Q: First could you tell us more about yourself? What is your background and experience? How did you come to work on Raven Shield?

I don't remember the first time I played video games, but I remember my 1st console was Intellivison. Since then I never stopped playing videogames and I grew into this first person shooter freak ;).

I'm from a little town up north from Montreal, I studied Art, Advertising, Marketing and Communication, before I decided to do computer graphics for movies and tv. I attended Siggraph in 97 when I met great people from Ubisoft, and after meeting them again back in Montreal, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to go and make video games. I've been with Ubi ever since. I started as a modeler on SpeedBusters, PC version. After SB, I fell into tools development, I've always considered that tools were the weak part of the production process. So I participated in the development of an internal set of tools for our in-house engine. Then I fell on the production of Batman Vengeance PS2 as a technical director. And then shortly after that, I had the chance to go on Raven Shield. I've been on RS for a little over than a year and a half now.

Q: Raven Shield has a very "realistic" appearance. What steps did you take to be able to present such realism? Did you rely on any specialists or advisors for support?

Of course we have advisor that help us on different aspects of the game, we are working closely with Red Storm and police officers from different squads in both the United States and Canada. Those collaborators really help making our game even more realistic.

As far as graphics for the levels are concern, there's no secret whatsoever. The trick is to choose what aspect of the reality you want to focus on. On Raven Shield, we wanted to focus on accurate architectural style and imperfection (mainly). There are also countless little details that come into play, like pixel-ratio and lighting techniques, technical restrictions etc...

We also work with a great technology that gives artists that chance to make believable environments and atmospheres. Then again, the best intentions will go nowhere if you don't have the talented artists and level designers to work with. We have the chance to work with a great production team on Raven Shield thanks to these guys.

Q: What tools did you utilize to create such a realistic atmosphere in game?

Well, I could say that it's a clever usage of different assets (textures, animated textures, shaders, sprites, particle emitters, lights etc.) that allow our level designers to make impressive environments. You also need good artists, modelers, lighting artists, etc. to build those assets. Also, UnrealEd has a certain number of tools that help us putting together all the elements needed in the levels. Having a good engine always help :). I will also say that sound has a lot to do in the immersion aspect of the game. But that, you can't see on our screenshots :).

Q: You used the new Unreal Technology to develop Raven Shield. What does it allow to do in terms of graphics? What are the strong points? And the challenges?

True, we are using the ever-evolving Unreal technology. I say ever-evolving cause one of the biggest challenges is to keep up with constant changes made in the toolset. It's also true that UnrealEd is not exactly made for our needs, so we have to do our own modifications in the tools some times. On the other hand, we have a state-of-the-art technology that allows us to display a lot of stuff.

Q: The game will ship with UnrealEd. Are you worried that modders may deviate from the realistic and urban approach of the game?

What Modders do with UnrealEd is up to themselves, this is part of the deal. I'm pretty sure we'll have modification done that go both sides :) Some "reality" fans will make the game even more realistic where weapons will jam for example and there will be Modders that will make the gameplay more rapid and counter-strikish and may even add a jump, which we stay away from :). That's the beauty of mods, they will satisfy every range of players.