Interviews

Producer Scott Langteau talks about developing Call of Duty into an entirely new game for console gamers

By Michael Lafferty

 

“All of the missions, characters, and levels are entirely new, created ground-up for the console”

 

When in comes to games evolving around World War II, PC gamers have had it pretty sweet. When Call of Duty came out at the end of October in 2003, it blew the doors off the genre, and quickly became a best-selling title.

 

Get ready console fans, your turn is coming up very quickly. Call of Duty: Finest Hour is slated to release for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox in mid-November. Sneak peeks at this title from Activision and Spark Unlimited showed a game every bit as compelling, with sterling graphics and top-notch action.

 

With all-new missions featuring authentic squad-based combat, the title covers three Allied campaigns, immersing players into some of the more intense battles of World War II.

 

But rather than blather on about the title, why not go straight to the source - Scott Langteau, Producer and COO, Spark Unlimited.

 

 

Question: The Call of Duty franchise had been so well received, and the player base is very passionate about the game. Did that put any new pressure on you when you decided to bring the title to the console world, or was this merely a case of trying to ensure that the console game lived up to the standards of the PC product?

 

Scott: Certainly there was added pressure due to the success of the PC game.  It’s a fantastic gaming experience, and was so well-received, that if we were to bring Call of Duty to the consoles with an all new experience, it had better be one that lives up to as much of what gamers loved about the PC outing as possible.  This was indeed a big responsibility.  I like to think that Activision placed their bets on Spark for a reason, and that reason being that over 30 of us have previously worked extensively on the Medal of Honor series from the original title, up through and including Frontline.  There’s less risk in having this team tackle the creation of a top tier, fresh and original first person action game – than going with a team that doesn’t have the experience.  So, we’ve worked extremely hard, going the distance with the necessary long hours to do our best to make sure that Finest Hour delivers a whole new cinematic and intense experience to console fans everywhere.

 

Q: Obviously the consoles cannot begin to compete with the PC in terms of system specs, but you have the added bonus of being able to design for a locked set of specifications. How did you go about configuring Finest Hour for the consoles so it could compare favorably to the graphical and audio assault of the overall PC experience?

 

Scott: Well, first and foremost…I have an amazing team of selfless leads who keep the player’s experience in mind over everything else (e.g. “how much memory their department gets for their own cool stuff”).  Secondly, these leads have learned a tremendous amount about the PS2 and how to design and build for it over the past 5 years or so.  In that time they’ve learned every trick in the book when it comes to allocating memory, conserving memory, and managing memory on a moment-by-moment basis throughout the game.  The general theory about creatively maxing out what you’ve got to work with is incredibly simple – maximize whatever’s within the player’s immediate sphere of experience and design everything else to take a back seat (or even be in the trunk if need be!).  It sounds very simple, but without proper planning, it can be incredibly difficult to execute, or impossible to implement if approached too late in the production phase.  As I don’t want to give away too many of our secrets I’ll just leave it at that.

 

As for sound, we faced a completely different challenge on this title and I’m particularly proud of what our sound director, Jack Grillo, has accomplished.  The audio limits are particularly rough to work around. Audio must always react to whatever is on screen – and the amount of activity we’ve managed to pack on screen at once for Finest Hour is staggering.  The minimum audio memory spec for PC games (Call of Duty included) can be as large as 50MB, while the PS2 is locked at 2MB.  So how do you compete? Basically, each sound has to be able to be loaded into the game only when it’s needed and then removed from memory when it’s not.  Managing that task can be pretty exhausting, as the game design itself is often a moving target.  Another trick is to pre-mix as many elements as possible before it gets in the game (music and background sound effects, or music and dialog, or sound effects and dialog, etc.).  We built extreme flexibility into the audio implementation, and made sure to look at each level (and their subdivisions) as unique cases with unique requirements.  We tried not to be confined to too many general rules, and as a result, we’ve been able to support all of the on-screen action that occurs in Finest Hour as specifically as possible – and still have room to make sure all of the sounds have character.  So, for example when we’ve got practically a couple hundred soldiers on screen at once, as we do during the Russian campaign, the amount of matching sound and audio effects help to completely immerse the player into the action.

 

  

Q: Finest Hour kicks off with the Stalingrad experience. Does the game evolve from there in the same manner as the PC title did, or does it take an entirely different track?

 

Scott: As an entirely new game, the title goes in a whole different track.  All of the missions, characters, and levels are entirely new, created ground-up for the console.  Finest Hour is the next title in the Call of Duty series; it’s not a port or “console version” of the PC, but rather a new game that players can enjoy irrespective of whether they’ve already played the PC title.  Our only familiar level is the Volga crossing and initial assault into Stalingrad.  The battle of Stalingrad was such a momentous battle that we felt compelled to include it in Finest Hour, but from a new set of eyes going through a different experience, so to speak.  The Russian campaign then moves into several locations in and around Stalingrad and through various areas around Russia, including the historical Christmas Eve 1942 assault on the German-held airbase in Tatsinskaya, Russia.  Players will quickly notice how much we’ve strived to maintain the authenticity in creating such fierce, yet fun to play missions.  The British campaign takes place in the desert steppes of North Africa.  And in doing so, the depth and variety of gameplay really shine through.  Finally, we move to the American campaign, which follows the tail end of the Battle of the Bulge through various locations in Western Europe and Germany.  Keep in mind that there are more characters in Finest Hour – six, so with each new character that the player becomes, the immersion into the era and battles becomes even greater.  There’s so much going on in Finest Hour that we can’t wait for fans to take their shot.

 

Q: What vehicles will be available for play during the game? During a sneak little preview in Santa Monica, it was mentioned about the extensive research that went into recreating the experience. Did your developers actually cruise around in vehicles like tanks?

 

Scott: It’s exciting; the player will drive and operate a Russian T-34 and an American Sherman tank.  In addition they ride as a passenger on a Jeep while manning a mounted 50 cal machine gun.  These are all set in different missions, as the story progresses with new characters, which really help add to the pacing and overall ability to enjoy each campaign.  Players also fight against German panzers, kettenkrads, halftracks, stukas and junkers.  Yeah, we definitely did a lot of extensive research.  It really varied.  For example, we brought in a veteran tank Sgt. as well as a foremost historian regarding the 761st (the famed Black Panther Tank Battalion) and spent a week with them going over tank tactics, how to best take on a panzer, how to properly mount and dismount a tank, the finer details of the uniform/character gear as well as the detailed construction of the tank itself (pointing out just the right turret length for example).  They were tremendously helpful in many areas.  And, you’ll see this level of authenticity as you play. 

 

In addition, the team attended a Battle of Berlin re-enactment, which had the presence of a German halftrack that they were able to fully explore and scope out. Plus, our art team was able to research a number of vehicles close-up while on their pre-production research trip through Europe.  And, we even had the privilege of visiting the Texas Military Forces Museum to record an entire parade of WWII vehicles, including the American Sherman and Stuart tanks, German halftrack and the German Hetzer.  They were all up and running so we were able to record live audio (currently an in-game sfx!), as well as scour the vehicles inside and out for modeling and texture reference.  Again, this level of detail really shines through.  All of which came in handy from a design perspective and hands-on modeling and texture reference, as well as audio research (recording the vehicles moving/gears grinding etc.) 

 

 

Q: Will the game have any kind of multiplayer experience or is it all for the single player? Will you make scenario downloads available?

 

Scott: We have online multiplayer for the PS2 and online and system link play for the Xbox.  We’ve worked with a developer in the UK named Kuju on the multiplayer play to provide gamers with a chance to play both traditional deathmatch and team deathmatch as well as objective-based team modes, including Capture the Flag and Search and Destroy, where one team attacks, attempting to destroy strategic targets while the other side defends.  We also support voice chat on both platforms.  We haven’t currently planned scenario downloads.  Overall, the multiplayer is an ideal complement to the intense single player experience.

 

Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced in putting this title together for the console platforms? Will the game essentially play like the PC version or are there new elements in place in terms of interface or targeting?

 

Scott: The biggest challenge was in keeping your allies under control.  You want them to help, but not so much that you don’t have to play the game; you want to know they are there, but you don’t want them to get in the way.  In general, keeping to the idea of “no one fights alone” was a huge (but rewarding) challenge.  Finest Hour is familiar in that the chaos of war and the intensity of moment-to-moment action are constantly going on around you.  We included some control and interface changes to make the game play better on a console, and some changes to make the gameplay a little richer too.  We’ve added a very subtle aim-assist to compensate for a console controller.  We also found that given the size of the environments that you were often fighting at longer ranges than in games we have worked on in the past.  So, early in development this made it so it was often hard to tell if you were hitting the enemy.  To compensate we added an indicator around the cross hairs to tell you that you have hit the target.  Lastly we have included the ability to deploy the bipod on light machine guns when you are prone to make them more accurate.  We’ve made many other changes (the ability to play from first person in the tank for one) to make the play better on a console and just more fun in general.

 

Q: How many scenarios are there in the game total, and how does that translate to gaming hours?

 

Scott: The single player game is comprised of more than 15 levels across the three acts – the Russian, British and American campaigns.  It’s always hard to evaluate how many hours of play something is because it will vary so much based on player skill and style of play.  Plus, we’re still testing and tuning some of the elements, so the durations can vary.  The size varies from map to map, but they are generally pretty big, in keeping with the epic nature of Finest Hour.