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6. Tell us about Full Spectrum Wargoals, especially in terms of giving an honest rior. What was the brief and how well look at a soldier’s daily life. I’ll never forget do you think you guys hit that? one of our press events, where we hosted Full Spectrum Warrior was originally a US press the first day and European press military training tool, developed to help the next. The US press kept asking me how Army squad leaders make better decisions I felt about making such a pro-war game. in the field. As a training tool, it was almost finished when I joined the team in 2003. The team was led by Wil Stahl, who had worked on Battlezone and Battlezone II. He’d made a really brilliant leap in the control scheme and behind that training simulation was a secret: It was the first real RTS for a console. It was also amazingly complex, intended to reinforce four years of Army training with brutal realism. One wrong choice and a soldier on your squad was dead in less than a second: Game Over. As you would expect, it had no real levels or game spaces, no progression, no difficulty system, no story or characters, and the control system, while brilliant, was super complex. kept asking me I was brought aboard as lead about making such a designer to take that hardcore military training tool and make . asked it into a commercial game. I how we thought a game that was didn’t want to make something would be received in so that would just appeal to the people already playing Rainbow America. At that point, 6 and Ghost Recon—I wanted to make something an armchair general could enjoy, something for the guys who only played Madden and Halo. I also wanted to take a The European press asked how we thought a documentary approach and show what it’s game that was so anti-war would be received like in the field for actual soldiers. My father in America. At that point, I knew it had was career Army and it was really important worked—people were playing FSW and to me to give an unflinching look at what the deciding for themselves how they felt about average soldier deals with every day. war, weapons, and what soldiers experience I always say game design is the ability to in the field. understand your box and then work inside it—and FSW was a really, really small box. 7. What’s your favorite thing you’ve Giving a sense of progression was really designed or worked on over the years? challenging in a setting in which we had to It’s a tough choice for me, because I really stay absolutely realistic. The soldiers on your love Free Realms. It was a lot of fun to make, squads are dismounted light infantry—they and I’m really proud that we pushed the aren’t the guys who sneak into the dictator’s envelope in terms of what you can do in an house to defuse the nuke, they’re the guys online virtual world. I’m also really happy who patrol a bridge for two weeks. Their that we were able to make something that weaponry is very specific, and they don’t appeals to non-gamers, because broadendrive tanks or man rocket launchers. We ing our audience as an industry is really worked really hard to find ways to keep each important to me (and, I think, to the future level dynamic and entertaining. of games). Although I think FSW shipped a little I’d have to say my favorite things I’ve too difficult and complex, I think we hit our designed, though, are the systems in FSW
because I’m a systems nerd at heart. Wil Stahl and I worked hard together to come up with new ways to handle cover, enemy fire, and control schemes to balance complexity and playability. Of all those systems, I’m most proud of something people don’t notice because it works: the soldier personality/VO system. My goal was to create something brand new—soldiers with genuine personality who would respond in real-time and dynamically to events around them. It was a crazy complex system, with something like 10,000 lines of diaFull Spectrum Warrior
The US press how pro-war I felt game The European press anti-war
I knew it had worked.
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logue that all worked in a non-linear fashion in response to literally thousands of events. Even cut-scenes were dynamic because you could go into the cut-scene with up to two soldiers unconscious and being carried by squad members—so other characters had to pick up their lines in a way that still made sense but reflected their personalities. It was a powerful moment for me when the audio files came into the build, a soldier on my squad got shot, and the other soldiers reacted, calling him by name, the young recruit freaking out while the sergeant shouted a command to regain control. My goal was to create something that felt so natural and so much like a movie that you wouldn’t notice it, and I think we got there.
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8. Which is easier to make: A story game in which you are given a predetermined path to follow, or a sandbox game in which you are given tools and told to go have fun? And which is better? I wouldn’t say either story-driven or sandbox games are better from a play perspective— it’s all about personal preferences and play style. I think they’re equally difficult to make in their pure forms, but in different gamesauce • Fall 2010 17