Interview with Talnova from Dracten

[12 December 2004 - 09:15 PST GMT-8]
Dracten

Half-Life Gaming: Sum up the story line of your mod in about 2 paragraphs.

Talnova: My Name Is Kevin M, I am from the Desert Mountains in Arizona. I've been working on the idea for “Dracten” since 1991, first started out as a novel, so it has kind of grown. I am the Leader, Director, Concept Artist, and Webmaster for Dracten.

The Story takes place in another Galaxy. Basically a group called the "kizers" Who explore worlds come upon this strange planet - sending out a strange signal. This planet they haven’t seen before by the kizers. The Kizers usually never have to go down into a planet without knowing its safe and for some odd reason there equipment doesn't work. They send a team down on to the surface, to find out what is going on. Sadly a few of the team members go missing, and your basically one of the characters in the story trying to figure out what’s going on among the chaos.

Half-Life Gaming: How long has this mod been under development?

Talnova: A year now

Half-Life Gaming: Will this be a multiplayer only mod or will there be a single player aspect to Dracten?

Talnova: It will be single player, multiplayer, Coop

Half-Life Gaming: What has been the most challenging obstacle for development of this mod?

Talnova: Getting People to believe your not trying to take off with everything and just leave the mod to die.
Sadly I've seen a lot of Total Conversions and mods die. Even ones which had a perfect team. But they didn't have a original idea to back it up.

Half-Life Gaming: What has been the easiest part of development for this mod?

Talnova: Easy - Gah nothing is really easy about doing a mod. But if I had to say doing something easy - Sound Effects!

Half-Life Gaming: Why did you choose to make a fantasy type modification?

Talnova: Its a Mixture of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

I just got tired of seeing only science fiction stories, Same goes with Fantasy only. You Mix the Two and then make humans not the main characters - You Get "Cravantasy"

Half-Life Gaming: Do you plan on releasing tools to allow the community to make maps and custom models?

Talnova: Tools - Will see about that. We would like to make some aspects of Dracten customizable. That way people will enjoy it more.

Half-Life Gaming: Where did you come up with the idea for this mod?

Talnova: A novel I was writing back in 1991 - it didn't really have a name then and the idea came from my imagination, also other influences. Classic Video Games!

Half-Life Gaming: When you started, how did you get a team together and how hard was it to do so? And why?

Talnova: I got a team started by looking around for those who had the same interests. Wanted to do something cool and new. Put up a website and said "Here is Dracten" care to join? The Hardest Part is finding those people, who have the same interests. You have to look everywhere on the internet and just hope they find you or you find them.

Half-Life Gaming: Are there any position open and can you give use a description of what those entitle, if any?

Talnova: Yep We have a lot of positions open in the Art Department And Coding.

"2" Texture Artists,
"2" Organic 3D modelers,
"1" Level Designer
"2" coders

That is about all we need.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind things will help set this mod apart from the rest?

Talnova: We have put hours of hard craft into creating a unique, never before attempted fantasy sci-fi universe featuring Dragons, Nograds, foxes, Strange Creature Etc.

I am hoping those reading this will recognize this marvelous opportunity to get involved at the very beginning of what will be an amazing new gaming experience.

The project is taking a new, ambitious approach to development in that we are writing a modification 'by' the community 'for' the community, the idea being that rather than having a tight nit team the project is open to anyone to help with in all areas.

What will help set this mod apart from the rest, is something new, and we don't want to give that away just yet.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of weapons will people be able to use?

Talnova: You'll be able to use Melee Weapons, Swords, Strange Alien Type Weapons, Projectile Weapons.
Some very cool weapons which you'd only hope games would have today.
How do you plan to have the game play setup?

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of interesting things do you still want to add to the mod?

Talnova: It will be similar to many of the great classic games: Looking for Certain Items, Driving around in vehicles, Outsmarting Enemy's, Surviving Strange Creatures - Sword Fighting. (Again don't want to give away too much)

To be honest - I'd really like people to enjoy this game so I could focus on doing the Sequel - which would totally blow peoples minds.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of music do you plan of having?

Talnova: A Variety of Really good music from Classical, Rock, Electronica, Ambient, New Age.

Examples: Metroid, Star fox, Legend of Zelda, Castlevania. Halo.

They All had some really cool sound tracks.

Half-Life Gaming: Where do you get most of your inspiration from?

Talnova: I get inspiration from looking at my teams work or other artists imagination which has yet to be seen by the public media. Hoping Hollywood does something new!

Half-Life Gaming: Who has been the most supportive of this project? Family, Friends, the Community?

Talnova: My Family has been very supportive, Friends and those on the Team for understanding my visions and working as a great team to get this project done.

We Are Pretty Happy its gotten this Far. The community thinks the project is really cool, and they really want to see it get done.
Thanks For Having us! Take Care!