Mirror's Edge GCA Interview

As promised here is Suffur’s interview with Tom Farrer, the producer of Mirror's Edge, also a Producer at Dice who made Mirror's Edge which is distributed by E.A. Games. The interview was not recorded so the answers are taken from notes and are not direct quotes. We would like to take this opportunity to invite Tom Farrer to let us know about any misquotes so we can make any corrections.

Interview

Q: Going all X and Y and off the floor per say, was it difficult to build and use that space, and were there any problems going up?

Yes, as people don't look up!

Q: Where did this idea come from though it is based on Pakour/Street Running, you have placed Mirror's Edge in the future and delivery of messages by hand and away from prying eyes?

Well it's the near future due to the white concrete of the city, though it does seem further in the future due to the sterile look of the city, but then look around you, the game could be set in Singapore (as we look out of this giant building that is the SunTech Convention centre, where we can see concrete and glass buildings; in all shapes and sizes, but still majestic, all around us, though we are on the fourth floor where the main hall holds all the exhibits and demo areas, the floors are at least 20 meters apart, and the view is through heavy duty glass built like a wall with an artistic semblance {not that it’s a good description, lol, it’s a huge space people, you could stick a jumbo jet to the glass, like a spider, and it would fit} but there is a lot of space and air as this side of the building is open space, with escalators going up to tiers that are the floors).

And yes Pakour is a strong influence, but since big brother is always watching, communication via technical means could be, and is probably being monitored, so messages are delivered by hand across the city over the roof tops, through buildings, down their sides, water ways, air conditioning ducts, anything you see that can be run across, over or up, is pretty much accessible! You have to escape capture and deliver the 'package/message' by any means necessary! You can run, dodge, jump, leap, back-flip, slide, use acrobatic ways and spin out of the way of bullets!

Q: Will this be for both consoles and PC? What Type of PC will it need to run on?

It's out for all three, and most of the shelf gaming machines will work fine, but the bigger the better is the way to go, for the full experience!

Q: How did you get the idea of First Person combat, and deal with motion sickness that may arise? As all we see of our female lead in the game play is her hands and feet, plus the discarding of weapons to make jumps?

It was an issue at first, as the targeting dot (like the aiming sight in Rainbow Six Vegas to show you where you aim and where your bullets may go), was too close, and that was disconcerting, so we moved it and made it float a bit, so it was not totally fixed. Then we kept tweaking it a bit till it was comfortable. I get sick playing FPS'ers and Mirror's Edge does not bother me at all, but for some people at first it may take some time to get use to, but we're sure it won't.

We also sort of change the view when you get hit by bullets, it sort of twitches, like a warning that you are taking hits and that you have got to get behind cover or run and hide or just keep running!

Q: You have an amazing skyline, was it an issue to tone it down, for game play (as it looks very white), and red identifiers to show where jumps and hand holds are, and do they disappear at harder difficulties?

Our Heroine, Faith, has a specialist point of view, she sees where she must go and we show that with the red hand identifiers, hand holds, places to run up walls, or across them, or leap from, or slide across.

We worked with a program called the Beast, created by Illuminate Lab(s), it's not all white, there are textures and reflections of colours, like blue, orange, yellow, red, and reflections of windows, that look like mirrors.

You can also turn that off, so you decide where you run and jump, but it was supposed to show a specialist type of view that your character has.

We also have timed modes and ghosts for those, that can be shared with other players, which will show peoples routes and how they do certain levels, but only in those timed modes, not during the game, we tried it but when combat happened it did not look right, actually it looked very wrong, in fact.

Q: Lefty controls, have you got them for Mirror's Edge, and why weren't they in BF: Bad Company?

Yes, we have it in Mirror's Edge and it should be on the demo, and was not included in BF:BC due to cost effectiveness with production. (We went to the demo and the options were turned off for the demo, did try to play it righty/default, but had issues, so I watched Tom run through the level, to the point I'm sure he could do it in his sleep, he did it while talking to people when he was showing me, without getting shot to bits by the bad guys, I sadly fell to my death at one point so that ended it for me, lol.)

But the options are to change the sticks over and the shoulder buttons. The shoulder buttons are used for you characters movement too. The top ones to go up and over/jump and the bottom one to slide, if you are in the air and you hit down, she will roll as she lands, the other buttons on the shoulder buttons are for acrobatic tricks as it were, like back-flips off a wall you ran at, or to change your direction as you jump from 180 or 90 degrees.

Q: Any post release support for this game? Like DLC?

Yes, but it is a secret!

Suf: Thank you for your time and what is the street date for Mirror's Edge, for the UK and Asia?

November 18th 2008

This game is just amazing, true I have not really played it yet, but it was so new and fresh that I would say, please buy it, because a sequel will be made, ME2, which will be so much more, as they know that some of the stuff that is not perfect, has to be perfected for the next one, and it is only going to get bigger and better!

After interview questions

Q: How many Levels are in the game?

There are 9 levels in the game that get bigger as you progress.

Q: Did you take a lot of pictures of roof tops?

O'God yes, loads and loads, but we could have based the game in Singapore, though that would have made people think of Singapore negatively, but the buildings here are amazing for this type of game!

Tom was very enthusiastic about this game, hence the !, and he was a very animated fellow when talking about the Mirror's Edge as I had to drag him away from the demo, so we could talk in a quieter space to do the interview, but he just buzzed with energy, which was cool and made it an enjoyable interview.

Next up will be Martin Frain, Marketing Director for Dice and part of E.A. Look out for it in the next couple of days.