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Postmortem:
Ritual Entertainment's What Went Right 1. Team familiarity with the engine. We originally intended to use Ritual's UberEngine for F.A.K.K. 2, but it lacked some necessary components to complete the entire game. The UberEngine was basically all the components we designed and added to the Quake 2 engine for the development of Sin, plus a new renderer and networking layer. There was still a lot of work to be done on the UberEngine, though, and we chose to license a third-party engine for the project. The team was very familiar with the Quake 2 engine (thanks to Sin), and it was pretty high on our list of choices. The other engines we considered were Lithtech and Unreal. We came to the conclusion that we would have to do a lot of work to any engine (besides Quake) in order to do some of the things that we had designed in the preproduction of F.A.K.K. 2.
Luckily, an early version of the Quake 3 engine became available at the last moment before we had to make a final decision. We ultimately ended up with a limited Quake 3 license where we got a snapshot of the code in February 1999. Quake 3 had not been released yet, but it was in a workable state when we first got the code. This was the best decision we made during the entire project. Ritual Entertainment is extremely familiar with the Quake family of engines, having started out with the Quake 1 engine on the Quake Mission Pack #1: Scourge of Armagon. Next, Sin was initially developed under a modified Quake 1 engine and was converted over to Quake 2 late in the project. The team was very relieved that we wouldn't have to add the extra learning time that it would take for us to become familiar with Lithtech or Unreal. The level designers would not have to learn a new editor, and since they were already familiar with the capabilities of the Quake engine, they could build prototype levels very quickly at the beginning of the project. From the programmers' standpoint, it let us leverage all of the code that we wrote during our development of Sin. We were able to drop in the Sin game code and get a working version of the game very quickly, including our scripting language. We received the Quake 3 code in late February 1999 and had a very impressive technology demo ready for E3 in early May. Since we had five programmers at the beginning of the project, in the early months of the project we were able to drop tons of new features into the engine and show them off at E3.
2. In-game tools and engine modifications. The modifications that we made to the Quake 3 engine helped us put on the finishing touches and ultimately garnered F.A.K.K. 2 such praises as "The Most Beautiful Game Ever." After hearing some of those comments, all the extra work required really was worth it. Almost all of the tools that we created on top of the Quake 3 engine allowed the level designers and artists to create content with a text file. When a system was designed, we always took into account how the team was going to use it. We used text files and simple English commands to allow the designer or artist to make game changes without having to recompile anything. Another element that we added to the tool system was the ability to edit things in the game engine itself. This saved a lot of time for the artists and level designers. They got to see their changes immediately on the screen instead of having to exit out of the game and restart every time they changed something. Skeletal animation system and LOD. One of the first modifications to the engine was the addition of a skeletal animation and level-of-detail (LOD) system. This allowed us to put in a ton of animations for the game's main character, Julie. We could also throw a lot of in-game models and monsters on the screen thanks to the LOD system. Our lead animator, Darrin Hart, hand-animated 11,000 frames of animation, of which about 6,500 frames were actually used in the game. This would not have been possible with a vertex-based animation system. Morpheus scripting language. One of the best systems we came up with during the development of Sin was the scripting system. We gave it the internal nickname Morpheus, partly in tribute to The Matrix, and partly due to the fact that you could do just about anything you wanted to with it. The scripting system is described in more detail in the Sin Postmortem I wrote <http://www.gamasutra.com/features/programming/19990305/sin_01.htm> in March 1999, but in a nutshell the scripting language gives the level designer complete control over any object or entity in the game. The functionality it provides ranges from the simple linear movement of objects around the level to the complex scripted sequences that exist throughout F.A.K.K. 2. We extended the functionality from Sin's 500 or so commands to about 700 in F.A.K.K. 2. This added complexity put a more rigorous demand on the level designer, as they really had to put on a programmer's cap in order to use the scripting language in F.A.K.K. 2. TIKI animation system. The DEF animation system from Sin was ported over in the early stages of F.A.K.K. 2 development and renamed TIKI. Its main function was to allow the text file definition of models in the game. It also allows events to be synched with the animation on a per-frame basis. It was largely used for synching sounds and effects with the character animation.
Ghost particle system. The Ghost particle system was written completely from scratch and incorporated into the Morpheus scripting language and the TIKI animation system. Ghost allows artists and level designers to create user-defined particle systems and integrate them into the game via the animation system. As is the case with almost every Ritual-created engine modification, this is accomplished with a simple text file. There are about 50 commands used to modify the parameters of a particle system, and the systems can be combined together to create some complex-looking effects. For example, the firing of the Uzi in the game is a combination of five particle systems: smoke, shells, muzzle flash, tracer, and impact debris. Cinematic camera system. F.A.K.K. 2 is a very cinematic-intensive game. The story demanded some very complex scenes to advance the story, and we wanted to show as much detail as possible in these cinematic elements. We started with the spline-based camera system in Sin and ported it over to F.A.K.K. 2. We also added the ability to edit the camera paths in the game, actor tracking, and field-of-view control. This gave the cinematic designer complete control over the scene and allowed him to preview his changes immediately. Sound system (Zound). Another in-game system is the Zound editor. This system let our sound engineer place sound and music triggers in the game without having to recompile the entire level. This allowed him to place music cues and music mood triggers around the level to create tension or humor when needed.
3. Third-party license and creative control. Kevin Eastman is the owner of the Heavy Metal magazine and co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Together with Simon Bisley, they were the creative force behind the Heavy Metal 2000 movie. When we discussed the possibilities of the game, we came up with idea of the game being a sequel to the movie instead of doing the standard movie-to-game conversion. He was thrilled to hear this, and fully supported our decision to make the game a sequel to the movie. Very early in the production we received a crate full of Heavy Metal magazines -- every single issue. We spent days poring over the issues to see what kinds of styles Heavy Metal is known for, and to get inspiration for designing the characters. Kevin also gave us complete control over the story and provided us with some inspirational concept sketches, which influenced the design of the game. Working with Kevin has been a blast and he's supported us completely with our decisions on what to put in the game. For instance, when we decided to resurrect Lord Tyler from the movie, Kevin wholeheartedly agreed.
4. Focus on single-player. Early in the development of F.A.K.K. 2, we decided to focus solely on the single-player aspect of the game. This was a very tough decision for the team, as just about everyone at Ritual loves to play multiplayer games, and Quake 3 deathmatch is a frequent pastime around the office. Since the team was small, we decided to focus on the single-player aspects of the game instead of trying to do multiplayer, which usually has an impact on what can be accomplished in the single-player version. We came up with a very tight game design and avoided repetitive gameplay. Almost every level in the game presents the player with new monsters and weapons. All of the levels were sketched on paper before the level designers started working. They used these 2D maps to get a feel for how the level was going to be laid out and where all the action and encounters were going to take place. Another part of preproduction that helped out was the detailed description of the game's characters and monsters. The character sheets gave the artists the knowledge of how the creature was going to function in the game, which helped them create the necessary animations. 5. Strong focus on graphics. Right from the beginning of the project, we decided to focus strongly on graphics. We wanted the visual experience in the game to be something unparalleled in the game industry. Since the game is in third-person perspective, the main character had to look great -- if you spent the entire game looking at this character, it should be really nice to look at. We combined elements from the original Heavy Metal movie, the comics, and the new movie to create Julie. We went through three revisions of her character before finally settling on what you see in the game. When we designed the world, we wanted it to be an interactive version of the Heavy Metal universe. We decided to use a rich color set with lots of red and yellows in the town, and we used vibrant greens and blues for some of the outdoor areas. We wanted to get away from the dingy, dark look that so many other shooters in the genre have. We put the Quake 3 shader system to great use and were very liberal in our use of weapon effects and cinematics. For our efforts, critics have proclaimed F.A.K.K. 2 to be one of the best-looking games of 2000.
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Features
