Prey, I don't understand.

What happened to Prey? It looked like the best game ever and then it disappeared! I looked all over this forum, and the only information I can find on it is:

"Prey looks plain awesome!"
"Prey, What happened?"
"Prey"
"How much of Prey was actually complete?"
and many more...

but I don't want to bother reading them, I must post my own topic on it so that I can get the same replies the others have. I hope it wasn't canceled, because then I'll have to ask why rather than read someone else's post about it. Please help me!

Oh, and Joe3DR - maybe you should make a Prey FAQ like you did with Duke3D.

[NutWrench]

Those links will probably be your best bet, Ben for finding out stuff about Prey. I've seen posts here by 3D Realms people ranging from "Prey is dead" to "Prey is on hold."

I'm sure they are very busy with DNF right now to worry much about it. Maybe after that's done, they'll let us know. [img]smilies/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[MrEricSir]

Joe doesn't write any of the FAQs. They've been put together by fans. Lon Matero's Prey FAQ is still online in the FAQ section.

[Joe Siegler]

There was a Prey FAQ - I thought it was still online, but I may have removed it when I purged the web site of all Prey info over a year ago.

The answer is simple as to what happened, and it hasn't changed since 1998. The game is on hold until we finish DNF, at which point we'll make a decision on what to do with it. That is IT. No deeper meaning is available or needed.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| _______ _ _ _______ |
| | |_____| |______ |
| | | | |______ |
| |
| " O F F I C A L " |
| _____ ______ _______ __ __ |
| |_____] |_____/ |______ \_/ |
| | | \_ |______ | |
| |
| _______ _______ _____ |
| |______ |_____| | __| |
| | | | |____\| |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2-27-98 VERSION: 1.2 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Author:
Lon Matero ([email protected])

Copyright:
The Prey FAQ is Copyright 1996-98 by Lon Matero. If you wish to use part
of this document, please leave it intact, and show it belongs to
The Prey FAQ by the author, Lon Matero.

Disclaimer:
This FAQ was not written by Apogee or 3D Realms and they do not take any
responsibly for what is said in this document. Any information in this FAQ
can change at any time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
Table of Contents:
------------------

}I. Prey: The Game
}------------------

1. Introduction

1.1 About this FAQ
1.2 Where to obtain this FAQ
1.3 Future additions
1.4 Revision History
1.5 Credits

2. About Prey

2.1 What is Prey?
2.2 Who is making Prey?
2.3 Who is 3D Realms?
2.4 Who is distributing Prey?
2.5 When will Prey be released?
2.6 What are the System Requirements?
2.7 What Operating Systems does Prey work with?

3. The History of Prey

} 3.1 History 1995
} 3.2 History 1996
} 3.3 History 1997

4. The Prey Team

} 4.1 Who was on the first Prey Team?
} 4.2 Who is on the current Prey Team?
} 4.3 Who is creating the music?
}
} 5. Storyline / Characters
}
} 5.1 Who is Talon Brave?
} 5.2 What is Prey's setting?
} 5.3 Storyline: Pre-Prey
} 5.4 Storyline: Prey
} 5.5 Storyline: Post-Prey
}
} 6. Single Player Prey
}
} 6.1 What will Prey feature in single player?
}
} 7. Multi Player Prey
}
} 7.1 What will Prey feature in multi player?

8. Where to find more information

8.1 World Wide Web
8.2 Newsgroups
8.3 IRC


}II. Prey: The Technology
}------------------------
}
} 1. PreyOS
}
} 1.1 What is PreyOS?
} 1.2 I just want to play the game, what does it do for me?
} 1.3 I want to edit the game, what does it do for me?

2. Prey Engine

2.1 What is the Prey Engine?
2.2 How does the Prey Engine Work?
2.3 What are the Prey Engine's features?
2.4 What is Portal Technology?
2.5 How does the Prey Engine compare to...?

3. Hardware Support

2.3 What 3D API does Prey use?
3.3 3D Cards
} 3.4 Input Devices
} 3.5 Output Devices
} 3.6 Sound Cards
}
} 4. Multi Player Technology
}
} 4.1 What kind of Multi Player support will Prey have?
}
} 5. Preditor
}
} 5.1 What is Preditor?
}
} 6. Skinner
}
} 6.1 What is Skinner?


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Part I: |
| Prey: The Game |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Introduction
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1 About this FAQ
------------------

Prey is the game and FAQ stands for: Frequently Asked Questions.
Here, you will find a vast amount of information about Prey and hopefully
answer many of your questions.

} - shows that this text has been added/changed since the last
release.


1.2 Where to obtain this FAQ
----------------------------

The latest version will be posted to these places:

http://www.oakland.edu/~klmatero/prey
http://www.apogee1.com/faq/
alt.games.apogee


Now there is a Japanese version of The Prey FAQ! This version is
handled by Yukio Ide ([email protected]) and if you read Japanese,
it can be downloaded here:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/6040/prey.html
} (Site currently not working)


1.3 Future Additions
--------------------

This FAQ is always being worked on and updated. Here is a list of
what is planned to be added in future versions of the FAQ. Feel free to
make suggestions.

+ More on Multi player aspects of Prey, including "Prey Tribes."
+ Adding more depth to the Prey Technology section of the FAQ.

1.4 Revision History
--------------------

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Version | Date | Description of additions and changes |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|v1.2 2-27-98 Rearranged the whole FAQ. Condensed the Prey Team section|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|v1.1 8-13-97 Started the list of 3D Cards supported, added new |
| information on the Prey Engine. Misc Updates. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|v1.0 4-08-97 The Prey FAQ renamed to The Official Prey FAQ. Brought |
| the FAQ up to date. Started the history of Prey. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|v0.15 12-7-96 First public release. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

1.5 Credits
------------

+ Rob Brown - [email protected] (Proof-reader, biography,
IRC section)
+ George Broussard - [email protected](The history of Prey section)
+ Joe Siegler - [email protected] (For guiding me along)
+ Yukio Ide - [email protected] (The Prey FAQ Japan Translator)
+ Paul Schuytema - [email protected] (Wealth of new information)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. About Prey
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


2.1 What is Prey?
-----------------

Prey is an upcoming first person, 3D, Sci-Fi, dark, futuristic,
action game. In Prey, you are Talon Brave, a Native American, out to battle
races of aliens. Prey will have both single and multiplayer play, along
with support for many hardware devices and operating systems. Prey is
also very editable, with a scripting language and a level editor.

Prey's project leader explains why "Prey" was chosen:
"Prey is a cool name because of the double-edged meaning: the prey/predator
meaning and the 'pray for help' meaning."

A few mottos or subtitles have been also posted:

Prey: You are and you'd better!
Prey: If you don't come back, they will!
Prey: Be Brave!


2.2 Who is making Prey?
-----------------------

A game company called 3D Realms Entertainment. A team of about
10-12 members are working full time developing the game. Developers from
previous games and new members are working on the game. A full listing of
he people behind Prey is in 'The Prey Team' section of this FAQ.


2.3 Who is 3D Realms?
---------------------

3D Realms is a division of Apogee Software Ltd. set up in 1994 to
focus only on 3D style games. 3D Realms' first release was Terminal
Velocity. 3D Realms is known for games including Duke Nukem 3D and
Shadow Warrior. 3D Realms uses the "Apogee model", where a shareware
episode is distributed for free, then users can buy a registered version
to get all the episodes. Apogee and 3D Realms can be used interchangeably.


2.4 Who is distributing Prey?
-----------------------------

In 1996 Apogee chose GT Interactive to distribute it's retail
versions of their games. 3D Realms does take direct orders of games, but
GT distributes to stores. GT also handles all of the advertising of
Prey, such as magazine ads.

Go to GT's WWW Page: http://www.gtinteractive.com/

3D Realms is taking care of the publishing and the online
distributing of the Shareware version.


2.5 When will Prey be released?
-------------------------------

This is one of the most popular questions for any game, and here is
Apogee's most popular response:

"When it's done." [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

} An estimate for the release would be Late 1998 / Early 1999.


2.6 What are the System Requirements?
-------------------------------------

* 3D Realms has not announced any official requirements yet.

An estimation is:

} - Pentium 166 Processor or greater
} - 32MB RAM
} - Supported 3D Card
} - 28.8 Modem for TCP/IP Games


2.7 What Operating Systems does Prey work with?
-----------------------------------------------

} Prey is a native Windows 95/98 game. Right now, the only operating
}systems planned on being supported are Windows 95 and Windows 98. The
}latest version of Microsoft's DirectX will probably be required too.
}
} Windows NT support is unknown at this time. There will not be a
}DOS version of Prey. Supporting other Operating Systems require more
}development time.
}
} Ports to other systems and game consoles could happen in the future.
}Mac, N64, etc, versions could show up in late 1999, but no deals have been
}made yet with other companies.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. The History of Prey
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1 History 1995
-----------------

The Prey project has been in progress for a number of years now.
What has happened over that time? Here is an overview of the history of
Prey, how it has developed, taking us to present time. This history was
written by George Broussard and Paul Schuytema and edited by Lon Matero.


The concept for Prey started right after Rise of the Triad. All we knew
was that we wanted to do a dark Sci-Fi game. The game initially started
probably about July or so in 1995, but this was the very early R&D stages.
We were deciding what to do for an engine and whether we could use the
Build engine (Duke 3D), or another engine Ken Silverman was doing at the
time that was true 3D. We decided to roll the dice and write our own
engine at that point, so the team started digging into writing their first
3D engine.

The team was very small at first (mainly coders trying to write an engine
we could use). It took a little while to get things going, since we had
never written an advanced 3D engine in house and there was a lot of
experimenting, but in 3-4 months William had a true 3D texture mapped and
lit engine up and running. The engine was constantly upgraded for speed, or
a new approach to doing things, and this continued throughout the rest of
1995.

3.2 History 1996
-----------------

By March 1996 we had a character on the screen moving around, elementary
net play with frag bar, items to pick up, and things were looking good.
But we still weren't happy with the engine yet, even though we had 3Dfx
support in and working. The lighting just wasn't quite right.

William Scarboro (engine programmer) kept tweaking things and about mid
year, we all decided to roll the dice again and support hardware
acceleration only. It was a bold decision, but we felt the timing was
right and it was the only way we could get some of the cool features we
wanted in the game. We wanted to be cutting edge. So William went back
and rewrote the engine again, this time specifically for hardware (3Dfx
first). At the same time he was re-writing "Preditor", our in-house editor
for Prey.

In August, a few members of the Prey team left the company. This brought
up major problem, what would happen to the project? Who would replace them?

Near the end of 1996,we started hiring new core team members. We started
with Paul Schuytema, who used to be a reviewer with CGW. We liked his style
and found out he was producing Mech Warrior 3 for FASA. We figured that
if they thought he was good enough for Mech Warrior, we'd give him a call.
A few short weeks Paul was here, and he threw out all the old Prey stuff
and started re-doing the Prey story (which I was much more happy with).

Things picked up fast from there. William got the new engine running under
3Dfx with 16 bit art and colored lighting, and we hired more people on.
Scott McCabe and Allen Dilling came on for art and Tom Pytel came here to
code everything William couldn't. The game was also being converted to
Windows 95/98 during this time.

3.3 History 1997
-----------------

The early months of 97 were focused on refining the abstract concepts of the
engine (to make it as robust and general as possible), nailing down our own
video API and low-level system programming, and polishing up Preditor.

In late April, the first public Prey demo was unveiled at CGDC (the Computer
Game Developer's Conference) in San Jose. The non-interactive demo ran so
smoothly, and with such visual fidelity, that many thought that it was a
pre-rendered AVI. They were floored when they learned that it was the engine,
generating the visuals in real-time.

By early summer, Preditor had evolved into the most advanced 3D editor we'd
ever seen. The speed of the interface, and the fact that the editor uses the
engine directly, means that a mapper gets to see the results of his work
instantly. In addition, the mapper has almost psychotic control over every
single polygon in the map.

We also hired Matt Wood, our first full-time mapper. He dove into Preditor
like a man obsessed, and was soon creating some of the most intense
environments we'd ever seen. Immediately, he and William began communicating
on ways to improve Preditor even further.

In late June, Prey showed up at E3. We had a cool new non-interactive demo
(which only repeated once every 15 minutes!) on a single computer on the
floor. We also had a back room office where we could show the demo
interactively, plus some other nifty "tricks."

The press reception was more favorable than we could ever have hoped
for-almost to a tee, the members of the press left our demo with the look
of stunned disbelief plastered across their faces. We even took home a
"best of show" award from Computer and Net Player magazine. Not long after
E3, we were joined by Loyal Bassett (who we grabbed from Microsoft), as a
programmer for the character system in the game.

}In August and September of 1997, we wrapped up work on Prey milestone 4,
}which was a "MultiPrey" test. It was our first time to be able to have a
}LAN-based multiplayer Prey experience.
}
}Out of that milestone, Creditor evolved. Creditor is our own "Prey actor"
}texturing and animating tool create by Loyal Bassett. Creditor gives our
}artists the ability to texture a model with detail that's never been seen
}before in a game. Creditor now has been renamed "Skinner"-the name comes
}from several sources: you use the tool to "skin" an actor; Principal
}Skinner on the Simpsons and behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.
}
}John Anderson joined us from Lockheed-Martin and rapidly picked up
}Preditor. John and Matt worked with the texture artists to create the
}"archetypal" looks, both texturally and architecturally, for the game's 4
}primary alien environments.
}
}In October, we began a 90-day tech burst to nail down all the principal
}game systems before Christmas of 97. During the first month, the Prey OS
}came on line-it's a full featured operating system that allows us to run
}and program the game-you can even run DOS from within the Prey OS.
}
}In late October, we all sat down and designed the levels and flow of
}Chapter 1 of the game. We also finalized design on several actors and
}weapons.
}
}In November, we announced that industrial rock band KMFDM was signed to
}provide the music for Prey.
}
}
}3.4 History 1998
}-----------------
}
}By 1998, Preditor was improved even more, and starting on a few Muli Player
}levels in the game. David March, artist, joined the Prey team. In February,
}a new level designer from Germany, Martinus, joined the Prey team. As the
}third level designer, the "mapping" portion of the Prey team was complete.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. The Prey Team
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

} The team developing the game, The Prey Team, is a unique team because
}most of the members were hired off the internet. They were found because of
}their pure talent, even though many never made a game before.
}
} There are really two Prey teams, and two Prey games. One in 1995 and
}1996, and the other in 1997 to present. Most of the first team left Apogee
}Software and started their own companies. Both teams are shown below.
}
}
}4.1 Who was on the first Prey Team?
}-----------------------------------
}
} The following was the original Prey team creating the game in 1995
}and 1996.
}
}Name Job What Happened
}--------------------------------------------------------
}William Scarboro - Lead Programmer
}Mark Dochtermann - Net Programmer (Left to Ritual)
}Jim Dose - Tools Programmer (Left to Ritual)
}Tom Hall - Project Leader (Left to Ion Storm)
}Chuck Jones - "part-time" Artist (Left to Valve)
}Doug Wood - "part-time" Artist (Left the company)
}
}
}Here are the two official announcements from George Broussard about these
}employees leaving from August 1996:
}
}* What happened was two programmers left the project, leaving the main
} engine programmer, William Scarboro working on the engine. We see
} little setback, and will begin interviews immediately for the two open
} spots. (Tools programmer/Editor and Net code/general game programmer).
} We expect this will only be a little 'speed bump' in Prey's development.
} Nothing to worry about at all.
}
}* More Prey news for you all. Tom Hall has left to join John Romero's
} startup company. We wish Tom well and his leaving was very pleasant,
} and a little expected as he and John have been friends for a long time.
} I will continue to be Executive Producer on Prey as I was with Duke 3D
} and will likely bring in someone new as Asst. Producer to help guide
} the project and relieve the workload. Again, we know how this looks
} to the outside world, but rest assured that we aren't panicking at all
} here. These folks will be missed, but the bulk of the Prey team is
} here, more motivated than ever and things will go on.
}
}
}4.2 Who is on the current Prey Team?
}------------------------------------
}
}Name Job Year Joined
}-------------------------------------------------
}Paul Schuytema - Project Leader 1996
}George Broussard - Executive Producer 1995
}William Scarboro - Programmer 1995
}Tom Pytel - Programmer 1996
}Loyal Bassett - Programmer 1997
}Steve Hornback - Artist 1996
}Scott McCabe - Artist 1997
}Allen Dilling - Artist 1997
}David March - Artist 1997
}Matt Wood - Mapper 1997
}John Anderson - Mapper 1997
}Martinus - Mapper 1998
}Lee Jackson - Sound/Music 1995
}
}4.3 Who is creating the music for Prey?
}----------------------------------------
}
} The musical score for Prey will come from two different sources. Lee
}Jackson and KMFDM. CD Audio tracks will come with the reg