Dave - Age: 32  Born in: Providence  FavouriteManga or Anime: None really  Favourite music: Jazz Sean - Age: 27  Born in: Boston  FavouriteManga or Anime: Star Blazers  Favourite music: n/a

Harry: So you're actual architects?

Dave: Yeah, we both hold architectural degrees.

Harry: So is this the first time you're using your architectural skills to design levels for a game?

Dave: For me it was my first game experience, I was working in architecture in chicago 3 years before I ended here at Bungie.

Sean: I worked at Papyrus.

Harry: While you design these buildings for Oni, which look really life-like, do you come across challenges?

Sean: The first challenge I came across was to do something that was realistic, realistic scale, realistic spaces and having that feel comfortable in the game engine. A typical corridor is 3 and a half, 4 feet wide, but in our game we have to kinda make it bigger. Actual foot scale might not be the best for the game.

Dave: Yeah, I agree with that. The idea of creating a space so that it not only appears to be real but also where you can run around in it.

Harry: And it also must be strange for you to know the buildings you designed will stay designs in the computer.

Sean: We know that this stuff won't lave the computer but you wanna still convey a look that is believable in the game.

Harry: People are discussing on the net that they want to create their own worlds for Oni, and I myself think it's quite impossible. What do you use and do?

Dave:  We build in everything in AutoCAD, then we bring those files into [3D Studio] MAX where we do measuring.

Harry: And what kind of computers do you use?

Dave: A Pentium III

Sean: I have a Pentium III now

Harry: But you can't simply go into a store and ask for AutoCAD, i t must be quite an expensive program,

Sean: Yes.

Dave: It wouldn't be impossible for someone to do it though. One wouldn't have to necessarily use AutoCAD.

Harry: Also ties in with the file format, huh?

Dave: Yeah, we have an actual file exporter for MAX. We export from MAX, so if somebody had MAX  they would be able to do a level for Oni. But it would be a lot of work.

Harry: And when you build these levels, do you do them from a first person, what the character sees, or do you do the actual architectural stuff, making places and walls etc.?

Sean: We lay out wall thickness and stuff like that but there's nothing we wouldn't go into intricate detail to. We only really concentrate on what the player can see.

Harry: What kind of environments have you built, because i have only seen office buildings and the like in a city.

Dave: Most of the game is set in urban environments, so anything you'd find i n a city can be present in the game.

Sean: And there is a fair amount of outdoor space in the game, as you can see in some of the screenshots.

Harry: So what would one see that they've reached the limit of the level they are?

Sean: Well, any level set in a realistic world like this has to have a limit, so you have to come up with some sort of natural barrier. We use things you can think of, like locked doors, solid buildings, etc.

Dave: Levels can be several square blocks, though, so you'll be able to wander about quite a bit.

Harry: So is the game set in a linear style where you have to follow a set path or can you start off one place and choose different ways to get to the end?

Dave: We have a variety of gameplay styles, some of them appear to be more linear than others.

Harry: The buildings you created, are they original or did you have inspiration from real-life architecture?

Dave: Sure, we draw inspiration from real-world buildings, concept sketches, and elsewhere, but they're basically original.

Sean: Yeah, from past experiments I can say that when I see stuff I enjoy I try to recreate the feelings in a space, so for me I see a lot of stuff and reproduce it.

Harry: When you are designing the architecture, do you do sketches on paper then work on the computer or is everything done on the computer?

Dave: Well, our design process is where we make quick sketches together then work on the computer.

Harry: Will there be elevators?

Dave: Sure.

Harry: And are you able to run around on the roof of a building sometime in the game?

Sean: Yeah, there will be accessible roofs.

Dave: When there's a reason for the player to get up to the roof, they'll be able to.