Randy Pitchford: "One thing that's cool is some of the people we've been able to work with to help us [on Aliens]. The guys that write the Battlestar Galactica series, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, they wrote our script. They're amazing guys. They gave us a lot, too. We could make a whole season of TV with the stuff they gave us. [laughs] We profited from the writer's strike, let's just put it that way. We talked with a lot of people, but those guys are so good.

And then a lot of the concept guys that helped make the movies. Like [Aliens concept artist] Syd Mead, that guy walks on water. And to be able to go to his studio, his house, and then have him draw a bunch of stuff. "Here's when I designed the Sulaco back when we made the first movie. Here's the original artwork. You want a copy, Brian?" And Brian's like, "Yes."

And now he's designing all the new stuff, because the Sulaco's a big ship and we only saw a bit of it, so you get the guy who designed it to design the rest of it. And he's awesome, he designed so much stuff. And then like [concept artists] Keith Thompson, Craig Mullins.. anybody who knows these names knows what we're talking about. This is no joke.

It's a big team. And we're also working with people from all over the world. We've been working with a lot of amazing talent at other studios. I don't know how much of that will be used in PR, but there's a lot of people who care about this franchise. The opportunity to build a dropship, or build a pulse rifle, or build a smart gun, that's a pretty cool opportunity--a lot of artists would want to do that. So we have our core Gearbox team, but we're also finding a lot of folks around the industry now, guys who are on top of their game."

"GameTap: Will the game extend from the movies? Will you see scenes from the movies in the game or where there be parallels that coincide with events from the movies?

 

Randy Pitchford: The game and the story of Aliens is original, but there will be parallels that feel familiar. We have seen the movie. We know what it looked like to go in on a dropship. We have never done that ourselves, interactively, but we know what that looked like. And if we don't touch some of those things and have the movies as part of the experience, then I don't think we're doing the right job there. So of course we have to make sure that's part of the promise. That's about all I can say right now, but read the latest Game Informer for more on it."

 

"GameTap: For fans of the series who have seen the Alien creatures take on various permutations and transformations whether it's in comic books or the toy figures, what will you bring to the table. I mean, remember the toy chain where there was a bull or a dog and a snake alien?

 

Randy Pitchford: Yes, the canon of Alien. You remember that first alien in the first movie in that derelict ship, and there was a giant creature, the space jockey, from which the alien burst from its chest? What was that guy all about? He was huge. And what came out of him? These are really interesting questions. Brian, my partner, got to sit down with Ridley Scoot (director of the first Alien movie) and Ridley pulled out this book and blew the dust off of it. Ridley opened it up and it was his original sketches and original hand-drawn storyboards for Alien. So Brian sat down and got the whole backstory on Alien and the space jockey and where the Aliens come from. We're going to get to mess with some of that."

CVG: "Where will the game take place in the Alien canon?

Mike Gallo: The game's set after the events of Alien3, which takes place very shortly after the end of Aliens. Our goal is to make a game that answers some of the questions from those two movies and picks up the story right after the marines were wiped out on LV-426."

CVG: What characters will you play as?

Gallo: Throughout the game you will take on the role of several different marines from your squad and experience the story from several different points of view. In co-op mode everyone will be a marine and you can work your way through the campaign mode with up to four players.

CVG: Will you be using squad mechanics from Brothers in Arms?

Gallo: One of the focuses in the game is on the squad and, of course, squad mechanics. We have a lot of experience making squad-based games, but this will be unlike any of our previous games - we won't be flanking the xenomorphs!

CVG: What locations can we expect?

Gallo: Some familiar, like the Sulaco, and some all-new. It will be staying within the Alien universe of course, but we'll be going to some brand new places.

CVG: What elements of the movies are you most hoping to recreate?

Gallo: Since Aliens is our closest influence, we have strived for authenticity to the film that players have never seen before. The look of the game is directly inspired by the film, down to the film grain and lighting. We've hired Syd Mead to go back and create new concepts based on artwork that he made over 20 years ago.

CVG: How realistic will the xenomorph's drool be?

Gallo: We have guys in lab suits in a bunker somewhere testing the viscosity of every liquid under the sun so we can match it with an in-game shader to get the alien drool effect just right.