Interview with IllOgic from G.H.O.S.T. OPs

[20 June 2004 - 14:30 PST GMT-8]
Mod Website

Half-Life Gaming: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

IllOgic: Names illOgic, one of the founders and leader of the G.H.O.S.T. Ops: The Avalon Project mod. I’m 27, love building games, and looking forward to getting this game out.

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

IllOgic: Basically, its big business versus the government. The government gets themselves in financial trouble; they turn to the private sector, being huge companies like Microsoft etc, to fund weapons research etc, because of the ongoing world problems. After a while, through corruption, and payoffs, the corporations come together, and form an alliance, then challenge the government’s power. This causes a civil war of sorts.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of Melee attacks will there be implemented into the mod?

IllOgic: Our melee attacks are similar to halos. every weapon in the ghost arsenal you can hit someone over the head with, like in halo. This will cause the player to reel, and controls to be backwards, etc.

Half-Life Gaming: How long has GHOTS Ops been in development?

IllOgic: to long. :) almost three years, we have having trouble with talent, and finding people to help finish the mod, since the release of hl2, and other engines hitting the scene, people don’t want to put effort into a game they think is old. We have been doing this to long to give up now, we will complete it.

Half-Life Gaming: What is the source of inspiration for this mod?

IllOgic: well, a lot of things really. cs, dod, tfc, we are all seasoned gamers, and have really built ghost as a game, that we think gamers want to play. we built it, so we could play it. so we are equally as excited as the fans.

Half-Life Gaming: What is the hardest thing about creating a mod?

IllOgic: really, its finding the talent, and the learning curve if you haven’t done it before. Finding the talent is number 1, the hl community while being the biggest, is also one of the most rough to start a mod in, mainly because there are so many. The real talent in the community has been in mods that have failed so many times, they do not want to help, and put work in, in fear of disappointment. Plus, the love of building the game is gone. a lot of people do it in hopes of money, and breaking into the business, but the first and foremost, should be the love of building a game, and doing the work.

Half-Life Gaming: You got a lot of weapons on your website. Why so many?

IllOgic: Well, one thing i hated about some games, is the limited weapons, and then, weapons for each side. CS for example, how many play ct to get the carbine? i wanted to eliminate that. in ghost, both sides have full use of the arsenal. Plus, we liked weapons, so we just kept adding really. i like for people to have a wide variety.

Half-Life Gaming: Who or what got you into gaming?

Playing them. I was playing games, and you start to say, "Man it would be cool if they did this" or "why hasn’t anyone done this, or added this feature". I have heard so many ideas, or good suggestions, or had ideas or suggestions of my own, so why not build my own game?

Half-Life Gaming: what is your favorite Half-Life mod and explain why it is?

IllOgic: hehe well, I love cs, it’s what got me into this in the first place. the round based rounds, the weapons, and team based play, all great. TFC is another, I like the difference in classes, and the way they affect game play.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of effects is your particle engine capable of creating?

IllOgic: well, we have tried to make particles for all types of materials. concrete, grass, water, metal, pebbles, dust, etc. we also have steam, and a weather system implemented.

Half-Life Gaming: And on the previous question, will it be realistic weather?

IllOgic: well, not sure exactly how realistic you can get in a hl mod, but we are tweaking it, and suggestions are certainly welcome on how to make it better.

Half-Life Gaming: What kind of game play is possible for the Mappers to work in?

IllOgic: well, the mapping is wide open. there has been a lot of control given to the Mappers, almost everything is trigger based, and the coding is dynamic, allowing for the coder to implement any kind of game play, from death match, to 3 objectives round based rounds. Ghost however, for final maps released with the mod, will only be accepting the 3 objective, round based rounds game play.

Half-Life Gaming: What separates this mod from all of the rest?

IllOgic: Well I hope that it will be a lot of fun, good looking, and is open and dynamic enough, to allow Mappers to have fun with it. I personally think that what sets it apart is the weapons, the game play, its a good mix of everything that has been proven fun before, so lets hope that ghost is the same.