Dev Diary 2: Whiplash
To celebrate Whiplash going gold, Eidos unveil the second developer diary (and screens)
Tags: Whiplash Categories: News, PS2 News, Xbox News
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 14th, 2003
Whiplash: Developer Diary Volume II
From Concept to Game Design – with Director Noah Hughes
The Concept
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Ok, as described in the first diary, we had a concept:
A weasel and a rabbit, on the run, with one small problem, they’ve been chained together.
As captives in the testing facilities of the Genron Mega Corporation, the destructive duo must outwit CEO, F. D. Mann, and his obedient employees, while wrecking their way to freedom. We had characters, setting, and action….
Time to make a game!
Refinement of a Concept
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Before jumping right in to the game mechanics we would need to establish some core game goals and guiding principles that would help turn this rich concept into a fun playable interactive experience. The first and most important step was to create a short list of what the game would be. As it turned out, given the threat of “a crowded field in a fading genre,” it would also become important to clearly define what the game would not be.
What the Game would be …
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We would create a character-based action adventure. The focus would be on action platform elements, accessible combat, character growth, and a hurried pace. We would wholeheartedly embrace humor throughout the game, from crazy chaos and slapstick comedy to quirky characters and satirical commentary. It would appeal to a general audience by way of accessibility without being condescending to users of any age. As a result, we would focus on simple, accessible, and unique character mechanics. The chained characters would help in striving to provide a play experience that would feel unique and entertaining independent of the story or concept. We embraced the simple premise of Escape in order to create a strong backbone for the player goals. We similarly allowed escape to drive the fast pacing of the game that would suit our crazy weasel nicely. We wanted a reward-intensive game structure that would keep the player coming back for more. However, we would do so in a way that would avoid overly arbitrary elements like “glowy floaty” collectibles as primary game goals. Similarly, we would apply this consistency to the environment which would provide relevance to the setting and story. And finally, that environment itself would be highly interactive.
What the Game would NOT be …
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While I prefer constructive direction rather than a “don’t do” list, two things were clear to us early in the project. We would not be the only game of this style out this Christmas, and sales in general within the genre had been less than impressive as of late. This begged an honest analysis of the game in terms of ensuring that we were indeed offering something that was fresh and viable given the market. As a result, we further refined the concept that our game was clearly not a typical platform game. A lot of the things we had laid out as primary goals were based on this very concept, but it became valuable to present this even more explicitly as a goal in and of itself. OK, but what does that mean?
A Final Refinement
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To us it meant the following refinement of our current direction: Like the rest of Eidos’s action-adventure line-up, the game would play out more like an adventure starring our destructive duo than a loosely connected collection of levels and mechanics. Our humor got a distinct flavor in the form of bunny-abuse. Combat and destruction would be at least as important as environmental navigation. The game would not be a collection-fest, as this was the most commonly overdone goal structure within the genre. And last but definitely not least, we saw the core of something unique in our vision for chaos. The idea of unscripted interactions and giving one player room to create a different set of reactions than the next was a compelling hook.
Now for the Fun Stuff
With a strong concept in place, and some guiding principals, it was time to get to the good stuff. Following are just some examples of some of the concepts and systems that we settled on, based on the direction we laid out for ourselves:
Combat
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The chain would provide the basis for our combat system. We would give the player three distinct attacks in the whip, smash, and sweep moves. The moves would each have a value in terms of speed, range, and damage, and would chain together to form the basis for a combo system. Learned moves like the juggle combo would augment the basics for a combat system that allows enemies to provide entertaining duels rather than environmental hazards.
Chaos
By designing many of the games elements to interact with each other, we could create a system that quickly gained depth through variety of interaction. Monkeys could attack scientists and break stuff and scientists would catch on fire and fire could be spread through contact, which would in turn break more stuff, etc.
Humor
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Bunny grinders, toxic barrels, chocolate bunny, helium bunny, there were endless game mechanics to be had at the rabbit’s expense. This was prototypical of the slapstick cartoon elements of comedy in the game. In addition we could not help but poke fun at many aspects of the Genron Corporation, from corporate life, to crazy consumerism, and “creative” merchandising. Through these vehicles, the game provides humor on many levels.
Rewards
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It was quite clear that smashing things with the rabbit was an exceptionally fun part of being a crazy weasel. It also made sense that this would be a direct attack on your greedy captors, which in turn would be a positive effort in the eyes of some. This became a clear system for providing optional achievements for the player. Thus was born the idea of bankrupting Genron as a reward structure. In addition, it was only natural that you would have animal peers within the facility. They become an addition parallel goal in the game that has direct rewards as your freed friends help wreak havoc as well as providing longer-term incentives.
Adventure
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We tried to achieve depth uncharacteristic of the genre in the form of adventure elements. Hypersnacks, found throughout the Genron facility would provide the basis for character growth. When fed to Redmond, the player’s attack would get a permanent boost, and a permanent health increase would be given for Hypersnacks fed to Spanx. Also adding to the sense of adventure, the map system combined with interesting story-driven goals put the player’s path in their own hands. In-game cine’s allow the adventure to unfold in cinematic fashion on the fly as the story progresses.
And there are many more, but these just seemed like a few choices we made that were illustrative of the goals we set out to achieve when first deciding how we would turn this concept of a crazy weasel and an indestructible bunny into a great game.
Thanks!
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Hopefully I have given some insight into the process of turning a concept in to a game design, and more specifically some insight into the design of Whiplash! It has been an extremely fun game to work on and I think it shows when you play it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you get a chance to enjoy the game. Stay tuned for more diaries from the Whiplash Dev Team.
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Tags: Whiplash
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 14th, 2003 and is filed under News, PS2 News, Xbox News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
