[INTERESTING ARTICLE; See Page 8] Discussion: Thoughts on Piracy

[the dark side]

Googolplex,. DO NOT insult ego shooters. the modern shooter is exactly that, a modern shooter, a cod clone,, an EGO shooter is duke 3d, half life, Classic Quake, Classic Doom, Nolf, Nightfire, Agent Under Fire, GE64, PD 64, Contract Jack, Serious Sam , Wolfenstein 3d, Wolfenstein IOS and RTCW, etc, something that is 100 times HARDER than any modern shooter on its hardest when the ego shooter is on "tourist" (v-easy). you hate shooters, fine, just remember, there is a Big difference between a modern shooter and an ego shooter. dont tarnish them with the same brush, or you will be asking to be flamed, beleive me.

although, you do have a point, ive been looking a lot at stuff from "ex devs", companies that have been shut becuase there IP didnt sell well enough to satisfy the bean counters, or they have just shut up shop in disgust.

im going to show you by comparing the Modern Shooter, and the EGO shooter.

a typical level, for a game like Call of Duty (modern shooter), takes about 2 weeks for 60 guys to make, thats all the setpeices, Scripting, ruddy first Person Cutscenes, QTE's the works. as they are just a simple Singular corridor between invisible walls, following a linear path, you see all those hills and buildings, they are just Static RENDERS, they are not part of the map, they are basically a pre rendered "wallbox", like a skybox but at ground level. above all, the game can only follow that path at moments when the SCRIPT allows it, if you try and "jump the script" and move on in the level, it will actually, after about 20 seconds, LOCK the script and crash the game, hence the "return to combat zone" and 10 second timer, its not to keep the player in an "exiting replication of a military gunfight" (look, if i wanted a "realistic" military gunfight, i'd join the Marines, when i play a game, i want FUN!) its to protect the game from having a total script breakdown.

a typical level for something like Serious Sam III (EGO shooter) took the same number of guys, over a MONTH, and that is without the Setpeices, or special effects, just the basic level map, secret placements and AI placements. as these levels are cobwebs of multiple interlinking pathways, secret rooms, huge arenas, Multiple layers stacked on top of each other, loop arounds, dead ends with traps, and the whole level is there, if you can see it, you can go there, nothing is blocked off with an invisible wall, if its rendered in the graphics engine, you can go there, just like you could in games like QUAKE and DOOm and Duke Nukem 3d,. the places you cant go, are rendered in skybox. you can go were you want in a level, see a massive great scrapjack? your not funnelled into a direct face to face, you can jink down one of several hundred allies, take down a few headless grunts (and maybe the odd kamikaze) on the way, flank the swine, and let him have 30 rounds of HPMX4000 heatseakers right up the poophole. no scripting, you are rewarded for exploring.

now remember, COD levels take about 2 weeks to make, and there are only a pathetic 13-15 of them, some COD clones can have as low as 6. now the average is 14, my maths isnt great but, thas 14X2,. 28 weeks. thats 2 and a half months.

SSII (the cartoony one most people dont like, but i still think is great) maps took a month, and there is about 40 of them! even with my bad maths, that equates to nearly... 3 ...years!

and you tell me casual games are not easy to make and effortless compared to a proper game.

also, remember, the average modern game doesnt have AI, it has a script, its why it doesnt react to you until you enter its "zone". its also actually why you get rubberbanding in racing games, because the script says you need to overtake it here- here- and here, and the game will teleport the Artifact, to ensure it matches its script. if the it doesnt match, the script "jumps" and the game will crash.

its why you dont get a boss anymore in shooters, because, since Half Life, a BOSS needs to transform its tactics in response to the players actions, that means it needs AI, its much easier to just create a QTE, wich takes about 3 days.

scripting the impression of an AI takes about 18 months, to create an actual reactive, logical AI engine, and to test it in all levels, conditions, circumstances and permutations can take nearly 2 years.

then we come to cutscenes, these satellite cutscenes, they can all be done, rendered, in ONE DAY. same for first person cutscenes, as you are using the ingame artifacts and rendering, you can create one, via scripting, in about 2 weeks.

to create a third person cutscene, you need to create specialised hi poly, hi def charachter models, as youll be seeing them a lot closer than you would in FP view. you need to programme special "camara placements" in the map, and you need to run "dress" rehersals with real actors, or just the studio staff if your on a budget, to ensure it will look right in game. you need to script movement for artifacts in the scene, you need to create high quality facial expression animation, again, because you are seeing the face up close and personal, you need a special, seperate Lighting engine, and you need to script the camara to Pan with movement, this takes time as it needs to be scripted to match the movement EXACTLY or the cutscene is going to look odd and the reviewers will massacre it. these can take over a month to make, and that is just for a little 4 minuite vignette, you start getting into the sort of cutscenese Kojima makes, and we are talking hollywood timescales!

todays games need a lot less work than classic games, there is less to make, they need less programming. so yes, they are easy to make and require no effort, compared to the games of yesteryear and the few "proper" Non AAA games that are still being made by the indies or the 3 big publishers that still have some guts and are willing to take a risk!