At
Vertex Animation Studios, in Dubai 's Studio City
Close to Dubai 's
Autodrome, amongst various office buildings rising from the desert sands, is
Vertex Studios in Dubai 's Studio City Dubai
The game is being made for
the PC and next-generation consoles such as the Xbox and Playstation 3 and
whilst Chronicles of Atlantis will include multiple playable characters,
multiple weapons and multiple enemy types; the game's settings will also vary
from an apartment in modern day Dubai to a Spanish village under Muslim rule in
8 AD.
With settings such as these,
the team at Vertex are trying to ensure that the look and feel of Timeless
encapsulates the culture, history and essence of the Middle
East . Many of the game's characters and stories will be from the Middle East as well.
Vertex Animation Studios'
Technical Manager, Ahmad Jadallah, is not willing to disclose too much
information about Chronicles of Atlantis' game-play just yet. However, he has
told Windows Magazine that Timeless could have 8 or 9 levels with around ten hours
game-play and three difficulty levels. The game will include multiple
approaches to different puzzles; so, one player might progress through a stage
by adopting a stealthy approach, while another player might want to fight their
way through a stage.
After Jadallah showed us two
early stages of the game, it's clear that the team at Vertex Studios are
working hard at perfecting the game's small details such as artificial
intelligence (AI), shading, texture and 3D effects. Some aspects of the game
are being developed all over the world but the bulk of the game is being
developed at Dubai
This company has been working
on the game for the past year and a half, with the game predominantly being in
the pre-production phase during this period. In this phase, they have been
working on issues such as the storyline, the characters and the setting; and
they're now at the finishing stages of a prototype or demo of Timeless.
The game should be in full
production then very soon, with a team of up to 20 people consisting of members
from the Middle East and other parts of the
world.
When talking about the team
behind the game's production, Jadallah says, "We play games all the time.
The development team are core gamers at heart, and we examine all the new
products."
Once Timeless has gone
through the whole production process, it will undergo localisation and focus
group testing, and once it has a publisher, the game will be released
worldwide, with Vertex Studios saying that the release date is predicted for
some time in 2010.
Timeless is not the first
game to be developed in the Middle East
though. There have been other games made in the Middle
East that represent Arabic history and culture as well such as
Quarish, touted by the game's developer, Afkar Media, as being the "first
Arabic 3D real time strategy game (RTS)".
Quarish tracks the origin of
Islam in desert Arabia from 590 BC through its
evolution until it builds into a state. Quarish was developed by Syrian company
Afkar Media, which is headed up by renowned Middle East game developer Radwan
Kasmiya, who has been highly active in games development in the Middle East for a number of years.
But Timeless in particular
has received great interest in the Middle East
with Intel Capital recently investing in Vertex Studios. Intel Capital, the
chip giant's global investment organisation, recently invested in Conservus
International, Pulse Technologies and Vertex Animation Studio from its Middle
East and Turkey
Intel Capital is providing
both funding and technology to these investments as Intel Capital is Intel's
global investment organisation that makes equity investments in technology
start-ups and companies across the globe. It invests in a range of companies
offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility,
health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and clean technology.
Arvind Sodhani, president of
Intel Capital and executive vice president of Intel has been quoted on ITP.net
recently as saying that while Intel Capital is cautious about investing, it
stills see opportunities for new ventures.
"These investments are
testament to our commitment to invest in the Middle East, coming on top of our
investment in Sphere Networks in November last year [2008] and we will continue
to seek, and find, investment opportunities.
"We are always very
careful in our investments, and look at the macro situation of the area we are
investing in, as well as the industry sector, but that is something we do on an
ongoing basis. What we are looking for in our investments is a unique
characteristic, unique technology or unique products that people are going to
want, notwithstanding the current environment," he added.
The companies that Intel has
invested in have received both cash funds, and technology support from Intel,
in a variety of areas, as well as support to further grow the companies. Vertex
Studios, in particular, will initially work with Intel in the development of
its next generation video game with Vertex gaining access to Intel's expertise
in areas such as optimising graphics performance and the use of processor
technology to deliver superior performance.
If you want to find out more
information about Timeless, you can visit the Timeless: Chronicles of Atlantis
website. The website to visit is www.timeless.ae
and on this site you can also sign up with the newsletter online. Apart from
game's development, Vertex also develop virtual reality applications and
animated movies and shorts.
With Chronicles of Atlantis'
development and the relevant interest it has been receiving from companies such
as Intel, the team at Vertex are confident that Chronicles of Atlantis will
become a success story that will spur on even further games development in the Middle East - we'll definitely be watching this space.
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