They Hunger: Lost Souls

They Hunger: Lost Souls is the canceled sequel to the classic Half-Life mod They Hunger. Despite the mods famous status in the community its stand alone sequel is almost unheard of. Because of this the development history of the game itself is practically unknown and can only be gathered through the interviews done between October of 2005 through march of 2008.

What exactly is They Hunger: Lost Souls?

They Hunger: Lost Souls was the planned stand alone sequel to Black Widow Game's previous smash hit They Hunger The company who had spent its early years doing contracted mod work (examples include USS Darkstar for Half-Life, and Soldier Of Fortune for Quake) had decided that as engines were getting more advanced, that they would stop doing this and make full on games instead. And there first (and only) attempt was a sequel to there biggest success.

The interviews

The game would only be shown off in interviews with assorted gaming publications between the years of 2005 through 2008.

Gamecloud 10-25-05

NOTE: there are numbered images (001, 002, ect) placed throughout the article however none of them have been saved to known knowledge.

Black Widow Games' Neil Manke and Einar Saukas talk about their upcoming Source engine zombie action game.

(Images 1 2 and 3 would go here)

After creating some amazing single and multiplayer mods for Quake, Quake II and Half-Life, Black Widow Games are branching out with They Hunger: Lost Souls. This follow up to the acclaimed Half-Life 1 single player mod series is a full fledged Source engine title. Gamecloud got a chance to chat with Black Widow Games' Neil Manke and Einar Saukas to find out more about their plans for They Hunger: Lost Souls.

Gamecloud - First, why did you decide to create your own professional game developer after creating a number of free game projects?

Einar Saukas - We didn't have a lot of choices. Developing a SP (single-player) game requires a significant amount of work: character creation, scripting, storyline, dialogues, special sequences, monster variations, enemy placement, ambushes, puzzles, and so on. Most of all, it also entails designing many original locations, unlike MP (multiplayer) maps that people like to play over and over again. All this work was barely manageable when we produced the classic They Hunger mod trilogy using the Half-Life engine. However, the newest 3D game technologies require a much higher level of detail. Consequently, producing a full-size quality SP project becomes almost impossible for part-time developers.

Neil Manke - I still remember our first sponsored project, with 3 maps produced in 2 weeks. It was a freely released mod for Quake 1, created to promote a TV series by Rysher Entertainment. However, these days every little detail takes much more work. For example, it's not uncommon to see a multiplayer mod take up to 2 years and then launch with only 3 or 4 playable maps. And also, one must consider the considerable amounts of money the major developers now invest in their games. Simply put, modern games require much higher investments of time, energy and money and there's no magical way to avoid this reality. Starting a professional company is the only route that may give us the opportunity to be able to produce the kinds of games we've always wanted to.

Gamecloud - Why did you wish to use the Source engine from Half-Life 2 as the basis for your first game?

Neil Manke - Source is the only brush-based modern 3D game engine. In practice, it means a level designer can create interesting environments using mostly brushes, and later add special models to improve specific details. Working with brushes gives me much more flexibility and opportunity to improvise with my creativity. In comparison, most other state-of-the-art engines depend upon the rather slow and involved process of developing very specific models for every stage of architecture.

Einar Saukas - The Half-Life 2 technology is also very flexible and developer-friendly, so it's not that hard to customize it for a different game style. It's also unparallel in realistic physics simulation, making it especially appropriate for creating dynamic environments and elaborate puzzles.

(Images 4 5 and 6 go here)

Gamecloud - Overall how has it been working with the Source engine for your first game?

Einar Saukas - Technically the Source engine is a much-improved version of the Half-Life technology, which means our extensive experience working with Half-Life helps a lot. At the same time, the newer technology opens up many new possibilities of gameplay that were not possible before. So basically, we get the best of both worlds.

Neil Manke - I have always enjoyed working with the Worldcraft (now Hammer) editor. Even after accumulating experience working with more sophisticated editors such as Serious Editor (for Serious Sam), UnrealEd (for Unreal) and Sandbox (for Far Cry), Hammer is still my old, comfortable friend.

Gamecloud - Why did you want to create a new They Hunger title for Black Widow Games' first commercial project, rather than an all new concept?

Neil Manke - I consider They Hunger:Lost Souls a new concept spiked with the “flavor" of the gameplay and style of the classic They Hunger Trilogy. Lost Souls is not a sequel, but rather a completely new story. The new Source engine opens a window to many new ideas and more varied gameplay styles, which could not even have be considered before.

Einar Saukas - the point is, we really like creating horror-themed games and we received literally many thousands of fan mails asking for more of it. And, although the original TH series was wild, fun and crazy we also wanted to up things a few notches and spend more time and energy to produce a more polished and coherent game, combined with new original ideas we want to introduce. (Images 7 8 and 9 go here) Gamecloud - What can you tell us about the back story for They Hunger: Lost Souls and how it relates to the previous They Hunger games?

Neil Manke - In the story, you are a tourist visiting North-Eastern Europe during the early 1960's. After a dramatic, blood-curdling accident, you find yourself wandering alone in the wilderness and seek shelter in an ancient monastery. However, you soon realize things in this place of “sanctuary" are not what they should be. You then become involved in a desperate series of bone-chilling struggles to preserve your own life, and escape from this nightmarish experience.

Einar Saukas - The Lost Souls story is independent from the classic series, but it follows a similar style. It's not exactly a sequel, so the younger players that never had a chance to play the classic mods (if there are any) can fully enjoy the new game without knowledge of the previous stories. And it's certainly not a remake either, since we prefer to explore new ideas and use our creativity instead of just re-implementing an old game with better graphics.

Gamecloud - Where will the new game take place and what will the levels be like?

Neil Manke - Some of those locations have already been partially revealed in our first promotional images. Settings include: a huge ancient monastery complex comprised of many varied buildings, some clinging precariously to seaside cliffs, a zombie-infested salvage operation, an isolated farming settlement, wilderness areas with meandering river beds, lakes and waterfalls, fog shrouded swamps, and others. And there is still more to come.

Gamecloud - What new weapons can we expect to see in They Hunger: Lost Souls?

Einar Saukas - The weapons are similar to those in classic They Hunger, in the sense that they are a selection of era-relevant weapons, explosives and incendiaries. With the addition of a unique and innovative new weapon, the likes of which I can't reveal to you, otherwise we will have to eliminate you and end this interview!

(Images 10 11 and 12 go here)

Gamecloud - What will the zombies and other enemies be like in the new game?

Neil Manke - This time the zombies will be much more like real zombies. And since all human corpses can become zombies, there will be a disgusting and revolting array of them to deal with. There are also other creatures that could be described as the living dead.

Gamecloud - What other new gameplay features will They Hunger: Lost Souls have?

Einar Saukas - There are many new gameplay features but obviously we can't reveal much about them. For now I can only give you one example: One of the favorite features from the classic series was driving an old steam locomotive and flattening zombies with it. However, smarter zombies refuse to be such sitting ducks, so instead we decided to take advantage of realistic vehicle physics (provided by the Source engine) and give you a powerful tractor, that you can drive freely to chase the zombies down before running over them.

Gamecloud - Will this new game be episodic in nature like the previous They Hunger games?

Neil Manke - It is actually a fully independent game. However, we do have it planned as being the first game in a series. We already have a basic story outline for the sequels depending upon the reception of the first. Each game in the series is a complete story within itself, and each with an exciting and satisfying ending. Most would find it extremely frustrating to spend hours playing a game and then not be rewarded with a proper story tie-in, and I'm sure our fans appreciated the nice endings we always implemented in the past.

(Images 13 14 and 15 go here)

Gamecloud - Will this new game be released via Valve's Steam system or will there be an actual retail store release for the product?

Einar Saukas - Sorry, all we can reveal at this time is that we are still working out the pricing and distribution options. We can only state that we intent to make it available for minimal cost compared to most commercial games.

Gamecloud - What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?

Einar Saukas - Much of the content is almost finished, such as the levels and gameplay. Other sections like sound engineering (except for dialogue recordings) are well underway. However, there's still a lot of work remaining, for instance we are still using placeholder models for the zombies.

Neil Manke - Overall the game is approximately 75% complete. As a matter of fact, we've been hidden away in our underground lab (at an undisclosed location) for almost a year now, secretly developing the game until it was well advanced and we could start to reveal it. We have yet to announce an official release date, but we have a reputation for working fast and efficiently and we intend to keep it.

Gamecloud - Finally is there anything else you wish to say about They Hunger: Lost Souls?

Neil Manke - I would like to clarify that no real zombies have been hurt (so far) during the production of this game.

Einar Saukas - Let me add that our production facilities are constantly monitored by the local S.P.C.Z.

IGN 10-27-05

Two days latter IGN uploaded a collection of images.

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References

http://web.archive.org/web/20051220200113/http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=2018