GamersInfo.net

Gamersinfo.net: First of all, some of our readers may not know who you are. Tell us a little about yourself. James Swallow: I’m a scriptwriter, author and journalist. I’ve written fourteen novels and several scripts for a number of different mediums, including radio, television and videogames. My geek badge of fame is that I’m the only British writer to have worked on a Star Trek television series!

Gamersinfo.net: Most of your work has fallen in the area of science fiction. What attracts you to this genre?

James Swallow: Yeah, pretty much! I guess my love of science fiction came from my parents, who were both very enthusiastic about space exploration when I was growing up – I’m even named after an Apollo astronaut – and I grew up as a child of the Star Wars generation. I think what continues to keep me fascinated about science fiction are the limitless possibilities it represents; there’s no other genre where you can push the envelope as much as you can with SF. I love to write it and I love to read it.

Gamersinfo.net: You've written books such as Jade Dragon and scripts for shows like Star Trek Voyager. What was it that first attracted you to writing for video games? And what did the developers of Maelstrom do to convince you to write game lore?

James Swallow: I’m a game player as well as a game writer, and I’ve been enjoying videogames since the day I first played Space Invaders as a kid in a seaside video arcade. In recent years, as games have started to become more sophisticated and present the same depth of stories we get from books, film and TV, the opportunity for writers like me started to open up. The chance to be part of the creative team behind a videogame and the new challenges it represented was something I just couldn’t pass up.

The guys at Codemasters won me over on Maelstrom on several levels; I was enthused by the ideas they had for the game world and the chance to help create it, I was attracted to the idea of working on a real-time strategy game and I was fascinated by the environmental elements that the developers at KDV Labs had come up with. I didn’t take a lot of convincing!

James Swallow: Having three factions automatically creates a stronger dynamic and more dramatic tension than just having two groups fighting one another. With three, there’s the opportunity for alliances and all the great drama and action that entails.

The Remnants are the rag-tag renegades; these guys are the tough-as-nails survivors fighting to survive in the ruins of a devastated world, the ones who want to try to regain what has been lost. The Ascension are the exact opposite; they don’t care about freedom, they just want to rule the world because they believe they’re the best people for the job – they’re ruthless and technologically advanced, and they’ll do whatever it takes to win. Then lastly, we have the Hai-Genti, an race of aliens who use living bio-technology – the aliens are searching for a new homeworld after their planet was destroyed. They’ve decided to take ours by force, and wipe out any humans who try to oppose them. Every faction has a unique character, unique weapons and abilities, different ways of fighting, so you can’t play the same tactics with each.

Gamersinfo.net: In the game you will have the ability to fight as any of the three factions. Will the storyline differ for each faction and if so how different will it be? For example, is the ending to the game the same regardless of which faction you select or will the ending depend on the way you play the game and which faction you choose?

James Swallow: The storyline is in four distinct “chapters” and each chapter has a number of episodic missions. Each faction has its own smaller storyline that merges into the main story arc. You begin the game playing as the Remnants, then move on to the Ascension, then the Hai-Genti, until the final chapter which brings the story to a very explosive climax!

Gamersinfo.net: After reading something on the Codemasters website called "50 Years And Counting - The Events leading to The Maelstrom" I'm a bit perplexed. As they aren't mentioned at all in the in the events leading to Maelstrom, at what point does the Hai-Genti enter the fray? Also, what does the name "Hai-Genti" represent or does it mean anything?

James Swallow: The Hai-Genti are there all right, but they’ve been hiding. I mean, c’mon, what do you think that Roswell thing was all about?

Seriously, though, the aliens don’t come on the scene until the game is well under way. They’ve been observing Earth for some time, slowly and surely drawing their plans against us. The Hai-Genti aren’t mentioned in the ’50 Years’ text because at that point no-one on Earth knows anything about them! Their story is that they evolved in a nearby star system called Proxima, with a culture that utilizes living bio-technology. Everything they create, from weapons to starships to buildings – is a genetically engineered creature. Unfortunately for them, they ruined their homeworld through war and were forced to evacuate and search for a new home – and unfortunately for humanity, the ideal planet for them to colonize is Earth! Like the human factions, the Hai-Genti are on the edge of extinction and they’re fighting to survive – but to do that they have to wipe out our species first.

As for their name, it’s Proximan for l33t.

Gamersinfo.net: What was the inspiration for the two human fighting forces, The Remnants & The Ascension?

James Swallow: The Remnants definitely have a strong Mad Max vibe about them, because they’ve cobbled together all their hardware from stuff that’s obsolete and out-of-date. Their gear is all patched and a bit rough and ready, held together with spit and bailing wire. These guys embody the “underdog” theme, because they’re tough and embattled, but with a strong survival instinct.

The Ascension are at the other end of the scale. They’re snooty and arrogant, they have the coolest toys and all the shiny hardware, and their theme is “oppression”; I described them as ‘techno-fascists’. The Ascension’s backstory is that they were once a global corporation that grew so large it became almost like a nation in itself. Inspiration for them came from cyberpunk fiction and visually from the Robocop movies and anime like Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor.

Gamersinfo.net: How different is it to write stories for video games than it is for books or television?

James Swallow: It’s a lot different. To begin with, there’s no set format or ‘rules’ for writing games like there are for books or TV, and that’s just at the most basic level. With games writing, you have to be able to write scripts for cutscenes or voice over dialogue, you need to be able to create backstory and character designs, sometimes even write the manual… It’s a wide-ranging discipline. With a game, you have to create a different style of storytelling because your audience isn’t passively reading or watching, they’re involved and they’re making decisions that will effect how things turn out. It’s also a very collaborative experience, because the writer is just one element of the whole creative team along with artists, programmers, actors and musicians.

Gamersinfo.net: When I think about RTS games one of the first things that come to my mind are Warcraft and Starcraft. If you are familiar with the storyline of either of those, how is Maelstrom going to differ from these games from a storyline perspective?

James Swallow: Both of those are great RTS franchises that have done a lot to advance this genre of games, and of course everyone involved on Maelstrom has looked to classic titles like them for inspiration and to learn how to build on those advances. In terms of genre, people may compare Maelstrom with Starcraft because it also had a three faction structure and they both have science fiction settings; but for me, what makes Maelstrom different are two key factors. Firstly, Maelstrom takes place not on an alien world but right here on our planet, in our backyard, and so hopefully the player will feel like they have a more personal stake in things! And secondly, I think the ability to manipulate the environment with localized weather control, flooding and shifting landscapes, brings a unique element to traditional RTS gameplay.

Gamersinfo.net: Lastly, if you had to be one of these which would you choose: an urban freedom fighter, a power craving corporate executive or (and my personal favorite) an ugly bio-engineered alien.

James Swallow: Gee, that’s a tough one. Given the choice, I’d rather not live in the Maelstrom world as it’s a rather nasty place – but if I had to choose, I’d probably plant my flag with the Ascension, because they have the coolest gizmos…

Gamersinfo.net: A special thank you to Mr. Swallow for taking the time to answer our questions. Maelstrom is scheduled for release in February, 2007, but you can view the official gameplay trailer as part of our image gallery for the game in the mean time and begin contemplating how you would answer that final question for yourself.