Article/An Interview with V8 Creators Luxoflux

> Luxoflux: Almost exactly one year now. We started coding in the middle of March 97. We had other issues with getting development systems and stuff, so we couldn’t really start work until then, but we were sort of working on design stuff before that.
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> GR: The engine in V8 is amazing. How are you pulling it off?
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> Luxoflux: Ha ha, that’s a good question. I think we really didn’t look too hard at other games on the PS, no, we tried to approach it freshly. We didn’t really have too many pre-conceptions about what it could or couldn’t do so we just kept on pushing and pushing until we found as much as we could get it dto do. We were sort of shooting for more realism and sophistication in games and that’s how we approached this game. We wanted to make it a much more real experience.
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> GR: How did you decide on this then?
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> Luxoflux: Well, I think we’d be lying if we were to say that V8 didn’t start off as being related to Interstate 76 on the PC. Actually, when we originally started talking to Activsion, this was the project that they pitched to us. We love the theme of I 76, and we could see that making a game based on this kind of theme would have a lot of potentiall on the Playstation console. AS we started working on it and designing the game, it sort of evolved on its own, departing dramatically from what I 76 was on the PC.
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> GR: Right, it became arena based.
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> L: Yeah, but technically and graphically I think it’s a much more sophisticatedgame than the original PC version was. There’s more of an arcade feel, everything about it is more arcade like. We don’t want to put the Activision stuff down, but I think we’ve pushed the concept a lot further. And since it’s a console game, we wanted to make it much more arcade-based, more action packed, so to speak.
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> GR: I’m amazed by how fast it loads. Can you explain this?
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> L: Many people have said the same thing. Uh, we just did it, I guess. It’s one of the good things we’re happy about.
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> GR: What were you going for in terms of weapons and items?
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> L: We’ve done a lot of work on the weapons that are specific to each enemy. They’ll do a lot of interesting, very controllable things. WE’ve also got a number of special moves, which are secret. Each vehicle will have its own specific weapon, hidden inside crates. You run over the power up, it mounts onto your car, and it gives you a special weapon. In the case of Boogie’s Leprechaun, for example, it’s a giant disco ball.
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> GR: How is the level design being handled, and how many will be included in the final?
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> L: There will be a total of twelve levels and hopefully some secret ones. It’s a process of designing level specific stuff, so some of them aren’t completely done. We keep on throwing in these extra features… heh, strange things will happen on a level by level basis.
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> GR: What inspired the track design?
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> L: Well, that’s what attracted us to this game: that we could invent arenas, levels, that don’t follow your standard model of ‘world locations’. We were actually able to find interesting environments within the American South West, which normally you wouldn’t think of as your standard location of choice.
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> GR: I agree. Did you actually go to these places and take location shots?
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> L: (Peter) I’ve personally been to most of the locations in the game, a few years back, when I drove across the US. I took many pictures which served as inspiration for the levels. We also did a lot of other research and created several image libraries, so most of the levels are based on locations which actually exist.
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> GR: DO you consider Twisted Metal to be the strongest competition for a game like this?
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> L: Yeah, well, we are being compared to Twisted Metal. We’re not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing, ha ha. It’s one of those much-loved games and I think maybe it’s hard to compete against a game that is so well liked. We’re really trying to do our own thing anyway, and not follow whatever Twisted Metal has done. If the comparison is favorable, then we’re happy to take it, but we don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes. We are just hoping there’s more room in this particular genre, just like there is in the fighting or corridor game category, where we can stand out on our own.
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> GR: Can you hint at what your next game might be?
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> L: We can’t say much right now about our new game because we’re in the process of negotiations with Activision. Ah, certainly if Vigilante 8 becomes successful, it’s quite safe to expect a sequel out of Luxoflux.
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> GR: What genre could your next game might be?
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> L: Personally or internally here we are hoping that one day we might be able to create another character-based game. We’re a pretty small company here, there’s just five of us, so we can only take one project at a time.
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> GR: Okay guys, thanks a lot for your time and good luck with V8!
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> L: Thanks and good luck with the magazine!
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