Review Fix Exclusive: Baris Tarimcioglu Talks ‘Solarix’

Review Fix chats with Baris Tarimcioglu Project Lead & Lead Level Designer for Solarix, a crazy futuristic looking-first-person shooter looking for a home via Kickstarter. With shades of Fallout, Unreal Tournament and Half-Life, it’s a game that’ll keep you in the shadows, but will force you to come out and shoot as well.

Tarimcioglu, a fan of the genre and “Thief: Deadly Shadows” and “Unreal Tournament” modder and level editor for years, has definitely created a labor of love in Solarix.

But before you read our Q & A, check out the development team’s Kickstarter Video:

For more information on the game, head here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the game?

Baris Tarimcioglu: The story and design are influenced by a wide variety of sci-fi/horror games & films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), Half-Life (1998) and System Shock 2 (1999). However, the original Solarix movie by Andre Tarkovsky would deserve a special mention in our influences because the sense of isolation and the psychological aspect and depth of that movie inspired us when writing the story for Solarix.
From modern games, I’d say we got influences from “Dishonored” and the “Dead Space” Series.

Review Fix: What games did you play growing up? How do you think they influenced this game?

Tarimcioglu: We grew up playing games like the “Unreal” series and the “Quake” series. That’s the real hook for us about “sci-fi” level design. We tried to capture that old school sci-fi level design feeling in Solarix. I have been level designing since Unreal 1 days, so that chips in for me, roughly speaking, 15 years of experience in level design. Back in the day, the joy would be to hunt for games based on unreal engine, of which released mod tools for us to salivate over. By then, downloadable content would mean “free maps & missions”, capitalism had not set its gloom over business of game development in those years. Everyone was freely exchanging mods made by the modding tools by the ever-inspiring modding communities and the term “shelf life” meant something special for both publishers as well as developers during that era. Throughout those adventures, I enjoyed mostly making levels for “Thief: Deadly Shadows” game and Unreal Tournament series.

Review Fix: What makes the story cool?

Tarimcioglu: Our story is deeper than an average zombie-survival-horror game. There is a strong psychological aspect to it and that would mean, we have lots of room to experiment if we want to expand the Solarix universe, and we really want to…

Review Fix: What’s your favorite feature/gameplay element of the game?

Tarimcioglu: We’re really excited about the way we integrate the HUD with other gameplay elements. It’s meant to be this unreliable, dying machine you’re wearing, which fails at inopportune moments and leaves you stranded with your wits and scrambling to repair it all. It’s your only link to the NPC characters in the game. And also our AI is important…. I love our stealth-AI as my favorite gameplay element.Because in many horror games you can’t do much about monsters, you always have to kill them. But in Solarix, you can avoid or sneak around them or use the environment to your advantage. We also know stealth is a very difficult medium to master, especially with AI programming. I believe our AI is already one of the highlights of our project. It gives you freedom. Traditionally, you outrun the enemy, you outgun them, but in Solarix you have the freedom for both of these and more. You can outwit your foes, sneak around them, or use the environment in a clever way to your own advantage. I love this aspect mostly.

Review Fix: WHo Will enjoy the game the most?

Tarimcioglu: Old-School stealth gamers and survival-horror fans will enjoy this game mostly. I hope people would love that “old school” feeling of lighting and shadows bases gameplay. Also our levels are non-linear so that’s also another interesting point about our game.

Review Fix: Anything else you want to say?

Tarimcioglu: Solarix, the very game that I’ve been leading for the last two years, is the absolute epitome of “story and single-player driven atmosphere.” Though, strangely enough, I find myself pondering for some moments as if I’m making “death-match” levels, while making levels for Solarix. I don’t think game-play mistake or delusional impulse… Besides, I’ve realized and acknowledged it, so it is under control. I let this “trick” intervene when I’m designing the levels on purpose. I let the death-match-arena-maker inside of me to pop-up his head from time to time and let that monster “whisper” remarks over a single player mission-level.

Level design is all about flow, regardless of story. And the best teaching method for a level designer, I believe, to master making the perfectly-flowing level without any “story-elements.”

And I economize my experience of death-match level design skills in this way. I observe the mistake of making levels that “do not flow” in many modern games.

Even the game might have several layers of deep story, we don’t have the luxury to make levels that don’t have natural flow.
So to sum, our story and level design is very unique, I can guarantee that.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13802 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*