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CONVERSATION WITH JERK GUSTAFSSON AT STARBREEZE
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Jerk Gustafsson (that's pronounced "yerk" by the way, gringos) served at the Lead Designer on Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena for Starbreeze Studios in Sweden. His past credits also include Lead Level Designer on The Darkness, being one of several Game Designers for Butcher Bay, and Gameplay Design for Enclave.
Jerk was nice enough to answer a handful of fanboy questions, so here we go. Also, make sure to read all the way to the bottom for a note from Ian Stevens.
Click one of the following links now to order Dark Athena.
Xbox360 version
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Playstation 3 version
Butcher Bay was very violent, but it seems like the violence has been ramped way up in Dark Athena. I could have sworn I saw in one of the videos that you can now stab people in the face. Could you discuss the thought process behind this decision?
The Riddick universe is violent, with ruthless mercenaries, brutal prisoners and deadly creatures.
We don’t sit down in meetings and decide to make it like that, it’s simply the tone of the universe. The environment, the characters, and their choice of weapons lead us in that direction. For example, when we decided to implement the Ulaks (and we of course want to have a lot of variation in the fighting moves), things naturally tend to get violent. They’re not butter knives…
Starbreeze have a history of violent and mature games, but I’ve always seen a lot of the violent content we create as darkly humorous. Some of the gun-katas in Darkness for instance are extremely ultra violent and at the same time very, very funny.
Ian (Stevens, Head of Development at Tigon Studios) has stated several times that Dark Athena has a more deliberate focus on the shooting part of the game. Why did you take this step, and how did you implement it?
It has to do mostly with the direction this story took. Riddick is much less vulnerable this time around and with the Dark Athena he is storming the castle so to speak, so it’s just appropriate and makes sense that the game winds up being more action heavy as a result.
I felt that combos and special moves in Butcher Bay were difficult to reproduce reliably, but have talked to Dark Athena players who say it now is no problem. Did you and your team put any work into these moves to make them easier to execute?
Absolutely. We especially worked on the ability to make counter moves. In Butcher Bay we didn’t have any specific cue for when you are able to counter an attack. For the Dark Athena package we implemented a short flash on Riddick’s weapons when that window of opportunity appears.
In Butcher Bay, there were a few sandbox areas and a few small side explorations, but generally the game was on rails. How does Dark Athena compare, and what was the design goal as far as linearity?
We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the difference between a path we’re leading the player down and areas where there is some more open exploration, because one is not inherently better than the other, they are really only different types of experiences. In the end the bigger question is how well you execute and that is what we focus on. In terms of when we decide to do one thing instead of the other, it depends on what we want the player to feel. Assault on Dark Athena is very similar to Escape from Butcher Bay in that we do both of these things from time to time, but it is also telling a different story so it won’t play out in the same way that the original game did.and because I would say that Dark Athena compares closely to Butcher Bay. Athena is probably even more linear. When you extend bit by bit from what in the beginning was a small scope it’s easier to control a linear experience.
From my hazy understanding of the development timeline, Atari didn't come into the picture until the game was largely built out. What kind of changes did they require?
Yes, that’s correct, Atari came in when the game was pretty much content complete. But they did give us more time and more opportunity, and with that time we made the game longer and added more of the variation and mixing-up of elements that help make the experience feel different and unique.
Overall, the Atari move was great for us. It gave us time to polish the game and make it as good as we can. Atari’s also been very understanding and supportive during the intense period of finalizing a product of this size. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to work with them on a project from start to finish sometime in the future.
Why does Riddick always seem to end up in a mech suit? You guys really love your mech suits! Is that a Swedish thing?
The reasons for using a mech in the Dark Athena campaign are actually many. When the player gets to enter a mech suit it provides variation in game-play. It also provides variation in enemies. We had the game-play functionality since Butcher Bay which made it quicker for us to implement the feature. We also use the mech HUD to feed story information to the player.
And of course, as we all know, there’s a lot of mechs in the future :)
Butcher Bay very briefly touched on the sort-of "mythology" aspects to the Riddick character that were cut out of the theatrical cut of the movie (and weren't even hinted at in PITCH BLACK). Does Dark Athena incorporate any of Riddick's powers, other than the eyeshine?
No. Personally I favor the Pitch Black approach and to me Riddick can see in the dark due to surgery on his eyes, he is simply a stronger and better fighter than the ordinary man.
But in a way there are some mythology aspects to the character in Pitch Black and the theatrical cut of Chronicles as well. Riddick is a reclusive hunter who seems to understand animals on some sort of primordial level. He can almost communicate with them. There are a lot of suggestions that he may be unique in that respect.
What was the thought process behind incorporating the Ulaks? Obviously the knives are signature elements of the movie, especially in its marketing, so I assume it was as simple as trying to find a place for a very recognizable symbol in the new game. But in the franchise timeline they don't appear for years. Was this a Starbreeze, VUG, or Atari idea, and how did it come about?
To be fair you don’t really know that. You didn’t see him use them in Pitch Black but you don’t know for certain that he hadn’t used them before. We show you what might be Riddick’s first encounter with that weapon, but even then it is possible he has seen them before. We don’t really say.
There have been some brief mentions about gameplay/design changes in the Butcher Bay remake based on player feedback. Other than the asset changes (textures, models, skins), what were some of these design changes and why were they made? What parts of Butcher Bay did people have trouble with?
Yes, there are many more changes made to Butcher Bay than one may think. Even visually we have done a lot more than revamping all assets. A lot of detail has been added to environments and the lightning’s been enhanced on all levels of the game. You’re also likely to notice what we’re doing with depth-of-field, color correction and character performance technologies (Vo-Cap). Sound design is something that has been taken to a whole new level as well.
Gameplay and design enhancements have been done along side improvements for the Athena campaign. Things from implementing a weapon selection system to improved close combat and stealth mechanics and extended cover/lean functionality.
Examples of progression changes based on player feedback are making it easier for players to find their way out of the mines and the dweller pit at the end of the first chapter.
And then… an added note from Ian Stevens at Tigon
Wanted to say THANKS to Pitcher Blacker and all the fans visiting the site (and even some of the other fan sites that we haven’t had a chance to interact with) for all of your support and enthusiasm toward the Riddick character and franchise!
We DO NOT take you for granted and we’re sincerely thankful for every bit of time and consideration you give us. YOU are the reason we do what we do and we really hope you enjoy Assault on Dark Athena!
See you online! Don’t be surprised if Vin himself is knifing you in the back during a game of Pitch Black. No bullshit… some of you are totally going to get killed by the REAL Riddick.
Thanks to Jerk for taking the time to answer these questions and to Ian for his note, and let's hope all the Starbreeze guys get to take a nice vacation before jumping right back into things with their Bourne game and Project Redlime (and the next Riddick game)!
Click one of the following links now to order Dark Athena.
Xbox360 version
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Windows PC version
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Playstation 3 version
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