We are going to release our RuneEditor and all its changes, as well as our creation methods for skins, characters and animations. Since our toolset is mostly Softimage based, I am not sure if we will release the actual animation tools, as not many mod users will have access to Softimage, but we will release the specs so that enterprising mod makers can tackle making the tools to convert their Lightwave or 3D Studio Max art into the game.

Yes, it's that time of the project for RUNE: We're getting close to finally finishing. Oh, don't take this as a "Rune is going to be out next week" because that isn't gonna happen. We're still a bit off from completion, but we are in the final stretch. That dreaded part of the project known as CrunchTime.

=[HH]CRhinehart= Change your name, Tim. Be a sheep, dude

=[HH]Tgerr_= What's with all the rape and pillage questions?

=[HH]CRhinehart= We just put in one of the most requested features at E3 a couple days ago: The ability to pick up someone's head and throw it around.

=[HH]CRhinehart= ...ugh...me have good grammar.

It seems that Human Head Studios has become a preferred provider for additional Unreal tech. And this technology will only be offered by Human Head Studios. It looks as though the Rune enhancements will work with either the Unreal Engine, or the Unreal Tournament Engine. Here is a small list of the Rune enhancements for the Unreal Engine.

- Skeletal Deformation and Dynamics (The coolness of this is just to much to list)
- Continuous Level-of-Detail system (Real time vertex decimation)
- Projected Shadows (your shadow will climb up the walls!)
- Particle System - Visual Performance Monitor
- Extensive Debugging HUD

German gaming site Krawall has posted a new Q&A with Tim Bowman, a texture artist at Human Head on Rune, their upcoming third person action game of drunken Viking violence. The questions deal with Tim's thoughts on the Unreal Tournament engine, the game's multiplayer, and of course, those giant melee weapons. The interview is available in your choice of either English or German.

The Rune computer game is pretty damn exciting, and from a publisher standpoint I could see all the possibilities of the alliance, including things like access to the fabulous concept artwork, and the promotional opportunities. So it came together really well, but most of the credit has to go to the Human Head guys (especially Tim Gerritsen), who had the vision to make a deal like this possible.

I also wanted to let anyone who is attending MacWorld know that we will be showing off Rune at MacWorld later this week in New York.

Also, next month, we plan on showing the game in a much beefier public demonstration at GenCon in Milwaukee.

The game is deeply imbued with Norse mythology, but it is not in a way that will make it difficult for someone who is unfamiliar with it to enjoy. If you know your mythology, you will hopefully enjoy it when it arises, but if you don't, you'll just learn new faces and characters and hopefully get into the epic feel of the game. However, this is an action game, and we have no intention of releasing a docudrama on the history and lives of Vikings. You won't stop to farm and raise sheep, and there is no siege of Paris or raids on monasteries. This is a game about a singular hero who just happens to be a Viking. That means we err on the side of fun and making a good game. We also don't want the game to be mired in pompous seriousness. Rune definitely has a sense of humor, and the humorous elements are there to remind you that its about fun, not somber sagas of death and dismay.

Because RUNE utilizes the Unreal Tournament engine, adding new resources such as textures should be familiar to any mod author who has worked with the editor in Unreal. We haven't altered the path for adding textures or sounds. However, adding new meshes will be slightly different than in Unreal because we no longer use the meshes that were originally in Unreal and in UT; we've added our own skeletal system to the code. Currently we are not certain if we are going to release the mesh tool, as it will only be of use to people who have access to SoftImage, but the specs will definitely be released so that authors of common mesh tools should be able to add support for RUNE's skeletal mesh data.

"From a story perspective, it was a matter of picking the elements we wanted to concentrate on for this game. The Viking mythologies are so deep and vast, and vary from region to region, that it would be impossible to present all of it in one game format- especially one that is an action game. We decided to concentrate on the aspects of Viking mythology that we felt were most exciting to us and which made sense within the story we wanted to tell. We also added our own spin on some of these legends, so as to make the game unique to our version."

According to Viking legend, Odin, the father of the gods, once hung himself on a tree for seven days and sacrificed his right eye to acquire all the knowledge in the world. Seems a bit extreme when a copy of Microsoft Encarta would only set you back about £50, and you wouldn't even need to order that extra eyepatch...

The third-person shooter market has become increasingly and surprisingly crowded. Originally thought of as clumsy and slow, the third-person games are still disliked by a large chunk of the First-Person Shooter fanatics. The latest batch, however, promises to captivate these people by promising a more thoughtful and more frantic experience, and Rune, developed by HumanHead, may be the one to deliver.