30Dec/095
Travel through the Wormhole : A Stargate SG-1 : The Alliance Interview
The Stargate franchise began over 15 years ago with the release of the Roland Emmerich directed feature film, simply titled Stargate. While the film has yet to get any sequels from the original creators as it was intended, the movie has spawned three TV spin-offs: Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and the newest, Stargate Universe, which combined have had a total of 16 seasons, containing over 300 episodes, with more Universe on the way. Gamers have continually been left in the cold though, with little to show for their devotion to the series.
During the 15 years the Stargate franchise has existed, there has been a total of one video game that has officially been released, based on the movie that started it all, and one pinball game based on the same movie. It wasn’t without trying, however, as a game based on the SG-1 series was attempted and cancelled by Perception Studios, called Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, and a Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPG) called Stargate Worlds based on the television shows is on hold by its creator Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment while it finishes a third person shooter called Stargate Resistance. Popular Stargate fansite GateWorld.net has gone so far as to call this the “Stargate video game curse”.
I was lucky enough to have a chance to ask some questions to Viljar Sommerback, who was the lead designer on Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, and even discover an unknown game based in the Pegasus Galaxy!
SuperiorVersion : What was your primary roll on the project?
Viljar Sommerback : I was the lead designer on the project. That involved designing and tweaking the core gameplay, the user interface, designing levels with the level designers, writing and maintaining game design documents etc.
SV : How far along was the game at its cancellation? Was it at a state where it was playable for most of the way through the game, or were certain concepts and worlds still being worked on?
Viljar : We had just passed alpha when the game was canceled, so the game was playable most of the way. All levels and functionality were in, but there were a lot of polish and bug fixing left to be done.
SV : What sort of support did the team receive from MGM and others that had worked on the SG-1 TV show?
Viljar : The creative people from the show were very helpful. The actors themselves went to great lengths when they recorded the script, and I would say they went beyond the call of duity when it came to delivering one-lines, and variations on them, for the interative combat and ambience chatter. I really liked how that system worked out in the end, together with the voice work that the actors did. Peter DeLuise (Editor note: Served as a producer, writer, director, and creative consultant on SG-1, along with work on Atlantis and Universe) was there for the entire voice recording and directed/oversaw it.
The script we made was commented on. Some of the game features were also commented on, in order to make sure that they stayed true to the spirit and lore of the Stargate universe. We got 3d face scans of all the members of the SG-1 team. Richard Dean Anderson even went to E3 to promote the game! All in all I would say that we got great support with the production of the game from the creative talents that worked on the show.
SV : Was the game to end in a cliffhanger, or in a way that would leave the option of a sequel if the game was completed as it was intended?
Viljar : The game would come to a satisfying conclusion. however, as always, at least one of the main villains gets away. It is also possible that because of things that happened in SGTA, other enemies would come to possess knowledge that would send them earth’s way. I don’t know if a straight sequel would have been made, but it is possible that we would have used facets from the ending in future games.
SV : Something that was unclear based on the amount of media released, but were there any ties to the Stargate Atlantis TV show, whether it be a casual mention, or full-blown discoveries related to the Ancient city?
Viljar : There were no ties to Atlantis with the SGTA game, but we were in pre-pre production, if there is such a production stage, of an RPG that would have taken place in the Pegasus galaxy. It was very early days, but I thought the initial concept was very exciting. i was only involved with that indirectly at that stage, though.
There were talks about having the new enemy that we came up with, the Haaken, in the SG-1 TV series. Failing that, the Haaken would probably have gotten a brief mention in dialogue, at least. Either way would have been very exciting for us, as many of us at Perception were die-hard Stargate fans, and would have loved to contribute to the franchise in such a way.
SV : What was the final thing that caused the game to be cancelled? Was it a time issue, developmental, or something else entirely?
Viljar : We had a falling out with the original publisher, the deetails of which I am not completely sure of. It ended up with a legal battle after the game was canceled. We were trying to secure a new publisher for the game for as long as we could, but we didn’t manage to find anyone that MGM would approve of.
SV : And finally, is there anything that you would really like to see from the game incorporated into more games today? is there anything in particular that you were extremely proud of, whether it was something you worked on, the team itself, or otherwise that you know would have gotten the Stargate fans excited?
Viljar : SGTA was a 1st person shooter, but relying on tactical use of the NPC team members to progress. It was a linear game, so the path to follow was pretty straight forward. However, good gameplay is about interesting and meaningful choice, and we tried to provide that by giving players a wide array of options in how to deal with the various situations and challenges we threw at them, even if the environment didn’t allow for sandbox exploration.
That meant in most cases, if it moved, you would have to kill it. However, rather than only giving the player the choice to use a grenade, or a machine gun, or a melee weapon, we also gave the player the option to use some special abilities depending on which character he was playing as, or to use the NPC team actively. He could tell the other team members as a group to either take cover or shoot a designated target. He could order individual team members to take cover or shoot a defined target, or tell them to use their special abilities on the target. Situations that seemed similar to each other could play out differently depending on which character you were playing as yourself, and which characters were able to give orders to.
If the player wanted to, he could of course play the game as a straight forward shooter and ignore the team aspect, but that would have been his choice, in which case it is fine. It should be the player’s game, not the game designer’s game. But the “all guns blazing” approach would definitely not be the easiest option in our case.
The point I’m trying to make is that I would like to see some more interesting options in dealing with enemies in games, even 1st person shooters. By that I mean not just which gun to use, or taking the left or right path, but some actual choice. There are of course games that allow for more options, but it seems to me that many of the big selling titles don’t.
As for things for Stargate fans to be excited about aside from the fact it would have been a fun game, is attention to detail regarding the lore and the Stargate “feel”, I think. we had to take some liberties, it was a game after all, but I believe we stayed true to the spirit of SG-1, something that we had fans test the game for us, and when we showed it to journalists that were fans of the show. Also, we had a large variety of worlds/areas to visit--some that fans would recognize, and some that were of our own creation.
I’d like to thank Viljar for taking time out of his day during the busy holiday season to answer some of my questions, and for providing insight on a game that sadly none of us will likely get to experience ourselves.
Now all that we Stargate fans have to do is sit and wait for a game to finally release, by a different group of people of course, and hope it was worth the wait all these years.
About Andrew Borman
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January 1st, 2010 - 08:37
i hope someone publish's the game i'v been waiting years for it
January 1st, 2010 - 08:39
a playable version of stargate the alliance needs to be released
January 1st, 2010 - 08:42
this sounds good hopefully the game will be released by these guys
are they still going ahead with it
January 3rd, 2010 - 07:05
This is something sorely missed from the Stargate universe. A playable game. First this gets canned, then stargate worlds dies (hopefully the newer Stargate game does come out).
I think this game however would have been more up my alley and hope that it eventually sees the light of day
January 7th, 2010 - 22:17
yeah seeing that this one would have allso been on systems like xbox and Playstation, it would be killer!! I'm one of the biggest stargate fans you'll ever find. but, i can't afford a $2,000 computer to play a dam@ game on!! This is what ticks me off.