The Unofficial Free Radical Design blog

An intersting interview. HAZE seems to be PS3 exclusive full stop and Timesplitters 4 is coming along nicely. No more EA by the looks of it . This interview was posted 10 days ago but that doesn’t matter.

Game Informer: Where are you at in development right now with Haze?

David Doak: We’re at the crazy time of trying to finish it stage. [laughs]

GI: Do you have a release date yet?

Doak: This year. Obviously, Thanksgiving things are important, so the end of November is the target.

GI: Do you try to say, “We want to totally get out of the way of Halo 3,” or does it matter to you at all because you’re PS3 only?

Doak: I think it matters less because we’re PS3 only. It’s funny—I don’t think people generally find themselves in a position where they can choose release dates. The big things you try to move apart, but it’s a funny business. It is a bit scary as well, because even if you’re on a different platform than something, the fact that something’s out in the same window can take everyone’s money.

GI: Why PS3 first?

Doak: Only.

GI: Only?
 
Doak: [laughs] You’re a weasel. The opportunity is there. I think PS3 needs good shooters. We have some previous with Sony consoles, and that’s good for us. We’ve delivered very well on PS2 with the TimeSplitters games and the opportunity is there. Also, it’s not just previous experience; there’s some know-how as well. PS3 is an evolution of PS2, so the expertise we have with the vector stuff is useful. It’s a good platform to be on. I think it’s mainly the opportunity.

GI: You said it’s the evolution of the PS2, and the PS2 was a pain to develop for. Is the PS3 the super pain to develop for?

Doak: It’s a very specialized piece of hardware. It’s useful to have people who have worked down to the metal on other similar things before, and we have a few guys who really, really know this stuff. We also in fact have a few new guys who I’m really impressed with who really know their stuff. It’s all very techie—it’s pretty techie beyond me these days, as well. But it’s a really important part of the industry now. Code’s getting really complicated.

GI: What’s your target for graphics? Are you guys going 720p, 60 frames? Thirty frames? What do you think you guys are going to be able to hit?

Doak: I think we’re going to be hitting 30. I like games running at 60, but I think with new hardware you always have next-gen-itis, where everyone wants more more more more more, and at some point that more means that you can’t go for the absolute maximum frame rate. I think in terms of resolution, again, I think it’s one of those things where you need to make a call on that. I think the people who have been chasing 1080p and stuff will see that they have to compromise elsewhere.

GI: How much more of a challenge has it been doing this on the PlayStation 3 than trying to pull off a TimeSplitters on PlayStation 2?

Doak: When we did the original TimeSplitters, it was always going to run on the PS2 only, from day one. With this, it’s the first game on this engine, so the engine has been built to be platform non-specific. So, we built the engine first, and then we looked at putting it onto the hardware. So although we had an eye for what was happening with the hardware, there’s still that thing where we’re taking it and specializing it later. Also, when we started making the game, we weren’t particularly targeting a specific hardware. Art assets and things were made in slightly different ways, so we’re kind of addressing that now. I think if you’re doing something exclusive for some specific hardware and that’s your goal from the very, very start, you can cut the cloth accordingly to what you’re doing. If you’ve got something that’s more general and you’re subsequently looking at it, it’s another thing. You make quite a bit of work for yourself, but then the upside is that we have an engine that we know works on other hardware as well.GI: What’s the name of the engine?Doak: Maybe you guys could have a competition to name our engine, because we don’t have a name. Everyone has a name for their engine, and we haven’t got one. Any suggestions are welcome. The problem is that any time we think about it internally, everyone goes, “What about this?” everyone says, “Oh, that sucks…lame-ass name.”GI: So with “The Engine,” how hard would it be, hypothetically, to port Haze over to other places?Doak: It’s possible. [laughs] Technically possible.GI: As far as multiplayer, you’ve got the rebels versus troopers. Are you going to stay serious with this, or have you thought about throwing in some of your goofy stuff—or are you going to save that for the next TimeSplitters?

Doak: This game isn’t TimeSplitters, so I think it would be a mistake to throw a lot of TimeSplitters stuff into it. Particularly since we have decided that we were making TimeSplitters 4. So I think it would just be a needless dilution of things.

GI: When did you decide that you were making TimeSplitters 4?

Doak: It was a while ago now. I think the thing for us was that TimeSplitters 3 got good reviews and things, but we had that difficult thing where people said, “Oh, you’ve made it a bit different,” and then we fell foul of a lot of people who were EA bashing as well. Also, the company wanted to expand the portfolio of things that it was doing, and it didn’t want to just be the TimeSplitters company. Earlier in the cycle for hardware is a better time for doing new things than later. We learned that way to our cost with Second Sight on PlayStation 2. When we came out, people weren’t really interested in new stuff—well, some people were, but the mainstream weren’t. I think with Haze we wanted to get in a little bit more early.

GI: Something I’ve noticed in the past 6-9 months, especially with E3 and Leipzig and QuakeCon, is that this seems to be the year to show off new IPs. Everybody’s got something—do you think people are sick of doing the same games and just want to try different things?

Doak: There are a fair many games out there with big, huge numbers after them though. Quite a few fours. It’s the year of the fours as well. I think it’s just more games. It’s good that there are more IPs. Something I’m really rooting for is BioShock. I know it’s a competitor in some ways, but it’s not on our platform. It’s a competitor for money—not that it’s about the money. [laughs] That, to me—I loved System Shock 2, and I’ve always loved what those guys do, and it’s nice to see what doesn’t look like a publisher-friendly game and wasn’t a publisher-friendly game when they were making it. So hats off to them. They’ve stuck at it. They’ve changed it a little bit, but I can just see someone pitching it. “Yeah, it’s an FPS and it’s in this art deco world under the sea and you get to kill little girls.” “OK. Right. Can you put Jean Claude Van Damme in it?” “No, we don’t need him.” The guys are Metacriticing on tip-top right now—I mean the game ranking stuff is off the scale. I played the demo on Live, and it’s actually one of the few things that I’ve ever preordered. But it’s in the post and I’m here. [laughs]

GI: Is TimeSplitters in development, or are you guys still at the concept stage?

Doak: It is in development, but it’s not at a stage that would look like development if we showed it to someone. We’re looking at engine things that we might need to tweak for it and deciding what are the features that we really want it to have. So yeah, the art stuff is a bit further in because there’s a lot of concept art and stuff like that. But also, we’re talking to publishers.

GI: So that’s all open?

Doak: It’s undecided at the moment. But it’s our family jewel, so we’re going to be careful with it.

GI: Things are leaking out about it. Originally, it was reported that TimeSplitters was going to spoof movies. When we were talking to Rob [Yescombe, Free Radical], that was one of the things we asked him about, and he said, “No, we’re not going to just spoof movies, we’re spoofing everything.” What are you guys looking at? And then we see the monkey COG with the Gears thing—which is hilarious.

Doak: At the start, with TimeSplitters 1, all of the environments in it were all movie-genre spoofs. That was kind of it. We all referred to it as a multiplayer game and the other thing with it was movie spoofs. If you look back at some of the challenges in the games, there’s also some game spoofing going on. I mean, there were like puns and things like Dead Fraction, somebody the dinosaur hunter and stuff. The situation at the moment is I’d like to do some game parodies, but it’s going to be down to appetite on the publisher’s side. It’s a funny thing. There’s a little bit of risk there. My take on it is I think parody and satire should be something that you should be able to do, everyone enjoys it and I think it benefits both sides, because it benefits the thing that’s being satired, as well. But we’ll see. That’s what we want to do, but we’ll see.

GI: You could ultimately do a parody on GoldenEye then?

Doak: We could. I mean, Bond’s been parodied already. I think we could do a lot with GoldenEye, because I know a lot about how the things work in it. We’ve got some inside information—I know that thing intimately. We kind of touched on it with the dam level in TimeSplitters 2—it was an homage.

 GI: There were a lot of people I know who didn’t even play TimeSplitters 2 single player, they just played a lot of multiplayer. And back then, it was all split screen. What are you thinking as far as multiplayer? Are you going to go crazy with it?Doak: I think it’s a really important aspect of the game, and I think a lot of our focus will be on multiplayer gameplay and competitive things and ranking yourself against other people. Because we had a lot of cool stuff in TS3, like the cat racing—you could download replays of the fastest cat races. There are things which I think actually have casual appeal and are important, like racing levels and building things to be raced and all that kind of stuff. I think TimeSplitters allows you to do well, because you can hang your pretentiousness and seriousness at the door, so it doesn’t matter if you’re doing silly things. I think quite possibly you will see more of the arcade and challenge stuff from TS2, because I think it was some of the strongest stuff in the game—and we almost hid it away, because a lot of it was unlockable and tiered and unlockable. I remember one of the times we were talking to EA when we were talking about Future Perfect, and they asked us, “What exactly is TimeSplitters,” and we were showing them. And they said, “I’ve not seen that bit before,” and we said, “You have to unlock this,” and they said, “What do you mean it’s locked up?” They missed it. Some of the best gags were locked away. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have it so when you play a game over time more things become available, but I think we locked some stuff away and we didn’t put up the signs pointing at it. It was a beginner’s mistake—we won’t do it again.GI: You’ve always been pretty high up on the latest and greatest hardware, you’re rolling onto the PS3 with Haze, but some of your biggest fan base was on Nintendo’s consoles, because there weren’t a whole lot of shooters on the GameCube. Are you thinking about putting TimeSplitters on the Wii, as well? What do you think about making a first-person shooter for the Wii?Doak: I think it’s a good thing to do, and I think we want to put it on the Wii. And I’m sure it’s possible to do a control scheme that works. Also, if you want to start a petition for remaking Second Sight on the Wii, I’d like to see that as well, because I think that game worked really well, [laughs] because of the manipulation stuff.GI: It probably would. It’s been tried though, and some first-person shooters have turned out better than others on the Wii. How can someone make a good one? I don’t know if you’ve played Metroid yet, but it works.Doak: I’m waiting. Metroid is on my list. Although they obviously make the circle-strafe lock-on compromise. It’s really funny. When I played Prime and Echoes, I would start playing it, and for the first 15 minutes I would say, “I hate this! I ___ hate this lock-on bit!” but then it goes away. You play, you enjoy it and you forget about it. And then maybe you leave it alone for a couple of days and it’s back.

GI: Yeah, but it’s the platforming in it, too.

Doak: The platforming is good. And also I think the thing is that the pace of the game and the enemy behavior is tuned to the control scheme. I think that’s the mistake you can make. You can say, “Let’s make it play just the same as the other ones.” But you’ve got to look to the timings of things and stuff, because there’s always going to be some imprecision. You’ve got to be focused on it. You don’t do a port. And I think with the Wii controller, one of the things that goes wrong is that you see the over ambition in its use. If the gestural stuff is becoming ambiguous or noisy, you’re fighting a losing battle. If that feature is causing you pain, then don’t do it. It’s better to make a game that’s enjoyable to play than a game that’s got features that don’t work.