Features � Conflict: Desert Storm Development Diary
Desert Storm Diary, 10th August 2001
Sebastian Grinke returns to speak about recent developments on Desert Storm�
We have now reached the point on Conflict: Desert Storm where all of the single player levels are playable in some form. This is a big milestone for us, and it's very encouraging to have reached this point with so much time left to develop our ideas.
With the bare bones of the whole single player game in place, we have a very good idea of how the story and gameplay will fit together, and what cut-scenes are required to achieve this. While the artists rough out the cut-scenes using our in-house tools, the designers are busy scripting the details of each level. This means adding all the set pieces, puzzles, objects and enemies, refining the AI scripting and playing and replaying each part of the game until it feels right. It is important to anticipate what skills the player will have learned at each stage of the game so that things remain challenging without being too hard, and obviously having the whole game mapped out is a big help in this.
While this work is carried out we maintain a big list of changes we are going to make not only to each level, but also to the way in which the game engine works. My job, as a programmer and designer, is to oversee the scripting, add features to the scripting language and fix as many of the issues that arise as I can. The others I pass over to whichever programmer is involved in that part of the game.
Those artists that are not working on the cut-scenes are busy refining the art side of the levels, building whatever scenery and objects the designers require and tweaking the animations. It is a process of constant refinement that gradually ups the quality level of the game.
Meanwhile the other programmers are working on features such as special effects (explosions, glass breaking, tracer, etc.), physics (vehicles and moving scenery), multiplayer and a full 3D sound system (you can now tell the direction a bullet is coming from by the sound it makes - a big improvement in gameplay). We have also cut our first PlayStation 2 CD demo this month which looks excellent.
As a footnote it has been interesting to us to receive mail from people who were actually involved in the Gulf conflict. All of the mail we have received has been very supportive and encouraging, with everyone looking forward to playing the game and some people offering help and information to make the experience as authentic as possible. As none of us were actually there, any help in refining the realism of the game is greatly appreciated.
With the bare bones of the whole single player game in place, we have a very good idea of how the story and gameplay will fit together, and what cut-scenes are required to achieve this. While the artists rough out the cut-scenes using our in-house tools, the designers are busy scripting the details of each level. This means adding all the set pieces, puzzles, objects and enemies, refining the AI scripting and playing and replaying each part of the game until it feels right. It is important to anticipate what skills the player will have learned at each stage of the game so that things remain challenging without being too hard, and obviously having the whole game mapped out is a big help in this.
While this work is carried out we maintain a big list of changes we are going to make not only to each level, but also to the way in which the game engine works. My job, as a programmer and designer, is to oversee the scripting, add features to the scripting language and fix as many of the issues that arise as I can. The others I pass over to whichever programmer is involved in that part of the game.
Those artists that are not working on the cut-scenes are busy refining the art side of the levels, building whatever scenery and objects the designers require and tweaking the animations. It is a process of constant refinement that gradually ups the quality level of the game.
Meanwhile the other programmers are working on features such as special effects (explosions, glass breaking, tracer, etc.), physics (vehicles and moving scenery), multiplayer and a full 3D sound system (you can now tell the direction a bullet is coming from by the sound it makes - a big improvement in gameplay). We have also cut our first PlayStation 2 CD demo this month which looks excellent.
As a footnote it has been interesting to us to receive mail from people who were actually involved in the Gulf conflict. All of the mail we have received has been very supportive and encouraging, with everyone looking forward to playing the game and some people offering help and information to make the experience as authentic as possible. As none of us were actually there, any help in refining the realism of the game is greatly appreciated.
Page: [< PREV] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [NEXT >]