Here’s the level I scripted on Call of Duty: World at War, “Little Resistance”. Thanks to Michael Barnes for capturing nearly everything we put into the level so well and showing off everyone’s hard work. You definitely have “the eye” and I’m sure the world is your oyster in either the games or movie industry unless you already have something lined up already!
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to find it! I assumed I hid it well enough that only someone looking at the level scripts on the PC would figure it out. Anyway, I’m glad someone discovered it and now players can enjoy the Ray Gun in a regular level. As far as I know, no other levels have one.
ELITE B MAN apparently discovered the Easter Egg. From thexboxlive.com fourms:
“with all of the ways to get under the map in multi, some of my friends and i thought we might be able to do it in single.
i went to the right hole, tried to get under becuase it looked like the type of structure that would allow you to get under (hill in round house, slope in downfall; there is always an elevation difference), and i worked my way right. when it happened, i restarted and did the same thing and it worked. i did this a few more times and then i came and posted.”
So, for those who still don’t know how to get to the Ray Gun in “Little Resistance”, you need to touch the right and middle craters with water in them on the beach after calling in the first rocket strike. Then, stand in the far left one for around 10 seconds and you’ll find the Easter Egg.
A few notes about the Easter Egg- the sound is (was?) reversed Japanese dialog we were going to use for the level but was cut. Originally the Easter Egg played the dialog normally but the sound department wanted to make it much cooler and scary. There are four Ray Guns for co-op purposes, but they never go away anyway, so you can use the same statue, go back for more ammo, etc. Also, something changed with the Ray Gun properties right before we shipped. It used to gib guys (which was way more rewarding) but now it just kills them. That made me sad when I played the shipped version of the game, but I’m glad it made it in regardless!
Congrats to ELITE B MAN, you are indeed elite as you are the first person to see the Easter Egg outside of Treyarch!
Early in the development of Call of Duty: World at War, myself and the Lead Level Designer at the time, Jason McCord, were trying to come up with cool “extras” for the game. For example, CoD 4 had the airplane level at the very end of the game which arguably IW could have shipped without. At the time, we didn’t have anything planned besides “competitive co-op,” which is a lot like arcade mode in CoD4, just co-opified.
We had kicked and idea for an end sequence in CoD:WaW where you’d be placed in a bunker which you couldn’t leave. To your right would be a German officer screaming at you to get on some MGs, and to your left would be those MGs mounted on a window over looking a beach. It was then the player was supposed to realize that you were on the beaches of Normandy from the German perspective, and you had to mow down allies as they came up the beach. Eventually, towards the end of the credits, as the pace got to be too heavy and there were so many guys that eventually they broke through the beach head, you’d hear banging on the door to the bunker. A few seconds later, an explosion would rip through the bunker, knock you unconscious, and you’d be on the ground, facing up. An American squad would light up the place and a bad-ass US soldier would stop over you, slowly aim his gun at you and fire. Fade to black. Finish rolling the credits.
Hmm, actually, that still sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, there was a lot of resistance against playing as a German, even though the players gets owned at the end and the Americans still win. What could have been a cool cinematic and interactive ending to the game never was.
Later in the project, we added some AI to the level “Little Resistance” (second level in the game) which had Japanese soldiers looking dazed after a rocket strike on their defensive line. These guys sort of stumbled around and every time someone saw those animations, they mentioned how they looked like zombies.
.. but here are the notes Slaypiece and I took there. I didn’t really think of posting it here until now for some reason. Anyway, better late than never!
GDC ’08 Summary:
Over the weekend something bad happened.
I play a lot of games, and I have opinions about them (hey, what gamer doesn’t), but talking shit about other developers is unprofessional and is one of the biggest fuck-ups anyone can make. In fact, it’s arrogant, extremely juvenile and unwelcome, especially in an industry that is trying to “grow up” and be like any other professional industry.
Treyarch isn’t in the business of slamming other developers and I’m personally embarrassed and upset about the whole situation. I was distraught and depressed all weekend, especially because Treyarch isn’t a terribly well-liked developer to begin with. I just wanted to go on the record by saying that I think Gearbox makes great games and I hold them in high esteem with other top-notch developers. This is coming from a Treyarch employee.
The fact that those things were said is totally unacceptable and I hope the good people at Gearbox understand that we don’t feel that way at all. We love you guys and I’m sure the next BIA installment will be awesome.
I feel bad. I have a Wii, but barely use it. For the first few months of owning a Wii, I played Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, and eventually Resident Evil 4 (which is better on the Wii than the PS2 or Gamecube, but that’s a different post). I tried to get into the Wii, I really did. I checked out the news and participated in polls, but with long stretches of time with no decent games coming out, I lost interest and took solace in my 360. Plus, the Wii doesn’t give achievements.
A few months ago, I saw that the Wii had been hacked, and the hackers had a video to prove it. Fast forward to today, where Wii homebrew is alive and well, with no mod-chipping required. The Wii homebrew community has matured to the point where tons of documentation is available and it appears very easy to get say, an NES emulator running on the Wii. In fact some crafty coders created something called the “Homebrew Channel” which makes running homebrew apps a piece of cake. After doing a bit of research, I decided to see how long it would take me to get some homebrew apps up and running on my Wii.
I’ll explain all the details in a bit. For now, here are the required supplies:
Some people love em’, some people couldn’t care less about em’. “Collectibles” are simply a finite amount of objects player can obtain in a game. These objects typically aren’t integral to the progression of the game, but are often added to give the game an extra layer of interaction. Some game designs take collectibles beyond just an extra set of objects you can get, while others stay rooted in traditional, old-school collectible design.
I find it interesting that collectibles are still around in many games today. Five years ago I wouldn’t have expected collectibles to show up in mainstream games like Call of Cuty 4 or Halo 3. I thought gamers would have grown out collecting “things” by now. However, the part of me that used to collect stamps and coins when I was a child still finds enjoyment in obsessively hunting for virtual objects. It seems there are many others like me.
I’m going to dissect collectible design and analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly of various collectible systems. I’ll be projecting a lot of my own preferences here, so bare with me. I’ve divided collectible design into five major categories, which are:
Hunting Enjoyment: Are the collectibles fun to hunt down and find? Sometimes, the hunt can be more enjoyable than obtaining the item.
Collection Enjoyment: Is the act of acquiring the object enjoyable? Are there sweet sounds when you pick an object up? Is the art of the object really cool? Do crazy particles play when you touch the collectible?
Immersiveness: Does the object fit into the game world or does it remind you that you’re playing a video game?
Clue Factor: How hard is it to find the collectible without any sort of guide? Are there audio and visual cues which help you find the collectible? Are there any hints in game which help you organize finding the collectibles?
In Game Reward: Do you receive new weapons or abilities by collecting objects? Do the collectibles unlock game content?
Using these categories, lets take a look at some recent Xbox 360 games and see how they stack up. I’ll use a scale from 1 – 10 to rate each category.
I went to a Grilled Cheese competetion (no joke) a few weeks ago with my wife and her boss. On the way there, her boss asked me about my job and what I do. Once I opened my mouth, I could tell she was lost. Words like crunch, polish, milestones, even AI had no meaning. The same thing usually happens when I talk to my family about my job. They simply don’t care about the ins and outs of the game industry. They’re happy if I’m happy. I don’t really blame them, as I’m not up on the current trends in education or food service either.
Talking about crunch is usually the worst though. Explaining that you work longer hours and don’t get paid more for it seems exclusive to software type industries, especially games. Everyone thinks we’re crazy. They think we’re even crazier when we say that we play games, and even work on other games (modding) for free in our spare time.
I recently got into Dr. Who on BBC America. Wow, what a wacky and creative show.
So, where’s my Dr. Who point and click adventure? If there was ever a game to bring back SCUMM, Dr. Who would be a good reason for it. You remember SCUMM games right? Think games like Star Trek 25th Anniversary, Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Kings Quest. Great puzzles, adventure, humor, and unexpected events. Dr. Who would have been perfect for that style of game. To bad SCUMM went the way of the dinosaur. Pixel hunting drove those games to extinction.
Somebody, make that game and I’ll promise to buy it!
I’m not talking about Ninja Gaiden or Tenchu Z. Nope, I’ve been seeing Ninja AI in many games I’ve been playing lately. Ninja AI are simply AI that move from one place to the next in a blink of an eye. That’s all good if you have some crazy robot that teleports itself around, or ghosts that phase from one place to the next, but it’s buggy and annoying when humanoid AI that are supposed to move around semi-realistically end up darting around, swapping from one animation to the next in a single frame.
The worst offender is when AI is in the middle of a run cycle and decides to do a 180 and run in the opposite direction. It’s 10 times worse when the AI is leaning forward. Why? Well, as shown above, the player has just undergone heavy fire, dispatched every bad guy in his vicinity and is now taken a second to line up his shot. His finger is on the trigger, ready to take down that last asshole. Now, if the AI is behaving semi-realistically and decides to turn around, he’ll transition into a stop pose, then blend into running the opposite direction. This gives the gamer a chance to anticipate the AI’s directional change, or at least take a pot shot and possibly still hit the target. Even if the player misses, he’ll have some idea of where the AI will end up, can line up his shot accordingly, fire, and take the guy down. What a great reward for playing the game with some skill.