For those who do not know, retro publisher Night Dive Studios is currently undertaking in an updated release of the cult classic Powerslave with the console version being included in this package and the work is being done by Samuel Kaiser Villarreal who brought Strife: Veterans Edition to life among other projects.
http://techraptor.net/content/interview-man-rebuilding-powerslave
There is more at the link above.
http://techraptor.net/content/interview-man-rebuilding-powerslave
TR:
TR: About how far are you into the development process of Powerslave EX?
Kaiser: I would say its 90% done. Just need to tweak the menu system, implement movie playback and some renderer optimizations here and there. Ive been making crazy progress.
TR: Off the top of your head, can you give any examples of great FPS level design?
Kaiser: Level design is affected by the diction of the games narrative and general design. For action FPS games, Quake pretty much nails it. It has a great introductory level, great layouts that really compliments with the game design. Fighting Orgres is REALLY satisfying and the layout of Quakes levels is built very well around that. If Quakes levels were completely flat with little to no verticality, then that would of been a different story. Some people may roll their eyes when I say this, but the Call of Duty franchise also has some really good level design as well. They do a really good job at pacing and progression. Condemned is another personal favorite and it has a lot of really good moments that kept the tension factor way up and that works really well with the games design. The school and farm house levels are prime examples of what I am talking about.
TR: After Powerslave EX, are you going to try your hand at remaking other shooters?
Kaiser: I was originally working on remaking N64 Turok (called Turok EX) but it got put off to the side. Since now Night Dive Studios has picked up the rights to re-release it,
Turok EX will resume development later this year. By the way, Ive also done work with Night Dive by re-releasing Strife, which was another reverse-engineering project that me and a friend worked on back in 2010.
Aside from that, I am not sure if theres any other shooters I plan on remaking. Ive been tempted to look into Blood but I am quite wary of the many toes that I could potentially be stepping on. Particularly Ataris toes 😛
There is more at the link above.