Kuma Reality Games is best known for their fact based episodic military shooter series KumaWar. However, they also recently started a second epsidic games series called DinoHunters. This first person shooter series using Valve's Source engine has some time displaced hunters battling prehistoric creatures and has some strong humor elements, along with some in-game product placement. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with Kuma Reality Games' CEO Keith Halper to find out more about their plans for DinoHunters.

FiringSquad: First, how did the idea for Dinohunters come about?

Keith Halper: We have long envisioned ourselves as creating an analog for TV within the game world – free, ad-sponsored games that would be delivered episodically, just like TV. Kuma\War was our news-like “show,” but we wanted our next series to be a lighter, funny game that would appeal to our audience in a different way. I had been working with Keith Blanchard, former editor-in-chief of Maxim Magazine, to help us develop the concept, but we hadn’t succeeded in getting the right combination of ‘guy game’ and ‘guy show.’ Keith is the unparalleled expert in reaching guys, and I trust his judgment completely in this regard. He wasn’t laughing at our treatments so I knew we just weren’t there.

DinoHunters came to me on a long flight from our office in New York to Los Angeles -- I’ve developed more game ideas on airplanes that I can count – but I’m not sure what the inspiration was. It just became clear to me over that a game about babes, dinosaurs, guns and RVs served up a helping from each of the Guys Basic Food Groups. I sent a one-pager it to Keith and the next day he had sent me a terribly offensive, terrifically funny machinima script featuring dinosaur genitalia. So, I guessed he like it.

FiringSquad: For people who have not yet downloaded the first episode, what can you tell us about the backstory for the game?

Keith Halper: The genesis is that Shaw, a regular Joe from Brooklyn, gets his hands on a time-traveling recreational vehicle and does what any of us would do if we found something like that – uses it to cure disease and correct historic injustices. Just kidding: he sells it as a TV concept to a 3rd rate cable network, the Total Hunting Channel, in exchange for fame and coin. Protecting their investment, the network forces Shaw takes along two washed up celebrities as hosts and Candy, a no-nonsense TV producer to make sure the show gets done. Fortunately, Candy is very hot and the guys’ very natural but very, very inappropriate intentions towards their female colleague act as glue to keep the team together. Each week, the DinoHunters load up with a variety of high-powered weapons and head off after a different dino-foe. Mayhem ensues.

FiringSquad: Most games are deadly serious. How hard is it to create a game that has a lot of humor?

Keith Halper: We certainly wouldn’t have attempted it before a major upgrade to our engine permitted us to make characters that could really “act” in game. Comedy is difficult to begin with, but it’s impossible if you have to fight against wooden 3D models as well. (If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Kazaam’ you know what I mean.) I think we’ve been extremely successful in getting the characters to emote – particularly in the machinima we built from the episode, for instance, “Straight Talk.” We really owe a lot to Valve for letting us work with the HalfLife2 engine to make that possible. In addition to the technology we’re experimenting with a variety of placements for the jokes, the appropriate length for the episode, and some more physical humor – like mercilessly gibbing the dinosaurs. The biggest challenge is to uncover the best timing for gags so they enhance, rather than detract, from gameplay.

FiringSquad: So far what has the response been like from gamers on the first DinoHunters episode?

Keith Halper: It’s been great – Candy’s become something of a star and gets fanmail, proposals, propositions, etc. There was some complaining that the ‘bridge’ puzzle was too difficult, and we released an upgrade that softened that and improved graphics; we’ll likely send another upgrade out when we go ‘gold’ with our next three episodes in October or November. Addtionally, people have really responded to the Multiplayer betas that are now live. I think that when folks find something they like they want more than one level and are disappointed if there’s just one.

FiringSquad: What can we expect from upcoming episodes in terms of the storyline for the game?

Keith Halper: Candy’s boss, Andre Fechez L’Vache, re-surfaces in a sinister role and we combat eco-terrorists bent on defeating natural selection. Candy gets an awesome black outfit – kind of like SpiderMan – but lumpier. Just kidding, we’re still writing.

FiringSquad: Are there plans for any multiplayer modes to be added to the game?

Keith Halper: As I mentioned, we’ve released two open beta levels and will deliver one more in September. (Available now at http://www.kumagames.com ) They’ve really unique gameplay as you’re doing normal deathmatch, but also have these giant predators storming around – you’re torn between blasting dinosaurs or fragging your friends. In episode 3 we built in team death match and it became convenient to have the velociraptors and Pteranadons on their own teams – so it’s you versus us versus them versus the other them. Total chaos.

We initially released these as betas as we wanted to nail the gameplay before adding the jokes and dialog. So they’re out and playable (and fun), then we’re getting ready now to go back, fine tune the maps and animation, add final weapons and stick glasses and funny noses on as appropriate. I’d urge everyone to try the Betas – we’d like their comments, they’re fun to play and – what the hell – they’re free. Anyone who plays the Betas will automatically get the finals, so there’s nothing but upside.

FiringSquad: You are using Valve's Source engine as the basis for the game. Why did you decide to use this engine for Dinohunters?

Keith Halper: We’re moving all of our games to Source. It’s fast, stable, beautiful and, as I mentioned earlier, key to the character animations we see as being so important to episodic games. As a test, we took one of our older maps (Sadr City) and re-built it in Source. The whole development team stopped work yesterday for 2 hours to play the map in multiplayer and it’s just amazing.

FiringSquad: Kuma Reality Games is of course used to episodic titles. Now it seems a lot of other developers are trying it. What advice would Kuma give to those developers who are also working on episodic games?

Keith Halper: Red Bull. Jolt Gum. Coffee.

FiringSquad: You are using a unique business model; the game is free to download but is sponsored by a company which is mentioned throughout the game. How hard is it to make the game both a memorable game experience but at the same time give enough time for the game's sponsor?

Keith Halper: It’s one of the things we think about the most – we work very hard to design ads that enhance the game and don’t simply create in-game pollution. We don’t try to paste ads onto the games, but rather build our sponsors into the storylines or into the feature set to make the game better than it was without them. For instance, eMusic.com supplied us with music for the car radios in Kuma\War v1 – if you turn on the radios you get hard-driving indie music that adds to your own hard driving; if you don’t like it you can turn it off. In DinoHunters, a lot of the jokes are about the team trying to shoot a Schick commercial for their TV show; hopefully the jokes make you laugh. I think that great care needs to be taken to make ads work; anyone who thinks they can just jam in interstitials and pop-ups is going to do a disservice to their sponsors and audience. If you take your ads as seriously as your gameplay then you can make everyone a winner. Our DinoHunters audience I think appreciates the fact that we’ve provided them a Source-based game for zero dollars and that we did it with Schick’s assistance.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about DinoHunters?

Keith Halper: DinoHunters is episodic. That means that we can continue to improve it with each episode – so long as we’re getting feedback from the audience. We appreciate very much the comments we’ve gotten from gamers and we use these to make a better game. If you want a free game that reflects your desires for a video game, come play with us and tell us what you think.

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