How did you start making levels?

Dave: I've always thought about levels and games I'd like to make, and gave myself early training on my Amiga in high school - a lot of 3D pictures and animation, and "programming" simple games with high-level languages like Blitz Basic and Director. I started at HumanHead in a general-purpose Production Assistant role and got myself onto the mapping side (which is what I was after) by figuring out UnrealEd in my off hours and learning from the experienced game-makers here.

Crossroads: Is the story based upon actual Viking lore?

Tim: Many of us have a big interest in Viking lore and mythology, so we studied lots of different sources. The beauty and bane of any mythology is that it is so wide and varied depending on the time and location of the source. Viking mythology varied with the Vikings that told it and passed it along. We will probably take hits from some who enjoy Viking mythology, but praise from others based on the sources they've read and enjoyed, but overall, we think we've captured the feel of the mythology. The story, however, is all ours. We decided to make a story within the mythology that fit the style of game we wanted.

This is going to have to be a very quick one this time (insert premature joke here), as we're incredibly busy with finishing Rune. What's left to do you ask? Well, because we've already hit Beta, the game is feature complete, meaning that no new features will be added to the game. All that is left to do is bug fix and tweak/polish everything that is already in the game. It sounds simple when mentioned like that, but, trust me, the time leading up the very end of a project is easily the most stressful part of a project. Everyone is working furiously testing and fixing bugs. Many times, some bugs can take days to track down, whereas others are incredibly simple and are fixed in mere minutes.

Excellent article, Gwynn. We look forward to working with you to get your animation system on line with Rune. One point that I need to correct in your report though, not every model shares the same skeleton/ set of animations. Wendols, Goblins, Dwarves and 'weird others' like tubestrikers and crabs have their own unique skeletons. Only bipedal creatures of a man type, or scaled man type use the same skeleton. This means you cannot assign player movements to Wendols or Goblins. Sorry. (Well, you could, but you would have to replicate ALL functions, and since the Wendol is a Quadraped, it would mean fundamentally changing his movement and require a ton of new animations).

Stomped: Rune looks like it will have a mix of human and monster enemies. Can you describe some of the enemies the player will encounter in the single player game?

DeWitt: Well we have the Snowbeast. He’s the cuddly white Wendell looking thing that you might have seen in a few screenshots. He’s cute but sometimes he bites. I wouldn’t recommend letting him do this to you, and if he does just smack him on the nose. There are also goblins, they can be trouble too. And don’t forget about the undead warriors, they don’t smell very good (bad breath).

Stomped: The Rune version of UnrealEd will be released for mod makers. Any plans for tutorials or manuals to help budding level designers out?

Halsted:I think it would be really cool if we did one up. We’ve added a ton of stuff; for designers in particular, many of these are ‘littler’ things that when combined add up to the nice pattern of development we’ve settled into. All our new scripting and polyobject mover stuff, etc., are a cinch to pick up on if you know how they work. Anybody familiar with UnrealEd can get going right away, especially for DM; but I’d like to sit down one day to figure out which of all our stuff didn’t come with Unreal originally and then document those things. But all in due time, when the dust has settled!

In an effort to increase awareness about Rune, we’ve commissioned an effort we’re calling the Internet Street Team. This team will “pound the pavement” of General game and Rune related sites and forums spreading the word about Rune. So far we’ve done the same with 4x4 Evo and the Blair Witch Project games.

This project has already begun, and you may have already seen posts from individuals involved with it. Their purpose is twofold – first, to bring you as much information as you can stand about this exciting new game. Their other reason for being is to listen to your feedback, to hear what you have to say about the games. There is a reason we chose forums as the medium for communication, and that’s because they offer two-way communication. Have a question? Ask them! A comment? Let’s have it!

But for this project to be a success, we’ll need to expand our list of sites as much as possible. Therefore, we’re giving a free copy of Rune to the person who e-mails us with the most sites which meet certain criteria. They must:

a) Be deemed “cool” in our eyes. If you don’t know whether we’ll think a site is cool, here’s a general guide. If it was put together by your 10th grade pal yesterday after dinner, it’s probably not cool. If it gets 50,000 hits a day, it probably is.
b) Have forums. The method we’ll primarily be using to interact with the public is forums, since they offer effective, two way communication. Forums are a must.
c) Be something we don’t already have. “What we have” will be defined as the list of sites we’re using as of this posting. If you and your friend send us the same site, you’ll both get credit for it, as long as it meets the other criteria. Don’t ask us for a list of what we have …. that’s top secret. And finally, it must,
d) Have a target audience who are likely to be interested in Rune. While people who frequent www.gardening.com may very well buy Rune, and are probably very nice people, they’re not who we’re looking to preach to.

Once you’ve compiled your list of sites, e-mail them to shane@godgames.com . We’ll announce who will receive the free copy of the game on September 22nd.

And for those of you who believe this post to be the product of a government misinformation campaign may call 214-303-1202 to verify its authenticity.

Human Head Studios, the maker of eagerly awaited Viking-themed hack 'n' slasher Rune, revealed more details about the game's multiplayer credentials along with the latest build at ECTS. Human Head's Tim Gerritsen explained that in theory there is no limit to how many players can participate in multiplayer Rune, although practical considerations will probably limit the number to 16. Players can play as any one of a set of impressive character models, taking the role of Dark Vikings, village elders and even snowbeasts as they engage in multiplayer battles over LAN or internet.

Rune will feature capture the flag and team deathmatch modes, and if the visceral action on display is anything to judge by, multiplayer Rune is going to be one of the most carnage-filled games seen on a server since the Viking dawn of the gods.

Doing research on traditional Viking music proved difficult. There really aren't any recordings of historical 'Viking music', only interpretations and descriptions. So I listened to the music of Basil Poledouris from the classic movie 'Conan the Barbarian'. The score is very epic and seems to fit the subject matter of Vikings perfectly. This was the main influence in the creation of Runes music.