Human Head Interview (Rune)
By Mr. Kassis - 1:45 AM on Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Continuing our long line of joyous interviews extracted from Macworld 2000, The Corporation had a chat with Timothy S. Gerritsen, project manager for Humanhead Studios' upcoming title Rune.
In 50 words or less…what is Rune?
Rune is a 3D first person action game in which you play a young Viking warrior named Ragnar. It’s a game about melee combat, hand-to-hand, axes, swords and clubs - that sort of thing. It’s deeply steeped in Norse mythology, so it’s all about Viking gods, Vikings monsters, Viking mythology - the whole warrior mystique.
What role do you play in the development of the game?
I’m the business director for Human Head Studios and I’m the project manager for Rune.
What stage of development is Rune in?
This is a pre-alpha Mac build. The Mac build is about 3 weeks behind the PC build.
Are you aiming for a simultaneous release?
We’re aiming for as close to simultaneous as possible. Westlake is doing the conversion and doing a great job, so if we don’t hit at exactly the same time, it’ll be probably 2-3 weeks [apart].
What is the focus of Rune, in terms of the gameplay dynamic? Is it directed more towards combat elements or puzzle solving?
Much more on combat, task-based action. The design from the ground up was about keeping things fast paced. You pick up weapons automatically. When you get a new weapon, you automatically sheathe your other weapon.
Those animations look very smooth... Rune looks like a very visually appealing game. Is this a custom engine?
Rune is actually using the Unreal Tournament engine, but we’ve heavily modified it. We’ve created our own skeletal animation system, particle animation system, level of detailing…
The Unreal engine is quite a flexible renderer... Did you focus Rune more on indoor or outdoor environments?
I would say there’s a good mix of both, but primarily indoor.
Are there any planned multiplayer elements?
Yes. It’s going to have Deathmatch out of the box. We’re trying to get as much cooperative in as we can. We’re on a tight deadline in, so not everything is guaranteed. We’ll try to do what we can, but we are going to do it after release.
How has gathering of developers been about giving you guys some leeway about development time, feedback, etc?
Gathering has been pretty good about it. They have some financial deadlines, though, so they want us out by Halloween.
On to page 2!
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