6. Will players discover any extra information relating to the show's big secrets, or perhaps completely uncover them?

I'd love to say that all will be revealed in the LOST video game, but it's probably best to let the show reveal those secrets. However, everything that happens to the player will add a layer to the LOST universe. The Lost game isn't a tangent from the show. It does fit within the world of Kate, Jack and all the Losties. The game might help fans with their many theories and hypotheses about the mysteries of the island.

The player will be able to visit familiar locations on the island, explore the hatches, access the computers, search the underground caves, and survive in the jungle.

With the first-person observation camera, you are free to closely inspect the details of the world of Lost, looking for clues. And there's a few interesting Easter Eggs and locations that fans will be surprised to see.

7. How involve are the Lost TV show team in the development of the game?

What has been the best idea for the game that the Lost TV show people have come up with? What's the best/worst thing about working with them?

The team at ABC has been collaborative since the beginning, which isn't always the case. I've worked on several license titles and this is the first time I've seen such great input from the creators.

We brought on a writer from the show, Dawn Kelly. Together with Dawn, the Ubisoft writers came up with a story idea we then presented to the series producers. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, Lost's Executive Producers, provided a lot of great feedback and suggestions on the story. They are not only fans of videogames but have also done their own analysis of the differences in games verses television. Any time we needed to make adjustments for gameplay, they were always ready to help us find that right balance. This was a great help to the development team.

They came with a great idea for the end of the game, that I obviously cannot reveal but it is pure "Lost style." (That's also why we are making sure everybody will be able to finish the game, so that all players get the full experience).

The best thing about working with the Lost team is their positive environment. When you get in the room with them, the energy's palpable. There are no bad ideas. They're open to everything. It helps you arrive at a place where great ideas are allowed to percolate to the top. When we present them out new ideas, they bounce back on them instantaneously.

The worst thing about working with the Lost team? They have too many good ideas ;-) And that we don't have meetings with the producers and writers in Hawaii-but our bags are packed just in case.

8. What game engine does Lost use? Were there any interesting technical challenges?

LOST uses the GRAW2 engine.

The first challenge was to decide on which Engine to use. We chose the Engine used for GRAW. It had a proven track record for delivering next-gen quality graphics; it worked on Xbox360, was easily adapted to PC, and was at the time being ported to PS3 for GRAW2 and Beowulf.

The next biggest challenge came from the Lost Island itself. Even though the Engine had a great feature set, it was really designed for flatter urban environments. For Lost, we needed something more organic - beaches, water, and of course, lots and lots of trees. We developed tools for our artists to create these environments quickly and painlessly. On the Engineering side, we are working very hard to optimize every bit of the Engine to handle large maps full of very life-like foliage. The Island is a character in both the show and in our game so we think players will really appreciate how alive it feels.

The show is quite popular among gamers everywhere so it was easy to find people interested in working on the game. The core team has re-watched all of the episodes countless times and every new member of the team is given access to the DVDs of past seasons for reference and inspiration. During the regular season, the day after an episode aired, the studio was generally charged with discussions, theories and reading messages boards - actually it's a good thing the season has ended so we can get back to the business of making the game.

10. What did you consider to be the vital elements of the Lost TV show formula that you had to maintain to ensure the game felt faithful?

At its core, Lost is about the castaways and their lives on the island. So it was important for us to allow players to interact with many of their favourite characters from the show. A signature of the show is the flashback where we learn past secrets from the castaways' lives. We will be including playable flashbacks in the game and players will need to use these to help them solve problems on the island and to understand what happened to them before landing on the island. So some parts of our story will be happening off the island - and if you look carefully, you may spot some familiar castaways in those flashbacks.

Overall, we felt it was vital that we kept to the rules of the TV show. The Black Smoke Monster has to follow the same rules as the show uses. The Dharma Initiative hatches should look as they do on the series. Anything we put in the game needs to fit with the show. Along with the producers of Lost, we agreed from the start that the game can't be viewed as a little side project that doesn't count. The game does count and things you learn in the game can be applied to fans' theories about the Lost universe.