Exclusive Interview with Cryedit.net feature

Introduce you and your mod!

Orange Duck: Hi CRYedit.net, thanks for offering us this chance for an interview. I'm Daniel Holden, AKA Orange Duck - the current joint mod leader for Exodus. I'm a student and 3d artist, currently based in London. Our current project, Exodus, is a first person, story driven, cinematic experience for Crysis with some RPG elements.

VertigoSFX: I'm VertigoSFX and I'm the Public Relations Manager for Exodus...I mainly deal with posting our updates on the various Crysis websites and assisting in communication with the community.

    

How long did your team exist?

Orange Duck: We started the team in around November, shortly after Crysis was released. A few of us decided it would be good to put our skills toward something original, beautiful and fun. Crysis seemed like the perfect engine for that. From then on we've been steadily building up our team. Bugging all our old modding contacts and picking up some new people too.

What did you do before CE2?

Orange Duck: I've personally worked on many modding projects for games. I've modded for BF2 and BF2142 and many of our members came from the First Strike mod team - a star wars mod for BF2142. Another large influence is Mount and Blade, a game developed by a small team with a vibrant community (you can find it Taleworlds.com). Lots of our members come from there. We have a very experienced team from many projects and places around the world.

VertigoSFX: I haven't really worked for a mod before besides a few little side projects to help a few out but most of my focus has been on a gaming community I run. We've been around for almost 2 years so that has kept me busy because it has helped me to keep up to date with the latest games and mods to share with my community.

What would you give to the player with your work?

Orange Duck: We want to give the player an experience which is involving and exciting. We're hoping the player will build relationships with the characters in the mod. With a focus on realism, dynamic choices and gameplay we're really hoping the player will get immersed in the beautiful world of Exodus. Like getting lost in a movie or a book for a few hours - except this time you get to be the main character.

magus: We're hoping to create an really innovative melee fighting combat system with the player being able to dynamically control their weapon, something that has perhaps never been seen before in an fps and has not been possible to create in a mod before crysis. We also want to deliver the mod over several episodes, each one lasting a few hours and expanding on the lore and story of the Exodus world. We're also hoping to avoid a lot of the cliches you see in fantasy these days by creating a brutal and gritty world. As much as possible we want to stick to what would actually happen if a winter had decimated tribal lands, so this means tribal infighting, fierce competition from other tribes, and quite probably lots of death!

    

How is the progress on your work?

Orange Duck: Some of our team members are busy with other commitments but progress is still steady. We are letting quality take priority over quantity but still working as fast as we can. At the moment we are still heavily in the 2D concept phase, waiting for the SDK to come out so we can move to the 3d phase and get stuff in-game.

Where is your main focus? SP or MP? and why?

Orange Duck: At first we want to focus on a single player experience. Single player can be huge amounts of fun, just look at Half Life, Oblivion, Crysis or any other large game. This doesn't mean we are forgetting about multi-player completely. Depending on how our combat system turns out we will defiantly try to add a multi-player element.

With what do you struggle right now?

Orange Duck: Well It'd be nice if we could get the SDK. Its very important we know what is and what isn't possible in the engine. So we can work for effectively toward our goals. We have some high aims for the mod, so full knowledge of the Crysis engine will be essential.

What do you think about the CE2 currently?

Orange Duck: Well it certainly creates some beautiful looking results, a revolution in real time rendering - although I haven't worked much with it personally.

VertigoSFX: I think the editor is a great tool for editing because of some of the features that make it so much easier to use than previous editors. For example my favorite new feature is the ability to jump right into your map without actually having to load the game up. That saves a lot of time. And of course the engine itself is gorgeous. I am thrilled about how fantastic the lighting looks in the game. Lighting I think is a big part about what makes a game look great.

What would say to the player here?

Orange Duck: Thanks and please keep following the progress of Exodus! We appreciate your support!