In the final part of our series of interviews with the people behind 2011's biggest firstperson shooters, we speak to Codemasters art director, Max Cant, and game director, Andy Wilson, about standing out from the FPS crowd, going beyond accurate simulation and tinnitus.
What are your feelings about where shooters stand artistically at the moment?
Max Cant: I’ve got nothing against the military look, but if you’re coming into the market now with another firstperson shooter, then you’re kind of morally obligated to do something different, just because it’s all too much now. It’s become the default. The easiest thing to do is strip all the light out and put a coloured lightbulb into a grey world. I really want to try and avoid that and work with colour, which is difficult, but worth trying.
Andy Wilson: Because everybody’s at it, everything has a similar colour palette. And for us as well, it’s not great to say to people: “We’re making this game and it’s going to be just like…” We wanted something totally unique. It’s taken some extreme turns in places, but it’s arrived in a really nice place.
Codemasters art director, Max Cant (above, left), and game director, Andy Wilson
How early on did the arcade-style design vision come through?
AW: Probably around four or five months into the project. We knew roughly what we wanted to do, but in terms of placing it along the scale between really grim and serious, and light and arcadey, we settled on the arcadey end of the spectrum, because the grittier end was just depressing. You don’t want to spend two years up to your eyeballs building the kind of game that’s just depressing to think about and to play. So we thought we’d have fun with it.
The thing is, just because it’s arcade-like, that doesn’t mean it has to be an airhead. The upgrade system, the tactical use of cover, the environment shredding, all those things make for a pretty superb, deep experience when it’s all tied together – but there’s no reason why you can’t wrap that up with very arcade sensibilities and make it quite accessible. Just over a year ago, we settled on that style and it really seemed to have something.