The decision to make Sudeki an RPG was easy; its creators love those kind of games. All images ©2004 Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Sudeki, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live Logo, and the Xbox logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

In a world ripped apart by deceit, four heroes — a sultry wizardress, a soaring gunslinger, a powerful swordsman and a dark huntress — are about to become legends in their fight against the darkness. The team of heroes join forces in massive cooperative super-strikes to devastate a horde of more than 100 enemies — from deadly dread spiders, spiny demons and horrific mechanical hybrids to massive battle fortresses. Fighting skills and magical abilities improve as they progress, preparing them for tougher challenges. A cinematic style, realtime gravity-defying combat, detailed fantasy environments and shocking plot twists make Sudeki a high-octane combination of magic, combat and team based role-playing. The Sudeki developers talked to VFXWorld about their creative and technical processes.

Mary Ann Skweres: Tell me about the team behind Sudeki: how many; how long they took to develop the game; what special talents and creative or technical contributions they brought to the development of the game.

Climax: The Team at the height of the production was 70 people strong. The game has been in development for some three-and-a-half years, and the team consists of a huge number of individuals from different disciplines: for example, one of our concept artists had established himself in 2000AD magazine, while one of the artists came from Japanese game giant Square-Enix. We had a mixture of experienced games industry veterans and fresh new people — this kept the creativity going while still retaining firm focus on what can and cannot be done in video games. We even have people with backgrounds in theatre, which has proven invaluable in the creation of the story.

Lighting is a unique aspect and it took almost four years and 70 people to complete the final build of Sudeki.

MAS: Why did you choose to make Sudeki an RPG (role-playing game) and why this is significant?

C: Our team is filled with people who LOVE role-playing games. It was a game that all of us wanted to do for a long, long time. This meant that the team has worked incredibly hard on this game, because all of us are utterly dedicated.

MAS: Where did the idea for the game come from and who is responsible for character development and story?

C: Climax is responsible for the idea and the development of the story. The whole world of Sudeki was created by Climax with feedback and support from Microsoft. Development of the characters was a mixture of our concept artists throwing around ideas and designers writing the background of the heroes and villains of the game.