FourX development - so many impressive titles in so little time... Let's find out more about them:

Q: When did you start to develop games with the Acknex engine?
A: We started developing games with Acknex in 2000. At the beginning we were using the A4 version and the trial version.

Q: You have created several good looking demos and games in a short period of time; what's your secret?
A: There is no secret George; the first thing to do is facing things seriously! Hard work is always welcomed when you need a good game, as well as a creative and motivated team. All of our demos were based on the idea of testing the technology and the potential of the Acknex engine. Basically, we were looking for the bottlenecks and the difficulties on the script programming that we might face during the game developing. This was the idea on the “Reecounter Tech Demo”, and we did it mostly to test a few features we where trying to implement at that time, just like: hit points, radar algorithm, blood effects and A.I. We realized that as soon as we could get a good demo version, all of our work on the game would be more precise and directed. So this is why we came with a several demos in a short period of time.

Q: I see that you are a contest winner; what should I do to make my demo a winner?
A: I think that the more innovative and simple ideas are always the best ones to win the contest. Let me tell you the history of the “Defender”, just to illustrate this idea. At the beginning, we were working on a physics engine to cars and, at the same time, testing the terrain map, a new feature of Acknex at that time. It was a little bit boring to stay watching all those little cars walking around the map; some of them collided and got stuck, others got lost or showed weird behaviors, and that was turning the process really difficult. Then came the idea to put a weapon on the camera view, so that it would make it easier to remove the cars with weird behavior and cast other ones without restarting the level. Then “Defender” was born. We had no expectations to win the Contest with “Defender”, and we were really surprised when it won the second prize. So now we decided to work on what “Defender” had become: a game with simple concept, easy to play and very fun. We created a story, added new weapons, a HUD, enemies, balance, game play, challenge and we gave birth to “Alien Madness”. Unfortunately, “Alien Madness” didn’t go well on the last contest, but are expecting to make it a commercial product until the end of this year.

Q: What tools are you using for your models, textures and sounds?
A: We use Photoshop 6 for texturing, 3DS Max 4 for modeling and animating and CakeWalk 8 and Sound Forge for sound sampling and editing.

Q: How many polygons should we use for our characters in a "normal" game?
A: We don’t use a fixed number of polygons, it will always depend on the kind of project you are developing. When we create a project, we try to adapt it to extract the maximum performance we can from Acknex. For example, if you are planning a First Person Shooter game and are expecting 15 visible enemies on the screen at the same time, create a simple map and start adding models with 250 polygons until you get your desired frame rate (that should be not less than 30 fps) . Let’s say that, so far, you have added 20,000 polygons at 30 fps. Now, divide 20,000 by 15, that is the number of models you want, and we get 1,344 polygons per model. Round the number down by 10%, as a safe margin, and you get 1,200 polygons, the ideal number per model you may expect on your game. Of course this is far from being a recipe, since you may need more than 1,200 polygons per model or you can plan your game to a low-end platform, that will require low polygon models. But this can give you a general idea of what you should expect in the end for a normal game.
Q: What new engine features would you like to see implemented in the near future?
A: Well, the possibilities of new features are nearly uncountable! There are so many great things that can be implemented on Acknex. We would bet on bone animation, physics engine, A.I. engine, 24 bits render, dynamic LOD, cell shader and bump mapping. And, of course, without mentioning, the XBox support that would be truly welcomed!

Q: Do you have a publisher for your games?
A: Not yet. But we are now showing our games and projects to publishers in Europe and here, in Brasil. We have received good opinions from the games we have shown for these publishers so far.

Q: Can you tell us a few words about your future game projects?
A: Right now we are working on two projects for the future. I can’t tell much more about these projects, just that they will be different from any game you ever saw on the Acknex platform. One of them, that we are giving full attention right now, will be an action game (not FPS), arcade style with a Sci-Fi story. I hope our gamers will enjoy this game; there will be lots of camera transitions, F/X, weapons and action.

Q: Please give us a few tips for the beginners!
A: - Create a game that you and your company can finish! Leave the big games for the big guys until you know how to build a great project; half a game won’t make half of the money…

- Appearance is the first thing that calls the attention from a gamer. Focus on the graphics of your game. Try to have designers, artists, architects and good, really good, 3D modelers working for you. Don’t expect
that your 13 years old nephew will do the job for you. 3D Modelers must be experienced, skilled and creative.

- Be careful with the performance of your game. Pay attention to the size of the textures, number of polygons and the size of the video card memory your game is using. Sometimes you can achieve the same
result with smaller textures, half of the polygons and working out your scripts to use less video card memory (a good thing for players!!!).

Thank you a lot, Joshua.