Because PC Games are bootlegged and sold dirt-cheap, game development in Iran is about as profitable as an industry that sells snow to eskimos. However, in 2005, a FPS/driving adventure called "Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence" proved that there is a market for homegrown software.

"We are selling "Quest of Persia" in Tehran for around £1.35, but with the same money you can buy titles like Quake IV", says Puya Dadgar, project lead, who envisaged the game while working as a NASA sub-contractor in Houston. "We thought to ourselves, who's going to buy "Quest of Persia" at the same price? Amazingly, people bought it in big numbers because it's an Iranian Game with an Iranian story."

Imagine "Quake II" dropped on its head in a desert: that's "Quest of Persia" in a nutshell. Compared to the porsche engines of modern titles, this game is powered by a Ford Pinto. But with a meager budget and no publisher support, it's still darn sight better than some of the other first-person shooters out there.

QOP's success has got other developers all fired up, various game titles are under development in Iran. Despite this, Ila Soleimani, character animator on "Quest of Persia", says: "Iran won't have a proper game industry until copyright law problem is solved and domestic investors pay some attention to our industry's potential."

The End of Limitation

We start this article with congratulations to the makers of the game, who succeeded in finishing the first 3D Computer Game in Iran, with all problems and limitations.

Usually, a large part of a review is comparing the game with other games in its category. However, it’s not fair to compare “Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence” with blockbuster games currently out in the world market, on the other hand, there is no Iranian game in this level that we can compare it to. Therefore we just talk about the game itself.

“The End of Innocence” is the first game of a series called : “Quest of Persia”, which has been made by Puya Arts Software Engineers and artists. It uses a Game Engine called QoP, which has been developed by Puya Arts Programmers, led by Vahid Kazemi.

The game has 21 short levels, and each of them has a different and specific mission. Other than driving game, it has even a puzzle game. The story is very nice for an Iranian FPS game. You will not be able to Save the game everywhere, it will be saved via checkpoints in the start of each level. In terms of graphical look “The End of Innocence” looks like games such as “Counter Strike”. Places are mostly closed, and it has a fast loading time. This is one the strong points of the game. But the enemies character looks are very simple, and Leyla doesn’t look great at all. You will get to play with a variety of weapons from AK47 to RPG7. This game has animation cut-scenes which can be seen after each level is completed. It seems the developers have spent lots of times for those cut-scene, and they look really good.

Overall the game play is good, and different game plays and levels make it a dynamic game, although the driving game levels are a bit boring. Also, when Leyla fallows you, there is a chance that she will stuck somewhere in the level, and you need to guide her through the level. Enemy AI is not so great either, looks like they haven’t used any complicated AI algorithm to control enemy mods. Sound maybe the greatest problem of the game. It would be better if they used a professional narrator for the characters of the game. However the game Soundtrack is just amazing, and that helps the game in a big way.

The main problem of the game is not having a Farsi menu, and Farsi in game messages. If it’s an Iranian game, everything in the game has to be in Farsi.

Talking about this small game is more than just what we have discussed here, and although we criticized it in some ways but we won’t forget that “The End of Innocence” as a first complete 3D Iranian game is a worthy attempt.

“Quest of Persia: The end of Innocence” has set a new standard for Iranian games, and we hope, better games will be made in Iran in the future.

The Start of an Evolution

2 years ago, a couple of young talented guys gathered in the hope of fulfilling their long lasting dream of making a computer game in Iran. They knew from the beginning that they have no chance to compete against world class games. However, they worked hard, and after 2 years with a team of 10 people, and a very limited budget they managed to publish their game.

The important part of design and development of this game is the game’s engine, which is the first completed 3D Game Engine ever developed in Iran. Although, the game engine has some limitations in comparison with current world class engines, but developing a complete engine is a big step for Iranian game development. According to the Engine developers, it has been designed to work with low profile hardware.

At first glance, this game might have nothing to say in comparison with world class games which we can buy in Iran almost free, but if we look back, we will see that this game is a masterpiece work in comparison with what Iranian game developers have done before, and “Quest of Persia” has given hope to Iranian game development.

The interesting point of the game is the story which includes a variety of environments, you will get to play with a complete arsenal of weapons. You will also be able to experience various game plays, which is really great for an Iranian game. Game Modelers have done a good job too. Leyla character has only 3000 polygons, which is really great for such a quality. One of the problems though is the design of the characters which is not related to the time which the story is happening. Cut-Scene animations are the amazing part of this game, and although music and sound effects are very promising the voice actors for characters are not chosen very carefully.

In conclusion, this game developed by such a small team and budget, is not only a masterpiece in Iran, but also it’s a remakable effort in the whole world.

Arashk, Leyla and tablets from ancient Iran

Puya Arts Software published the First 3D game which has been developed entirely in Iran. The game is called: “The End of Innocence”, and has been developed by Puya Arts Programmers, and has an outstanding quality in comparison with other games which have been developed in Iran. It’s an FPS game which takes place in the early years of Iran-Iraq war. “Arashk”, the Hero helps his archeologist friend “Leyla” to gather the ancient tablets.

“The End of Innocence” due to lack of strong copyright laws is sold at only 2500 Tomans (2 Euros), which according to developer it doesn’t even bring back the production cost of package, and CDs.

During the First Computer Game Exhibition in Tehran, Doniaye Bazi magazine did an interview with Puya Dadgar (Project Lead), and Vahid Kazemi (Lead Programmer) of “The End of Innocence” which has been printed in their magazine a month later, here is a part of the interview:

“Quest of Persia:The End of Innocence” is the first 3D Computer game in Iran. How do you feel about that?

I think being the first soccer team in the 3rd division of Bundesliga is not something to be proud of. However, with all the limitations, and problems we managed to publish a game which people are enjoying. I think that’s nice.

What were your limitations?

Well, in terms of limitations, we had to support 64MB graphic cards, which is what most of the people have here in Iran. Therefore we had to take lots of things out of the engine, in order to have game run smoothly on low profile machines.

How come you guys decided to develop an FPS game? Isn’t it hard to compete with blockbuster games in this field?

Of course, we knew from the beginning that with our first game, we are not gonna reach the quality of world class games. However, this showed us, that if we don’t have to support low profile graphic cards, we might be able to have something close to current generation of game engines.

Mr. Dadgar, You did design the levels yourself. Do we have any level designer in Iran? Are you happy with the result?

I supervised the design of the levels, and helped the graphic artists with environments… It’s hard to find a level designer here, since they need to be familiar with the design tool, and with Engine capability. I am not satisfied with the levels, I think some of them could be designed better… we looked at games like Far Cry, Half Life 2, and Metal Gear Solid 2 for ideas, but of course our engine couldn’t support lots of things, so we had to develop something that could work fine with our Engine.

Mr. Kazemi, You were in charge of developing the Game Engine, how long did it take to write the engine, and how many lines of code the engine has?

It took 18 months to design, and develop the engine. The main source is around 25,000 lines of code, and it’s completely object-oriented.

Why didn’t you use Engines like Quake 2 which is freely available under GPL license?

Our story demanded different game plays. We needed an engine which could support all of them, besides we had to support low profile graphic cards, so we had to optimize it a lot. As you have seen Loading time is quite fast in QoP.

Bazikade did an interview with "Puya Dadgar" in the First Iranian Computer Game exhibition, which is available in their magazines DVD, here is the part of that interview:

How do you think “The End of Innocence” will do in terms of market sales?

I have no idea… Our game is somewhat different from any game out there, and for sure, this game is a couple of years behind current generation of games like DOOM3 or games which have been developed by Unreal 2 Engine. After all we wrote our engine ourselves, and it’s not gonna be able to compete with those games in the present time. But we do have a good animation and nice story, and different game plays, we hope people enjoy playing it.

Are you gonna be in the Tehran Computer Game Exhibition next year?

I doubt that. I don’t think we will have a game ready by then. Besides not having a strong copyright law enforced in Iran made us sell this game for only 2500 Tomans (2 Euros) in Iran. I don’t think that we will do that again.

Here is the link to farsi version of the article.