The old Gathering of Developers and the new Gamecock Media have at least one developer they share between them; Firefly Studios. The UK based developer, best known for their Stronghold series of castle sim/RTS games, are working on their first game for Gamecock; a fantasy action-RPG titled Hero that seems like a departure from their previous games. While Hero is still early in production, FiringSquad got Firefly CEO Simon Bradbury to give us some early details about the game:

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

Simon Bradbury: We decided that there wasn’t a game out there like it, something that explored the possibility of what a real dungeon might be like! For example we wanted to know what the goblins did when they weren’t hanging around waiting to fight the player in some dank cold room. Do they go for a cup of tea? Maybe they play the hobgoblins in an underground soccer league? That kind of thing… We wanted to place the player in a fresh take on the dungeon crawl genre…

FiringSquad: The title of the game implies that the game explores what it means to be a hero. Was that your intention?

Simon Bradbury:It was! We feel its important to have a strong story, by which we don’t mean long and waffle laden, more ‘emotionally meaty’, something for a player to latch on to, a heroic tale of redemption!

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the storyline for the game?

Simon Bradbury:Only a little at this stage. Our hard bitten mercenary hero enters the dungeon on what he thinks is a straightforward mission, but it soon proves anything but… It will involve a dungeon under siege, a dungeon that needs the Hero’s help.

FiringSquad: What is your main character like?

Simon Bradbury:Heroic, tough and out for himself. A wandering ‘sword for hire’, born of nomadic tribe, wiped out by necromancers, he retains a strong horror of them to this day.

FiringSquad: How does Hero's dungeon setting differ from other locations in previous fantasy action-adventure game?

Simon Bradbury:Using our experience of working on castle Sims (Stronghold etc), we will be providing much more detail, believability and immersion than previous games, we will focus heavily on the dungeon environment and the society that inhabits it. Our plan is to make the dungeon really come to life, with its inhabitants going about their daily life, rather than just hanging about waiting to be slaughtered.

FiringSquad: How does the game's combat system work?

Simon Bradbury:We are not going into too much detail, but it will be gritty and realistic, as befits the tension of fighting in a scary and claustrophobic underground environment. Our main fresh feature will be ‘Close combat’ a new mode of fighting that the player switches between from usual melee mode

FiringSquad: What are some of the more interesting monsters the player will have to take on in Hero?

Simon Bradbury:We have plenty that we will be talking about over the next 18 months or so. My current favourites are the ‘death apes’ - reanimated primitive beasts that appear in various state of decomposition, leading to their limbs detaching as the player carves his way through rooms full of them…

FiringSquad: What other unique features will Hero have?

Simon Bradbury:One feature we decided early on that the game had to have was drop in coop play (which admittedly isn’t totally unique, but it’s rare). Hero is definitely a pick up and play kind of title and the idea of being able to hack though vast swathes of monsters with a friend is very attractive.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about your new graphics engine that will be used in the game?

Simon Bradbury:It looking good! It will be a fabulous depiction of a dungeon environment.!

FiringSquad: What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?

Simon Bradbury:It still quite early in production, we are aiming for the start of 09.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Hero at this time?

Simon Bradbury:We will be providing a much fuller introduction to hero this summer, talk to you again then!

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