May 1998

• E3 Opens

Today marks the opening of the gaming industry's trade show, E3.  This three day event is where gaming companies show off their new games, including Prey.  One of the most talked about games at the show last year was Prey, and it is expected to turn a lot of heads again this year.  Expect lots of previews, interviews, and screenshots of the game in the next few days from gaming sites.  I'll post them all here.  One site that is already offering good coverage is 3D Portal, which includes exclusive first pictures of the Prey E3 Demo!

• French Prey FAQ Released!

Daniel Berard has translated v1.2 of my Official Prey FAQ to French and has released it.  This is a complete translation for everyone who prefers French or requires it.  Good job, Daniel. He also runs a great French Prey Site called Prey OnLine.

• Talon Brave Voice

The voice for Talon Brave has finally been found!  After a year of searching, 3D Realms have found the right person for the job.  We don't know his name yet, but we do know he has an Apache background and has done different things in TV and Radio before.  I'll get more information on this soon.

• Panoramic Screenshot

3D Realms released a new screenshot of Prey today, but not just any screenshot.  This is a full 360 degree panoramic screenshot from within the game.  Live Picture 3.0 is required to view this screenshot, which comes in two sizes: Regular and Full Screen.  I believe that this may be a picture of Talon Brave's home in the Southwest US that gives a look into the living room and dining room.  We see that this screenshot really shows off the amount of detail put into the game, making it very realistic.  Look for more of these panoramic screenshots that give you an in-game feel in the future.

• Talon Brave Screenshot

Some pretty big news here.  We now have the first in game screenshot of Talon Brave ever!  Thanks to Preyground for scanning this in from Computer Gaming World. This is our first good look at Talon.  I can see that he is also holding some kind of weapon.  Since Talon is shown in the magazine, I think they will show a lot more of him at E3 this year. Expect more pictures like this in the coming weeks.

• Prey Development Update

The next weekly development update for Prey is online.   Here is a great update on the status of the music in Prey, and how the music is going to be worked out within the game.

In my last update, I told you that we were expecting some new KMFDM material. Well, it came (4 theme tracks), and boy, does it rock! The whole team, in shifts, filed into my office, we closed the door, cranked up my stereo and let it rip. By the end of the CDR, our jaws were hanging open-this is some of the best stuff I've ever heard from KMFDM (that's what Sascha promised us, and it looks like they're delivering).

While it'll be some time before you can hear their tunes (though those of you "lucky" enough to brave the mayhem of E3 will get a short aural peek), I thought I'd fill you in a bit on how they're working on the music.

Our approach is simple-build the body of music out of a small collection of recognizable themes. KMFDM and I have been working together on designing the various Prey themes. Of course, there will be the main game theme, plus themes to represent each of the species of the Trocara (as well as the Keepers), and some other themes to represent other key characters in the game.

I put together some emotional descriptions of the various themes (like, how are you supposed to feel when you hear the Keeper's theme, for example), plus relevant backstories. From there, the band has been working on different approaches-one great idea that Sascha and Tim had was to attribute a certain beat speed to each of the Trocaran species. The latest CDR that they sent has rough versions of four themes, and it was cool to close our eyes and listen-we could really visualize the Trocaran species through their music.

We then put together our comments and thoughts on the themes to sent back to them for revision. Right now, they've gathered together (some members of the band live overseas) in Seattle for a month of studio work, laying down tracks for us and for their next album.

• Prey Design Journal #5

Preditor or Prey -- The 5th Design Journal coming from C|Net's Gamecenter.   This month's edition talks about the Preditor and the mappers on the Prey team who use it.  Future level designers for Prey, you might want to read this!