By:
Whole Experience, Inc.
You may not have heard of a small Seattle based games development company called The Whole Experience, Inc. (WXP) but that's ok- we'll get you sorted. Let's just say that they are working on a 3D first person shooter titled Experience, which should push those trusty 3D accelerators close to the full monty. There now, we've got your attention eh? But before you can say, "Milli Vanilli did sing the vocals really," the WXP team didn't license the Unreal engine nor did they opt for the Quake 2 box of tricks either. Why? Because they've got their own proprietary and indeed fancy pants 3D engine called the WXP 3D engine. The engine itself should indeed propel this 3D fps beyond the usual BSP type affairs being a true Z-buffer real-time 3D affair. Although WXP is currently talking to publishers, the signs look good- in fact good enough for the WXP 3D engine to eventually be licensed out in Q4 of 1999 soon after Experience's scheduled release. Hence, we've done the decent thing and asked WXP's Jeff Conelly some specific questions on the WXP 3D engine. And if you don't believe the 'hype' then be sure to take a gander at the three new shots.
Could you give us a bit of backround info on yourselves and what you've done in the past?
We recently completed work on Cyber Space Mountain, the flagship location based entertainment ride for DisneyQuest in Orlando, Florida. We have worked with Zombie on Spearhead (a tank sim), and Spec Ops. The guys over at Zombie are our buds and are doing really cool things.
What will make Experience snazzier then the rest of the 3D first person shooters out there?
After all there are a lot out already and a whole lot more coming out in 1999. What will be so unique about
Experience?
Experience is about game play first and foremost: tight controls, beautiful outdoor environments,
killer characters and an immersive storyline. We don’t want to fall into the trap of one-upping the competition, we want to have every aspect of the game polished to a level never before achieved in the video game world. Experience is not just about killing everything on screen: shooting shit is fun and there is lots of it in Experience, but there are many other aspects to the gameplay. Each player's strategy can and should be different. For example crossing a ravine can be done by shooting down a tree, creating a bridge to walk across, by using a grappling hook and
swinging over or finding a creature to fly you to the other side. Multiple solutions to a given puzzle really plays into to our outdoor, go anywhere, gaming world, and provides players with the opportunity to use their creativity to solve a problem.
