HL Fallout: How long have you been working on this mod?

Fuzzy: The project kicked off back in 2003, with the first year spent planning, organising the team, prototyping on halflife1 and waiting for Valve to release halflife2. For the last 10 months we have been in heavy development.

HL Fallout: Why is the release only a "demo"?

Fuzzy: Dystopia had been in a closed beta for around 6 months prior to the release of the demo. We felt that the level of quality we'd hit was above that of a typical work in progress beta. We really see the demo release as being indicative of what we're aiming for with the full release.

We focused our efforts on creating an initial "demonstration" level. Since Dystopia has a lot of unique ideas we found that attempting to balance weapons, classes and implants across a range of levels which all had different scales and distances was very difficult. So Vaccine has become our "base normal". Teddy, our lead coder, and Termi, our lead mapper, worked very hard to create the system required to get the interaction between cyberspace and the realworld working. Now that this has been perfected on Vaccine, our other mappers have taken all the lessons which Termi learnt and are applying them to their own levels.

HL Fallout: Do you plan on giving us some more content such as new maps, weapons, classes, etc... for the demo?

Fuzzy: Right now our number 1 priority is adding more maps. We have 5 maps under construction right now, with 3 that we're heavily playtesting. We will continue to add new content to the demo release right up to the full release. While new classes aren't really on the cards, the team do have a long list of new weapons and implants which we'll be prototyping up and playtesting with our testing team. If any of these prove to be enjoyable and fit in with the balance and theme we've created, then you'll see them added to the demo.

HL Fallout: Since this is a demo I can only imagine that a full release will some day be appearing. Any plans to distribute via Steam?

Fuzzy: We had actually hoped to have the demo released over Steam and had been in discussions with Valve to make this happen. However, their hands were extremely full with the DoD:S release and we didn't want to push back releasing the demo just to wait for Steam.

With this said, we would dearly love to be able to distribute Dystopia across Steam. It would allow our player base a much easier upgrade path as we add content to the demo. At the end of the day, making your game easily accessible to players is something that every mod team dreams of.

HL Fallout: If you do plan on releasing via steam do how much do you plan on charging?

Fuzzy: Right now, we don't have any plans to charge for Dystopia. We have previously stated that we would only charge for Dystopia if it was made into a stand alone package. Any opportunity to make this happen is still a long way off.

HL Fallout: So now that HDR is out, do you have any plans on putting it into the game?

Fuzzy: Yes, Teddy went out and bought a new cpu and video card just so he could start messing around with HDR. Initially we'll be looking to add HDR along side the custom bloom effect we already have in cyberspace, as well as investigating how well it can be used throughout the realworld environments in Dystopia.

HL Fallout: What are your future plans for the mod?

Fuzzy: We're extremely focused on supporting the demo release, as proven by the 3 updates we've already released. As quick as humanly possible we'll squish any bugs or exploits which crop up in the demo. We'll also be adding new maps and features.

The team is currently working heavily on the vehicles which will be included in the full release of Dystopia. Our artists are concepting up some incredible machines and Teddy has been reworking the control and physics system.

HL Fallout: Anything else you want to add?

Fuzzy: I'd like to give a big shout out to the Dystopia forum community, our fans have truly blown us away with the level of support they've given the team. Our IRC channel (#dystopia on the irc.ausirc.com network) has over 100 people in it 24/7 and the scene which has built up around Dystopia is extremely friendly and helpful.

Season 2 of the Dystopia Global League is about to kick off, so any clans who want to get involved in some organised Dystopia matches should swing by www.dystopia-league.com (http://www.dystopia-league.com) and sign up!

HL Fallout: Well thank you for taking the time out of you day to do this interview. I, along with the many other dystopia fans, await more media releases and information on this mod.

Fuzzy: Thanks to hlfallout.net for the coverage and support you've given to Dystopia, and thanks to every single player who has checked out the Dystopia demo!

related links

• Dystopia New Player Guide (http://dystopia-game.com/newplayerguide/)
  
• Dystopia Website (http://dystopia-game.com/)