We recently spoke with Kirsten Forbes, producer of Radical Entertainment's upcoming title, Dark Summit. Here's what she had to say.

KIRSTEN: We are the design team of Dark Summit, there are five of us, and we are responsible for various portions of production, from the look and feel of the levels, to character AI, to level of difficulty progression, etc.

KIRSTEN: Inspiration comes from many sources during development: video games, movies, books and snowboarding.  You name it, it's in there. Apocalypse Now, Whose Line is it Anyway? Tony Hawk, the cover of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother… our design team works in mysterious ways. We wanted to create something very different from the current crop of snowboarding games. Dark Summit moves in a completely new direction with its story and mission based levels.

KIRSTEN: One of our goals in this game was to draw the gamer into a world of compelling characters, challenges and suprises like never before. We wanted to create an entire mountain that's hiding a really big secret and it's up to you, the 'meddling snowboarder' to find out what it is. It's sort of a Scooby Doo meets the X-Files meets Apocalypse Now type of script.

The storyline is integral to the game because it allows us to develop Naya's personality and establish her foes. It creates Naya's world and encourages you to explore, to check out what's around the corner.

KIRSTEN: Your goal is to gain lift and equipment points.  Sure, you can get some by pulling off tricks, railing objects, linking up combos, but the points really start to grow when you successfully complete challenges.  Some challenges are time-based, some are trick-based; things like smashing signs, jumping helicopters, escaping crazed forest rangers... You never know what you are going have to do next.  The tricks are fun, but your real job is to succeed at enough challenges to unlock the secrets of Dark Summit.

So the mission system is flexible enough to allow you to move through the game at your own pace, and most missions can be accepted or declined. However, once in a while there will be special missions that you cannot decline, but which you wouldn't want to anyway, because the rewards are awesome.

KIRSTEN: We wanted to concentrate on the trick and exploration aspect of the game but there is nothing stopping you from body-checking as many of the ski patrol as you like. In fact, it's encouraged.

KIRSTEN: The Trick System rewards you for successfully completing tricks and for linking up tricks and special moves. It's impossible to guess at a total number of tricks in Dark Summit because our system allows for infinite combos and links. The better you are with trick manipulation, the more points you'll receive.

KIRSTEN: Trick Points are converted to Equipment Points in the game.  Dark Summit will reward you by upgrading your entire snowboard inventory once a certain Equipment Point threshold is broken.

KIRSTEN: Yes there is.  There are three multiplayer games, each with their own objectives.  One will allow the players to destroy many items, another will offer the required race to the bottom of the hill and the third will help determine who is the best in a halfpipe.

KIRSTEN: The usual items will be unlockable; boards, outfits and characters.  There are hidden tracks in the game but you don't unlock them the usual way.  These runs will be triggered in-game through certain actions and completion of tasks.  The cordoned off areas that snowboarders are not allowed in are some of the most fun spots to uncover (look out for the swarm of rats!).

KIRSTEN: Exploring is a great part of Dark Summit.  I really enjoy seeing new things as I play a game, especially when I work hard to get it.  As for favourite areas in the game?  Without giving anything away, I do like the area that Naya gets teleported to...

KIRSTEN: We are currently looking at many potential titles.  We will settle on one that we can put our heart and soul into.

KIRSTEN: Current favs around the office include Dark Summit (of course), Devil May Cry (bringing "cool" to a new standard), ICO (love the style and animation) and the Tony Hawk series.

  Parting words - Please stay off grass... get on the snow