You Are Empty ENG

We have the opportunity to chat with the Digital Spray Studios about thier upcoming FPS title You Are Empty (YRE). We talked about the features, story, enemies, weapons and more.

Digital Spray is relatively new game studio, what about the crew members, do they have previous experiences with the game development?

Yes, Digital Spray was founded few years ago, but all guys have worked in others major Ukrainian companies for some years before.

You’re working on FPS title set in the late 50s. Are you inspired by the pastevents or the story is only a fiction? Have anyone from the team past experiences from this post-war regime?

In 50s Soviet Union’s government had a lot of “great” utopia ideas. Historical documents, architecture plans, various arts, books are origins of our inspiration.

Yes, our parents and grandmas could tell us a lot about Soviet Regime but we are not going to depict a fully authentic picture of Soviet Union of 50s. There is a lot of science fiction in plot of the game. We are creating an alternative version of Soviet reality. What if Soviet Union became a world leader after WWII and activated global scientific programs to achieve communism all over the world. What if those programs ran out of control? We are trying to improvise on what it would be like.

What is your opinnion on communist and the previous regime?

Hmm, this is interesting question. Maybe it looks strange and ironic, but I think that communism (in origin) was some kind of a test, an experiment with people masses. This test was a try of creating a perfect human community. I think that the idea in origin sounded really great, but the way they tried to implement it into life was really awful.

Who is the main character and how is he involved in the main plot? Is he another hero, who can only save the world? What can you tell us about the story?

No, not another Bruce Willis that saves the entire world. Main character is a common citizen. At least at begin of this story. He wakes up in a hospital room but understands almost nothing of what is happening around. World in one moment became a creepy place. And than more he moves by a story line, the more details he explores.

How would the world be effected, when the secret experiment will went right and the super communist will be spread out to the whole world?

I think things would run badly anyway. Artificial evolution can never lead humanity to the Heaven’s Gate. There are always unexpected side effects. So in one way or another it wouldn’t make people happier.

How can you describe the atmosfere within the game? And how can you reveal it to the people who doesnt know anything about the communist regime. Dont you worry, that those people will not be able to understand the plot?

There is no hidden sense in game that isn’t understandable for an ordinary gamer. Game world is not representing a reality of 50’s. It’s just an amazingly decorated game world with a very stylized environment. We are creating a huge city, there are various districts in it. All type of architecture. Many characteristic urban sites: Central Train Station, Opera House, Cinema, Subway System and more. All of this is a pert of our alternative vision. We take real soviet analogs and reproduce a new, more hyperbolized version of reality.

How complicated will the world be? On every screen yet released, theres only the streets of mysterious city. Is You Are Empty positioned only into the urban enviroment, the houses, sewers, old factories and so on?

Most of game actions take place in the city. But the city is very huge and there is a big variety of locations. What you’ve seen on screens are only some images from two game levels, and we are really careful about developing very different levels. The player must survive in a suburban zone before reaching the city. Farms, Industrial zone, River Port and a lot of others places wait ahead.

By the way, speaking about the screens, we are planning to place a lot of new of them and a lot of other game stuff on our site very soon. On www.YouAreEmpty.com

Is the world divided into the separated levels, with exact given objectives/quests?How linear is the game? Do you using a prescripted scenes to achieve the tight atmosfere?

Yes, game consists of separated levels. Every level has original architecture and objectives. Game structure is linear, but we give some freedom within level’s borders. Prescripted events? All modern games can’t be imagined without them even if developers say otherwise. We are not afraid of using script scenes because we know how to use them to make a real fun in the game. The atmosphere will really alive.

How many weapons will in YRE be? Are you focusing on realistic weapons only or can we expect something more futuristic? Which is your favourite weapon?

We are very careful about balance and variety of weapon’s fire modes. For now there are planned about 11 weapons. You will see real soviet guns (like Nagan pistol, PPSh submachine gun, soviet version of Maxim chain gun and something more) and also some futuristic stuff. Electrical and beam weapons for example. But we don’t want to tell more at this moment.

Whom will be the main character fight with? What can you tell us about the foes and monsters? They are a little secret for now.

Enemies are one of the game features. In You Are Empty you will not see any of standard faceless foes. Your enemies are ex-former common citizens. But experiment changed their physiology and mental state so peaceful peoples became creepy monsters. Zombie factory worker armed with huge hummer, undying soldiers of Red Army, nurses that will kiss you till you die. Some animals also mutated. For example, simple chickens turned into raptor-like predators.

We can feel from the released screens some horor elements from the enviroment. Everything is dark and used. Is the streets fill up only with the mutants or is there somewhere a neutral NPC?

You are right about horror elements. We are trying to intrigue and scare player simultaneously. He will meet “normal” characters, but not so many.

We know that the gameplay has three endings. What it depends on? I mean, is the levels draw up only in one way, or is there several paths to complete the objectives?

No, levels run in one way. But in certain situation you must make you choice. Endings depend on those decisions.

What will be the typical feature only seen in YRE? Any drivable vehicles, stealth/adventure elements or maybe destructible enviroment?

First of all it is the game’s environment, monsters and an original gameplay. There are a lot of surprises in story-line that will amuse gamers during the game. And off course, it is our DS2-Engine which will permit to show you a level of visual graphics you’ve never seen before in games.

Will YRE support multiplayer too? What can you tell us about the modes that will be included? Are you preparing some special modes or are you holding the traditional ones?

Probably we will first release a single-player and than, few months later, a multiplayer part. DS2-Engine permits to develop a multiplayer but we are very short of time and we are aimed to develop only a high quality stuff.

Will the DS2 Engine have premiere in this title? Can you tell us something about the main features of the engine?

Well, as I already said I’m sure that it will show a new level of Visual Graphics in modern games. It is oriented for the optimal use of the newest generation video-cards and supports most of the modern features. Our designers are not limited with the level of detail they can bring in their levels, a medium level consists of about 1.5 millions of polygons with average 300-500 thousands of polygons on the screen. It’s not only the Visual Graphics; our physics system is able to compete with most of the known today physics engines. A lot of attention is paid to the sound system and it is already implemented EAX 4.0 and we are recording files in 5.1 format.

Thanks for your time.