Just who would win a Shakespeare Showdown, Sir Ian McKellen or Patrick Stewart? It's one of many questions we pose to Alyssa Finley, Producer on the upcoming Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (for Playstation 2 and Xbox). We also queried her about the on-the-fly character switching, audio design, challenges involved in developing a multiplatform title, the value of having R.A. Salvatore involved, and Demon Stone's cinematic bent. Thanks for your time, Alyssa!

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Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Q&A Conducted by Omni

First, what is your name, role on Demon Stone and how long have you been in the games industry?

My name is Alyssa Finley, and I’m the Producer on Demon Stone. I’ve been in the game industry for 12 years.

In your own words, what is Demon Stone all about?

Demon Stone is a cinematic action adventure with fast- paced combat. Some people call this genre beat ‘em up games or hack ‘n’ slash games, but those descriptions miss the fact that there are real characters, an interesting story with surprising twists, and game play with some new challenges for veteran players. Our goal is to bring the player a game that feels like playing a movie, with solid action and a variety of gameplay, and we’re very happy with the end result of Demon Stone.

What’s to stop gamers from thinking Demon Stone as a slightly different Lord of the Rings game?

After we completed Lord of the Rings, we thought a lot about what we could do to really take gameplay to the next level. And since we knew we’d be working with the D&D license, one of our main goals was to bring the D&D experience to life – to take the core fun of the license, the variety of gameplay that having a party of adventures brings -- and translate it to the console world.

The really key part of the game is that you’re not playing as one single hero taking on the world, but as a group that works together, where the power of the individuals is magnified by the way they work together. You can switch on the fly between the three characters at any time simply by pressing the D-pad, and the system will control the other two characters seamlessly even if you’re switching constantly.

Choosing how to use your party to best advantage is the heart of the game – and a key difference from the LOTR games.

What knowledge from past projects is the team applying to Demon Stone?

Obviously, the Lord of the Rings experience is a big influence – we’re very proud of the Two Towers. Stormfront has also worked on quite a few D&D games in the past, including some of the classic Gold Box games – Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, and the original Neverwinter Nights on AOL.

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On-the-fly character switching is one of Demon Stone’s features. How is this being implemented? Can you provide an example of the feature in a game situation?

Basically, at almost any point in the game, you can make a strategic choice about which character of your party to play. Each character has different strengths, and based on the situation and your playing style, you can choose a different person to

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control. Rannek, the Fighter’s strength is in melee combat: hitting multiple enemies with one attack. The Rogue, Zhai, can kill enemies in a single attack using her stealth backstab, and she has jump and jump attacks in her arsenal as well. And Illius, the Sorcerer, has unlimited ranged attacks, and can upgrade to more and more powerful spells during the course of the game.

As an example of switching gameplay, in the Jungles of Chult, the party travels on a raft for a while. They’re being attacked from the shores by ranged attackers, as well by enemies climbing onto the raft. The player can choose to play the sorcerer Illius, to wipe out the guys on the shore – or they can play Rannek or Zhai to take on the monsters in hand-to-hand combat. The system controls the characters you don’t choose to control at any moment.

Another good example of switching on the fly is that you can cast a sleep spell on enemies with Illius, and while he’s still in the middle of the spell casting you can switch to Rannek or Zhai and launch an attack on the immobile enemies just as Illius’ spell takes effect.

Stormfront’s past projects have, for obvious reasons, been very cinematic. Will Demon Stone have a cinematic bent?

That’s our goal! We think that one of the things that makes a game really compelling to players is the story. We collaborated with an Emmy award winning screenwriter, Robert Goodman, to make sure the story was really integrated into the gameplay rather than told in giant chunks at the start and end of levels.

Demon Stone is set in the Forgotten Realms universe, so how many liberties has the team been able to take with the source material?

We worked very closely with both RA Salvatore and Wizards of the Coast to make sure that our game was true to the core of D&D. However, we also made sure that the rules stay “under the hood” – our fighting system is true to the core pen and paper game, and there’s a fairly deep upgrade path for people who like to customize their characters. At the same time, we set up the game so that the average user doesn’t have to know anything about D&D or its rules in order to play and really enjoy Demon Stone.

In what ways does having RA Salvatore involved add credibility to the project?

We were really inspired by the way RA Salvatore writes an action scene, and fans of his books know that when Drizzt is around, things get really interesting. We were really excited to work with RA Salvatore so that he could bring a strong story to the game – he helped us develop the backstories of the main party characters as well as the game story arc, and he’s very familiar with the areas of the Forgotten Realms that we explore in the course of the game.

The other great thing about working with Salvatore is that he’s a team player who listens to the opinions of others. Instead of just writing a story and sending it to us, he went through many rounds of discussions and brainstorming with the design team to make this a great game, not just a great story.

Patrick Stewart lends his voice to the game but what gamers (and geeks) really to know is who would win a Shakespeare Showdown? Sir Ian McKellen or Patrick Stewart?

When we first started working on Demon Stone, when we talked about our dream, ideal cast for the game, the first name that came up for Khelben Blackstaff was Patrick Stewart – but we hardly dreamed we’d be able to get him. He was absolutely great to work with as well – he really brought life to the role. So because he was such a pleasure to work with, I’d have to pick Patrick Stewart.

How much time and effort is being put into Demon Stone’s sound design?

Quite a lot! Both sound and music are critical to the cinematic experience – they help set the mood, the tone, and the ambience of the level. We composed and recorded an original orchestral score for Demon Stone, and combined that with solo vocal elements as well as very raw, primitive percussion. Our adaptive audio engine allows the audio department to control every aspect of the game sound – they can detect what the state of the game is, and call an appropriate voiceover line or change the music accordingly. The characters have conversations in-game during the course of play, and those conversations vary based on game conditions, player conditions, etc.

Is the story left open enough to permit a sequel?

Yes. But it’s also closed enough to give the player a feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction when you complete the toughest level.

How many hours per day is the team putting in to make sure the game ships on time?

Currently, the PS2 version is done, and we’re working hard on the XBox version. At the peak of development, we had over 40 people working very long hours to make sure we got the game done – at this point, we’re down to a core team fixing bugs and finishing up.

What challenges are involved in making a multiplatform game? How do you play to the advantages of each platform?

We’ve done multiplatform games on our engine before, so most of the work was to ensure the tools continued to support both platforms. Regardless of platform, our primary focus was to make the most cinematic, responsive, fun game that we could.

Is the team a little afraid that Demon Stone won’t get the attention is might deserve since it ships in the 4^th Quarter Glut?

We’re hoping that people will appreciate the variety of gameplay, the cinematic experience, and the action packed nature of Demon Stone, and will spread good word of mouth if they like the game.

Pen or sword: which is mightier?

Well, I’ll choose the pixel over the pen! But for the Demon Stone game, I’d have to say the sword is pretty darn mighty.

(August 26, 2004)