Freedom Force Character Builder Q&A

Buy stock in spandex, kids, because soon people everywhere will be making their own comic-book heroes with Freedom Force?s Character Builder. Here?s a Q&A with FF?s Lead Designer Jonathan Chey to fill you in on what you?ll need to know to make your own vigilantes.

In Freedom Force, you?ll be able to take a team of extraordinary individuals and try to foil the plans of the evil Lord Dominion. You?re given a number of heroes with which to stomp evil and injustice, but sometimes that?s just not enough, so Irrational Games has decided to ship the game with a Character Builder that will allow you to create your own vigilantes and team them up with the powerful heroes of Freedom Force.

But what will you need to get started? We were curious, too, so we grabbed this Q&A with Freedom Force Lead Designer Jonathan Chey in hopes of clearing things up.

What made you guys decide to make a character builder for Freedom Force?

Jonathan Chey: Since day one, a primary goal for Freedom Force has been to support custom built characters. One important part of this is letting people create their own models and skins for use in the game. We saw how The Sims community got started even before the game was released and we wanted to tap into that same kind of enthusiasm.

How flexible is the builder itself? Can you make new characters from scratch?

JC: Absolutely! There are really two different parts to custom character creation: making the mesh and skin for the character and defining the RPG stats and powers. The first part is what we have made accessible to users now with the character tool. The latter part will only come when we release the actual game.

Currently, users can make new characters completely from scratch. However, this is quite a skilled job. It's much easier to modify the meshes for the existing characters or to simply create new skins for them.

What kinds of skills do you need to make your own costumes? Can the average gamer create his or her own characters?

JC: Creating a costume (i.e. skin) for an existing character mesh is very straightforward. If users feel like trying out their hand in a paint program, they can use Photoshop or PaintShop Pro, which I believe has a free demo available over the net.

Can you make non-humanoid characters, like multi-legged robots, blobs of slime, or strange aliens?

JC: Yes, though that would be extra work. But pretty much anything is possible to the more dedicated fans.

Can you create your own powers? If so, how much freedom do you have? Can we create our own special effects for powers?

JC: Creating a power is supported in the game through an easy-to-use interface. There are practically no limits to the number of powers you can make. Modifying the visual effects associated with a power will require use of external art tools (similar to creating or modifying a character mesh).

Can gamers play Freedom Force entirely with characters they?ve made on their own?

JC: In single player mode: no. You can add characters, but the story requires the core characters to be present.

In multiplayer: you can use any characters you like: heroes, villains, TV characters? even political figures. We encourage people to be creative and go nuts with it.

How do custom characters fit into the storyline, without the preset background of the pre-made characters?

JC: Well, we can?t incorporate them into the story, though some users have asked us questions like: "I created a hero named Capt. DuckBill?will he be in the Freedom Force story?" There are number of core characters on the team that carry the story, and the custom characters are used with them to play the game. We do a lot of stuff similar to Baldur?s Gate, where we have to write dialog for characters we?re not sure the player will have on a particular mission.

Will there be a place where gamers can download new skins, models, powers, and heroes?

JC: Yes, there already is. Check out www.freedomforcecenter.com

Do you expect a huge community for player-made characters?

JC: There are already around 150 skins available on the net made by users with more every day. Some other cool sites to check out include:
The Skindex Zed?s Freedom Force Skin Center

Freedom Force Skins

Freedom Force Skinz

If you?d like to try your hand at building your own characters, you can download the Character Builder from here. You can also find the official Freedom Force page at www.myfreedomforce.com.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment