Last week, GameSpot learned that Third Law's first-person shooter, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child, had reached the final stages of development and that it was only a matter of days away from completion. We took this opportunity to sit down with the game's project manager, Pam Wolford, and talk about The Nightmare Child's development cycle, go over any regrets the Third Law team had along the way, and look into future endeavors for the company.

　　GameSpot: Now that development on KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is finished, do you look back and wish you had done something differently?

　　Pam Wolford: Of course! No one on the team had started and completed their own project as owners of a company, so it was very much a learning process. I think we survived it without any huge, project-altering mistakes, though certainly no one walks around here feeling smug. Common sense and humility must be shown, or you're in for a beat-down from everyone else.

　　GS: Has the idea behind the game changed significantly since its inception? Have you done everything you originally set out to do with The Nightmare Child?

　　PW: The actual design has remained mostly intact. The biggest change is that we planned a lot more levels and a few more creatures, but we eventually realized that we had way too much on our plate and scaled down the size of the game. Of course, lots of smaller things changed along the way, such as how certain weapons worked and creatures attacked... lots of tuning stuff like that.

　　GS: The Nightmare Child is based on a pre-existing universe, Todd McFarlane's comic book series. How much of your own creativity were you allowed to express within the game? Did McFarlane lock you down to a stringent approval process?

　　PW: Todd McFarlane Productions has been a dream to work with. They've let us do our thing completely unfettered, and untold numbers of people have helped us with whatever we needed. They did all our packaging art, and it was a very painless and pleasant experience. Their art director, Brent Ashe, is top notch.

　　GS: When you first announced the game, the idea of a shooter based on a 1970s rock band license seemed a little silly. Was the entire development team always excited about doing this game, or was there anyone who questioned the viability of a KISS Psycho Circus game?

　　PW: You're right... [but] when the team became familiar with the KISS Psycho Circus comic books, they knew it was absolutely viable. The rich and sinister world of the comics provided the backdrop - the Destroyer series storyline with the Nightmare King - and its ending provided us with the perfect introduction to our story.

　　GS: How involved were Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, and the other KISS band members in the game's design process? Have they seen the game lately?

　　PW: No one from KISS was involved in the design of the game at all, though Gene was given a demo at E3 in 1999 and has been kept up to date; and we sent images and videos as we went along. I remember his words as "Love it" back then, but I haven't heard anything since.

　　GS: A large chunk of the team worked on Daikatana before founding Bloodshot (which later became Third Law). What lessons, if any, were learned in developing Daikatana?

　　PW: I was HR director and not on the Daikatana team, so I am speaking from my own observations. They're the basics, but it takes discipline to maintain them, like stick to your milestones, resolve issues before they become problems, work as a team, no one is a star, and did I say stick to your milestones?

　　GS: The game is powered by a "highly modified" version of the LithTech 1.5 engine. What modifications were made to the engine?

　　PW: Our programmers added several enhancements including new per-vertex model lighting, beam systems, and player physics. The model lighting enhances the overall experience by giving the characters and creatures more realism, while the beam system is getting used all over the place, from water effects to lightning to bullet tracers and sparks. The new player physics provide a much tighter, crisper feel to the game overall - much closer to the feel of Doom and Quake. Nelno has also developed a superfast system of pathing that allows creatures to find their way quickly around the levels. Horde creatures use this system to chase down the player, and they try to overwhelm him with their sheer numbers. This basic horde AI provides exactly the gameplay element we were looking for. Non-horde creatures use this system with an additional level of AI. One example of this is the Blademaster, who does flips onto ledges, boxes, or anything else around him to evade your attacks.

　　GS: Why did you opt to license existing technology if you knew you were going to spend a lot of resources heavily modifying it? Why not just develop your own engine from the ground up?

　　PW: We were offered a good contract to do a licensed property within 18 months. Creating a full game in that amount of time and simultaneously developing your own technology from scratch with a team our size just isn't feasible. It's still a lot easier and a lot less time-consuming to modify an existing engine.

　　GS: Newer engine technology has emerged since development on KISS began. Have you had a chance to see the new engines from id and Epic? Would you rather use one of their engines for your next project, or will you be sticking with the LithTech technology?

　　PW: We have seen the Quake III and Unreal engines. We are very pleased about our choice to use the LithTech engine and with Monolith's support throughout this project, but we haven't made any final decisions on what we're using next.

　　GS: And speaking of upcoming projects, what's next for Third Law? Now that The Nightmare Child is done, can we expect to see an expansion pack, or will you be delving directly into a new property altogether?

　　PW: I'm not at liberty to say right at the moment.