Interview with Techno Kill, of Matrix HL

Cerberus> What are your favorite games besides Half-Life?

Techno Kill> I am liking Ages of Empires 2 and Everquest right now. Yeah..

Cerberus> How far have you come with the Matrix HL mod?

Techno Kill> Well, we're nailing down the rules of the mod right now. Well, we're nailing down the rules of the mod right now, then we're going to incorporate more of the scenarios later. So, the we've come a long way. But we still have a longer way to go. So I'd say maybe, hell I don't know. It's too hard to say. We've progressed.

Cerberus> How long has the mod taken from start to where you are now?

Techno Kill> Well, we started on April 11, and it's November7, 1999, so it's taken that long.

Cerberus> When do you expect it to be released officially?

Techno Kill> It's hard to say. When we originally pstarted Matrix HL, we figured May 15, 1999, then Octobber, now it's November , and you guys haven't seen anything. All I can really say is soon.

Cerberus> Will there be custom-made multi-player maps for the mod or will the mod use currently made maps?

Techno Kill> We will inculude custom made maps, and then you can play dm and team dm on any of the current maps out there for those two styles of play right now.

Cerberus> How has the beta been going?

Techno Kill> Not too bad. We had a major bug before, but Poop and Wannabe fixed that just days ago. So we're back in the swing of things. We have actual working people of both the single and mutli player betas of the game.

Cerberus> Will you be adding anything different from the movie to the mod to make it more interesting?

Techno Kill> Well, we're trying. But every time we try to add something to the mod, people bitch aand say, "Hey that wasn't in the movie, It's not true to the movie!" So, we're still kind of contemplating certain things, but yes, in the mod , there will be some enhancments.

Cerberus> How many missions will the single player mode be?

Techno Kill> I have no idea. Splatter is in charge of the single player, and he makes those decisions. He hasn't finished the whole story board yet, but he said it should be around 7.

Cerberus> What do you think makes Matrix HL unique from other mods, besides the fact that it is based on The Matrix?

Techno Kill> Um, unique? I would say probably the fact that people think we're going to get shut down every day. But as far as game play, I think all that we really have that is unique is the power meter and abilities. The other stuff in the mod is really based off of old gameplay styles of mods. I mean, every mod has realistic aiming, and CTF variants and stuff. It's hard to be original these days. But generally, our uniqueness will be tweaking stuff in the engine.

Techno Kill> We'll have a kung fu system that hasn't been implemented anywhere else. When you start fighting in Kung Fu, it switches over to third person cam and stuff. So our mod is like a mixture of stuff.

Cerberus> Do you have anything planned for the future currently?

Techno Kill> Well, no. I wouldn't mind going on make a mod for Q3 or something. But I'm done with video games once this is done. I got a few years of that teenage thing still left in me, I'm not going to waste it sitting behind a computer. So this will probably be my last project. As for the other guys, some of them will be going on.

Cerberus> Ok, well thanks for the interview, and I really look forward to Matrix HL.

Techno Kill> No problem man.