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As far as videogame conventions go, not much was going on at this year's ECTS in London, England. While the big news at the show was Blizzard's announcement of World of Warcraft, we really had to do some serious drinking, er, thinking to sniff out any other big, worthwhile stories.
Thankfully, Lionhead came through for us, as founder Peter Molyneux showed off Creature Isle -- their self-proclaimed "mini-sequel" for Black & White -- at the show.
After the Creature Isle presentation, we had a chance to sit down with Peter and Jonty Barnes, the head of the Black & White team, to talk a bit about Creature Isle and the future evolution of Black & White. In the interview, Peter revealed a lot of details on Creature Isle as well as Black & White 2, and even their console plans for the series.
IGNPC: How do you envision Creature Isle in the Black & White universe? What was the inspiration behind it, and what kind of features is it going to add to the game?
Jonty Barnes: Black & White Creature Isle was pretty much a reaction to the feedback we got from the original game. There was quite a lot of research into the elements of Black & White that people found most enjoyment from. People generally seem to fall into two camps -- one was a very much creature-based side of gameplay, and one was the real-time strategy side -- but when it came to comparing the two, the creature-centric side was the stronger concept to go with first. In fact, we had a plan to do Black & White Creature Isle and Super Gods as well, to cater more to the real-time strategy side, but were more keen now to press on with Black & White 2 and let that benefit from some of the ideas that we had for Super Gods.
IGNPC: You said you did a lot of research into the feedback you got from the original game. In coming up with the idea for Creature Isle, how much did you look to the online community for such inspiration?
Jonty Barnes: The community for Black & White on the 'net has just been huge, and they're very vocal and constantly demanding. Much of what we're doing with Creature Isle comes directly from their input, and is a reaction to the community.
The thing about Black & White is that we were under so much pressure to get it out. I wouldn't say we compromised, but we just had a lot more ideas than we couldn't possibly get in the game, and we wanted to realize them within Black & White as soon as we could, and Creature Isle was a great vessel for that.
Peter Molyneux: One of the problems was, in order to get things right, we had to do a little paring back. The creature's intelligence was a little bit...well, it got in the way a lot of times. So what Creature Isle allows us to do is show off more of the potential of what the creature is around a central focus, and the end objective of mating with another creature was definitely requested a number of times by the community.
IGNPC: So there are a lot of AI improvements in the creature as well, and he can do a lot more?
Peter Molyneux: Yeah, he can do a lot more. It's not that the system has changed, it's just that we've managed to get out a lot of problems with the original system, the idea that he can look at what you're doing and try to work out that it means you like these people or not like these people, whereas in the original Black & White we had to cut that back a lot because he started doing things which were a little bit strange.
We've had Richard Evans, who did all of the creature intelligence in Black & White, working on Creature Isle for the last three months on Creature Isle and making improvements.
Jonty Barnes: Well, one of the exciting things that people requested and that we wanted to do was the ability to breed.
Peter Molyneux: Yeah, to have sex.
IGNPC: Yeah Jonty, let's not try to cover it up [laughs].
Peter Molyneux: Well yeah, that's what it is really is. They are creatures, after all. You can watch those wildlife programs and see what's going on. You don't have to worry so much about it, because these are actual animals.
Jonty Barnes: A very exciting gameplay element of that of course is that you're going to have inherent behavior from your creature that you spent hours playing with. But equally, your creature is going to have a whole new purpose as well, which is to teach, what we're calling "tyke" within Lionhead Studios, his own son effectively. So, everything that tyke learns is direct from your creature and not you as a player, but then indirectly from you because you're teaching your creature.
IGNPC: When you start Creature Isle, how will you transition from Black & White? Will you just pull your creature over into the game, and how will the game actually begin? What are your goals in the very early parts of the game?
Jonty Barnes: We don't throw everything at you straight away obviously. The story begins with the missionaries, the popular yet annoying singing missionaries.
IGNPC: Of course, the three guys at the beginning of Black & White that you got the meat and grain for.
Jonty Barnes: Exactly. They've gone traveling and brought belief in you to this new land -- the Creature Isle. So you start out the game with your creature, and suddenly it becomes very apparent that you're in this realm with no gods, which is great because you've got complete and utter freedom. You can't go wrong and you don't have to be cautious -- you can just do as you like straight away. And then you discover that there's something much more intense going on -- there's a whole realm of creatures, and there's a whole set of trials for you to go through to impress the female creature, because with the ultimate goal to breed, who's going to want a weak creature to breed with?
Peter Molyneux: This is an elaborate mating ritual that you're going through, and there are other creatures trying to go for the shag as well. It is a direct reflection of how little social contact the team had in the completion of Black & White [laughs].
As Jonty said, one of the things that you're given is this little tyke, whether you like it or not. Because this little thing needs feeding and it needs looking after, some people won't be bothered with that, and you'll end up seeing this thing being dragged along on with your creature not even really paying attention to the tyke.
IGNPC: Will the tyke grow as well over time like your creature does?
Jonty Barnes: Yeah, definitely.
IGNPC: We saw the chicken tyke today. Will there be several different kinds of tykes in the game?
Jonty Barnes: Well, the chicken is your starting tyke -- sort of like your practice tyke -- but it's also one of the trials in the land. Eventually, you're not limited to that, though.
Peter Molyneux: It's like there's two different trials: the individual challenges that you go to, and the overriding challenge to get this little chicken to grow and to look after it. The other nice thing is this simple mechanic of the scoring system, which shows how well you're doing and how close you are to actually getting the "big prize."
IGNPC: So the tyke isn't actually your offspring, right?
Peter Molyneux: No. The way it works is there's this one miraculous creature that's in this dojo building so that you can't actually see her, and she keeps sending you out on these tasks to prove how good of a parent you would be. One of the tasks is to look after your tyke whilst you're doing all these other challenges, and there are a lot of other creatures out there doing it as well.
You may be brilliant at doing certain challenges, but you may be really poor at looking after this little tyke, and it all kind of averages out. If your score is over a certain amount at the end, you get to win the hand of this miraculous female creature, and see everything in glorious technicolor.
IGNPC: So, any plans to make this multiplayer as well, so you'll actually be going up against other human competitors with there creatures and tykes as well?
Peter Molyneux: You will definitely be able to take your tyke online. The other thing we'd love to do is let you take your creature and tyke back into the original game so you could play the original game with your tyke. The only slight downside to that is that we would have to include a patched version of Black & White on the disc, and that may have a testing impact at EA, but I'd love to be able to do that.
IGNPC: In the demonstration, you said you have about half as many trials in the add-on pack that you had in the original game. What are some of the trials we can expect to see in Creature Isle?
Jonty Barnes: They're completely varied, from almost arcade games using the physics systems to looking after tyke to interacting with the villagers a little. A lot of them are very enclosed, but a lot of them equally pan across the entire story.
For example, you've got something like the cow; a very arrogant cow who also happens to be very good at bowling. One of the early trials is to beat this cow at bowling. At the same time, you have tyke, who the villagers get very involved with because they're so enthusiastic to help you.
IGNPC: We saw the new crocodile model today. Are there any other new creature models in the game?
Jonty Barnes: There's the rhino, which didn't get fully discovered in the original game. He's especially cool because he's got a lot of special powers. We call him the Jedi Rhino, because he's got some special fighting techniques. There's a whole new fighting AI system now as well, that includes a number of new elements.
IGNPC: We heard about the ability to queue moves now in the presentation. What are some of the other additions to the fighting system?
Jonty Barnes: Well, using the Jedi Rhino as an example, he uses real-time morphing to use mind powers and new special moves. There are also some new miracles in the game. For example, there's a speed-up miracle which obviously has an impact on fighting, but also an anti-miracle system so you can protect yourself in the fight arena.
IGNPC: On the rhino model, what was the little gold ring that we saw in the demo today? It kind of looked like an armband.
Peter Molyneux: Good God Tal, how did you spot that? It was only on-screen for a nanosecond!
IGNPC: Hey, that's my job [laughs].
Peter Molyneux: Well spotted indeed. I guess we better tell him them, Jonty [laughs].
Jonty Barnes: That's kind of an establishment of the Brotherhood on the Creature Isle. A lot of the creatures got together for a common goal. That's actually currently not necessarily a final visual, but it's sort of a first stage towards some kind of entry to the trials.
Peter Molyneux: What you've got to do is, before you have the right to get the overall prize, you have to have gained entry into the Brotherhood. Any creature who joins the Brotherhood gets this gold bangle, so when you go online, you can see Brotherhood creatures because they have this gold band, and that means they're probably not virgins anymore.
I keep coming back to that, don't I? I almost sound obsessed [laughs]. I don't even want to tell you about the next game...
IGNPC: It sounds like you may have been a little more obsessed than the rest of the development team.
Peter Molyneux: Yeah, probably.
IGNPC: You mentioned that the villagers will be in the game. How are they going to play out? Obviously you're not going to have to manage them as much as you did in the previous game...
Jonty Barnes: No, not at all. They won't be a chore in any capacity, but at the same time, we're not going to limit the player in what they can do, so you can happily expand. The villagers have a number of reactions to your situations, but they are incredibly enthusiastic that you're here with your creature. They won't, for example, ask you to look for their sheep or any simple chores like that. They're there encouraging you and also very enthusiastic for you to use them as a vessel for miracles and anything else impressive.
Peter Molyneux: The other thing about villagers is that, at the end of Creature Isle, your creature gets the ability to build things. So if you do take him back into Back & White, you can get your creature to build up an entire village, which is quite important for the online element. That was one of the things we found with online is that the game is too slow because it took so long for villages to build up, but if you've got creatures who have this ability to create a whole town, that should speed things up quite a lot.
IGNPC: Is there anything else big that you'd like to talk about or mention?
Jonty Barnes: One thing is that you don't have to finish the original game to play Creature Isle. In fact, if you've lost your save game, it by no means affects you in a negative way. You'll be given a creature with minimum requirements, but not limited requirements.
Peter Molyneux: One of the things that we're setting up is the ability to archive your saved games, so you can go online and upload your save game which will stay there for years, and when Black & White 2 comes out, you'll be able to download your saved game. I never, ever save my old games, and I always regret it. That happened to me with Baldur's Gate 2. I replaced my computer about three times since the original Baldur's Gate, and I miss my old characters.
IGNPC: Speaking of Black & White 2...
Peter Molyneux: Uh oh, what have I done now?
IGNPC: Hey, you brought it up [laughs]. So, speaking of the sequel, what can you say about the game right now? Will you be able to bring your creature into the sequel?
Peter Molyneux: Yeah, definitely. I'd like to bring over the creature's mind and definitely your alignment, and making that fairly important in the start of the game, so if you've archived your creature away, then you can start the game off with your old friend.
We're also thinking about a system of guessing what kind of alignment you are through a series of questions if you don't have a history, just to try to get people off to a certain alignment at the start of the game instead of starting off neutral like you did in Black & White.
Black & White 2 will have a lot more concentration on the little people, and the idea that they will have wars. I really like the idea of these really big, quite vicious wars going on, and then you as a god coming back to this world after you left it in peace. When you come back, you'll have to pick what side you and your creature are going to support, and you will have a lot of miraculous input into these wars.
IGNPC: So the focus of Black & White 2 is going to be a lot dirtier than Black & White?
Peter Molyneux: Not necessarily dirtier, but the fact that time has moved on, and the little people aren't these innocent things that just go out into the fields and collect wood to build houses. They have a bit of technology now, and they're fighting against each other, and they're not nearly as impressed with gods as they were before. You know, they were very passive in the first one, and I see this as being a progression as we move into Black & White 2 and Black & White 3 that time moves on as we get closer and closer to today's world.
One of the coolest things in Black & White 2 will be the ability to make walls. I know that sounds fairly boring, but you'll have the ability to actually draw out boundaries and define what your kingdom is and defend against the onslaught against it.
You'll also continue to develop your creature's AI, and have him technologically move on as well, and you'll have him making tools and weapons as part of the evolution of Black & White.
IGNPC: It sounds like Black & White 2 is going to have a few more RTS elements than the original.
Peter Molyneux: Yeah. The tribes were fairly passive in the original, and there weren't many RTS elements in there. I'd like there to be RTS elements around what Black & White is, so this idea of building a kingdom and maintaining that kingdom against the onslaughts of different tribes and different gods will be cool.
IGNPC: With it still being a god game, how much direct control over your villagers are you envisioning at this point?
Peter Molyneux: This is not locked in stone at all, but I think the ability for you to be able to single out certain people within tribes and make them leaders of legions of people would be quite a good mechanic to work with, and that sort of lives between an RTS game, where you control every single unit, and a god game, where you just influence. So you'll directly influence a smaller number of people who then rally and gather people and take them off to war. I see it being much more bloody and vicious.
IGNPC: So sex and violence is the evolution of Black and White...
Peter Molyneux: [laughs] Sex and violence are the key words.
I can almost see a separate product for the nurturing part of what Black & White is -- we'll have to see how Creature Isle does. I don't want to ignore that at all, but I also want to introduce this element of competitiveness.
IGNPC: Going back to the original Black & White, how is multiplayer progressing or evolving?
Peter Molyneux: Yeah, there was a lot of plans for multiplayer, the trouble with the multiplayer version of Black & White is that it should have been a separate game; a completely separate game. We should have given it the time it needs to have. You can see from Creature Isle there are definite mechanics we are putting in there to make the multiplayer less of an exhausting experience, you know multiplayer games can take four or five hours and that's just too long. And so I can see those elements being continued, enhanced. The other thing I really want to do is, hopefully in the next two months, is to have a number of registered Black & White, almost developers. We're trying it with a couple of people at the moment, and that's people who maybe come into Lionhead for a little while, and then take a lot of the source code away and create things like creature editors or map editors or landscape editors and they create them as separate products. I'd like to give certain people in the world the source to Black & White and see what they come up with on the multiplayer side because you need someone to really continually enhance and improve it.
IGNPC: Speaking of branching out, how are Lionhead's console plans going now?
Peter Molyneux: Well, there are two console games in production by two separate teams, one called Big Blue Box, and the other called Intrepid. Big Blue Box is doing a game called Project Ego, which is a role playing game with a number of distinct differences, and it's looking pretty, pretty cool. I could talk about it for hours and hours on end. I'm really enjoying helping them with some ideas in it; they're really doing a fantastic, amazing job.
On the other side of it is Black & White Next-Generation, which is the console version of Black & White, which is completely different from the original version of Black & White because you get to control your creature directly. It's a mixture of first and third person and you can do some very cool things... You can go in with your creature, control him with the joy pad, do a number of actions, and your creature will learn to do those actions, so when you aren't controlling him directly, he can actually do those things that you've shown him to do, and they can be quite varied: you can actually teach him to throw things by literally picking up and throwing things yourself. So, it's very, very different, and now centered totally around the creature. The creature now has the ability to go into towns and persuade the little people to follow him, so you'll have your creature going around with this huge snake of people following him. The more people that follow him the more miracles he can perform. So the concept of you having a citadel and having worshipers in the citadel is completely gone in console Black & White, it's all centered around your creature, and the number of followers you have the more powerful your creature is.
IGNPC: Well, we don't want to take up too much of your time, so is there anything else you'd like to add?
Peter Molyneux: [laughs] I think we've already revealed too much.
IGNPC: Well thanks for your time.
Peter Molyneux: Thanks for having us.
Make sure to check out the full twenty-minute
Creature Isle' presentation from ECTS this year.
-- Tal Blevins
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- 새로운 인터뷰 기사가 나올떄마다 업뎃은 계속됩니다- 담당: sumbaram 
