Once an Xbox Tech Demo – Now a Full-Fledged Game “Malice” Breathes Life with Action and Adventure

by Louis Bedigian

Producer Andy Pang gives us the scoop on this illusive, long-anticipated game.

Recognize that girl?  You should.  She’s the star of the first official game to be associated with the Xbox.  We knew Halo was coming, but the first actual demo shown for Xbox was the game you see above, Malice.

No one knew what to expect from the gameplay, but Malice had one striking element that couldn’t be ignored – its graphics.  They were beautiful, giving us only a taste of what the Xbox could produce.  High-resolution, millions of polygons, stellar lighting, and some interesting bug-squashing effects were among many of the eye-catching things seen in the demo.

After Malice’s unveiling the game disappeared.  We kept hearing promises of a “coming soon” release, but Microsoft has never been good with release dates, so we’ve learned not to take their promises seriously.  That didn’t make it easy to ignore the fact that there was a really cool-looking game out there that had no signs of being released.

Eventually Microsoft announced that they wouldn’t be publishing the game, but that didn’t stop Argonaut from continuing development.  After many years of waiting, the game’s release is finally upon us.  What do we have to look forward to besides bug-squashing?  Producer Andy Pang shares the details, and explains why the game has taken so long to get here.

Malice has had quite a development process.  When you began working on the project did you have any idea that it would be so involved and take so long to complete?

 

Andy Pang: Malice was used in Bill Gate’s keynote speak at the CES show back in Jan 2001 as a demo for Xbox. It was just a 1 level technology demo with some basic gameplay, but some people thought it was a lot further on than that. Because of the interest from showing the demo we decided to develop it into a full game. We knew it was going to be challenge creating a next generation game, but it was a challenge we happily undertook. We’ve learnt a great deal along the way, and are really excited and proud to see it ready for release!

We've seen shots and movies of the game for years, but other than bug-squashing I still don't know what to expect from the gameplay.  Could you fill in the blanks?

 

AP: Bug-smashing is great fun but the game mainly revolves around tracking down and defeating the Dog God to put the universe and afterlife back to the way things should be.

You take Malice through a range of quests to obtain vital Logic Keys for the Metal Guardian allowing him to unlock portals leading to the far reaches of the universe. Malice’s journey takes her to some strange places such as the Witches Cauldron, Pipe ‘n’ Drums, Gloop River Cave, and Fire Forest to name a few. Each mission Malice finds herself taking has its fare share of puzzles, jumping sequences and combat action with a healthy mix of magic.

Looks like metallic green goo.

Roughly how many levels are going to be featured in the final game, and what kinds of tasks will the player have to complete in each of them?

 

AP: Malice has over 30+ locations spread over 9 quests. Malice has to learn how to be a goddess and command the magic and weapons bestowed on her throughout quests, and ultimately defeat the Dog God and his minions. Putting trust in her memory will help with the leaps of faith required in Memory Maze and finding the Mecha Armour power source will bring Malice closer to her destiny.

Screenshots indicate that Malice's enemies are mostly insects.  Is that the case?

 

AP: The Malice universe is full of a range of enemies, of which only a few are insects. The Dog God’s Crow Army is an ongoing force to be reckoned with and some underpaid maintenance sewer rats aren’t too pleasant to our goddess. The crows in particular evolve into more dangerous and cunning forms as the game progress, and Malice gets closer to her goal.

The Fire Fly Queen, Mutaton and Mecha Crow are among the high-ranking and loyal servants of the Dog God who must be defeated to gain the lost Logic Keys.

Are there stages or secret areas to uncover within any of the levels?

AP: The Metal Guardian is a very helpful chap and will make sure most secrets are discovered in time – but there may still be a few hidden away…

I’m not sure what gameplay feature this represents,

but it sure looks cool.

The story is about a girl named Malice...what else does it involve?

AP: After finding out about her past, and finding out about the Logic Keys, Malice follows The Metal Guardians directions to a wide range of different areas of the universe (including the afterlife!), and meets a curious cast of characters, both good and bad, including the Siren Tree, the Witch, Juju Man, and the nefarious Dog God himself.

Along the way she’ll uncover new weapons (Mace of Clubs, Clockwork Hammer and the Quantum Tuning Fork), and develop her command of elemental and time splitting magic. All the while dealing with tricky puzzles, treacherous environments and deadly ambushes. It’s just like any other day in the life of a goddess!

Malice is said to have "real-time 3D surround sound with 64 voices at once."  That sounds really impressive!  Please tell us more about it.

AP: The sound guys had a great time filling our environments with detailed local audio effects. Running through the environments you can hear the gloop running through pipes or prisoners being tortured in other cells. These details helped enriched the already beautiful artwork and brought the Malice universe to life.

The early Malice demos showed some great camera work.  How much control will players have over the camera?  Are there any situations when the game controls it for you (to enhance the mood, perhaps)?

 

AP: The player has loads of control over the camera, but mastering the camera controls isn’t required, although there are some areas where the camera controllers step in to give you the perfect view.

The flashy colors remind me of the classic PSone and N64 platformers.

Tell us about the game's many cool graphic effects, like flowing hair and true real-time shadowing.

AP: Very early on we wanted Malice to stand out from other games graphically and we invested heavily to achieve the visuals and effects you see in the game. The real-time shadowing was amongst one of our first visual effects implemented. This set the bar high from the start, because it helped make the levels look and feel more solid than ever before, so we continued to innovate with technology to make things look more solid and believable. Details like flowing hair help make the game feel smoother, whilst other render effects like depth of field help focus gameplay. Particle and warp effects are designed to keep things looking great and the audio helps bind everything together.   

Malice features the voices of Gwen Stefani and her bandmates from No Doubt.  How soon into the game's development did you begin working with them, and what was that experience like for you?

 

AP: Following a change of publisher we decided to rewrite the script and re-record with a different set of voice actors.

That’s a big weapon!

Who designed the main character for this game, and how did Gwen Stefani come to be her original voice her?

AP: It was a team effort, I don’t think I can pin Malice’s creation onto any one person. She started life on paper as a cool concept for a character - an unlikely heroin, up against the odds, evolves into a goddess. Over time she acquired her own personality and her visuals evolved with her.

What has been the most rewarding thing in completing Malice?

AP: Malice is a quirky and varied universe. Everybody who worked on it had fun creating the details and in-jokes that make it uniquely Malice. The biggest reward is in the completion itself and now everybody can share [with] the world [what] we’ve been enjoying for years.

Thank you for your time.

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