Kenn's background in role-playing and creative writing helped move him out of the glamorous world of food service and into the realm of computer gaming. Design credits include Take No Prisoners, Hexen II: Portal of Praevus, HexenWorld and Soldier of Fortune. Kenn assumed the responsibilities of Project Administrator for Heretic II in November of 1998 and is currently working on Soldier of Fortune and Star Trek: Voyager — Elite Force.

Aurora: What do you do at Raven Software?
Kenn: I am Raven Software's Project Administrator. I assist the project leads for all of Raven's games and I act as the office manager, chief tech support contact, acquisitions coordinator, online public relations person, Webmaster and liaison between Raven Software and Activision. Basically, I do everything that no one else has the time or inclination to do. I'm a jack-of-all-trades and master of none…

How long have you been with Raven?
I will have been with Raven for three years in February.

What specific things do you do in regards to development of Soldier of Fortune?
I assist the department leads with their needs, attend trade shows to talk about our game, maintain the Soldier of Fortune website and am the first point of contact with Activision with regards to their Raven needs. I also handle most of the online public relations for Raven and I do a lot of interviews and provide resources for webmasters of Soldier of Fortune dedicated websites. I'm also offering my creative input, play testing and writing the manual for the game. (*whew*)

What did Raven find appealing enough about "Soldier of Fortune" to create an entire game on this idea?
Raven wanted to make a realistic action game set in the modern day with a militaristic feel, and that's the direction we chose to go with our initial design. The name "Soldier of Fortune" actually came later during a brainstorming session between Raven and Activision. Activision suggested that they could acquire the license for us and we thought that was a great idea. The military action motif moved towards modern day mercenary action and the rest is history. We started out with a basic idea and then molded it into the SoF world. Soldier of Fortune is a household name and it conveys a definite message to the consumer as soon as they hear it or see it. It really brought a lot to the table for our game…

What is the reaction you're getting from gamers on Soldier of Fortune?
The reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive! The number of pre-orders we've had for Soldier of Fortune is amazing and people are constantly looking to learn more about it. They're really looking forward to the real-world weapons, enemies and environments and the super fast game play. They seem to be equally interested in the single player and the multiplayer aspects of the game, which is wonderful! That's really what we're trying to achieve…

What features does the Soldier of Fortune multiplayer game offer that other games currently do not?
We offer the ability to play the game in "realistic mode" and "arcade mode" so the gamer can play the game as he or she wishes to play it. If they want to play a more skill-based game where the weapons do real-world damage, they can. If they prefer the Quake II style, they can choose that as well. We also offer a level of customizable options and a wide variety of characters to choose from that few multiplayer games can match.

The modeling system and hit detection (gore zones) in Soldier of Fortune is very unique. How do you think this might affect game play and strategy?
There is a definite strategic element brought on by the hit detection model. Certain enemies wear armor or flak jackets, so it's advantageous to the player to aim for the head or the limbs, lest their weapons bounce off. Headshots are very deadly and useful for taking enemies down quickly if the situation calls for it. Players can also make use of crouching and available cover to reduce the field of fire and they can lean around corners as well.

Looking back over the past year and a half of development on Soldier of Fortune, what is something the team accomplished that really stands out in your mind?
Designing and implementing the GHOUL rendering system was amazing. Being able to do that much with the enemies, models, lighting and animations was unthinkable before the advent of GHOUL. It really is some piece of handiwork.

There is an OEM version of Soldier of Fortune being bundled with the Razer mouse. How much of the game is in this version, and how important is this type of distribution to Raven Software?
The OEM version that's bundled with the Razer Mouse contains 4 of the 26 single player maps, 5 of the 12 in-view weapons (technically6… hackers found a hidden sixth weapon that wasn't supposed to be in there) and 3 of the 6 combat items. Raven hasn't really done OEMs in the past, but we're finding out just how valuable they are. They generate capital for the company and they allow consumers to try out a good portion of the game before buying the full version. In addition, the press gets a chance to do previews and reviews of the OEM to educate the consumers about what the product offers. So far the OEM deals for Soldier of Fortune have been very successful.

Most FPS games are very fairy tale-like extravagant displays of plasma guns and big unrealistic characters and monsters. Obviously with the success of games like Quake II, Half-Life, and Unreal Tournament this is proven to be a seller. Why did Raven decide to stray from this "sure seller" game type and work on creating a shooter with such vivid realism?
I don't really know if there is such a thing as a "sure seller" in today's market, but we definitely saw a demand for realistic action and combat. Games like Rainbow Six, Spec Ops and Delta Force have all been on the best sellers list and Action Quake was an amazingly popular mod for Quake II. We wanted to do something different from all of these and make the game a bit more fast-paced as well as action- and story-oriented. I think we've successfully captured the best of both worlds with Soldier of Fortune.

Will there be a pre-release demo of Soldier of Fortune? If so, what can we expect to see in it?
We're finalizing our plans for the demo right now. It will support both single player and multiplayer and will most likely consist of two single-player levels and two multiplayer maps. I would guess you'd see five or six of the 12 in-view weapons and two or three of the 6 combat items. I don't have a final release date for you right now, but hopefully people will be able to download and enjoy it soon.

Why is Soldier of Fortune going to rock over the competition?
We are going to provide gamers with an excellent single-player game that provides standout multiplayer features as well. Recent FPS games have done one or the other, but Soldier of Fortune will provide gamers with both. Besides Soldier of Fortune's modern day setting and real-world enemies, critics have hailed weapons and environments as a refreshing change for the genre and that's really what we're striving for (and achieving) with the game. We're offering quality animation, superior sound, music and voice acting, a wide variety of different-looking enemies and a level of customizability options that has never been offered in an FPS game. All the pieces are coming together to make Soldier of Fortune the best it can possibly be.

Is there an expected release date for the game?
We're aiming for an early 2000 release. I'm guessing around February…

Related URLs
Raven Software
GHOUL
Activision

Vangie "Aurora" Beal is the creator and director of GameGirlz.Com, a news and resource website that provides an open forum and voice for female gamers.