P OSTMORTEMS FROM Austin Grossman, editor San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • Lawrence, KS Published by CMP Books an imprint of CMP Media LLC Main office: 600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 USA Te l : - - 6 ; f a x : - - Editorial office: 1601 West 23rd Street, Suite 200, Lawrence, KS 66046 USA w w w c m p b o o k s c o m email: books@cmp.com Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks In all instances where CMP is aware of a trademark claim, the product name appears in initial capital letters, in all capital letters, or in accordance with the vendor’s capitalization preference Readers should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information on trademarks and trademark registrations All trademarks and registered trademarks in this book are the property of their respective holders Copyright © 2003 by CMP Media LLC, except where noted otherwise Published by CMP Books, CMP Media LLC All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher; with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication The publisher does not offer any warranties and does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information herein and is not responsible for any errors or omissions The publisher assumes no liability for damages resulting from the use of the information in this book or for any infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties that would result from the use of this information Acquisitions editor: Managing editor: Copyeditor: Layout design: Cover design: Dorothy Cox Michelle O’Neal Madeleine Reardon Dimond Justin Fulmer Damien Castaneda Distributed to the book trade in the U.S by: P u b l i she r s G ro up Wes t 0 Fo ur th S t r e et Be r ke l ey, C A 10 - 00 -7 8 -3 Distributed in Canada by: Jaguar Book Group 100 Armst rong Avenue Georget own, Ont ario M6K 3E7 Canada 905-877-4483 For individual orders and for information on special discounts for quantity orders, please contact: CMP Books Distribution Center, 6600 Silacci Way, Gilroy, CA 95020 Tel: 1-800-500-6875 or 408-848-3854; fax: 408-848-5784 email: cmp@rushorder.com; Web: www.cmpbooks.com Printed in the United States of America 03 04 05 06 07 ISBN: 1-57820-214-0 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Tales from the Front Line ix SECTION I STARTUPS Irrational Games’ S YSTEM S HOCK by jonathan chey It’s the Engine, Stupid What Went Right What Went Wrong 12 Bohemia Interactive Studios’ O PERATION F LASHPOINT 19 by marek spanel and ondrej spanel What Went Right 21 What Went Wrong 24 Future Dreaming 28 Surreal Software’s D RAKAN : O RDER OF THE F LAME 29 by stuart denman Origins of the Team 29 Origins of the Beast 30 What Went Right 31 What Went Wrong 36 Onward to the Next Project 40 Pseudo Interactive’s C EL D AMAGE 41 by kevin barrett, john harley, rich hilmer, daniel posner, gary snyder, and david wu What Went Right 42 What Went Wrong 47 Damage Control 50 iv Table of Contents Nihilistic Software’s V AMPIRE : T HE M ASQUERADE —R EDEMPTION 51 by robert huebner What Went Right 53 What Went Wrong 58 At Last, Redemption 61 Ensemble’s A GE O F E MPIRES 63 by matt pritchard Designing the Past Perfect 63 Blazing the Multiplayer Path 65 Painting the Scene 66 Going for Speed 67 Things That Worked Out (S)well 68 Things That Went Wrong Or We Could Have Done Better 70 Patching It All Up 73 SECTION II SEQUELS AND SOPHOMORE OUTINGS 75 Blizzard Entertainment’s D IABLO II 79 by erich schaefer What Went Right 81 What Went Wrong 86 The Final Word 90 Epic Games’ U NREAL T OURNAMENT 91 by brandon reinhart Early Development 91 A Game Takes Shape 92 New Code, New Features 94 In the End, It All Worked Out 95 What Went Right 96 What Went Wrong 100 Where We Go from Here 102 Table of Contents v Westwood Studios’ T IBERIAN S UN 103 by rade stojsavljevic What Went Right 104 What Went Wrong 109 Overall Tips 113 Ensemble Studios’ A GE O F E MPIRES II: T HE A GE O F K INGS 115 by matt pritchard Catching Up 115 Designing a Sequel 115 What Went Right 117 What Went Wrong 121 The Show Goes On 124 Presto Studios’ M YST III: E XILE 127 by greg uhler What Went Right 128 What Went Wrong 133 Closing Thoughts 135 Poptop Software’s T ROPICO 137 by brent smith What Went Right 138 What Went Wrong 141 In Hindsight 146 SECTION III MANAGING INNOVATION 147 Lionhead Studios’ B LACK & W HITE 151 by peter molyneux What Went Right 152 What Went Wrong 156 “Just More” 160 vi Table of Contents Bungie Software’s M YTH : T HE F ALLEN L ORDS 161 by jason regier The Making of a Legend, er, Myth 162 What Went Right 163 What Went Wrong 165 Post-Release Reactions 168 Looking Glass’s T HIEF : T HE D ARK P ROJECT 171 by tom leonard The Concept 171 What Went Right 173 What Went Wrong 178 Stepping Back from the Project 181 DreamWorks Interactive’s T RESPASSER 183 by richard wyckoff An Ambitious Project 183 The Concept 183 What Went Right 184 What Went Wrong 188 Lessons Learned 193 Ion Storm’s D EUS E X 195 by warren spector What Went Right 196 What Went Wrong 202 The Bottom Line 207 Naughty Dog’s J AK & D AXTER : T HE P RECURSOR L EGACY 209 by stephen white What Went Right 210 What Went Wrong 214 The Legacy 217 Table of Contents SECTION IV vii BUILDING ON A LICENSE 219 LucasArts’ S TAR W ARS ™ S TARFIGHTER 223 by chris corry What Went Right 225 What Went Wrong 231 Back to Earth 235 Raven Software’s S TAR T REK ™: V OYAGER —E LITE F ORCE 237 by brian pelletier, michael gummelt, and james monroe What Went Right 239 What Went Wrong 245 Final Thoughts 249 Red Storm Entertainment’s R AINBOW S IX 251 by brian upton The Concept 251 The Production 252 What Went Right 255 What Went Wrong 257 In the End… 258 Raven Software’s S OLDIER O F F ORTUNE 259 by eric biessman & rick johnson What Went Right 261 What Went Wrong 265 A Direct Hit 270 SECTION V THE ONLINE FRONTIER 273 Mythic Entertainment’s D ARK A GE O F C AMELOT 277 by matt firor What Went Right 281 What Went Wrong 283 For the Ages 285 viii Table of Contents Multitude’s F IRETEAM 287 by art Brief History 288 FIRETEAM’s Components 289 Who Worked on FIRETEAM 289 What Went Right 290 What Went Wrong 293 Evolving Right Along 297 Turbine’s A SHERON ’ S C ALL 299 by toby ragaini What Went Right 301 What Went Wrong 306 A Unique Company Résumé 309 Afterword Appendix A Independent Game Development 310 Game Development Team Roles 313 Artist 313 Audio 314 Designer 314 Producer 315 Programmer 315 Quality Assurance 315 Glossary 317 Index of Game Titles & Developers 319 Index 323 ix INTRODUCTION Tales from the Front Line We are only beginning to understand how to make video games A couple of years ago I was working at a computer game company in Los Angeles, and one afternoon I took a walk through Universal Studios’ nearby lot I was new to the West Coast, so it was a big thrill knowing that I was standing at the physical place where movies were made I roamed around and peered in open doorways at the cavernous sound stages stacked with pipes and lumber I had no idea what any of it was, but two things were immediately clear: (a) whatever they were doing was enormously complicated and expensive, and (b) they knew exactly how to it Universal Studios was founded in 1912, and after 90 years of filmmaking, they have it down to something like a science Every single item, down to the orange cones, had a name or number stenciled onto it Somewhere someone with a clipboard knew what everyone on the project was doing that day and every day until the redcarpet premiere, and how much every minute was costing the studio If the movie runs over time and budget, they know it and they know what to to minimize losses and get it in the can and out the door They have put their production techniques through more-than-complete shakedown Compare this to making a video game This is another enormously complicated and expensive enterprise, but one much less clearly understood Schedules, staffing, and budget are routinely inaccurate, if not vastly overoptimistic Projects routinely run months and millions of dollars over what was initially projected Job descriptions are vague and changeable No universal vocabulary of design and production terminologies exists Individual jargons are ad-hoc inventions, varying from company to company and project to project Every year new technologies for both production and display are introduced, and every year audience expectations change and the scale of the enterprise goes up During the two years a project is in production, the whole medium evolves The product quality in the game industry is immensely variable Only a relatively small percentage of video and computer games ... engine from another game, but individual components that were spun off from yet another game, THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT The THIEF technology was still under development and months away from completion... average game developers as well as highranking producers Each article is written in the same simple format A member of the development team writes down how the game got made, starting from the... some of the postmortems concern games that belong to more than one category—some of the online games were also made by startup companies, and so on The Game Developer postmortems have gradually become