|
|
|
|
|
Watch out for the Exploder! He'll float over towards you, then Boom!
|
Game Info
|
Publisher
TBA
|
Developer
HumanSoft
|
Genre
Action
|
Origin
U.S.
|
Accelerated
YES
|
Release
Spring '99
|
Minimum Requirements
TBA
|
|
|
This is a concept sketch of the main hero, believe it or not.
|
|
|
Jumping puzzles aplenty will challenge your patience and skill.
|
|
|
A peek at the editor, used to make the game's 3D levels.
|
|
Seed
The shadow knows.
March
30,
1999
Seed is a new first-person action/adventure game from HumanSoft, a Hungarian-led development team that has been making games since 1993.
The game industry got its first chance to take a look at Seed at the recent Game Developer's Conference, where the game was being shown off as one of the ten entrants in the Independent Games Festival.
While Seed didn't take top honors in that contest, it was among the two or three games in the contest that turned heads and looked to be viable commercial products, and we're fairly confident the game will be picked for a US publishing deal pretty soon, although currently there is no US publisher.
While these screen shots make Seed look like it's another first person shooter, in fact gameplay more closely resembles a platformer than anything else, although there is combat involved too. In fact, the best analogy is probably to Montezuma's Return, another first-person point of view game done in a 3D engine and with a mix of jumping hazards, environmental puzzles, and combat.
But the look of Seed is much darker than that earlier title, and there is a good reason for this. The engine's key selling point is probably it's ability to accurately and attractively render shadows throughout the game environment, showing the slinky black shapes rippling, stretching and moving right along as the player moves, just as shadows should move in real life.
Now having shadows in the game may seem like a meaningless, trivial addition, but in fact it is key to the whole design. Since jumping puzzles are such an important aspect of the game, knowing exactly where your player is at all times becomes of paramount importance. But if you're playing in first-person point of view, how do you know where your feet are?
HumanSoft's elegant solution--look at your shadow.
Supporting OpenGL and Glide, a demo of Seed is expected in May.
--Kip Merriweather
Note: We lightened some of these screen shots ourselves to make it easier to see the detail. The actual game won't have so much gamma.
|
