bad. :-)

Convergence has gone from being originally planned as a 8-10 level "add-on pack" to a full-fledged mission, and could almost be considered a sequel to "The Fallen". In the first 6-7 levels, the characters are exploring essentially the same locations within the complex on SRIII, albeit with some large, unique areas for each of them to explore, with different objectives. As we progressed, we have created many more unique locations for each character, with less overlap of level locations and areas. So, the later levels will be much more individually designed for Kira, Worf and Sisko. Creating all these completely new levels takes considerable time, but the game is much more exciting and interesting because of it. We have created many more interesting locations, including massive outdoor complexes, unique areas inside the facility, and some spectacular surprises, including a revisiting of a location from the original game but accomplished in a whole new way. One of the other major enhancements we're working on is customized NPC dialogue. We are attempting to use NPC's such as Starfleet personnel (Ensigns from the original game), as well as some enemies (Cardassians, Vorta for example), and give them new spoken dialogue. With this, we think we can add a much more engrossing experience. As you encounter these characters, you will learn more about what has happened at this facility, get information about potential hazards and enemy locations, and possibly even make a friend or 2 along the way....or run into a traitorous rogue element who would just as soon kill you on sight.

We all think the time this is taking is more than worth the effort. We're all extremely proud of what we've produced so far, and are very excited to see what the end product will look like once we're there. All in all, we think that Convergence will be an extremely exciting, fun addition to The Fallen, with many hours of gameplay for all DS9TF fans.

STGU: When can we next expect an updated release?

Eric C. Reuter: We will probably not release any further demos, so the next release will be THE release. I can't say exactly when that will be, but I will attempt to keep everyone up to date on progress, and as we get closer. As the only level designer on the team, it takes a considerable amount of time to create the level content, have it tested, and then tweaked, refined, retested, and finally, "put to bed". So, it really depends on just how fast I can crank out the last 5 levels. We will release another movie trailer with a lot of new content showing as yet unseen levels and locations in the near future.

STGU: What do you think about the current state of star trek gaming. Is there more of a positive outlook for new Star Trek games?

Eric C. Reuter: I have mixed opinions on this. The Star Trek universe is so ripe for content in the gaming arena, that I am amazed that there hasn't been more of a push to produce quality titles for many of the popular series. I am encouraged by some of the news (Star Trek Online), and also by some of the cool mods being done. I'm partial to the action genre, so I would love to see more games like "The Fallen" and EF1. The Fallen and Elite Force were proof that an exciting Star Trek action/adventure could be created, and I'm disappointed there haven't been more Trek games like this, and apparently nothing much is planned. I hope to be proven wrong.

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Download:

Download the latest 3 level demo of Convergence here (15.4MB).

Gameplay Movies:

Download the latest gameplay movie, which is just under 8 minutes, here (73.4MB - 720x480). The low resolution version can be found here (18.9MB - 320x240). The movie is well worth the download to see some of the action that will be in the final version of Convergence.

You can also find a previous movie by the team here (46.5MB - 320x240) which is 13 minutes long. Both movies were made by the Convergence Team.