Gameguru Mania got a chance to talk with Sergey Zabaryansky of Deep Shadows, as he talks about White Gold: War in Paradise, the upcoming first person shooter with RPG elements which is set on Caribbean Islands. The game is slated for release in Q4/2007.

GGMania: Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a little bit about what you do on White Gold?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: Hi. My name is Sergey Zabaryanskiy, I'm a director of Deep Shadows.

GGMania: Can you give us a little background on the development team working on White Gold? Is this the same core team with which produced Boiling Point?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy:Yes, the core team remained the same. Also, we've welcomed several new specialists with a huge experience in game industry. The Boiling Point gave my colleagues a lot of experience and our professionalism has grown significantly. At the moment the development team can define priorities more efficiently and single out necessary resources for their implementation.



GGMania:Were you pleased with the reactions that Boiling Point received? Why the game (especially the initial release) has so many errors? What's happened?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: There were ups and downs. When we started developing Boiling Point nobody believed that Freeplay shooter with RPG elements in the real setting can be done. But we proved that such kind of the game can attract attention of many players and, as a result, a lot of gamers have become our fans. Now we have a conception, so, our main goal is to do the game with medium requirements and without drawbacks of Boiling Point.

GGMania: Can you give us an overview of White Gold, telling us what the game is all about?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: This time we'll visit one of small Caribbean countries. The political and warlike situation is the same as it's in Colombia itself, in the first part of the game. So there won't be any climatic or social innovations in White Gold. As far as landscape is concerned, I should say that the scene in White Gold takes place on various islands - from tiny atolls, where you can fit only a dozen of palm trees, up to huge islands where there are several cities, villages and bases of the hostilities. As for the plotline, we'll keep it a secret. But an attentive reader can guess about it from the title of the game. I can only say, that it's not salt or sugar.

GGMania: Tell us what these RPG elements are and how it affects gameplay?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: The RPG-system will be very perplexed and interesting. Well, RPG/action balance will not be changed. The game will be very dynamic; shooter fans will enjoy an action-element. An advanced system of breakable objects and rag doll will make fights more impressive. After passing each level there will be opened up new possibilities and the player will get many notable advantages. The main feature in RPG-system is perks appearance. They all will be totally different - both perks increasing player's profiles and the ones providing unique features such as cat eyes, diver, etc.

GGMania: Compared to Boiling Point, are there any significant differences in the way you are designing and implementing the AI?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: I would like to say, that in White Gold you will see wiser and astute opponents with more types of reaction. You will see a more enriched stealth-mode; the opponents can throw grenades and call for help, and they can also take you in the reverse.

GGMania: How interactive is the environment? What type of interactivity can players expect?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: The environment of White Gold is very interactive. You can talk with any character, you can drive any vehicle you like, but you have to hijack the majority of them. A number of subjects you can see around will interact to you - trees will dandle from blowing-up, furniture will disseminate to pieces and so on.

GGMania: Please give us a feel for the arsenal that the player will have access to?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: There will be more than a score of different types of weapon. Taking into consideration wishes of many players, we've decided to make new types of weapons, including exotic arms and up-to-date armory. You can upgrade your weapon and add different gadgets to it. This time some upgrades are also visible on the weapon like score, etc

GGMania: What vehicles are in the game?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: All controlled vehicles: helicopters, tanks, trucks, military and civilian jeeps, etc. And also cars, boats, motor boats and other water-carriages.

GGMania: How many different handling characteristics does each vehicle possess?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: Every vehicle we use in the game has nearly ten different characteristics, like speed, power, petrol capacity, grip of the wheels, a maximum turn at the corner and so on.

GGMania: How are the collision dynamics for vehicles worked out? How is damage assigned in terms of how much damage a car can inflict?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: In White Gold we will see a zonal damage system. All dynamic objects can interact with vehicles. You can crash cactuses, palms, piles, but your car may have damage on your way - either a bumper brakes away or a capote, or a door, or you can blow out yourself.

GGMania: What sort of missions will be a part of the single player game? Can you give us an example?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: Gamer will find a lot of different missions in the game. Whatever you like - simple mail quests or difficult forked tasks where you have to bust the computer, contraband of drugs and antique.

For example, you can take a quest to a photo where contrabandists discharge goods or, on the contrary, you can contraband these goods in absolute secrecy and not let a police cutter catch you. Or you can travel to an ancient Indian temple to disclose a hidden treasure and discover that you have to burst your way through the bandit's drug storage. You can…..
But all this and much more you will see in the game…..

GGMania: What can you tell us about the engine that is being used for the game?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: First of all, White Gold (as well as our parallel project Precursors) is based on next-gen Vital Engine 3. It supports shadders 3.0, all the modern post-effects, such as motion-blur and others. Many objects are breakable, there will appear rag doll, vehicle physics will approximate to Grand Theft Auto series, and the system of their destruction will be more advanced than it was in GTA: San Andreas.

GGMania: What types of objects in White Gold have physical properties? Is it mostly vehicles, or does every object works with the physics engine?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: All types of vehicles, furniture, transformers, piles and several types of building work with the physics engine. Most of the objects can be destructed, moreover, they usually have a regional damage system.

GGMania: The game should offer a map covering over many sq. km, in extreme detail. Do you plan to reduce the loading times? What kind of hardware should players have in order to experience good game performance? If I remember well, Boiling Point needed at least 1GB RAM....

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: We'll do our utmost to make the game work with system 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM. Secondly, we have to thoroughly work out every single element of the project. It mainly refers to vehicles and the system of their destruction. We'll try to contribute much more time and efforts to testing and fixing the bugs.
We think that the territory size is more than enough to realize all our ideas. We're going to concentrate on working out the missions, character classes and subject depth. And, of course, we won't forget about natural beauty of the Caribbean islands.

GGMania: Will the game have a multiplayer mode? If so, what will it include?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: We don't promise anything now, but, of course, we would like to make a multiplayer mode. It all depends on time.

GGMania: What, in your view, is the most exciting aspect of White Gold?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: First of all, of course, an inimitable Latin-American picturesque colouring, facetious conversions, beautiful landscape, original ending. Very auspicious mixing action and RPG .

GGMania: Currently, how far in development are you and when do you expect to release the game? Will it be released in the UK/North America?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: The release is planned for Q4 2007, and, then there will probably be the world release.

GGMania: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Is there anything you want to add that we didn't cover?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: You're welcome. It was a pleasure to communicate with you. We'll keep you informed about the game development. Have a nice day.

related links: E3 video (17MB)