Feature By

Chi Kong Lui

With contributions from Brad Gallaway

After playing and reviewing Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, I knew almost instantly that I wanted to interview its creators at Kronos Digital. The unique blend of Hollywood-esque production values, trendy anime cyber-punk, and eastern-style mysticism topped off with gratuitous doses of ultra-violence and candid sex appeal had me wondering just what kind of mind is able to process all these different sensibilities and produce a videogame of such artistic quality.

Anyone who reads through this interview will quickly notice that my line of questioning wasn’t geared toward helping the publishers sell a few more copies of the title (although I hope it does so we can get more great titles along the lines of Fear Effect 2). I wanted to get inside the head of one of the persons directly responsible and understand the creative vision behind the controversial title. Luckily, I got to probe the top dog of Kronos Digital, Stan Liu. I thank him in advance for allowing me to subject him to some tough questions and for being so open with his responses. Without further ado...

(To learn more about Kronos Digital, click this image)

Let’s start the interview off by getting to know you a little better. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you originally hail from?

My name is Stan Liu. I’m the President/CEO of Kronos Digital Entertainment. I’m also the Writer/Director for the Fear Effect series.

I was born and raised in Hong Kong. My family moved to the United States 20 years ago when I was 16. I graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a B.S. degree in Transportation Design. I was immediately hired by Alias/Wavefront as their international design consultant. After three great years, I left the company and became a private consultant for various film and entertainment companies. I officially started Kronos Digital Entertainment in 1994. Our very first game-related project was for back then, Sierra Online. We created the seven-minute opening movie for King’s Quest 6.

What videogame(s) (if any) got you hooked? What are some of your all-time favorite titles?

The one game that started it all for me would be Nolan Bushnell’s infamous PONG!! I have so many favorite games through the years—all those hours I spent at the local arcade when I should’ve been in school! (Laughs) I played a lot of the classics like Asteroid, Missile Command, Star Castle, Defender, Sinistar, Robotron, Berserk, Tempest, Centipede, Street Fighter II, Samurai Showdown, Side Arms, R-type—the list is endless! I was never into Pac-Man or Joust for some reason.

What about home videogame systems?

I owned many consoles. I had all three Ataris, ColecoVision, VIC 20, all the Nintendos, all the Segas, NEC TurboGrafx-16 with the CD drive and the Neo Geo. But my all time favorite was the Commodore 64! I played many Ultimas, all the Bard’s Tales, the Might And Magics, Archon, Elite and so many other great games on it. I guess back then I was mostly into shooters and RPGs. I loved the Ys series on the TurboDuo, all the Final Fantasys (except I didn’t like 8 and 9 as much!) and the Phantasy Star series (I haven’t play Phantasy Star Online but would like to). I’ve been a diehard gamer all my life, and I was actually lucky enough to have married one as well. Nowadays, both my wife and I spend a lot of time playing online games. She’s quite an accomplished gamer. When we used to play Tribes together, most of her victims would refuse to believe that they just got their butts kicked by a girl. I don’t really care for Ultima Online and EverQuest as much, but she loves them. Sometimes I think she spends more time online with her guild mates than with me! So, when she’s online with her buddies, I would get on our Counter Strike clan server and start blasting away at the Counter Terrorists. Currently, our clan "[7bits]" is No. 1 on OGL FF ladder.

How did you get into the videogame business?

Kronos started out as an animation and CG effect house. As much as I was a hardcore gamer, it had never occurred to me that I can actually make my own game! When Sierra approached us to do the opening movie for King's Quest 6, we saw the opportunity to provide our high-end animation services to the booming videogame industry. For our next project, Sierra contracted Kronos to create the art asset for their seven CD game called Phantasmagoria. The game was a huge success and we began to staff up and attempt to create our first original title. We approached Sony to see if they had the need for our services. We were then introduced to the amazing PlayStation. To make a long story short, Sony had a license for a comic book character and we were asked to come up with some game concepts based on that license. We worked feverishly and came up with the idea of a fighting game (the rage back then), to which the characters can learn new moves, change physically and raise their attributes through time. Eventually, for political reasons (at least that’s what we were told), the local Sony division we were dealing with had to give up the license to one of their European subsidiaries. Since we already had a game design, we decided to create all new characters, revamp the concept and pitch it to various publishers. In April of 1995, Vic Tokai approached us and agreed to publish our first original title provided that we can have it out by Christmas that very same year. Needless to say, we were extremely excited, but we didn’t even have a single PlayStation development system as of yet! I repeatedly explained to our external producer from Vic Tokai that it was an impossible schedule, there was no possible way that we can create a game on a brand new platform in less then six-months time. We were then shown the actual contract and the check for the development, at that point, all our doubts instantly turned into desperation and greed! We needed and wanted so very badly to break into the game industry. We decided to take the chance and see if we truly had what it takes to make it happen, to be a "game developer." And so, we embarked on our maiden voyage to create the infamous "Trilogy of Terror" as Brad so eloquently put it in his review of Retro Helix! (Laughs) Yes, Criticom was not the best of games! However, to both Vic Tokai and Kronos, the game was a huge success. We’d managed to create a game from scratch on budget in less than six-months time. Since it was one of the earlier titles on PlayStation, it actually did respectable numbers as well. The down side is that we are still living up to the "from the maker of Criticom" comment after all these years. Furthermore, we got stuck doing fighting games for a while simply because we were one of the very few U.S. game developers that actually made a fighting game. Hence, Dark Rift and Cardinal Syn. Looking back, we did what we had to in order to survive and grow as a company. In many ways, without those titles, we would not have the chance to build up our technology and capability to create Fear Effect.

How were you involved with the development of Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix?

I had the concept for the Fear Effect universe in my head for many years now. It was not until recently that we’ve managed to build up the perfect team to take on this monumental task! I served as the writer/director for Retro Helix. I was responsible for creating the original script, all dialogue and cinematic direction for the game. I was also an editor and animator on the project. However, all the credit should go to my tremendously talented and dedicated team who had sacrificed their personal lives and spent countless long hours working under extremely stressful conditions to make the vision of Retro Helix a reality. Not to mention how time and again they had to endure and work with my temperament. To them, they have my utmost respect and deepest appreciation. Without them, Retro Helix would just have been another pipedream.

The Fear Effect universe is an amazingly seamless blend of different styles and complex ideas. Talk in detail about the major inspirations that went into creating the series, and if there was anything in particular that served as the inspiration for the sequel, Retro Helix.

Due to my film and gaming background, I’ve always envisioned this perfect union of games and movies somewhere down the yellow brick road. I have played my fair share of cinematic adventure-type games in my youth. As I’ve grown older and hopefully a little wiser, I found most of these types of games increasingly uninspiring. I simply do not care for the illogical situations, convoluted plots and terrible voice acting any longer. I wanted to play a game that is made for grown ups. I wanted intelligent and stirring content. I wanted a true Interactive movie in the best sense.

Nowadays, we all know how extremely dangerous it is to put the two words "interactive" and "movie" together into one sentence, especially in the presence of a publisher. It’s basically a premature death sentence. When I set out to create Fear Effect, my inspiration was quite different than any other game we’ve made before. I ultimately wanted Fear Effect to provoke emotional responses from the player. I did not want a game about how many zombies I’ve killed in three hours or where to find my next weapon upgrade. Instead, I wanted to create a game that will make the player laugh, scream and cry! I wanted them to feel excited and enthralled. I wanted them to experience the game through being the characters on screen. In order to achieve that goal, I realized that the fundamental approach to create Fear Effect had to be drastically different than that of any traditional games. We basically took all the boundaries and limitations of what a game should be and threw it out the window. Instead of altering proven Hollywood formulas, we simply followed them precisely. We decided that it is OK to take control away from the player and seamlessly put them into story mode and vice versa. It is OK to dictate to the player which character’s role he will assume at any given time. It is perfectly OK not to have a life bar on screen. It is OK to tell the player where to use an item in their inventory without having them "pixel fishing" the entire screen. It is OK not to have an inventory system that pauses the game because it would break the suspension of disbelief, and in real lifetime would not stop just because you have to look into your inventory! (OK, maybe not) Most importantly, I strongly believe that content must take precedence above all else because at the end of the day when all the machines out there can do the same exact amazing things, when technology plateaus and high-end visual graphics become a standard commodity, the only thing that separates a good game from a bad one is the content and experience.

We took many risks in making the original Fear Effect. We’ve learned that the majority of the fundamental concepts worked relatively well, yet some did not. We listened to all the comments and criticisms from the audiences and reviewers for the first game, and we’ve managed to come up with some relatively clever solutions to address those issues. Again, we solved many problems and at the same time created new ones for the prequel. The true inspiration behind Retro Helix is simple for us: to improve upon the original and create a better experience for the player. Retro Helix is still far from being that perfect game. However, we will continue to refine the game until it reaches its full potential.