Double Aught's Duality

by Bill Meyer June 10, 1998, 4 p.m. PT

No longer satisfied to simply design add-on packs for Bungie Entertainment, Double Aught, the developer of the Marathon Infinity expansion, recently announced its first original game, the first-person action game, Duality. Gamecenter caught up withDouble Aught's president, Greg Kirkpatrick, to get the inside word on this new 3D action/adventure.

Like the lion's share of upcoming 3D action games, Duality is not simply preoccupied with nonstop carnage and gibing. According to Kirkpatrick, telling a compelling story and creating a believable 3D world are the priorities. "We are really trying to put in a narrative and world with characters," said Kirkpatrick. "Not just a plot, but an actual story--something that might actually grip someone." He added, "It's got a lot of epic themes...duality, opposing forces, good and evil, light and dark."

Not unlike Ion Storm's Anachronox, Duality is set on an alien world light-years from earth--literally and figuratively. The game's story involves two feuding human factions with no recollection of how their ancestors came to inhabit the exotic planet. As it currently stands, the planet's minority, dubbed the Deciding Factor, are enslaving the majority, the Polys. Within this sordid society, the player is cast as a mute and nameless Frankenstein-like creation of the Deciding Factor, designed to eliminate Poly rebels. Ironically, the player joins the rebellion once he is freed from the clutches of his masters by the Poly insurgents.

On one level, the player's goal is to dismantle the Deciding Factor's regime; on another, the player's job is to unravel several planetary mysteries and contend with the contradictory sides of his nature. (Kind of sounds like Dark Earth, huh?) To facilitate this, a significant amount of exploration, character interaction, and puzzle-solving will augment the game's first-person combat. There will also be some minor story branching depending on your actions and maybe even a karma system, in which your good deeds are rewarded, while your evil actions earn you the ire of other NPCs.

Speaking of NPCs, expect reoccurring good guys and bad guys. "There are characters that show up repeatedly that have personality," said Kirkpatrick. "There are people you'll get to know."

Interaction with NPCs will mainly be necessary to gain information and inventory items to solve puzzles. Moreover, in the style of Marathon, NPCs will aid you during combat against specific evil characters. Prepare for hand-to-hand combat and gunslinging. Right now, there are only a few generic weapons to speak of: a standard hand gun, rocket launcher, and fast-projectile rifle. "We are trying to put them in the context of the world," reassured Kirkpatrick. "They exist because somebody put them there."

There will be a few surprises. Because the main character is an unworldly creation, he will have some inhuman characteristics, which will have a significant effect on the gameplay. For instance, your mute alter ego will be able to jump multiple building stories and fall great distances. Kirkpatrick kept other details under his hat, weary that he might give away too much about the game's grand finale.

As for the game's 3D graphics, Double Aught currently supports OpenGL and RAVE (Mac) and is using its own proprietary 3D engine, which, not unlike 3D Realm's Prey engine, uses polygon-based portals, rather than standard BSP-based geometry, to build levels. Kirkpatrick said the engine supports interior and exteriors spaces, curved surfaces, dynamic lighting, and the latest effects, including fog, smoke, and translucent surfaces. The main point for Kirkpatrick is that the Duality team "can build really organic spaces."

Duality

by David Perkins May 29, 1998

The OGR schedule is geared toward getting us in to talk to the big dogs of the gaming industry (in an hour, we're heading over to Eidos, Ion Storm, Looking Glass, Dreamworks, and Activision). But tucked into a corner much like the one occupied by the OGR booth is a little game company called Double Aught, and I got a chance to look at their first-person action game, Duality.

I met Chad Poland, who is working on Duality, last night at a Macintosh party (let's see if that makes it through the censors). I even had a chance to touch an iMac, a product which the Macintosh people are quite happy about. But don't fret, this game will be on the PC as well.

Chad invited me to see Double Aught's project, so I popped by this morning on my "find the small game developers" rounds. What they showed me was impressive.

The game's designers are using the "portal" technology which you may have heard about from reading previews of the game Prey. The folks at Double Aught spent considerable effort trying to explain how portal technology works, and I think I at least understand the results, if not the workings.

The most obvious results show up when you see their environments, which are as non-linear as any I have seen. Most of the doorways I saw, for example, were semi-circular, as if hand-carved by ancient inhabitants. Plantlife is created from polygons, not sprites, as is the animal population. The neatest native animal I've seen floated by on its riblike rippling wings as the demonstrator walked through a round-ceilinged cave.

The designers said that they inspire to create a game with shooting action, but not a guns-blazing gorefest. Enemies will likely come in the form not of malevolent aliens, but naturally predatory creatures (who will use their AI to accomplish such intelligent tasks as pack hunting). Another nice realistic touch: some enemies will be as powerful and fast on their feet as you, and when you run backwards, you run slower.. Bad news for people born and raised in a Quake environment? Good news for people who want a shooter with more intelligence than carnage.

News From E3

june 1

12:30pm - Double Aught: Working up to the last minute prior to the opening of E3 this past week, Double Aught seized their hotel room and worked feverishly on the first public preview of their hot upcoming title, Duality. Shown on both a Mac and PC (the PC version is behind the Mac version currently!), this game certainly competes with the "big boys" of first-person action/adventure games. Although the preview didn't have any villains, the transparent water and lighting effects, incredible textures, ease of movement, and cool weapons were more than impressive. It will be RAVE and 3Dfx 3D hardware compatible and require a fairly decent PowerPC Mac for fast frame rates. Double Aught came to E3 to seek out a publisher, and they were very confident that they had made some good connections. We'll keep you posted on the publisher announcement, but until then, check out the Duality web site, complete with storyline info, game engine info, lots of screenshots, and more. [Mike Dixon]

june 8

Screenshots of Duality!

Double Aught provided us with few sneak peeks at the forthcoming action/strategy game Duality. As you can see, the environment looks much more organic, colorful and vibrant than your run-of-the-mill 3D shooter.

Double Aught is dedicated to providing an immersive back story for the game, and have indicated that Duality will focus more on strategy and puzzle solving than just raw brute force. Double Aught also plan to implement 16-bit texture mapping, using RAVE and OpenGL for hardware acceleration standards. With expertise drawn from developing the scenario included with Marathon Infinity and in intense creativity already shown in these early images and the development version running at this May's E3 expo, Double Aught is sure to deliver a really amazing game in Duality.