combat was chosen as the team felt turn-based combat was overused in the genre. There was also a noted rarity of real-time combat systems with any depth and care in RPGs. The first-person combat was a relatively late inclusion, with the team needing to alter enemy AI so it would approach differently and allow players to see and fight them with the altered perspective. An early problem was the special moves and quick menu, as if kept in real-time enemies would have an advantage of either attacking a vulnerable character or moving out of range. Drawing inspiration from the slow-motion action sequences in The Matrix, the team implemented a slowing of time, allowing players to maintain an advantage and strategise without the combat losing its real-time style. It was designed from the beginning as a single-player experience, as multiplayer would have significantly delayed its release. The storyline and cutscene concepts were created once the gameplay ideas were solidified. Sound designer Eamon Murtagh also acted as scenario writer. He wanted the cast to respond like real people rather than comic book stereotypes, and with that aim in mind the actors recorded together in the same studio, with their performances playing off each other. The overall aim was for the story to appear clear-cut and standard for players, then ask questions about the morality of different factions. So as not to dilute the plot, the narrative was kept linear and fixed. The storyline changed several times during production, with there being so much background lore that the opening cinematic was a compromise to communicate it to the player as concisely as possible. The plot's "creative energy" was fuelled by multiple sessions of Dungeons & Dragons. Each character was created with a character flaw that needed to be overcome, such as Ailish's sheltered mannerisms and Elco's over-questioning nature. The game's engine was designed from scratch for Sudeki based on the Xbox hardware. To ensure minimal load times, the developers directly streamed data through the Xbox's hard drive, cutting down on memory usage. The team wanted to push the Xbox to its known limits, but also used techniques such as rendering static geometry with pre-established push buffers to take workload off the console's CPU and GPU. The lighting system had dedicated lighting and shadow effects for different body and character types, and dedicated software protocols were created for animating faces and expressing emotions; player