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Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Q&A Feature
Gwynne Dixon
12/11/2007
Rebellion give us their thoughts, post-release, on the second PSP Battlefront game...
Last month saw the PSP's second outing on Star Wars' Battlefront. Rebellion was at the helm for this PSP version and they added a wide range of new features, adding Infrastructure play and completely re-jigging the controls. TVG recently spoke with Mike Rosser, the Lead Designer on Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, to discuss the successes of their recently released PSP game.
TVG: How did you find your first outing on the Battlefront series?
The Battlefront franchise is huge, so it was a big responsibility, but I think the team rose to the challenge and created a great game that brings a lot to the franchise, and to the PSP system. From a personal perspective, it was great fun to be able to work on a Star Wars game, particularly creating the campaign storyline and choosing the new locations for the new maps.
TVG: What inspired you to give the controls a complete overhaul for Renegade Squadron compared to the control setup in Battlefront 2 on PSP?
The controls were a recurring point of contention when we reviewed the critical reception of the first game in pre-production. We knew that we had to nail the controls for this iteration. Here at Rebellion we have plenty of experience with PSP games, and we've seen which control schemes work and which don't. I was very keen to lean away from systems which mimic home console set-ups, and towards a lock-on system which better suits the PSP.
TVG: Do you feel that the new setup was a success and, if you were to work on any future PSP Battlefront games, would you continue to use it and what would you change?
Personally, I think it was a success; I certainly think it's a more accessible scheme. Were we to work on another PSP Battlefront game, I imagine we'd continue in much the same vein, although we'd probably try to create better continuity between infantry and vehicle controls. We'd also add extra layers of depth to the lock-on system, to keep the accessibility without compromising the role of skill in combat.
TVG: One of the new features for Renegade Squadron is the support for 16 player online infrastructure play. We found that there was very little lag, reliable lobbies and quick respawns (even with a full lobby of 16). It's remarkable that the PSP can provide such solid online play. Did you find it easier to work with the PSP on this feature than online games on consoles and PC?
I'll let Mike Healey, our resident networking sorcerer, answer this one:
Mike Healey: Rebellion's Asura engine has been designed with support for online play from the ground up and to be a multi-platform engine. We found that the PSP's networking capabilities were more than sufficient to implement the PSP-specific code for online play using our technology, and it was easy to support both player-hosted games and dedicated servers. The fact that online has been such a huge success on Rebellion's first PSP title with online infrastructure play is testament to the power and flexibility of our core engine technology.
TVG: Another new feature for Renegade Squadron is the ability to customise your character and purchase your bespoke inventory and skills with 100 credits. What inspired you to make the change from the set soldier classes of previous Battlefront games?
Customer feedback from Battlefront II indicated that a significant proportion of Battlefront players wanted the ability to customise their character. LucasArts came to us with this concept as the primary USP (unique selling point) for the game that would become Renegade Squadron, and it was my job as lead designer to figure out exactly how we were going to implement this feature.
I broke the feature down into two parts - 'customisation', which involves changing the equipment carried by the player; and 'personalisation', which involves changing the player's appearance. The personalisation aspect was fairly straightforward - we just figured out how much memory we had available for various head/body combos, then let the artists loose. Customisation was trickier - we wanted to provide a lot of options to enable different tactics, yet we also had to be careful to keep the system clear and accessible. We went through quite a few iterations to get to the customisation system we shipped with.
TVG: This allowed players to open up some pretty extravagant weapons straight away (e.g. the chain gun and guided rocket). Apart from the higher credit prices for such weapons, how else did you ensure that gameplay remained balanced?
From the player's perspective, the credits are the only factor they have to worry about. This was intentional, as keeping the system powerful yet accessible was a priority. The concept of slots serves a dual purpose - it organises the equipment into logical pigeonholes, but it also helps balance things, as you can't choose two items from one slot. A character with, say, a shotgun and rocket launcher, would be able to face both infantry and vehicles without fear - the slot system means the player has to choose one or the other. And making hard decisions is what the customisation system is all about!
From a developer's perspective, I was able to tweak pretty much every aspect of every piece of equipment using the 'blueprint' system that is a part of the Asura engine's tools. When playtesting revealed that a particular piece of equipment was overpowered, I would take action. I could either raise the price of that item, or else make it less effective by tweaking its values, usually by lowering damage or giving it less ammo (in the case of weapons). Conversely, when a piece of equipment was underused, I could either lower the price or raise the effectiveness to make it a more viable option.
TVG: Do you see this character customisation becoming more prevalent in any future Battlefront releases on systems other than the PSP?
Eventually, perhaps. I suppose it depends on how well the customisation system in Renegade Squadron is received by the fans.
TVG: Speaking of future Battlefront games, rumour has it that Free Radical is working on the third Battlefront game. Firstly, do you know anything about this? Secondly, if it were to turn out that Free Radical were developing it (hypothetically, of course), do you see Rebellion playing a part in the PSP version?
Always in motion, the future is...
TVG: Were there any parts of Renegade Squadron that you weren't entirely happy with and, if so, what were they and how would you change them?
I wish we'd had more time to iterate on the vehicle controls, particularly the tanks. I'm also a little disappointed that the subtleties of the lock-on mechanic - holding onto a lock without firing to get a headshot, rolling to break an enemy's lock - seem to have been missed by a fair number of people. We obviously didn't do a good enough job with teaching the player certain fundamental mechanics.
TVG: Conversely, what did you feel were the major successes of Renegade Squadron?
I was pleased with our version of Galactic Conquest mode, I think we made lots of improvements there over previous versions, successfully adding a simple layer of strategy without compromising accessibility. As you mentioned earlier, our robust online multiplayer has been a success, and the customisation system works well as both a solid gameplay mechanic and a defining characteristic of Renegade Squadron.
All in all, the team and I are all very proud of what we achieved in the time we had, and we hope the fans are enjoying playing it as much as we enjoyed making it!
TVG would like to thank Mike Rosser, the Lead Designer on Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, for taking the time out to talk about the game. Renegade Squadron is out now on PSP.
