Hello, I’m very glad to talk with you, thank you for granting us this interview. First, could you introduce yourself to our readers ? What is exactly your job at Rare studios and what are the games you have created previously ?

I’m Duncan Botwood, I’m a Senior Designer at Rare. I’ve been working here for about 10 ½ years, and I worked on GoldenEye and Perfect Dark 64. My job on Perfect Dark Zero is Multiplayer designer.

The first Perfect Dark was released on Nintendo 64 a few years ago. How did the idea of creating a new Perfect Dark game for Xbox 360 come to your mind ?

Well, work started on the next Perfect Dark game very soon after the end of PD64. It was planned for the GameCube, then after Rare got bought by MGS it was planned for the Xbox, then it ended up on the Xbox360. Moving the game onto the Xbox360 was a difficult decision, but it had many benefits that we could not ignore.

Are there any members of your team who have already participated to the original Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 ?

Myself, Mark Edmonds, Chris Tilston, Jon Mummery, Keith Rabette, and Ross Bury all worked on the original game.

How many people are working with you on Perfect Dark Zero now ?

There’s about fifty people here now.

Rare is also developing Kameo : Elements of Power for Xbox 360. Did you share any ideas or technologies with the Kameo development team, and did they have any for you ?

We use parts of the same in-house engine, and where technology that the team has developed is appropriate to the other projects, we share it.

Are you still working on Perfect Dark Zero or is it finished yet ? If not, what part of the game are you doing right now ?

Still going, we’re very close to the end now!

How long have you been working on Perfect Dark Zero ?

Roughly three to three and a half years.

What was the main problem for you during the developement of the game ?

Changing platforms means a lot of work, particularly if you’ve designed multiplayer backgrounds for 16 players and now the upper limit is 32 or 64. It means a lot of new work changing those existing backgrounds to cope with larger numbers of players.

What are your goals for Perfect Dark Zero ? What do you really want to bring to the Perfect Dark series with this new episode ?

We wanted to show how Joanna came to be with the Carrington Institute, to show a little of her earlier experiences, because in the previous game she was an ‘instant agent’. You never got to see how she got to that point.

Joanna Dark's new look is really nice and sexy. What was your inspiration when you created her new look ? Is she real ?

She’s not based on any one actual person, the inspiration comes from several sources, from real life and films, and from Manga and Anime. She went through a few changes of style during development, including one style that was much more Manga-inspired than the current look.

We saw many videos of Perfect Dark Zero on the web but we still don’t know its storyline, could you give us some details about it ?

Joanna, her father Jack, and their companion Chandra are a small bounty hunter group who take on a rescue job in Hong Kong. It turns out that there is more at stake than a simple kidnapping, and that the three of them are pawns in a larger game… you’ll have to play the game to find out more!

What are the major innovations in Perfect Dark Zero in terms of gameplay ?

The equipment you take onto the level will determine how you play through the level – stealthily or all guns blazing - and in some cases it can change the route you can take too. This will, we hope, lead to more replay value for the players. There are also new moves for Joanna like the Cover Move and the Dodge Roll, which show Joanna in 3rd person performing those moves as well as giving the player the benefit of seeing round corners and dodging attacks.

Are we going to be able to drive some vehicles in the game ? What kind ?

You’ll be able to fly Jetpacs and drive Hovercraft – the Hovercraft also has a heavy weapon turret on the back which can be set up with any of the heavy weapons the player is carrying, such as Rocket Launchers or Heavy Machine Guns. Other players can stand on the front of the Hovercraft to be transported quickly into the action.

What are your personal favorite weapon / gadget in Perfect Dark Zero ?

My favorite gadget is the Demo kit, which can blow though weak areas of wall, and my favorite weapon is the Shotgun, since it can mimic an enemy radar blip on Multiplayer maps as well as scan the map for enemies.

How intelligent are the ennemies in the game ? We saw at X05 that some ennemis did not react after you shoot them.

That was a bug in the demo version, and it’s been fixed. The enemies work together on small squads, so that a player has to use cover and keep dodging to defeat them. They will also hunt the player down – you really have to keep moving, particularly on the higher difficulty levels.

We were able to play only two levels of Perfect Dark Zero at X05 in Amsterdam. So what’s next ?

There were more levels available, but we wanted to keep as much of the story back as we could while giving people a taste of the game. There are 14 levels in the story mode that can be played solo or co-op with friends, and there are many different variations in the multiplayer mode that can be played with friends and bots.

If you had to give one word to keep us in suspense, which one would it be ?

Downloadable… content. That’s two words. Never say I don’t give you anything.

What is the real challenge for the gamer ?

Completing the game on Perfect Agent! It’s taken me a long time so far, and I’m only halfway through.

Are there any kind of bonus in Perfect Dark Zero ? New skins for Joanna Dark ?

We’re going to be looking at downloadable content as soon as we’ve finished the game – it’s really cool, there’s so much we could do with it!

Perfect Dark Zero is playable online. What sort of Xbox Live functionality will Perfect Dark Zero offer ?

You can play the story mode co-operatively with another player over Live, and that’s a different way to go through the story mode since all of the missions support that. In multiplayer there are loads and loads of options – eight different basic scenarios, eighteen different map variations, etc.

So what is now your next project ? Have you already thought about it ?

We all have lots of ideas but our main task is to get PDZero finished. Then we can sleep!

Are you making games for Nintendo DS ?

I have no idea… if we can, we will.

Peter Moore said that Rare is developing two more Xbox 360 games besides Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo : Elements of Power. Any comment about this ?

We don’t have any additional information at this time on Peter’s statement. You’ll have to stay tuned !

One last word for our readers at jeuxfrance.com ?

Enjoy!

Thank you.