Shellshock: Nam’67 – Dev Diary#2 Feature

In development at Guerrilla Games, ShellShock: Nam '67 depicts the reality of the Vietnam War for the first time in a video game. You take on the role of a rookie soldier on his first tour of duty as he experiences the fear and chaos of the most controversial war of modern times. From napalm bombardments and Viet Cong booby traps, to the permanent threat of invisible foes and deadly ambushes, ShellShock: Nam '67 delivers a realistic portrayal of the terror of combat.

TVG has teamed up with Eidos and Guerrilla Games to bring you weekly updates from the developers, focusing on the development of the title and the various aspects that go into creating Shellshock: Namâ??67.

TVG will be featuring a new Developer Dairy each Friday, running up to the release of the game on Playstation2, Xbox and PC on September 3rd.

Building Vietnamese levels Mathijs de Jonge, Lead Artist â?“ Guerrilla

When we first started thinking about Shellshock: Nam â??67 we decided that we wanted to make our game environment as atmospheric and close to reality as was humanly possible. We wanted the player to really believe that they are in Vietnam. In fact, we felt that in the past, jungles in games have looked quite generic so we set out to make the most true-to-nature environments possible. So, how did we make our levels look like real Vietnamese landscapes?

Breakdown of key features

Vietnam is considered by many to be the most beautiful country on earth. Rich in terms of vegetation and animals it is also host to the most incredible architectural remains, mainly ancient temples but also more recently from the French occupation of the country. You would expect that we couldnâ??t go far wrong with such variety and depth but in reality, there was too much reference available and our first task was to filter out the best locations for the game. We wanted environments that would fit into the level structure we had planned for the game, environments that players would instantly recognize and associate with Nam in 1967 but would also allow us to portray the horror of the conflict. Initially we used films to build up a long list of potential settings. We looked at jungles, paddies, temple ruins, French colonial districts, mountain villages and a number of other locations. When we were satisfied with our shortlist, we then made sure that we had covered the horror of war angle. We used wastelands, napalmed treelines and bombed out city scapes to illustrate this, More importantly, we looked at how we could create a stifling, humid, hot and sweaty â??feelâ?? or atmosphere in the environments. This atmosphere is incredibly important - it is part of the character of the country itself.

Reference

When we knew what our final settings would become, we then had to delve into these in greater detail and identify the elements that made up these key locations. To create a realistic Vietnamese jungle, for example, we used a number of established forestry databases to research Vietnamese flora. We could then research these plants and trees further, building up picture libraries and a description of each individual item. Our 3D artists actually started learning and using the scientific names for all of these assets! We took the same approach to all other environments. We use photographic reference and good solid research to build up the most realistic picture of Vietnam in 1967.

Moodboards

To make best use of all this reference material, and to ensure that we were painstakingly recreating the Vietnamese landscape without making a mistake, we created moodboards, one for each level in the game. The moodboards are king, they lay out the style â??rulesâ?? for each level and help artists keep a consistent focus on the end result.

Building the levels

Once we had defined all of the locations and had gathered sufficient reference material, we set about the building the levels. We took a layered approach: All levels consist of separate layer files, for example terrain, vegetation, vehicles, would all have their own file. Our Technical Artist created a tool (the Level Project Window) that can load any selection of these files simultaneously as layers into Maya, our 3D software. This enables our artists and designers to work together on a single level, speeding up the whole building process. This also allowed us to see results quickly, review the direction each level was taking and make any fast changes if required.

FX

Once a level has been built, it still needs a lot of polish before it can be considered complete. Building on the bedrock that the moodboards and the photo reference provide you can also use a few tricks and techniques to further enhance the â??Vietnam feelingâ??. One really simple trick is to tactically â??plantâ?? palm trees, because people associate palm trees with hot, tropical environments whenever they see them. Another, very important, technique was using a colour filters to enhance the landscape. We were also able to use this to date the game â?“ like a photo from the 60s, which tricks the mind casually into thinking you are in the right time period. Even more after-effects were used, like a subtle grain filter to give a disturbing and raw feeling. To give the game a lick of darkness we emphasized the use of contrast and made sure that shadows are really pronounced and when we put in the animated fog and mist systems, the environments got even more depth and really came alive.

In conclusion, a lot of effort went into the environments from the very start. We referenced and researched Vietnam heavily, we collated this into moodboards and actually built the levels. Finally, using our research we added more and more polish to the levels until they were living, breathing environments that could accurately portray one year in the life of a US grunt in the Nam of â??67.

TVG will have more on Shellshock: Namâ??67 from Guerrilla Games next week.