April 1997

• Matt Wood

In the last two updates of the Prey Development page, Paul Schuytema has talked more about the hiring of Matt Wood. Including why he was hired. 3D Realms has released the Quake level that landed Matt the job as level designer. You can download it right here (915K). Matt Wood should be moved to Garland, Texas within a month to get started on Prey as the main level designer. Apogee also posted a Press Release including more about the addition of Matt Wood today.

Scott McCabe has a homepage on the web now, according to Preystation. This is his personal page - not a place to look for official Prey information. I seem to be having problems getting through, anyone else?

• Prey Level Designer selected

Matt Wood, (any relation to Doug Wood?) has been selected as the new level desginer to join the Prey team. Matt is also known on IRC as RockSockm. He will be moving to Garland, Texas, and will be a part of the Prey team.

• Development Page

It's that time again, the Prey Update has arrived. Here is a summary. Engine work is being done with objects and video system. For the first time, we hear about weapons in Prey. Ideas for weapons are going together right now. We may be able to see some of this work in the near future. 3D Realms mentions the CGDC conference again. Two new screenshots have also been released. The first screenshot shows some stairs in a level. Here is something new, the second screenshot shows the first ladder in Prey. Ladders may be a part of the final game if it works out, and this is the start.

• Computer Games Developers Conference

At the Computer Games Developers Conference Expo in Santa Clara next week, a demo of Prey will be shown by Apogee along with more information given out to all the other game developers. The Expo is three days long. More more information on CGDC, look at their webpage.

3D Realms is also close to choosing the new Level Designer for Prey. I'll keep you updated with this in the coming days.

• New screenshot, updates

"We are skipping a generation of technology [for prey]." That is what George Broussard said when talking about the future of games. Yesterday on IRC, George took the 1998 release date a little further and said that Prey will probably be out in "Late 1998." For all of you who want to see another screenshot, Lithium of Preystation got one for a birthday present. Go there to see it.

I was also notified that some information will be revealed on the Prey Engine on the Developers Conference (or web?). If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail me.

• Development Update, new screenshot and art

This afternoon, 3D Realms updated their Weekly Development Update page and included a screenshot. They also gave us a little surprise. Scott McCabe, of the Prey team, created a poster with the Prey logo, the "Be Brave" motto, and some extra artwork in the middle. Please note that it is just random art and what ever that is in the poster does not relate directly to Prey except the title.

For some extra information, if you are wondering what it says in the middle, here it is:

Subject: SandraB

Sex: Female

Origin: Terran

How to Handle: INFORMATION UNKNOWN

• The Official Prey FAQ v1.0 Released!

My FAQ, formally known as "The Prey FAQ," has become the official FAQ for Prey. It can be downloaded at http://www.3drealms.com/faq, or here. I have been working on updating it for a number of weeks now, and it is current. I also changed the version number to v1.0 showing the first "official" version.

• Mark Dochtermann .plan

A former programmer on the Prey team has spoken out about what he saw in a PC Gamer article.

[04/08/97 09:25 AM] 

- Just saw the new PC Gamer article out: 

"Prey was floundering and taking forever while they were here, and it's 
doing far, far better now that we have new people in here doing the work," 
says Scott Miller. 

"It's no wonder they jumped to using the Quake Engine because they weren't 
able to make a comparable engine while here at Apogee." 

Gee, you don't think we at Hipnotic recognized the cool ass nature of 
Quake and decided to make an awesome game with it do you? 

Before you know it, Apogee will probably be licensing the Quake 
engine themselves. Of course we'll have to make them eat there own words 
now, won't we. ;) 

I am glad to hear the Prey engine is now so FAR along in development. 

• Schuytema Interview

PlanetQuake, (wonder why all the Quake sites are talking to the Prey team) interviewed Paul Schuytema and tells us a little about Prey and Paul's past. Unfortunately, Paul only completed half the interview, but they were answered by other people. Others at Apogee Software may have answered, but they are not guaranteed to be true :)

• New Screenshots

Because of high demand, 3D Realms released two new screenshots today. Check 'em out!

• Michael Wallin

I'd like to clear up what I said in a past update. I said that Joe Siegler(Apogee's online support manager) told me that Michael Wallin has been officially added to the Prey team. As it turns out, Joe was incorrect and Michael is going on to the Duke Nukem team instead. If anyone has Michael Wallin as listed under the Prey team, please remove him.

The Prey FAQ (probably v0.2), looks like a release any time now. I'm waiting on someone else right now.

• GameSpot Previews Prey

Gamespot has done a short preview on Prey and included some new screenshots. GameSpot talks about the story, the technology, and some of the features Prey will have. Look at the screenshots, they have redone some of the old 1996 screenshots with the new engine. Check it out!

• Fingers

Joe Siegler, Apogee's Online Support Manager, told me that everyone at Apogee will have access to finger accounts soon. What does this mean? Everyone will be able to update the public, including The Prey Team. Paul Schuytema couldn't wait and wrote a message in his .plan file at his Texas ISP. This is something to look forward to, more updates from the Prey team.

• Prey Development Page Updated

Today, we seen another official update from 3D Realms. Go there for also for a new screenshot! As for the update it's self, we all ready knew everything that was said. Today, Joe Siegler confirmed that Michael Wallin is now officially a part of the Prey team. That adds another artist to the team.

• Paul Schuytema visits IRC

For the first time, Paul Schuytema, producer on the Prey team, came into Undernet's #Duke3D. His nickname was: Paul3DR (PaulS@hd94-139.compuserve.com). Paul said that they have not been happy about the Quake maps being sent in for the Prey mapper job. It looks like they will start accepting Duke3D maps along with Quake maps. I think after Paul's visit, we've had half the Prey team on IRC at one time or another. Drop by, you may never know who will be there!

I need to correct something that I said in my last update. I said that Scott McCabe, the Prey texture guy, is not very experienced in 3D Studio. It turns out he is an expert in it, and could fake screenshots if he wanted to :)

• April Fools Joke?

Today, Preystation showed this message from Paul Schuytema :

all new screen shots from the Prey engine are a sham--the engine isn't really that far along at all.
we've just been stalling. our artists Scott McCabe and Allen Dilling actually created the screen
shots in 3D Studio so we'd have something to show. but the truth got out somehow--right now,
the Prey engine can only show polygons and we're struggling even with that... etc.

I've attached a "screen shot" of the "actual" Prey engine in action--now the truth is out there...

We saw the first "new" screenshot March 10th. Allen Dilling, the Prey 3D artist, was hired the day before, but was not assigned to any team or started anything. The other artist, Scott McCabe is not a 3D artist, and I do not think he is very experienced in 3D Studio. That says that the artists Paul mentioned were not ready to create the screenshots in time. The Prey engine was finished in late 1996. The Preditor can display textures, and there is no reason why the engine cannot also show textures.

Also, the screenshot Preystation shows could have been make in any Quake editor. I suggest treat this as a joke. Done by Preystation or The Prey Team, I do not know yet.