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Shellshock: Nam’67 – Dev Diary#3 Feature
Chris Leyton
31/08/2004
Doug Walker, Lead Designer, talks about the “Vietnam Filter” and the reality of the game…
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: Namā67.
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.
The āVietnam Filterā
Doug Walker ā“ Lead Designer, Shellshock: Nam ā67
Shellshock: Nam ā67 is all about a year in the life of an American Soldier and his experiences in war-torn Vietnam.
Our original inspiration was to design a game that dealt with Vietnam maturely and be inspired by GIās real life experiences and portray āthe horrorā of the conflict as objectively as possible. We wanted to the player to experience a product that immersed them into Vietnamās āTheatre of Warā. So regardless of their own objectives within the game, they got some understanding of the scale and type of events that would occur around them.
With these goals in mind, we started our extensive research and also created our gameās āground rulesā. These rules rapidly formed what we now affectionately call: The Vietnam Filter. This was a list that defined the elements and the experiences from the war that we wanted to communicate in the game. Once the filter was up and running, all of our ideas were passed through it and would only stand a chance of being implemented if we felt that they expressed or expanded upon these key elements.
There were a number of categories in the Filter. Rather than try to identify these ourselves (as none of us have ever seen war for real) we read and listened to and watched other peopleās accounts and experiences as much as possible and formed a clear list of objectives and observations we wanted to see in our game:
The inexperience of youth
Young GIs grew up very quickly in Vietnam and we wanted our players to get a feel for this. Experienced combat soldiers had little time for newcomers, which heightened their sense of suffering, after all there is little point in bonding with someone whom is very likely to get shot in his first few months in Nam. Our playable character (there is a choice of three) is on a journey of experience and survival. To begin with people in your squad and in Base Camp (including the nurses) have little time for you but as they soon realise youāre a capable solider and have earned your time in the battlefield you are accepted and recognised as a qualified combatant and a friendly face.
Ever changing situations
The Vietcong were especially adept ambush and trap layers. Tranquil, safe moments would suddenly switch to deadly life or death situations without warning. A tactic indicative to the Vietnam war, the thick jungles and evil ingenuity. Environments in NAMā67 lay host to not just enemy patrols but elusive and deadly booby traps primed for, or even by, US soldiers.
Keeping it in perspective
Humour, expressed in the face of horrific events helped to āmake senseā of the situation at hand, or to block it out entirely. This was how many soldiers tried to hang on to their sanity and maintain focus and whilst it broke the tension, there was always an extremely dark side to their humour. This became an important part of the interaction between the characters in SSNā67.
Personal stories
We really wanted to emphasise our main characters, how the war affects each of them. We needed them to tell their own sorry tales of hollow victories and crushing defeats. Fighting along side a number of core characters means that they can communicate their experiences to the player on a very individual basis. By their very nature, they serve to draw you even further into the hazy morality of the conflict.
The brutality meted out by all sides
Vietnam was no party. Both sides committed atrocious acts of violence, from summary executions to devious booby traps to actually using public holidays for fighting. The message is simple, during war there are no real good guys, nor bad guys. Each side has the potential to be needlessly cruel and employed any means of tactic or weapon available to defeat the enemy. There was huge contrast between the US and VC / NVA forces and their technology, but both used these to devastating effect. The US carpet-bombed and burned vast areas of land, the VC used guerrilla style terror tactics. We have taken care to represented both in Shellshock.
Once we had established and defined the level of realism we then provided the player with the ability to approach levels and mission objectives using multiple routes. Combined with a large and flexible arsenal to choose from we ended up with a system that provides plenty of gameplay variety and can adapt to an individualās play style. Still, at the heart of the game The Vietnam Filter is doing its job: ensuring that everything the player sees or feels when playing Shellshock: Nam ā67 is in its most realistic context. This aināt no party. Youāre on your own, kid..
TVG will have more on Shellshock: Namā67 from Guerrilla Games next week.
