4Players: How did the idea for Painkiller come about?

Andrzej Poznanski: We have been die-hard fans of QuakeWorld (basically Quake I online) for years, and even though many FPS appeared since 1996, QW is still unparalleled in terms of gameplay, despite its stone-age graphics and, well, average single player experience. We felt gamers would appreciate it if we could bring back that intense, heavy and yet incredibly dynamic gameplay, and further improve on it thanks to great graphics and original ideas.

4Players: What`s about the storyline?

Andrzej Poznanski: Our hero, Daniel Garner, a guy with the past, dies with his wife in a tragic accident, she ends up rightfully in Heaven, while he, instead of going into Heaven (or, more probably Hell) finds himself a pawn in an unholy war in Purgatory. Stuck in this infernal battle he tries to purify his soul and uncover the truth behind all this that is happening to him.

4Players: Can you describe the game-design in the levels? Are there perhaps some Jump-&-Run parts, are there quite a few puzzles, is there a stealth mission, is the game completely linear or is there a focus on the shooter-part? Perhaps you can give us an example how a typical level in Painkiller works.

Andrzej Poznanski: We wanted to avoid situation where there are around 20 different levels in the game, and yet the player feels like he is playing basically the same level throughout the whole game, in similar style, with similar textures, same ideas and gameplay tactics. __NEWCOL__Therefore levels in Painkiller are extremely varied. They differ in looks, size, atmosphere and preferred gameplay style. You will find quite large outdoor levels (i.e. abandoned military base, docks) as well as small, claustrophobic levels (i.e. asylum, catacombs). On some arenas you will be forced to fight on large areas on big distances, while on others you will mostly engage in close combat.

Some levels will be all about frantic action, while others will be all about fear and suspense. Most levels will provide a mix of both, so you will have to concentrate on action in some areas, and then there will be time for exploration. The game will not be completely linear, but we felt that the linear levels give better sense of progression through the game, so we didn`t strive to create non-linear, RPG-like environment.

As for puzzles and stealth missions, we decided to tune those down to minimum, because we felt they would slow down the gameplay too much. But nevertheless, players will be able to find tricks that will allow them to progress through the game in more clever ways than in full-frontal combat, for example they will be able to use explosive items (barrels, TNT boxes and such) and set traps to dispose of enemies safely from the distance, they will be able to slow down enemies by stacking obstacles on their paths etc. Interaction with physics objects in the game opens the whole new world of possibilities for players.

4Players: What kind of enemies will the player face in the game?

Andrzej Poznanski: You will meet all sorts of weird and evil creatures in Painkiller. We took inspiration from all possible sources: from myths and fairy tales to urban legends and modern horrors - let the nicknames of monsters speak for themselves: Amputee Zombie, Hell Biker, Psycho Nun, Sado Commando, Vamp. And that`s just a few of them - the game features around 40 different enemies! You will hardly encounter same type of enemy on more than one level.

4Players: What kind and how many weapons will the player get?

Andrzej Poznanski: There will be ten different weapons in Painkiller. The interesting thing is that they are combined in pairs which allows players to execute nice combos. As for the types of weapons, I don`t want to spoil the fun of discovering new weapons in the game, so I`ll just say that there will be some good old weapons like shotgun or rocket launcher, as well as some new ones that you seldom or never see in games. And don`t expect any toy-like weapons with blinking lights and pink glows ;-)

4Players: How many missions has the single player campaign and how long do you expect will an average player take to solve it?

Andrzej Poznanski: There will be 24 levels divided into four chapters, with boss arena at the end of each. The basic gameplay for the game will be around 20-30 hours, but then you will have multiple modes that will engage you in discovering secret areas and other extras left by us in the game, thus assuring great replayability. Add the great multiplayer experience to that and you will have fun for months:-).

__NEWCOL__4Players: The boss fights are in any case a highlight in the game. How many fights against the huge boss enemies are planned?

Andrzej Poznanski: There are 4 arenas and fifth one on which final battle will take place. Each monster will be unique, they have only two things in common - they are gigantic and bad to the bone ;-)

4Players: Can you reveal the special features of multiplayer-modes? Is there something revolutionary? Is there a co-op campaign?

Andrzej Poznanski: One simple, and yet very fun multiplayer mode is `People Can Fly` mode - where two players battle each other on small but very tall arena, and they are able to inflict damage on enemy only while he or she is airborne. Depending on how high they hit enemy with their rockets, they will score different number of points. Another mode allows to play standard `free for all` game, but players have the same weapon that changes each 15 seconds, so every 15 seconds the gameplay changes completely (different weapons force different style of play). Of course there will be also all the classical ones like 1on1, 2on2, free for all, and team deathmatch.

4Players: Will the game be "mod friendly" in any way?

Andrzej Poznanski: After E3 where those who saw Painkiller were (much to our surprise) blown away by the possibilities of PAIN engine, we have been put under extreme pressure to make the game as mod-friendly as possible. Therefore we are working hard to make the game editor and all the necessary tools as user friendly as possible. After we release all those programs with the game, mod-makers will be able to create their own maps, player models, monsters, and to make their custom single player levels along with monster placement and custom behaviour.

4Players: Can you tell us something about the game graphic engine? Why is it so special?

Andrzej Poznanski: We chose to develop our own `PAIN` graphics engine because we felt too limited with what most game engines nowadays have to offer. PAIN engine is not only very robust (around 100 times faster than previous generation of game engines), it`s main advantage is that it lets us create entire game graphics in professional, commercial 3D packages like Maya, XSI or MAX, the same packages that are used in block-buster Hollywood movies. There is absolutely no way we could have achieved such high quality of modelling, texturing and lighting using any in-engine content creation tools.

4Players: Could you explain how the Havok 2.0 physics engine affects the gameplay?

Andrzej Poznanski: I`m glad that you have stressed the `2.0` version of Havok, because it`s not just an upgrade from Havok 1.x - we were absolutely amazed by the speed increase over the previous generation of Havoc. The enormous speed Havoc 2.0 offered allowed us to implement physics in ways that you haven`t seen before in any game to date - the best example would be the boss arena that we were showing on E3, where the entire arena could be demolished by the giant monster. Hundreds of huge rocks and parts of buildings falling down on a player, rolling around and bouncing off the ground and off each other like they would in real life (that is if in real life there would be monsters trying to burry you under the rubble of a falling building). The stunning visuals of physics in action are not just there for show, you will realize this when you will die a couple of times under those rocks and blocks - the monster is not only trying to hit you with his weapon, he will intentionally crush the nearby buildings to hurt you. So its up to you, the player, to either avoid parts of arena where something can fall on your head, or just the opposite - you can try to use the monster`s tactics to your advantage and try to bring huge columns down on his head!

4Players: What are the system requirements?

Andrzej Poznanski: As for the graphics card - at the moment Geforce 2 GTS or similar is the minimal requirement. But just like in any modern game, GF2 will not let you see all the eye candy. Geforce 3 and 4 will be fine for the game, and ATI 9500, 9600 and above will be ideal. As for the processor, you may need 1,5Ghz to fully enjoy beautiful physics of the game. Its worth mentioning though, that most games in the near and not so near future will make extensive use of physics engines and will require a lot of processing power not just from graphics card but from CPU. So it might be a good idea to upgrade, especially that even much faster CPUs than 1,5ghz are affordable nowadays.

__NEWCOL__4Players: Do you plan to release a playable demo before the release?

Andrzej Poznanski: It depends on our publisher, but the probability is very high. There will be also multiplayer test released to selected players around the world.

4Players: Did you already find an international publisher for the game?

Andrzej Poznanski: Absolutely, Dreamcatcher saw the potential in Painkiller very early and secured the rights for worldwide distribution of both PC and Xbox version right from the start of development.

4Players: When do you plan to release Painkiller?

Andrzej Poznanski: As some of you might know, PK release dates have been pushed back a couple of times already, but this is not because our work is progressing slower than we planned. This is because we are adding so much of cool things that we are inventing during development. Of course we know we have to finish the game someday, and that day is not too distant - we will have the game ready by the end of the year, and then spend enough time on testing, tweaking and squashing bugs so that players can purchase something that works and plays right, without the need to download a patch two days after the game`s premiere. So: expect the game on shelves in March 2004.

4Players: Which bug was the most funniest you found in the game?

Andrzej Poznanski: There were many funny and bizarre moments during the development of Painkiller, but just recently we had absolutely THE funniest moment: as you might have noticed on the screenshots, the weapons in PK are quite sophisticated (well, at least they look that way). So this graphics artist from modelling department sent the new shotgun model to programmers, they put in the game, and everyone liked the result. Only after a couple of days did that graphics artist discover that the weapon was actually placed wrong - the barrel facing the player and the butt of a gun facing the enemies! The model for that gun was so strange that it was indeed really difficult to know where is this gun`s front and back! In the end we decided to keep this weapon `the wrong way`, because it just looks so much better!

4Players: Thank you for the interview and good luck with Painkiller.