UK based NiCE Tech Ltd recently announced their plans to license their own MMO engine technology. Now the company has announced plans to develop their own game using the technology, a car combat title called Carnage. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with the game's designer and producer Jamie Barber to find out more about their plans for Carnage.

FiringSquad: First how did the idea for Carnage come about?

Jamie Barber: Our Senior Agent Engineer, Mark Ashton, has had the basic concept for Carnage running around inside his head for a number of years - we were looking at creating two quick prototypes to demonstrate our technology and we decided to use Carnage as one of them.

FiringSquad: Obviously some people are going to compare this game to AutoAssault. What will make this game stand out from NetDevil's title?

Jamie Barber: Having never played Auto Assault my main comment would be that Carnage is not a quest based RPG rather it's an arcade car combat title where players go head to head in a variety of arenas.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the fictional back story for the game?

Jamie Barber: The back story is straightforward and sets the scene of the title, after all, Carnage is not an RPG:

"Welcome to "Carnage", the global sport of the new millennium, an adrenaline fuelled combat frenzy watched by billions of avid fans. The world's best combat drivers showcase their skills in vast arenas providing an explosive experience for the masses, earning fame and fortune by going the extra mile. Can you match their expertise? Can you control the power at your feet and the weaponry at your fingertips and survive the onslaught to stand tall above the rest? To be the best takes skill, courage and an ingrained sense of survival, you have your chance, you have your ride and now it's up to you to make it count."

FiringSquad: What kinds of vehicles will be available and how much will the player be able to customise it?

Jamie Barber: The long term aim is to continuously add vehicles, of many varieties to the mix. Players gain experience from combat and winning matches which feeds back to their avatars ability to access new technology to build and customise their vehicles, whether that be chassis types, modules or weaponry.

Each game that players join has a rank and point's limitation, every piece of equipment has an associated points cost so players have to build and balance vehicles to these limits. Each chassis that we develop will each have two possible body shells for it, each with their own individual style, load out options and weapon hard points. Players can choose the type of vehicle, the chassis, the body shell, wheels, armour, weaponry, special equipment and colour scheme.

My current favourite is a low slung mid-engined roadster, but I'm looking forward to driving the tractor ;)

FiringSquad: What sorts of weapons will be available for use in Carnage?

Jamie Barber: Lots, you name it and we've probably catered for it. We've basically divided the designs so that we categorise them by damage type, whether kinetic, electrical or explosive. We have indirect weapons like mines and mortars, direct fire weapons like rail guns, chain guns and lasers and explosive / area of effect weapons like howitzers and cluster bombs. The weaponry available will be continuously added to over time.

FiringSquad: What will the arenas be like in the game?

Jamie Barber: Each arena is based within a specific global location and is themed accordingly. The arenas vary greatly in design with some being closed in affairs with interlinked levels whereas others are expansive and based around city blocks and air fields for example. Each arena has key interactive features for players to learn and use to their tactical advantage and to the detriment of their enemies.

FiringSquad: How will the actual combat be handled?

Jamie Barber: Weapons mount in various ways and as previously mentioned have different properties. Many vehicles have the ability to mount a turret which can lock on to and track an enemy vehicle whereas other weapon mountings provide different arcs of fire, weapons can be individually fired so that players can control where and when they want their ordnance to go.

FiringSquad: What sort of persistant features will Carnage have?

Jamie Barber: Player Avatars are persistent in the Carnage universe and with time and experience these will increase in rank, allowing players to be matched in skill and opening up new arenas, game types and equipment within the game. Players have persistent statistics that are catalogued on a central web server and these can be viewed by everyone, stats monitored include kill to death ratio, kills per hour and time played.

FiringSquad: What other interesting features will the game have?

Jamie Barber: I think that Carnage, although relatively straight forward is a pretty tight game and currently unique in what it has to offer in that it allows a huge amount of concurrent players to compete in a single arena, in a vehicle, with collisions in real time. The fact that you have all of the car design, building and tweaking to play with is a massive bonus. We have a variety of game types on offer although I won't reveal them all here, we obviously support death match and team death match though.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about how your in-game tech will be used to make Carnage?

Jamie Barber: Carnage utilises our proprietary server technology and as such players will not have to host their own servers, this allows us to maximise the numbers of people in the game and provide a reliable, fast gaming experience.

Our technology is basically game independent which means that whenever we implement a new system, our dynamics system for example - all of the projects that we have benefit from it. With Carnage most of the systems required to create it are already in place so we achieved our core game play prototype in approximately 3 months from initial concept. This allows us to focus on balancing and content creation whilst the other systems are put into place. Traditionally this step could have taken a lot longer to achieve with traditional methods.

FiringSquad: Are there any more projects that Nice Teck are planning to develop?

Jamie Barber: We're currently working on a sister project to Carnage called One Trillion Dollars, which is the second prototype that we embarked upon. O.T.D. is a comedic FPS that combines the humour of films like Austin Powers with gaming experiences reminiscent of Spy Vs Spy. It's an FPS with a sense of humour that doesn't take itself too seriously but focuses on the intelligent use of interactive equipment and scenery features as much as the weapons on offer.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Carnage and Nice Tech in general?

Jamie Barber: Carnage and OTD are marked departures from what we've all done before and we're thoroughly enjoying working on the titles, they're proving to be a fantastic proof of concept for our technology and when you can enjoy playing a game so early in its development that has to be a good thing.

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