A polygon-free approach to 3D

Essential linkage: A new forensics games features photo-realistic settings thanks to a new 3D technology.

We're not really fans of the various 'crime-scene' style games out there. They tend to be lame collection quests, bad TV spin-offs, or - more usually - both.

But a new forensics game from developer Aero is piquing our interest. Not because of its subject matter (though, we admit, a GOOD forensics game would be something to see), but rather the technology the team is using to create realistic crime scenes.

Igor Hardy over at Adventure Classic Gaming had a chance to sit down with Aero's Sam Clarkson, and the resulting interview sheds a lot of light not only on the company's Areograph technology, but also the entire game development process.

Here's a taste:

So the goal was fairly simple: Create a game which capitalises on Areograph's strengths (photo-real environments with real actors) and work within the current limitations (small, static environments). So we formed ‘Clocktower Games' and created the Casebook design document, at the time it had the less catchy name ‘Crime Sense'. We settled on a forensic game because it was well suited to Areograph - after all, crime scenes are something that a player could spend quite some time in, studying every detail, and they also benefit from the realism.

Check out the full read here.