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. . . your source for news and information on Rebel Act Studios' Severance!

It was nice to finally meet these guys. All of them were great and joyful people, and they seemed just as happy meeting me as I was of meeting them. First it seemed like some LAN-party, but when looking at them work I felt very confident in them as a development team. Soon enough, after a swift meeting with the Coca-Cola machine, I was back in the glass-room. It was time for a demonstration of Blade.

Jose Luis Vaello, art manager
and game design

Playing Blade and having Lunch
As I was watching the action unfold on the screen, I realized that Blade was actually damn fun watching while other plays. I can't come up with many titles that have this effect on me. I recognized the areas we've seen from the mpeg and had to take deep exhalations of my cigarette to stay calm. It was great to see for comparison. There is no tricks or attempts in the mpeg to make Blade look better or more interesting than the game and gameplay really is. What you see in the mpeg is just regular gameplay.

I played some myself, and pretty soon the Knight was lying lifeless and decapitated on the cold stone floor. But as many limbs I lost and as many times I died, I did get the pleasure to revenge their evil deeds, in a massive bloodbath and pure joy! The time flew and before I knew word of it, it was time for lunch.

Juan and Teresa took me out to a nice restaurant. The menu was basically filled with beef of all kinds and Sushi as the remaining option (internal joke). I went with the beef. Over lunch we talked about the present and future of Rebel Act Studios, Friendware, Blade Universe, the community and other games and distribution companies. It was nice and it helped me understand the big picture of it all; the strategic moves and why certain things need to be kept secret. After a couple of beers and some dessert, we realized that time had not been standing still. We grabbed the first taxi and headed back to the house of wonders.

Chatting with the developers
I got time to play a bit more before talking further with the various team members. After trying out the four different characters I went back out to the open landscape where the developers was continuing their work - pretty much in the same order as last time.

F.left: Rodrigo Lopez-Carrillo, Arturo Justo
and Jose Julio Garcia Gomez "Yuio"

I had a look at what Arturo was currently working on: the selection of the characters. Very cool! I'm sure you'll love it.
I talked a bit with Robert (Bob) who was working on text output in the game at the time. With a perfect English he, and the others sitting around him, talked about and discussed various aspects of what they was involved in. Bob has mainly, together with Jose Raluy, been working with the games artificial intelligence (AI). Sitting to the left of Bob, was Carlos who has been programming on the project since the beginning and has practically had a finger involved in about everything. He's also the author of the Blade level-editor and he and Angel Cuñado (lead programmer) are the key persons behind the 3d engine. Right over Carlos' place sits Manuel. Manuel's work was particular interesting as he is the one that makes the visual special effects in Blade. I got to see some really cool scenes and effects demonstrated; one scene that plays a big part of the game looked nothing but stunning! Of course, I can't go into any details on it.

F.left: Enric Álvarez and Bob Ives

I moved over to the artists and had a chat with Javier and the guys sitting around. Here I got to see different animation files. The animation of the dwarf running is just hilarious, even when viewed in wireframes! It was nice looking at the various animation sequences; from small animations as the character picks up an arrow out from the quiver and rest it against the bow to some huge beings moving their massive body and unveiling their mighty powers.

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