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Freedom Force vs Third Reich – Developer Diary #3 Feature
Derek dela Fuente
21/03/2005
Ahead of its European release, our final chapter takes a look at the creation of the superhero cast behind the game...
The Final Chapter ā“ Cast & Characters
The countdown to the European release of this very stylish sequel draws ever closer and this time Derek, our own spandex loving reporter speaks with Alexx Kay, Co-Lead Designer on the project, along with Kevin Levine, the Creative Director/Writer for the last time.
How many people are working on the designs of the cast and can you tell us the kind of sequence/stages that goes into creating a character?
Alexx: Many, many people are involved in the process of character creation. The initial idea for a character can come from anyone, although most of them originated with either Robb Waters (Concept Artist) or Ken Levine (Creative Director/Writer). Once a basic idea is in place, Robb does up some concept sketches for the visual look of the character. Other artists take these sketches, and work up models, skins, animations and power effects. Ken and the other designers collaborate on defining the characterās powers and dialogue. After Ken does a final polish pass on the characterās dialogue, several voice actors will be auditioned to find just the right match for the part.
Ken: Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich has been more of a collaborative effort than any other game Irrational has worked on. Every part of the game and development process has been iterative. This is probably most true of the character creation process.
What are some of the basic differences between the Heroes and Villains in terms of the creation process and their abilities and persona and can you give us a few details of one of your favourite heroes and villains and why?
Alexx: Heroes can be played over the course of the entire game, while Villains tend to be more specialized, only appearing in a few specific missions. We try and keep Heroes balanced with each other in terms of overall power levels, and ensure that every Hero has a wide variety of powers, plus multiple ways to grow the character over the course of the game. Villains, by contrast, are often highly unbalanced, have fewer powers, and experience no character growth. Villains have to present an interesting challenge as opponents, but thatās a very different set of design problems from those involved in creating good Heroes.
Two of my favorite new heroes are Tombstone and Green Genie. Both of them push the emotional envelope of Freedom Force, but in very different directions. Tombstone is our first "grim avenger" sort of character; he's much darker in tone than any of our other heroes. By contrast, Green Genie is by far the silliest character we've come up with. She's a valuable asset to the team, but she never takes herself, or the situation, at all seriously. Green Genie would just as soon play a practical joke on a bad guy as send him to prison. You get the impression that only his teammates are holding Tombstone back from using lethal force.
My favourite villain is probably Fortissimo. An Italian opera singer villain is such a wonderfully goofy idea. And George Ledoux did a great job with the vocal performance.
What kind of interaction in the creation of the cast do the team have with the programmers in terms of ensuring their powers and abilities can be displayed in the proper manner and to good effect and in terms of special and particle effects what characters are you extremely pleased with?
Alexx: Every time we start a new project, we have a wish list of new powers and abilities. Some of these get implemented, but we always ask for more than we can get. Once the powers are implemented in code, however, itās really up to our talented team of artists to create the individual special effects and particle systems.
The effects that make me happiest are probably Quetzalcoatlās Hex of the Snake attack (which shows a giant spectral snake crushing his target), and the Energy Wingsā that Entropy (one of our new villains) has built into her character model.
Ken: Iām all over the map when it comes to favorites. I tend to like whoever I find funniest at the moment. Sky King and Tricolour are a riot.
There are six new heroes from two distinct periods of comicsā books. Could you enlighten the readers more about both these aspects?
Alexx: Of our new heroes, 3 are Golden Age (WWII) characters, and 3 are Silver Age characters, from the 1960ās.
The first Freedom Force game was based on the Silver Age of comic book heroes; roughly 1961-1969. This period saw a renaissance of the form, with heroes regaining popularity that they had not known since the forties. Although some of the tropes of he Silver Age now appear quaint, they were startlingly new at the time. Characters, which had previously been largely one-dimensional, now had enough personality to be considered two-dimensional, which was a big step forward!
In Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich, we are (via a time travel plot) revisiting the first great period of comics, the Golden Age (roughly 1939-1946). During World War II, people were hungry for stories that would show good and noble heroes defeating dastardly villains, without any complex and confusing issues of morality. It was a simpler time, when good was good, evil was evil, and never the twain should meet, except to exchange punches with each other.
What would you say are the new qualities, improvements, on the cast of villains?
Alexx: The villains in this game are considerably more organized that the ones from the first game. In each act of Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich, there is a particular villain behind the action, whose Master Plan is only gradually revealed (and, hopefully, defeated). Instead of facing villains who donāt have much to do with one another, Freedom Force will have to defeat organized armies of opposition.
Ken: Right. As Alexx said, most of the plot wasnāt directly related in the original game. The Villains were mostly self-contained into their own āissues.ā In FFv3R, weāre able to really dig our heels in and do some much more interesting things with both the heroes and the villains.
Most of the team must be comic strip fans. Can you give us some input to who are into comic books and what they are currently reading and some of their āgolden oldieā favourites?
Alexx: I read a lot of comics, so I canāt give you a comprehensive list. Among my current faves are:
The Fantastic Four, where Mark Waid has taken the story in exciting new directions, while staying faithful to the Lee/Kirby legacy.
Sleeper, Ed Brubakerās extremely dark take on how espionage plays out in a world of super-humans.
Girl Genius, Phil Foglioās delightfully wacky adventure story, set in a world of Mad Science.
How have you gone about creating the story for the game and what comes first, the characters of a basic story and are their any methods you work to? Did you create any cast after you had the basic storyline?
Alexx: We usually start with a very rough outline of a story (āFreedom Force time travels to WWII!ā) and work outwards from there. Characters get created pretty early in the process, and many details of the story end up flowing from the characters. For instance, when we realized that Sky Kingās costume had some similarities to Bulletās costume, we decided that Sky King had been a childhood hero for the Bullet, and that he had deliberately modelled his costume after Sky Kingās. Having gone that far, it was natural to create a mission specifically designed to bring these two characters together and let them play off of each other.
The other major influence on the plot is āWhat seems like a fun gameplay situation?ā We could theoretically have a story where Minuteman and Blitzkrieg settled their differences over polite conversation, but that wouldnāt make for very interesting gameplay!
Once we have a basic idea of what missions we want, we go through several iterations of refining the design of each mission. Sometimes what we thought was a good idea initially turns out not to be in practice, so we have to change things. Conversely, we sometimes get an idea of how to take a mission that is already working well and make it considerably better, often with only a small change. We try and ensure that each mission has both good gameplay, and also moves the story along emotionally, and in an exciting manner.
Since so much of the story comes out of the characters, we almost never create entirely new characters after the beginning of the design process. Characters certainly change and evolve during the making of the game, but they are generally recognizable as the same basic person that we initially conceived.
Have you loosely based any of the cast on people you know or some very well known comic strip heroes ā“ of course, without plagiarising!?
Alexx: None specifically. We are well aware of the commonly used archetypes of comic book characters, and enjoy playing with those. But we always try to bring something uniquely new to the table with our characters.
Ken: Even though I read a disturbing number of comics, I tend to draw inspiration from just about everywhere.
There is more emphasis on editing in latest game so what can be done with the new tools on offer?
Alexx: Well, for a start, all the new functionality that weāve used in the single player campaign can be used by modders as well. Weāve added several new multiplayer and skirmish modes, and put in hooks so that the mod community can easily create even more modes. Weāll soon be releasing a much more advanced version of the Character Tool, which will allow editing of all aspects of a custom hero, and bundling everything about that hero into one easy-to-use package. The most exciting new tool is probably Story-Based Multiplayer. This allows someone without a lot of technical skill to still create their own new content ā“ in just a few minutes!
Ken: We wanted to further empower our community and fans of comics in general. We realized that there is an enormous wealth of community created content out there. The problem was, there werenāt too many ways to put that content to use. Thus, Story-Based Multiplayer was born. This mode will allow our fans to create any scenario they can dream up and share it with others. Itās all about giving context to the content.
The first game offered great stylised graphics so what discernable differences does the new graphics engine offer?
Alexx: We now have dynamic lights and shadows, which add a great deal of immersion to the game. Partially-destroyed buildings now have recognizable interiors. We can now attach particle effects to characters, so, for instance, El Diabloās hands appear to be on fire.
On the other hand, despite all the increased technical power at our disposal, in terms of art direction, weāve become even more stylised. The design of the environments, while very sharply rendered, has an aesthetic strongly reminiscent of a 1960ās era comic book.
Ken: If you put the two games together side by side, I think youād really be shocked at the difference. Forgetting about all the new features and just focusing on the style alone, I think weāve really nailed the look this time.
What period in terms of looks and even story do you believe comic books were in their prime and with the advent of TV, videogames, etc... do you feel it will ever be as creative?
Alexx: Thereās actually two separate questions here, which Iāll address separately.
In my opinion Comic Book heroes were at their strongest during the 1960ās, and have been slowly declining ever since. Which is not to say that there havenāt been individual examples of remarkable quality ever since them. But I think the genre as a whole is moribund. Video games, in particular, are supplanting the ācultural nicheā of the hero comic. Reading about a teenage power fantasy is never going to be as visceral as an interactive gaming experience.
On the other hand, the medium of Comic Books has never been in a better state. There is excellent work being done in a wide variety of genres and styles that have nothing to do with heroes. While the āmainstreamā American comic book industry continues to decline, imported comic books from Japan and Europe, and the small press in America continue to show that the combination of words and pictures can be used to express any kind of story. While TV is a competitor for pop culture mindshare, comic books have enough unique advantages that I donāt foresee the medium going away any time soon.
What is the current state of code and game?
Alexx: Very nearly complete. Weāve got a Gold Master Candidate being reviewed, and expect to have final approval within a few days.
Ken: Weāve been very fortunate in making Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich. Since weāre self-publishing the game, weāve been able to focus on making the Freedom Force game we believe our fans want. This meant that Irrational had to face a lot of difficult decisions weāve never dealt with before. While we could very well have shipped the game in a fantastic state last year, we felt it was best to hold it back and continue polishing it. The few extra months has really helped the product become more full featured, balance and quite simply, fun to play. In short, the state of the game is very good indeed.
TVG would like to thank all of those involved at Digital Jesters and Irrational Games for their cooperation during our series of Developer Diaries. Freedom Force vs Third Reich is scheduled for release in Europe on April 15th; weāll have a closer look soon.
