Xavier FOx interview:
Exclusive Vision Games: Xavier Fox Interview 10/19/2001, by Jason
Stephen White, one of the big cheeses over at Vision Games agrees to talk with the Old Jedi in an exclusive interview with XBOX365. Steve yaks about Xavier Fox, the Xbox exclusive title, how the game is coming along, how excited Vision Games are about working on Xbox and why Xavier Fox could only appear on Xbox. Keep your eyes peeled for an Xavier Fox prize give-away - just for XBOX365 readers, click to read the interview and we'll have more details on that give-away...
Tell us a little about Vision Games.
Vision Games is a young development company whose focus is on creating the best games possible. We believe that games are at a turning point in their evolution and that we have the opportunity to create titles that will influence and improve the future of video gaming forever.
What is your position at Vision Games?
My official title right now is Director, which means I'm in charge of things. Dean and I founded Vision Games in August of 2000 and we're working as partners through the whole creation. It's really been a great relationship and we've found that we make a great team.
Tell us about your upcoming game Xavier Fox.
Xavier Fox is the beginning of the future of gaming. Dean and I set out to take advantage of the new hardware capabilities that are being presented by the Xbox. We believe that games are on their way towards more interactivity and more fulfilling experiences. Xavier Fox is the first step in that direction. The world is a living, breathing world that grows and adapts over time. Players can directly influence the growth of the world they live in, and soon every different copy of Xavier Fox will have an unique world shaped by the unique events of that player.
Was developing a game for the Xbox a good experience?
So far it's been wonderful. Dean and I, and the entire team have gotten an incredible amount of support from the entire industry, including the gaming media, middleware companies, and Microsoft itself. Everyone's been very supportive and helpful.
In addition, working with the Xbox allows us to do pretty much whatever we want with the game. The possibilities of this machine are incredible. If Dean and I ever find something that we'd like to do that isn't possible we just talk it out a little bit and find a way for it to work that usually ends up better than the original idea. It's very liberating creatively, and very exciting.
Did the Xbox hardware allow you to make the game you envisioned and would you have been able to make Xavier Fox on other consoles?
Well, we're not done yet, so it's a bit too soon to talk about how close the final product is to our original vision, but so far we've gotten everything to work that we've tried.
As to the second part of your question, no. There's no way to do Xavier Fox on a different console. Without the hardware in the Xbox the world just wouldn't be possible.
The hard drive eliminates load times that would break up the entire experience, the broadband connectivity allows for changes in the world to be made after release and allows for interactivity on a level that isn't possible on other machines, the amount of textures and polygons that the Xbox can push allows for much more detailed and adaptive worlds, the audio capabilities allow us to use sounds in ways that have never been possible for gaming. Early on we considered putting Xavier on another console.
Dean and I spent hours trying to get the control setup to work on another machine, and it just doesn't work. You either end up losing a lot of the features that allow hard-core gamers to really get into the game, or you end up losing some of the features that allow it to be easy to learn. Xavier Fox was designed with the Xbox in mind, and a port just wouldn't be the same experience.
What separates Xavier Fox from console games of it's nature?
Well, I think Xavier Fox is the first of it's kind in a lot of ways. We cross a lot of boundaries and don't really fit into one genre. I think what we did was come up with an idea for a game, and then just went with it. This is a new generation of hardware that will change the very nature of gaming, and Xavier Fox is a natural outreach of that.
From start to finish how many hours of game play can Xbox owners expect to get out of Xavier Fox?
As many as they want. Bare minimum, you'll probably have 40 hours of straight-through rush to the end play. If you go on side-adventures, explore the world, really get into the plot and story of the world, the game could take years to complete. And I think that the most exciting part is that with broadband connectivity and a hard drive, when you "finish" the main quest, it could turn out to be just the beginning.
Tell us about what quality of graphics gamers can expect in Xavier Fox. Is it true that weather even plays a part in the game?
We are going to for the highest graphical quality. Like I said earlier, we' re taking advantage of all of the Xbox's hardware, and Nvidia's graphics chip is certainly not being overlooked. We're creating morph targets for many of the characters so they can truly sound out words and have real lip-synching in realtime. We're also utilizing pixel-shaders to give Xavier realistic fur. We're really excited about the graphical capabilities of this machine.
How many characters are their in Xavier Fox?
Hundreds. The two main characters are Xavier and Max, and there are other characters that you'll probably spend a lot of time with, but the game world has large population that learns and grows. How, why and how much you interact with other characters is up to you.
Will the game be available on the Xbox's launch day?
No, we're actually targeting for a release with Xbox's 1 year birthday.
Does Vision Games have any other Xbox games in Development?
Yep. ;-)
In closing, what can Xbox gamers expect from Xavier Fox?
You can expect the beginning of a revolution in gaming. Xavier Fox will deliver an experience unlike any other. With the possibility of a true emotional outlet in the game, a truly interactive world that adapts and grows with you and interactivity with people and gamers from across the globe, Xavier Fox will help to propel gaming into the next level.
Thanks for your time and we at Xbox365 are planning to spend many hours with Xavier Fox upon release!
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