"Whenever we get a game to do a preview, we usually sit down with it for a few hours to get a feel for it. When we received an early copy of Outcast, developed by Appeal and published by Infogrames, we ended up playing for seven hours straight, without breakfast, and that was only the first day."

With that excerpt from our Outcast preview, you can tell how much we love the game. Unfortunately, it is still not available in the US. We asked some questions of Franck Sauer, one of the directors of Outcast. He also worked on the modeling, music, and animation of the game. Here goes:

SE: What was the inspiration for Outcast?

Franck Sauer: The main inspiration for the game came from the film industry. We are huge fans of Hollywood blockbuster movies. You can find cinematic qualities in all of Outcast. We truly believe in interactive movies. Unfortunately, the term cinematic has been used for rather badly done and non-interactive titles in the past few years. Part of our vision was to get free from established genres and create an adventure that would combine everything an action-hero would encounter, from combat to puzzle solving to love affairs and more.

SE: When did development first start?

Franck Sauer: A small team worked on the pre-production during four months in the summer 1995, when Appeal was created. But the true development started in January 1996.

SE: How many hours of play is the average user expected to get out of Outcast?

Franck Sauer: From what we've seen, players can expect between 40 and 80 hours of gameplay depending on the type of person playing (hard core gamer, casual gamer, etc...)