Sephiroth_VII
04-24-2006, 06:19 AM
21 Apr 06: John Woo, well-known movie director, is getting the chance to bring his trademark artistic, super-choreographed action to the videogame world in the shape of Midway's Stranglehold. It's a follow-up of sorts to Woo's flick Hard Boiled, with the game starring a digitised Chow Yun Fat as Inspector Tequila as he tracks a criminal organisation from Hong Kong to Chicago. It's no surprise that the title looks like it'll bear all the hallmarks of Woo's cinematic style, with intense shoot-outs, slow-mo gunplay, explosive acrobatics and dual-wielding pistolas all coming to the party.
We caught up with Brian Eddy, Stranglehold's director and executive producer at Midway, to find out more about taking Hard Boiled's formula and turning it into a videogame
Why was the decision made to create a new videogame based on a pre-existing and fairly old property (Woo's Hard Boiled movie), rather than starting completely from scratch or using a new cinematic license?
Brian Eddy: There have been numerous games and movies that have borrowed heavily from aspects from John Woo's movies, but there has never been a game that incorporates all the elements of his Hong Kong action adventures into one authentic John Woo experience. As videogame makers and huge fans of John Woo's movies, we had wanted to develop a game based on John Woo's work for a long time, and a couple of years ago that chance came along when we were able to get in contact with John Woo. Mr Woo had been interested in making a videogame for awhile, so it was a perfect fit!
When Woo was enlisted to collaborate in the game's creation was Chow Yun Fat an immediate choice given their history together, or did that come about deciding to make the game a continuation of the 'Hard Boiled' Universe?
Brian Eddy: Chow Yun Fat was an immediate choice, both because he starred in so many of the John Woo films we love, but also because he has been able to successfully crossover into Hollywood films (as well as star in Chinese movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that crossed over so well that it won four Oscars!) and gain a popular following in the U.S. and Europe, so that even non-movie buffs recognize him. But the bottom line is how could we possibly do a game like this without Chow Yun Fat? He really is synonymous with the genre.
What is John Woo's input into the game? Can you take us through the process from inception to where you are now for a better idea of his role in Stranglehold?
Brian Eddy: John Woo has contributed a lot of art, animation and cinema direction, and has been very involved in the writing of the story. We are trying to recreate his vision in the game, so we regularly meet with him to review the latest version of Stranglehold and get his feedback, which is always very insightful. Even when it comes to areas that he is not directly very involved in, like gameplay design, he still often has a comment that adds to that aspect of the game, like how an animation could be done that would make a special move in the game more dramatic and impactful. Our process working with him has been very collaborative.
For instance, when we started working on the screenplay for the game we brainstormed different stories with him and came up with an outline we all really liked. Then we hired a couple of different writers to go through and create drafts that we reviewed with John Woo, making sure that the story worked with game-play and slowly perfecting what is now the final script. John Woo has apparently wanted to make a videogame for a long time, so he has been very involved in the development of Stranglehold.
Given Chow Yun Fat's connection to martial art cinema, how has his character been translated to the game - via digitising his character's various fighting stances or is only his likeness being used for the game?
Brian Eddy: If you go back and watch the John Woo movies starring Chow Yun Fat, you'll notice that they are almost completely devoid of martial arts. They are all about dual-handed 'Akimbo' gun play and Chow Yun Fat interacting with environments in cool acrobatic ways while everything around him is being destroyed. So, we decided to early on to stay true to that and focus on making a great shooter with very little hand-to-hand combat. After all, this is a spiritual sequel to Hard Boiled, the movie that was also known as God of Guns.
How is Chow Yun Fat finding the whole process? Has he enjoyed being involved with a videogame and does he have plans to do more?
Brian Eddy: Well, while we can't really speak for Chow Yun Fat or tell you what his plans may be, we can say that we have really enjoyed working with him and hope that we will have the opportunity to work with him again in the future. At every turn, he has been extremely helpful and gracious. Early on he actually agreed to having a crew fly out to Hong Kong where he lives and do a full body 3D scan of him, but while they were there, Chow Yun Fat also allowed us to take a series of impromptu pictures showing off his different facial poses so that when we do the cinematics in the game. Not only will we have his voice acting for Tequila, but we will be able to match the character in game exactly to the way Chow Yun Fat's facial expression in real life would be for each emotion!
Hard Boiled had huge set pieces for the gun fights - what it's like trying to compete with, or even top, cult scenes such as the hospital shoot out via the medium of a videogame?
Brian Eddy: Challenging, but fun! As we get gameplay working in any given area, it is really satisfying to compare it to a similar scene in Hard Boiled and realize that we've actually managed to capture a bunch of those 'Woo Moments' (as we like to call them) in our gameplay. When that happens, we are, as you might imagine, thrilled. As the game gets further along, we'll show off more of these 'Woo Moments' to the public.
The style of gameplay draws a few parallels with the Max Payne series. How is Stranglehold shaping up to move away from such obvious comparisons?
Brian Eddy: I don't think we can completely move away from such comparisons because Max Payne, a great game, clearly borrowed many elements of John Woo's movies, which Stranglehold is based on. But we plan to take Stranglehold to the next level in terms of delivering the authentic Hong Kong action adventure movie experience.
First of all, by being on next-gen the environments and characters in the game are going to look amazing, and given our Massive D system, almost everything in the game that you can imagine getting destroyed actually can be. In addition, Tequila is going to be able to do extremely cool and acrobatic interactions/stunts to get the edge on his enemies, just like he did in the movies. The level at which the characters in Stranglehold are able to interact with objects and the environment goes well beyond anything seen in other games like Max Payne. The signature John Woo Mexican Standoff, where two or more enemies find themselves face to face with guns pointed at each other, each wondering who will be first to pull the trigger, will also be featured in the Stranglehold as mini-games.
Beyond regular gun-play, Tequila will also have specialized cinematic attacks in his arsenal that players can earn that allow him to take out even large groups of enemies all at the same time. We also motion capture all of our animations using stuntmen and actors which allows us to have extremely fluid and dramatic character movement that look and feel bad-ass just like in the movies. Finally, with John Woo's help on the story, look and feel of the game, the adventure that Tequila goes on that takes him from Hong Kong to Chicago will be more compelling and cinematic.
As proven by the The Matrix videogame series, there are still problems with translating fantastic fighting sequences into a playable videogame experience. With 'hyperkinetic...choreographed action' billed as a prime part of Stranglehold, how confident do you feel of answering these concerns?
Brian Eddy: Very confident. And by saying that, we are no way implying that it will be easy! It takes a huge amount of effort to continually iterate on complex game-play until it feels natural, intuitive and fun for the player, but we feel it is important enough to devote a lot of our resources in doing so. For instance, right now we have no less than six programmers working full time on gameplay, and more programmers that are spending a good portion of their time working on that as well.
In addition we do a lot of focus testing, which consists of bringing in outside players (hardcore as well as more casual gamers) and observing how they play the game, what they enjoy and what they don't like. Then, we take that information and iterate on game-play some more. This worked very well on Psi-Ops, so we are doing the same thing on Stranglehold.
The press sheet talks of building a new gaming franchise from the success of Stranglehold - what plans do you have for taking the series forward?
Brian Eddy: As with every game, we had a million cool ideas that we chose to cut so we could focus on making the core game-play totally polished and fun. In later versions of the game, we'll get to layer a lot of those cool ideas on top of established features and expand the scope of the game. Some ideas we've talked about include co-op story mode, multiple endings, open worlds and an expanded (we already have boats, cars and motorcycles) vehicle system.
Midway's Chicago Studios were behind Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy which brought some fresh ideas to the genre. Is this something you want to do with Stranglehold and show gamers things they've never seen before? Is so, what?
Brian Eddy: One of the things we did on Psi-Ops was to give the player the ability to do a LOT of different things, some of which were fairly complex, while still keeping the controls intuitive and easy to use. I know that doesn't sound especially fresh or new, but when you sat down to play the game and started doing lots of cool stuff without having to fight the controls, it felt fresh and new. Then, we put the player in situations where they could use a variety of those different things to get through any particular situation; basically we put the player in a sandbox with lots of toys, and they got to choose how they used those toys to do fun stuff. Players will have the same experience with Stranglehold.
While aiming and firing weapons, players will easily interact in complex ways with the environment doing stunts and acrobatic moves that actually tie back into gameplay, so they not only look cinematic, but are an important part of the player's technique to do well in the game. So while the game seems a lot like a regular shooter, once you start playing, you quickly figure out that there is a lot more there than you realized, which we think will feel fresh in this genre.
Do you have plans for any Xbox Live features?
Brian Eddy: Yes, but we are not ready to announce them yet.
How many white doves are going to make it into the game?
Brian Eddy: This is actually our most closely guarded secret, as it is a crucial part of winning the game... nah, just kidding! We don't know yet, but count on lots and lots!
Many thanks for your time Brian!
A big thanks to our old pals and brothers in arms OXM.co.uk for this interview. Hell, we might even throw money to the wind and buy them a beer to show our gratitude. Maybe.
Sourcehttp://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?page=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/interviews/interviews_story.php?id=138095
We caught up with Brian Eddy, Stranglehold's director and executive producer at Midway, to find out more about taking Hard Boiled's formula and turning it into a videogame
Why was the decision made to create a new videogame based on a pre-existing and fairly old property (Woo's Hard Boiled movie), rather than starting completely from scratch or using a new cinematic license?
Brian Eddy: There have been numerous games and movies that have borrowed heavily from aspects from John Woo's movies, but there has never been a game that incorporates all the elements of his Hong Kong action adventures into one authentic John Woo experience. As videogame makers and huge fans of John Woo's movies, we had wanted to develop a game based on John Woo's work for a long time, and a couple of years ago that chance came along when we were able to get in contact with John Woo. Mr Woo had been interested in making a videogame for awhile, so it was a perfect fit!
When Woo was enlisted to collaborate in the game's creation was Chow Yun Fat an immediate choice given their history together, or did that come about deciding to make the game a continuation of the 'Hard Boiled' Universe?
Brian Eddy: Chow Yun Fat was an immediate choice, both because he starred in so many of the John Woo films we love, but also because he has been able to successfully crossover into Hollywood films (as well as star in Chinese movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that crossed over so well that it won four Oscars!) and gain a popular following in the U.S. and Europe, so that even non-movie buffs recognize him. But the bottom line is how could we possibly do a game like this without Chow Yun Fat? He really is synonymous with the genre.
What is John Woo's input into the game? Can you take us through the process from inception to where you are now for a better idea of his role in Stranglehold?
Brian Eddy: John Woo has contributed a lot of art, animation and cinema direction, and has been very involved in the writing of the story. We are trying to recreate his vision in the game, so we regularly meet with him to review the latest version of Stranglehold and get his feedback, which is always very insightful. Even when it comes to areas that he is not directly very involved in, like gameplay design, he still often has a comment that adds to that aspect of the game, like how an animation could be done that would make a special move in the game more dramatic and impactful. Our process working with him has been very collaborative.
For instance, when we started working on the screenplay for the game we brainstormed different stories with him and came up with an outline we all really liked. Then we hired a couple of different writers to go through and create drafts that we reviewed with John Woo, making sure that the story worked with game-play and slowly perfecting what is now the final script. John Woo has apparently wanted to make a videogame for a long time, so he has been very involved in the development of Stranglehold.
Given Chow Yun Fat's connection to martial art cinema, how has his character been translated to the game - via digitising his character's various fighting stances or is only his likeness being used for the game?
Brian Eddy: If you go back and watch the John Woo movies starring Chow Yun Fat, you'll notice that they are almost completely devoid of martial arts. They are all about dual-handed 'Akimbo' gun play and Chow Yun Fat interacting with environments in cool acrobatic ways while everything around him is being destroyed. So, we decided to early on to stay true to that and focus on making a great shooter with very little hand-to-hand combat. After all, this is a spiritual sequel to Hard Boiled, the movie that was also known as God of Guns.
How is Chow Yun Fat finding the whole process? Has he enjoyed being involved with a videogame and does he have plans to do more?
Brian Eddy: Well, while we can't really speak for Chow Yun Fat or tell you what his plans may be, we can say that we have really enjoyed working with him and hope that we will have the opportunity to work with him again in the future. At every turn, he has been extremely helpful and gracious. Early on he actually agreed to having a crew fly out to Hong Kong where he lives and do a full body 3D scan of him, but while they were there, Chow Yun Fat also allowed us to take a series of impromptu pictures showing off his different facial poses so that when we do the cinematics in the game. Not only will we have his voice acting for Tequila, but we will be able to match the character in game exactly to the way Chow Yun Fat's facial expression in real life would be for each emotion!
Hard Boiled had huge set pieces for the gun fights - what it's like trying to compete with, or even top, cult scenes such as the hospital shoot out via the medium of a videogame?
Brian Eddy: Challenging, but fun! As we get gameplay working in any given area, it is really satisfying to compare it to a similar scene in Hard Boiled and realize that we've actually managed to capture a bunch of those 'Woo Moments' (as we like to call them) in our gameplay. When that happens, we are, as you might imagine, thrilled. As the game gets further along, we'll show off more of these 'Woo Moments' to the public.
The style of gameplay draws a few parallels with the Max Payne series. How is Stranglehold shaping up to move away from such obvious comparisons?
Brian Eddy: I don't think we can completely move away from such comparisons because Max Payne, a great game, clearly borrowed many elements of John Woo's movies, which Stranglehold is based on. But we plan to take Stranglehold to the next level in terms of delivering the authentic Hong Kong action adventure movie experience.
First of all, by being on next-gen the environments and characters in the game are going to look amazing, and given our Massive D system, almost everything in the game that you can imagine getting destroyed actually can be. In addition, Tequila is going to be able to do extremely cool and acrobatic interactions/stunts to get the edge on his enemies, just like he did in the movies. The level at which the characters in Stranglehold are able to interact with objects and the environment goes well beyond anything seen in other games like Max Payne. The signature John Woo Mexican Standoff, where two or more enemies find themselves face to face with guns pointed at each other, each wondering who will be first to pull the trigger, will also be featured in the Stranglehold as mini-games.
Beyond regular gun-play, Tequila will also have specialized cinematic attacks in his arsenal that players can earn that allow him to take out even large groups of enemies all at the same time. We also motion capture all of our animations using stuntmen and actors which allows us to have extremely fluid and dramatic character movement that look and feel bad-ass just like in the movies. Finally, with John Woo's help on the story, look and feel of the game, the adventure that Tequila goes on that takes him from Hong Kong to Chicago will be more compelling and cinematic.
As proven by the The Matrix videogame series, there are still problems with translating fantastic fighting sequences into a playable videogame experience. With 'hyperkinetic...choreographed action' billed as a prime part of Stranglehold, how confident do you feel of answering these concerns?
Brian Eddy: Very confident. And by saying that, we are no way implying that it will be easy! It takes a huge amount of effort to continually iterate on complex game-play until it feels natural, intuitive and fun for the player, but we feel it is important enough to devote a lot of our resources in doing so. For instance, right now we have no less than six programmers working full time on gameplay, and more programmers that are spending a good portion of their time working on that as well.
In addition we do a lot of focus testing, which consists of bringing in outside players (hardcore as well as more casual gamers) and observing how they play the game, what they enjoy and what they don't like. Then, we take that information and iterate on game-play some more. This worked very well on Psi-Ops, so we are doing the same thing on Stranglehold.
The press sheet talks of building a new gaming franchise from the success of Stranglehold - what plans do you have for taking the series forward?
Brian Eddy: As with every game, we had a million cool ideas that we chose to cut so we could focus on making the core game-play totally polished and fun. In later versions of the game, we'll get to layer a lot of those cool ideas on top of established features and expand the scope of the game. Some ideas we've talked about include co-op story mode, multiple endings, open worlds and an expanded (we already have boats, cars and motorcycles) vehicle system.
Midway's Chicago Studios were behind Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy which brought some fresh ideas to the genre. Is this something you want to do with Stranglehold and show gamers things they've never seen before? Is so, what?
Brian Eddy: One of the things we did on Psi-Ops was to give the player the ability to do a LOT of different things, some of which were fairly complex, while still keeping the controls intuitive and easy to use. I know that doesn't sound especially fresh or new, but when you sat down to play the game and started doing lots of cool stuff without having to fight the controls, it felt fresh and new. Then, we put the player in situations where they could use a variety of those different things to get through any particular situation; basically we put the player in a sandbox with lots of toys, and they got to choose how they used those toys to do fun stuff. Players will have the same experience with Stranglehold.
While aiming and firing weapons, players will easily interact in complex ways with the environment doing stunts and acrobatic moves that actually tie back into gameplay, so they not only look cinematic, but are an important part of the player's technique to do well in the game. So while the game seems a lot like a regular shooter, once you start playing, you quickly figure out that there is a lot more there than you realized, which we think will feel fresh in this genre.
Do you have plans for any Xbox Live features?
Brian Eddy: Yes, but we are not ready to announce them yet.
How many white doves are going to make it into the game?
Brian Eddy: This is actually our most closely guarded secret, as it is a crucial part of winning the game... nah, just kidding! We don't know yet, but count on lots and lots!
Many thanks for your time Brian!
A big thanks to our old pals and brothers in arms OXM.co.uk for this interview. Hell, we might even throw money to the wind and buy them a beer to show our gratitude. Maybe.
Sourcehttp://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?page=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/interviews/interviews_story.php?id=138095