New Aftermath Information

[alanschu]

Gamespot has a Q&A with Robin Walker about Aftermath.

 

 

Also, there's a new trailer for the expansion at the bottom of the screen.

 

 

I'm getting giddy already!

[Cantousent]

Gotta love that engine. I just bought the DOOM 3 expansion. I'm not terribly impressed so far. I find it just a little too cramped and dark for my tastses. Talk about a fear of cramped places. The open spaces of the HL2 expansion beckon to me.

[Child of Flame]

I am at the church so I get to leech their connection a bit and I just watched the trailer.

 

I think I saw Stalkers.

 

Eru is pleased.

[Musopticon?]

*chants*

Valve...Valve...! Valve!!! The One Free Developer!

[Darkside]

I love Valve. I love Half-Life. I love Gordon. I love Dog. I love the world!

 

 

I'm glad to see Alyx is back. For a while there I was fearing the worst.

 

I'm excited to get some answers, as well as about these new mysteries. Aftermath is definately on my to-do list, right up there with Dungeon Siege 2. Mmm... dungeon crawling.

[213374U]

Any chances they'll include the story they forgot to add into the game? "

[Musopticon?]

Very subtle...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[metadigital]

I just finished reading an article in (now last month's) PC Gamer, an interview with Bill Van Buren (Producer/Designer), Marc Laidlaw (writer) and Bill Fletcher (Animator). It was remarkable for the insight into the issues that some of us were discussing recently, right here, about building a fun universe. Marc Laidlaw was asked:

...

Marc, you wre a published author before you came to Valve. Did you have to adapt your writing style to work in games?

ML From a writing perspective, everything you want to reveal about characters should come through dialogue. It's not like there was a bunch of backstory about the characters we wanted to deliver. We knew the characgers, we knew a bit about their history, we wanted to make sure that when they were talking, they were referring to this whole backlog of things that have gone before, that they don't have to explain to one another, just like if you walk into a room where two people who've known each other for a long time are talking. They wouldn't spend any time at all talking about the stuff they already know. But you'd pick up a lot about their relationship just by watching them interact. That was the dramatic thing we wanted to aim for. But that's not different to how the scene would be laid out in a movie or a book.

But surely the demands are different. You're going to be writing to fit them the game, aren't you?

ML Yeah. Things change in the course of building the game. We'd cut a level, and that would alter a relationship.

Is it always that direction? Are you always writing the story to service the level design? Are you just fitting the story together?

ML Yeah. That's part of my job. We're all independent. They might make a decision from a level design point of view, and it's more like a fun challenge. "How can we do without the plot point? What does that afford us? Now that we don't have to do this piece, what can we do instead?"

...

So now you have a script. What happens next?

ML The script represents things we want to accomplish with the story, and the stuff that the animators, that Bill, wants to get across and spend time animating. This is really abstract, but while the level is being built, we have to roll it out. We have this problem of making a scene come about in a space in the game. That's pure choreography.

BVB We actually have a choreography team, that's what we call them internally, who deal with a character's audio, animation, acting and scene design. the more information you get into it, whether it's the script, the acting sessions, the effects or the animation, the better it is.

...

How do your voice actors react to giving 'game' performances[?] Are you after something different from what they're used to?

ML I think it's probably like radio. It all has to be there in the voice. We do a bunch of alternate takes

[213374U]

So, um, any particular reason why you use a format that's so hard to read?

 

If you think it will dissuade me from charging ahead... you are right.

[metadigital]

Another article in (now last month's) PC Gamer, a preview of SiN 2 (utilising Valve's Source engine, and due out on Steam shortly, in episodic format).

 

Some highlights:

...

Wheel-Time Strategy

The driving sections aren't scripted, so while you take pot-shots out of the window, Jessica uses her skills to steer you out of trouble. Ritual have heavily modified Valve's Source engine so that everything Jessica does-in-car is a reaction to the road conditions. So she can cruise around corners, reverse out of pile-ups and flip off anyone who cuts her up. (OK, that last one's a joke, but not a bad idea, eh, Ritual?)

...

You can lean out of any window you choose in a car, and swap from passenger's to driver's seat.

...

By exploiting Source's interactive capabilities and borrowing ideas from the adventure genre [1], Ritual intend to create a more intelligent shooter. Tom Mustaine again: "We have a system called the Contexxt Look System, where if I walk into a room with NPCs or Jessica and JC, and look around, they'll go 'Hey, that's the laptop,' etc. So they're aware pf what you're looking at and we've got dialogue for everything. ... You can do two things in a shooter: you can shoot and look, and I've never really seen anyone take advantage of looking."

 

Source's AI is also being reworked. Developers acknowledge the quality of Valve's squad AI, but Half-Life 2 didn't take full advantage of it. Ritual's upgrade is impressive, and will hopefully be used in more dramatic circumstances. Shoot an NPC in the shin or leg and they'll drop to the floor in pain, but they can still fire, and will take potshots at you from the floor. Any nearby buddy NPCs will attempt to drag the wounded back to their feet.

 

In fact, grabbing at things, whether characters or objects, is an NPC speciality. Ritual are making sure that enemies interact with the world as much as you do. NPCs will take hostages, and grab any of your team-mates for the purpose. The AI will also hurl anything they can find right at you, much like Half-Life 2's head crab zombies.

...

Sin Episodes will utilise the X-Files story-telling style of multiple plot threads that intertwine under the central story arc. While most episodes will follow the main plot, some chapters will explore smaller, self-contained stories with other characters that fit like jigsaw pieces into the larger puzzle. Chapter-ending cliffhangers are a certainty, and there is plenty of scope to play with the timeline as episodes don't have to be linear. [2]

The episodic nature means this is a game that will be built in full view of everyone. ... Ritual can draw the PC community into their plans. they've already spent months gathering feedback on their fansite, http://www.ritualistic.com. Now they're going one step further. ... Robert Atkins ... the creative director ... "Right now it's a concept we're going to implement, but we don't know to what level yet. ... It's a cool feature: the fans helped us sculpt the content and now they're going to decide what goes into it by their own actions." For the solo gamer there will be an opt-out button for any community-directed content.[3]

...

PC Gamer, issue 151, August 2005, pp64-71

1. Proof-positive that gaming industry is alive and cross-polinating.

 

2. I am concerned by the large deus ex machina possibilites of this ...

 

3. Hey! A Top of the Pops remix of the game!

[metadigital]

So, um, any particular reason why you use a format that's so hard to read? 

 

If you think it will dissuade me from charging ahead... you are right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Fixed. (The squeaky wheel ...)

 

You can always turn your resolution down, or use LARGE FONTS, or use Firefox with scaleable text, if your eyesight is failing ...

[Musopticon?]

My eyes hurt. Thanks for the remedy.

[Darkside]

I'll save the articles for when posting is slow. They look good though, thanks.

[Child of Flame]

So, um, any particular reason why you use a format that's so hard to read? 

 

If you think it will dissuade me from charging ahead... you are right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Fixed. (The squeaky wheel ...)

 

You can always turn your resolution down, or use LARGE FONTS, or use Firefox with scaleable text, if your eyesight is failing ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[metadigital]

Any chances they'll include the story they forgot to add into the game?  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes.

If you played Half-Life 2, last year's blockbuster first-person shooter, then you know that the game ended in a cliff-hanger that left more questions than answers. The good news is that Valve is in the final stages of prepping Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the first expansion for Half-Life 2, due out later this year.

...

And, from that interview in PC Gamer:

...

One of the interesting quirks of Half-Life is that you never actually complete the story. You never get to explain everything to the player. Why is that?

ML Part of it is that we're always creating the world ... Because the technology changes all the time, and we want to take advantage of that, we don't want to limit ourselves to hard statements about the world that, maybe a year down the road, we're suddenly able to make playable, but we've screwed ourselves out of doing that because we cut ourselves off a year ago. ... The Seven Hour War, for instance, why show that when, say, in the future we could actually put you through the experience[?] In a sense, the world extends beyond the narrow limits of the game. ...

I thought you didn't finish the world out of deliberate choice. That you wanted to preserve an air of mystery.

ML More so with Half-Life than Half-Life 2. There is definitely a desire to make the game play out inside people's heads when they leave the computer. ... If we're going to answer any question, we have to make sure we're raising even more questions that are even more interesting.

...

and previously, to a similar question on pre-visualisation:

...

ML ...

We're not just building the game because you have to go from Point A to Point B. We're building it because there's fun little things you get to do along the way. The details, the non-essential stuff, is actually half the fun. Things we think would be cool, but we wouldn't put them on the box. That's the kind of thing I look for in a game. What's the extra bit they did, that they didn't have to do. That's where you really see the personality behind the whole thing.

...

BVB ...

Do you remember coming down into Eli's lab, seeing the Vortigaunt chefs? That's an idea Dhabih Eng [One of Valve's Senior Artists] had. That wouldn't have made it into the game at any other company. It's silly, our game's supposed to be a scary game, but somehow, we have Vortigaunts in chef hats.

...

PC Gamer[/i], issue 151, August 2005, pp75, 74

[213374U]

ML More so with Half-Life than Half-Life 2. There is definitely a desire to make the game play out inside people's heads when they leave the computer. ... If we're going to answer any question, we have to make sure we're raising even more questions that are even more interesting.

Well, that's an... interesting design philosophy. Yes, it really makes sense to have a very imprecise and barely fleshed story, so you won't find yourself restricted in future installments. The paradigm of innovative storytelling.

 

That's probably why I can't stand a large part of what passes for art these days.

 

 

BVB ...

Do you remember coming down into Eli's lab, seeing the Vortigaunt chefs? That's an idea Dhabih Eng [One of Valve's Senior Artists] had. That wouldn't have made it into the game at any other company. It's silly, our game's supposed to be a scary game, but somehow, we have Vortigaunts in chef hats.

...

Come again? HL2 is supposed to be a scary game?

 

Please, don't make me go on an AvP2 rant again.

[Musopticon?]

Or me go (add whatever supposedly scary game ever released except Thiefs)-rant?

[Darkside]

Hey, Ravenholm was kind of scary.

 

 

As for a truly scary game: Shalebridge Cradle, Thief 3.

[Musopticon?]

Spot on, Number Two.

[Darkside]

Thank you...uh... crap. I never saw the movie so I can't finish it.

[213374U]

Heh. I think she just called you crap.

 

Does that warrant a Zing?

[Musopticon?]

Doesn't.

 

 

 

'cos that "Number 2" isn't quoting. It's from the "fanboy/-girl-thread"

 

 

Wait...doesn't that make it quoting?

 

 

 

ZING!

[Darkside]

The quote was attatched to a pic of Dr. Evil and Mini Me so I thought it was from Austin Powers. Oh well.

[Musopticon?]

Oh well... At least we like HL 2. And know it has a good story.

[Deraldin]

Hey, Ravenholm was kind of scary.

 

 

As for a truly scary game:  Shalebridge Cradle, Thief 3.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I thought Return to the Haunted Cathedral from the original Thief was scarier.