WolfensteinX: As we all
know by now you guys worked hard and closely with
3 other game companies , id Software, Activision &
Gray Matter. what it's like to work with so many companies
on one game?
Josh: It's a relatively
new experience for me. When you work in games you're
used to a 2 party system consisting of you (the developer)
and the publisher. Typically the developer handles
the creative content side of the product while the
publisher manages it's production, marketing, and
distribution. In this instance, we had creative input
from 2 other sources; id and Gray Matter. Id provided
a lot of input because it is their IP (intellectual
property) and because they did much of the high-level
design for multi-player. Gray Matter naturally had
some input because they laid the ground work that
we worked off of. All-in-all, I would say that it
was a pretty positive experience since we managed
to keep an open dialogue with all parties at all times.
There were really very few snags and I don't think
i'd mind doing it again on future projects.
As technology improves it allows
us to make more elaborate content. While that satisfies
the players growing need to for a more emersive gaming
experience, it also doubles the work for the developer
to produce. Large companies can often produce greater
amounts of content in shorter periods of time. It
takes much longer for smaller studios such as Nerve
or Gray Matter to produce large amounts of content
than it would for larger studios such as Square. At
this point outsourcing different aspects of your larger
games is almost a necessity and I would expect to
see this become more and more common.
WolfensteinX:
What are your plans for the future regarding the multiplayer
of RTCW! any addons, or different gameplay you are
thinking of adding maybe integrating other models
into the multiplayer that player can choose from ex:
the elite guard pristesses??
Josh: We definitely will
be releasing more maps over a period of time. There
were several maps completed around the time when RTCW
launched, but they were held back because they required
further testing and tweaking. I worked on the level
design side of the project so I really don't know
what they've had planned in terms of extra characters,
skins, etc...
WolfensteinX: Now that
everything is finished what was the hardest part when
doing RTCW?
Josh: I think the hardest
part of the project was working within the time frame
we were given. Wolf_MP had a pretty short development
time. We tried to keep our focus and get it done without
getting too caught up in the extra elements that are
always tempting to implement. Every feature, no matter
how small or seemingly insignificant will impact the
rest of the game in some way. 6 months is a tight
schedule to create, balance, polish, and release even
a small game.
WolfensteinX: From when
you started working on the multiplayer aspect and
knowing how big of a deal it is what motivated you
guys the most?
Josh: It was clear from
even it's earliest stages, that the design that we
were working from had a LOT of potential. We quickly
had the game up and running and started prototyping
the gameplay rather quickly. It was a lot of fun even
in it's roughest form and we knew that it was just
going to get better with fine tuning. We had a lot
fun playing in house and we were really looking forward
to unleashing it on the community. It's been a very
rewarding project, to date it's the ONLY project that
I've worked on that I still play after it's been released.
WolfensteinX: Why the
FG-42 was taken out of the multiplayer?
Josh: Balancing reasons.
The same reasons that we removed Tesla Gun, beefed-up
the Panzerfaust, and adjusted the flamethrower.
WolfensteinX: Now that
the game has been released, what has the feedback
been like?
Josh: The feedback has
been wonderful and has made the project, personally,
my most rewarding to date. I love seeing the strong
support that it has garnered from the community. Having
tested it inside and out, I never had any doubt in
my mind that it would be a great game. However, it's
broad acceptance from the community and critics alike
exceeded my expectations. I love to brag about working
on it. :)
WolfensteinX:
Many people ask and wonder why the maps are done so
huge?
Josh: I think that the
purpose of the design behind Wolf_MP was to steer
the focus of team multiplay away from regular team
deathmatch or "sport" modes like CTF. Games
like "Counter-Strike" revolve around modern-day
scenarios such as terrorist hostage rescue. Such situations
typically occur in tight and small urban envirnoments
which is why the players fight with compact submachine
guns and sniper rifles rather than bazookas, airstrikes,and
artillery. The conflicts you see in Wolfenstein were
typical of conflicts seen in WWII. Fighting occured
in sprawling military strongholds, destroyed villages,
industrial complexes, beachheads, etc...We wanted
to create full-blown "Campaigns" for the
players. This forces players to interact and assist
each other better if they wanted to win rather than
competing to wrack up the most frags. Not all maps
were designed to be all that big. Maps such as "Destruction"
or "Castle" were designed with smaller player
loads in mind as opposed to maps like "Assault"
or "Depot".
WolfensteinX: What kind
of experience did you gain from making the multiplayer
aspect of one of best PC game of this year in Return
to Castle Wolfenstein?
Josh: Personally, I think
the most valuable thing I came away was being forced
to create FUN and interesting content on a short time
budget. It's easy (for me) to get caught up in the
details and I sometimes have a hard time pulling back
and seeing the BIG PICTURE when making a map. In the
past, if left to my own devices, I would agonize over
creating the cool little details and that's not what
making a good map is about. With Wolf, I forced myself
to forget about the aesthetics and to first make a
fun map. It was amazing how quickly the look of a
level falls into place after you've nailed down the
fundamental flow of a map.
