Interview With Alan Lawrance - UltorCorp

NOTE: This interview was originally posted in 2000 on UltorCorp, which is no longer available.

Welcome to our (rather small) exclusive interview with Alan Lawrance, Lead Designer of Red Faction, which took place at the ECTS 2000.

Q: Tell me about yourself and your position on RF?
A: I'm the lead designer and project lead on the game. I've been working at Volition for almost four years. Before RF, I worked on FreeSpace as a programmer. Before working at Volition, I spent some time at Nortel, but I soon figured out I would rather be working on games than networking software. I spend a lot of time at work, but I do manage to run a lot... I ran my first marathon last year, and I hope to run another one this fall.

Q: What are your favourite games?
A: MULE, Empire, XWing, Gauntlet, Robotron, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament

Q: What is the motivation behind making RF?
A: Volition asked it's employees what sort of games they wanted to make. Some people wanted to make a RPG, so we started Summoner. Another group wanted to make an innovate first-person shooter. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to add modifiable environments to the game... so that is the path we pursued.

Q: What are the main influences for RF?
A: The story and consistent design of Half-Life was definitely an influence. After we started developing the story and game, we saw some similarities between RF and the movie Total Recall. This has influenced the game somewhat since then, for example the inspiration for our driller vehicle comes from the drilling machine in Total Recall.

Q: What are the main differences between RF and other games like Half-Life?
A: The most obvious difference is the destructible environments in RF. Other games have scripted or pre-calculated destruction, but in RF it is completely real-time. Another big difference is the vehicles that are available in RF. We have a cool variety of vehicles (air, land, water), and they all have unique weapons and physics. Also, the physics in the game are beyond what other first-person shooters have done so far. We have wind affecting particles and objects, realistic glass shattering and particles, and collapsing geometry. Finally, we hope the way our story is delivered to the player surpasses what other FPS games have done to date.

Q: How much interaction is there with the world and the characters?
A: The world and characters in RF will be very interactive. We'll have numerous NPCs that will talk to you, either to deliver story elements or help you in some way. We have security cameras that the player will be able to view from and even control. There will be many useable items in the game, such as turrets, vehicles, and the usual buttons/switches that affect various things. As far as destroying things, all objects will be destroyable, and of course you can blow holes in the world or collapse things using geomods. Finally, there will two levels where the player is undercover, and he must kill guards secretly and dispose of the bodies.

Thank you for the interview.