Mars Interview
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GB: Tell us a bit about the game's character creation and advancement system. What skills, attributes, and other abilities will our characters have access to in the game and what role will they play during combat and non-combat situations? Jehanne: In fact there is no (character creation) in Mars, at the beginning of the game you can choose between Seth and Pandora and that's it. We know players love to customize everything from the beginning but for different reasons we thought it was better to have two unique characters with a strong personality.
But during the game, as you find some relics and gain some knowledge points, you'll be able to customize your character by choosing between a very important set of skills that are unique to your character. Each choice will really change the way of playing. Most of the skills are fighting abilities, like special attacks or spells, but some of them gives some bonuses like for example a bonus to the natural regeneration of power. We've got a few attributes and they increase depending on the permanent drugs you're using or of course on your equipment, as the game will allow you to find a lot of different weapons, armors, or helms.
All these skills and attributes will be used during the fights, as the NPCs will react to your choices in the dialogue or actions.
GB: How do Seth and Pandora differ from one another as they increase in power? Do they each have unique skillsets and equipment?
Jehanne: Pandora and Seth are just completely different characters with their own set of skills and the equipment they find can be use just by them. They're like the archetypes of characters you can find in a lot of action games, except they're not only a different set of numbers and abilities: they've got a different destiny too. And if a player follow first Seth destiny, he'll be able to play Pandora afterwards and discover nearly another game.
GB: Since the game draws from real-world "credible" locations, how does magic fit in to the setting? Where did it originate from and what is it capable of?
Jehanne: You're right, magic has nothing to do in such a world but. but magic is nearly a necessary piece in terms of gameplay and fun in this kind of game. So we tried to think into something else that could look a little the same but with a very different origin: Technomancia.
Technomancia is made thanks to war devices brought on Mars by the colons before the Tumult (the name given by the Martian inhabitants to the disaster). These objects, which are most of the time integrated into gauntlets, allow its user to release biological, electrical or calorific effects, in drawing into its own human energy. As they are very complicated to use, most of all for this backward world, and as they need a lot of power to work, only a few people can use them: the technomancers that have been raised since childhood for that. Into Pandora hands it allows her to use sound barriers, electrocution, etc.
GB: Mars will feature a multiplayer "arena" mode. What should we expect from this mode? Any chance you might also add other multiplayer options, such as a co-op component for the main campaign?
Jehanne: The multiplayer mode in Mars is more a way to be able to play for some short sessions with friends than anything. We think it could be fun just to fight random monsters together or to fight each other in an arena, but there will not be a co-op mode for the main campaign, as the scenario and journey of each character would have no sense for several players together.
GB: You've listed the game as currently being developed for the PC and PlayStation 3. Might we see it on the Xbox 360, as well?
Jehanne: To be honest I don't know. As we have no publisher yet and as we'˜re working on PS3 and PC we're for now planning only these two versions. If the publisher(s) we find ask(s) for a 360 version we'll do it of course.
But the PS3 is a very interesting platform that's why we choose it as a main target : even if difficult to program it has a great potential, and there is nearly no RPGs on it ! I'm sure there is a lot of players waiting for good RPGs on PS3. at least I hope so!
Thanks for your time, Jehanne!
