Formed only this past January, Recoil Games wasted no time in establishing a working relationship with 3D Realms and beginning work on its upcoming first person shooter, Earth No More, which is slated to hit PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2009.

Founded and directed by Remedy Entertainment co-founder and ex-managing director Samuli Syvahuoko, who previously worked on Remedy's Max Payne alongside 3D Realms, the new studio marks Syvahuoko's return to PC and console development after more than half a decade in mobile technology and games.

Shack: Can you tell us a bit about your history of Recoil Games? What brought you back to console and PC development after spending six years specializing in mobile games and technology at Fathammer?

Samuli Syvahuoko: Ever since my demo scene days, I have been fascinated by programmers and artists who have been able to accomplish seemingly impossible audiovisual feats in regards to the hardware that they have been developing for. I have also been an avid gamer all my life--having started with the Commodore VIC-20 and 64. So, one can understand my level of excitement when I was able to turn all this enthusiasm into a job in 1995 when I and four other guys founded Remedy.

In 1997, a special opportunity came to setup a subsidiary company--Futuremark--for Remedy that would specialize in 3D graphics benchmarking programs--products that would push the visual envelope even harder than what PC/console games usually did.

But being an entrepreneur at heart, I couldn't resist when in 2000 an opportunity came to setup a new company to focus on games and 3D graphics technologies for mobile devices. Of course mobile devices weren't on the cutting edge of rendering technology--quite the contrary. And in fact, this was the very reason that made the challenge so intriguing.

During the six years that ensued, Fathammer developed several generations of 3D game engine technologies for mobile phones, PDAs and other such devices. Eventually, the company started full-blown development and even publishing of mobile games. It was all very exciting -- and a huge learning experience--and I regard those times as some of the best years of my life.

But I missed the PC/console space. I missed the total immersion of the games and I missed the sharpest edge of technology. So, when Fathammer got acquired last year, I knew I was going to start yet another company.

Having been "away" from the PC/console space for several years, I was somewhat shocked to notice that--apart from eye candy--things in games had not progressed all that much. And having always been a big fan movies and television serials (in other words great storytelling and believable characters), I started to see a clear gap that needed filling.

When I was "rounding up" people to found Recoil with me, I made sure people shared my vision of creating new kinds of action-adventure games that would put a lot of focus on narrative and emotional human drama. Obviously there have been a few games that have provided good narrative, but way too few in my opinion.

As a profession, the games industry has developed a lot during the past decade. I think it's only natural and logical for its products to do the same.

Shack: How did Recoil Games' relationship with 3D Realms come about?

Samuli Syvahuoko: It's all based on my relationship with Scott Miller, the CEO and co-owner of 3D Realms. When I was Remedy's managing director, I formed the business relationship with Apogee / 3D Realms. This collaboration brought fruit in the form of the top-down action racing game Death Rally and after that, Max Payne.

During those years, my co-operation with Scott worked extremely well. I can't recall a single negative incident or even a misunderstanding. The fundamental factors of the relationship were trust, fairness and openness. It was like we had been meant to work together.

So, when I got in touch with Scott about Recoil Games--and he was immediately interested--it was a bit like coming home from a long trip. So, now the old partners are doing it again, but with upgraded levels of ambition and experience--and a ton of new ideas.

Shack: What lead Recoil to choose Unreal Engine 3 for Earth No More? Will you be using any sort of custom or internally-developed modifications and technology along with it?

Samuli Syvahuoko: The decision to use UE3--or licensed tech in general--came from the simple fact that we can start prototyping right away instead of a year or more from now, had we gone the "own tech" route. Fortunately, we don't suffer from the Not-Invented-Here syndrome; we are out to make the best game possible and the sooner we can nail down its core gameplay, the better--for everyone.

As for new tech required by Earth No More, yes, we have identified around a dozen areas where we'll need to develop totally new tech from scratch internally. In fact, some of those systems are already well under way. However, it's way too early to delve deeper into any specifics. All you need to know at this point is that Earth No More will be gorgeous. That I promise.

Shack: How has your experience with Unreal Engine 3 been thus far? Have you been happy with its performance and documentation? Do you see Recoil Games continuing to use Unreal Engine 3 in future projects?

Samuli Syvahuoko: We have been very happy with UE3 so far. As for future projects, I think it's best that we simply focus on Earth No More right now and worry about the future after that.