Astra: So, what kind of monsters or characters are you planning on having?

RedKnight: Right now that depends on the story, which is very flexible at the moment. We’ve got a sketch artist drawing up some original aliens in the Star Wars vein, and currently in the works are a new storm trooper model, and definitely pirates (complete with sabbac cards, no less).

Astra: So, will there be any Spice Dealers? I am just curious…

RedKnight: Could be. We are planning a few space station areas, complete with bars and kiosks. Everything is flexible at this point.

Astra: Cool. I just want some correlian spice dealers, then I’ll be happy.

RedKnight: heheh

Astra: So, what kinds of weapons are you planning?

RedKnight: Well, in the game right now we have the Blastech DL-44 (Han Solo’s blaster pistol), the Storm trooper rifle, a yet unnamed rocket launcher type weapon, and PHIL, which stands for Personal High Intensity Laser rifle. This one comes complete with a zoomable scope view

RedKnight: The rocket launcher is a neat weapon as well Rather then just spitting out rockets, it launches a folding-fin type missile that just sort of drops from the gun, and then the fins come out and the engine ignites.

RedKnight: Oh, and then there’s the lightsaber :D. This this will be loads of fun. We’ve got controllable strokes

RedKnight: So that will add to the tension in multiplayer

Astra: How will that work?

RedKnight: You’ll have different impulses for the strokes. Control layout is still a question, we’re thinking of the keypad. For every number, there’s a stroke.

RedKnight: So in multi-player, you’ll see a stroke coming at you, and have to pick the correct counter-stroke. Otherwise you’re in trouble.

RedKnight: The "force-block" (with the saber) will be handled through the main Force system in the game.

RedKnight: You have to turn on the block mode via an impulse, and while it’s running, you can’t perform an offensive strokes.

Astra: That’s pretty cool, will it be the player model moving the sabre?

RedKnight: Yes, the player model will contain animations for every saber stroke.

Astra: So, where does the Force come into play in the conversion?

RedKnight: It is the basis of the game (hence the title Call of the Force 🙂

Astra: OK. What kinds of Force moves are there?

RedKnight: At the beginning, you don’t know anything, except for just a little of the basics (you aren’t even very good at those). When the game first starts out, there’s tons of Jedi info to be found, as they are respected and admired throughout the galaxy. Then comes the Great Jedi Purge. Slowly at first, then more quickly, anything regarding the Jedi is wiped out. So you basically have to learn everything through trial-and-error.

Astra: Now how would the player go about "learning"? Picking up stuff, like books? Or, by experience points?

RedKnight: It’ll be like this: You’ll pretty much suck at everything, but only get better if you try. At the start of the game, the lightsaber will be no better than an ax, but if you practice with it and use it, it will eventually become the most powerful weapon in the game, and you probably won’t use much else.

Astra: So it’s basically, after you use it for a long time, it gets better and better with use.

RedKnight: Yes, experience points. "Learning" will be done through some cut-scenes (for example, if you run into a Jedi guru). This will automatically add experience points to certain powers.

RedKnight: Force powers aren’t really set in stone yet, but the Force pull has already been implemented, and we’re definitely going to have some of the Dark Side "highlights" such as the famous choke and lightning.

Astra: Ok. What kind of DM features will The Call of the Force have?

RedKnight: Multiplayer Star Wars Quake is going to rock. That’s all I’ll say about it 😀

Astra: Now, what kinds of mass destruction (for those who like that the most) will be in the game?

RedKnight: You mean in the levels, or just complete and total slaughter of enemies?

Astra: Whichever.

RedKnight: All right. Levels aren’t at the top of list o’ things to do right now, as we’ve still got a lot of things going on with the player itself and movement options (we’re working on flips and rolls). However, you probably don’t want to be shooting rockets on a ship with a very thin hull. That would be very bad 😀 As for weapons, right now PHIL is the killer. It’s unbelievably satisfying to zoom in on some poor Storm trooper, squeeze the fire button, and zap, he’s dead.

Astra: From what I’ve read, you claim to have interactive cut-scenes, what are these like?

RedKnight: All right, on the cut-scenes. These are currently in as follows: You go through a level. A cut-scene plays at the end of a level. You are then put into that level, and have a chance to interact and do certain actions that effect the story and the resulting cut-scenes.

Astra: So, the plot is anything but linear.

RedKnight: That’s right.

Astra: So, you have little robots that meander about the ship? If you were to attack them, what would happen? I’m just curious.

RedKnight: They’d be damaged. Some might blow up.

Astra: But would they just continue wandering about, half dead? Or run away frantically?

RedKnight: When you damage a droid, it looks busted, and moves around that way.

Astra: When it comes to acquiring the weapons, can you grab a storm troopers dropped blaster and use it?

RedKnight: Yes. Anything that an enemy has, you can get.

Astra: Thats cool. How about vehicles? I heard you can fly the space ships?

RedKnight: Right now we’re planning to include the X-Wing, Speeder Bike, AT-ST, TIE Fighter, and a lot of planet-specific stuff, like landspeeders, etc.

Astra: What kinds of weapons would you have on the vehicles?

RedKnight: The normal laser cannons. On the Speeder Bike, we’re also thinking about having the ability to look to the left/right and use your blaster pistol while flying.

Astra: Hmmmm…. What about things like clothes lining ropes for the speeder bike, like in the movie?

RedKnight: You mean like traps and the like while flying the speeder bike. No, nothing like that’s planned as of right now.

Astra: For all those big Star Wars fans, when is the next Prelim coming out? Could you give a ballpark figure?

RedKnight: That is a good question 😀 We operate pretty loosely around here. Not loose in the sense that we’re disorganized, but if we think that something should be delayed so we can add in more stuff, we’ll do it without thinking twice. Prelim 2 has been delayed because we want to add in at least one level, and the Jawas, as well as most of the weapons (except the lightsaber).

RedKnight: Some of the skinners just got back from doing Real Life stuff, so I can’t give an accurate ETA for Prelim 2 right now.