June 18, 2009

The Conduit's Josh Olson and Rob Nicholls Discuss Multiplayer, Aliens, Weapons and Why It's a Wii Exclusive
By Louis Bedigian

“Developers and publishers kept saying the Wii was underpowered. We’re showing that it was underestimated.”

When The Conduit hits stores next week, it'll be the first major FPS to tackle online gaming on the Wii. Clearly this is a big thing for Wii owners and a huge accomplishment by the game's developer, High Voltage Software. But why make this game a Wii exclusive when they could have released it on a console with proven success in the online space?

"It really was about the controls," said Josh Olson, Producer at HVS. "There’s a clear analog between firing a weapon and using the Wii remote – and we didn’t feel that FPSes on the Wii really took advantage of what the interface offers. We also are Wii owners that weren’t finding a ton of compelling experiences on the Wii – there are some great games, don’t get me wrong, but those experiences were few and far between when we started development. We wanted a game that we, as core gamers, wanted to play on the console."

"Exactly; we wanted to make the game for the Wii that we just weren’t seeing out on the shelves," adds Rob Nicholls, Lead Game Designer at HVS. "The motion controls of the Wii are perfect for FPS games, yet really good shooters on the Wii were few and far between. Also, the graphics we saw on the Wii were much less than what we knew was possible. Developers and publishers kept saying the Wii was underpowered. We’re showing that it was underestimated."

I'm eager to know about the history of the Drudge aliens. What inspired their design, their language, the way they act and attack?

RN: Their design started with a TON of concept art. We went through several different iterations (anyone remember the red Drones?) until we finally got a look that worked. Same for the way they act and attack. We came up with a basic slot for them to fill (alien foot-soldier) and then did several iterations of their gameplay. The language was actually created by one of employees at our motion capture facility, Red Eye Studios. He had a passion for “conlangs” (constructed languages) and volunteered to make one for our Drudge. A bit hard to do with a human throat but it works.

Talk about the concept of the All Seeing Eye.

RN: The ASE started out as a much simpler feature than it is today; originally you would project one of several textures and match it up to symbols you would find scattered throughout the missions. However, it just grew in functionality and complexity until the ASE became what it is today… alien technology to change the phase state of certain material items. This allows certain Drudge enemies to operate unseen and intangible…until they are ready to strike. The ASE allows you to not only detect these hidden items, but also bring them into phase with our world so that the may be dealt with…one way or another.

Weapons are an essential part of every shooter, especially The Conduit. What can we expect from the futuristic arsenal?

JO: The cool thing about our game is that there are essentially three different weapon sets – that of the humans, the alien Drudge, and the hi-tech Trust – so we have conventional “standards” of the genre to include the SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles, and rocket launchers of the world, as well as some more interesting designs to include the slimy organic hive cannon of the Drudge and the glowing plasma weapons of the Trust. It really gives the game a unique feel – and offers plenty of choice to the player. We have 18 different weapons in the game and something that fits most every play style.

How is the Wii remote being utilized for different firing modes?

JO: We have three weapons that have remote-based controls. The Shrieker is an alien Drudge weapon that fires guided bio-energy that follow the pointer once launched. It’s a lot of fun – good players can keep the spheres in the air for a very long time and work them around corners. The Deatomizer is a Trust weapon that when charged, fires a pair of plasma spheres that you can rotate by twisting the remote. When the first sphere hits a target, the second one wraps around it, similar to a bolo. It’s great for hitting the edge of a wall and wrapping the second sphere around it to take out guys behind cover. It’s also a great multiplayer weapon – there’s something very cathartic about wrapping a deatomizer shot around a guy’s head…and it’s quite humiliating when it happens to you.

Finally, we have the Hive Cannon, a Drudge “mini-cannon” that fires exploding insects at its target at a high rate of fire. By twisting the remote, you can control the size of the reticle – a wider reticle disperses them more for an area effect while a tight reticle keeps maintains a focused beam of fire that’s very devastating at close range. We use Wii controls as they make sense and tried to make them natural extensions for the player, rather than a gimmicky mechanic that would quickly grow tiresome or clunky.

RN: We really wanted to use the Wii remote motion controls intelligently and not just have motions because we could have motions. In a fast paced action shooter, you don’t want to have to do anything that causes you to lose your aim or orientation. We’ve got Wii-motion weapons that make sense for the style of gameplay that we want players to enjoy.

AI is another essential element, and The Conduit promises to deliver enemies with human-like behavior. Tell us about that.

RN: The key here is to make the AI act like a human being…meaning they have an awareness of their own mortality. The Drudge are alien and it’s understandable that they would stand and take fire if it means being able to shoot you. But our human enemies go “oh crap!” and run for cover. If there is no cover and they’re taking damage, they’ll run away. If you’re shooting one way, they’ll try to flank you. Sometimes they think if they can just run in and smack you with a rifle butt, it will finish you off. They want to kill you, but they want to live through the experience.

Thus far, Metroid Prime 3 has been the only Wii shooter to make a big splash with motion controls. Other games were too clunky, too inaccurate, too tiring, etc. The Conduit looks to change that, so give us some details on how the game will control and what you've done to prevent it from repeating the mistakes of others.

JO: Thankfully, there have been other shooters on the Wii that have been great sources for us to look at – to see what works and what doesn’t. In the end, we decided that player choice is the best option – we all play games differently, so why try to force someone to play it in the way a games designer feels it best? Everything in our controls is tweakable – you can remap the buttons and movement controls, as well as the sensitivities, bounding box size, and player run speed among others. You can even drag and drop HUD elements anywhere on the screen as well as control the HUD’s transparency. We want you to the play game as you see fit, and it’s really a lot of fun messing with the different options. Some schemes are closely guarded secrets on the team.  We’re pretty confident that there won’t be any complaints about the controls, and feedback we’ve received from events and shows has been extremely gratifying. People pick up the game – people who perhaps have never played a game on the Wii, or who perhaps have never played an FPS on the Wii – and they immediately get it. They understand it. It’s been great to watch.

The Conduit was supposed to take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus. What does this add-on allow you to do for the game that wouldn't have been possible with the Wii remote alone?

JO: We don’t support Wii MotionPlus. We looked long and hard at it, and actually had a working prototype weapon that used it, but ultimately decided that it didn’t make sense. In a title that is very shooter-centric – one that requires the pointer to be on the screen at all times – it didn’t make sense in the end. We’ve always been about quality, and while we could have shoe-horned a weapon in that used it, we felt that it would have been cheap. If a gamer is going to pay the extra money for it, it needs to be integral to the experience. Moving forward, we [will] continue to look at it and will make use of it if it makes sense and has a big impact on the gameplay. I’m very much looking forward to taking a look at Red Steel 2 to see their implementation.

The Conduit is the first Wii game attempting to push the boundaries of multiplayer with 16 players. Was this the goal from the start -- 16 players -- or did you just keep pushing and pushing to see how far the Wii could actually go?

JO: We support 12 players online. While we initially targeted 16 – and did have it up and running – we ultimately felt that 12 was the best number in terms of what we wanted to do with multiplayer. The decision wasn’t based on a technical limitation of the Wii, but rather driven by gameplay considerations.

RN: 16 players was always our goal but we found that 12 players actually worked out better. It was a tough call, but one we had to make for gameplay reasons.

Who do you control? Is it an aliens vs. humans kind of thing?

JO: You can select your character skin – there are five total – as well as adjust the primary and secondary colors. In Free-for-All matches, this is the character you play with. In Team Reaper and Team Objective matches, you play as the same character model, but your team colors will be adjusted accordingly, depending if you’re on the blue or the red team.

RN: You have the choice between several models from single player… a Mr. Ford-style Agent, a Drudge Drone, a Trust Guard, Scientist, or Suit. So if you want to do an “aliens vs. humans kind of thing” you totally can, based upon what model you select.

What can you tell us about the multiplayer environments?

JO: We have seven different environments that thematically match the single-player campaign, but have been built from the ground up to be played as MP maps. They vary in sizes, though our intent with multiplayer is to keep the action going – you’re never going to spend a lot of time looking for guys to kill and will be back in the fight very quickly after respawning. We’re really proud of our multiplayer maps – there’s a lot of variety to be had.

How will players hook up online? The Conduit will use the friend code system, but is there any other way to play with others?

JO: Matchmaking is done either through a Worldwide, Regional, or Friends searches. Worldwide and Regional matches are public, though Friends can join you in a public match. We do follow Nintendo’s policies and require Friend Codes, though in as unobtrusive a way as possible. You can avoid the manual entry of Friend Codes either through sending Console Friend Requests, or by sending an in-game Friend Request to a Friend of a Friend.

RN: We’ve done our best to streamline the system and make it as close to what players have come to expect from online matchmaking. And our system sorts by multiplayer ranking, so that players of equal or close to equal rank are matched up first before pulling in anyone available.

Deathmatch and Capture the Flag have been announced as two of the multiplayer modes. Are there any others?

JO: There are three multiplayer categories that you can pick from – Free-for-All, Team Reaper, and Team Objective. Within those three categories, there are a total of 13 different specific gametypes. All of the traditional modes that gamers expect are there – the deathmatch, team deathmatch, single and multiple flag CTFs – as well some more nuanced tweaks to these to include limited and group respawns. There are also some more unique modes to include ASE Football, in which the player with the ASE needs to stay alive while being hunted down by everyone else, as well as Bounty Hunter, where players are each given a target and gain points only if they kill their assigned target. If you kill an “innocent,” you lose points, so is this very cool cat-and-mouse game since you don’t know who is hunting you…but at the same time don’t want to indiscriminately kill other players as you lose points. There are a lot of Mexican standoff moments, and with 12-players, is absolutely crazy.

Anything else you'd like to share about the multiplayer content?

JO: A final unique point to mention is that every player in the lobby can vote for what they want to play – or abstain if they don’t care. Players can vote for maps, weapon sets and gametypes. We like being democratic. Why let the host have all the fun?

Thank you for your time.

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