Talking to Gamasutra as part of a wideranging new interview, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski "gets on his soapbox" to discuss why "those 30 seconds that you do over and over" make a great FPS.
During an interview that took place while he was in San Francisco to promote Epic Games studio People Can Fly and EA Partners' new FPS Bulletstorm [YouTube trailer], Bleszinski discussed the key to developing a shooter -- a key he thinks the team has unlocked with the game.
"The fact of the matter is if you're going to make a shooter, you better make sure that those 30 seconds that you do over and over again are more fun than anything else in the game," says Bleszinski, discussing the new project from the Polish, Epic-owned Painkiller developers that he is contributing to.
"Like, you could take Halo, right, open up with the grenade, soften him up with bullets, melee -- that is fun, and you can just do that over and over again, right? And we are getting to the point where we're nailing that with Bulletstorm, with kicking a guy, sliding, leashing, and shooting him, things like that," says Bleszinski, by way of example.
However, it's not always that way, and that's a failure of developers working in the genre, he says. "I've played a lot of shooters that just want to be a shooter, but don't really ever nail that. It's like, okay, well, I should want to be the rat with the feeder pellet who's addicted to that one little thing in your game."
"The sound needs to be perfect, and, you know, to give the Bungie guys props, their grenade sound is still one of my favorite ones in all of games, because it has that little high-pitch pshew at the beginning, and I just want to throw a grenade just to hear that sound."
You look at the Gears headshot, you look at the heads exploding in Bulletstorm, the sound of the thump in the leash. 'Oh, I want to do that again.' That's good sound game design, that a lot of people miss."
The full feature-length interview, which takes in Bleszinski's working relationship with both People Can Fly and EA, as well as discussions of Epic Games design practice and comments on the Infinity Ward/Activision situation, is live today on Gamasutra.
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@driver 01z: The N64 Turok was ahead of its time. And still is. The weapons are awesome and the dinosaur-slaying is a scenario that hasn't been successfully explored before or since with the exceptions of the dino crisis games. Even the newer Turok games have failed to capture that magic.
It would be nice to see games with more than a recycling of 30 seconds of gameplay, like perhaps 1.5-3 minutes and different varieties so that after 10+ hours I don't feel like I'm playing stale gameplay. Let's take notes from Resonance of Fate. It will probably rank lower and sell less than anything you ever make Cliff, but I like it's charm. The battle system and gameplay is great. The way the bezels cost you for going in gungho without a plan is really cool. Basically the battles play out such that the actions you take at the beginning affect your play later in the battle, so it blends turnbased and realtime action in a battle that takes minutes and plays out differently each time based on the lay of the land and the player's equipment and enemy configurations. RoF's gameplay shines past its other notable flaws and is something we can all take some notes from.
The best gameplay in my opinion is something like Deus Ex where the gameplay is deeply tied to every other moment of gameplay within the context of the game. Similar gameplay cycles through, just like the 30sec approach, but decisions made echo in consequence throughout the entire game. I'm sad we as an industry haven't made more exciting interactions in our gameplay since a decade ago. Maybe that's not Epic's market, but someone should do it.
@Alan thats interesting and I understand your point I think the real magic in recycling the 30sec philosophy is to cleverly mix it into the "break-up". Meaning in between these constant gameplay scenarios its masked to not exactly "click" in the players head the first their first play-through. If this technique is mastered then the player wouldn't at all mind every 30sec of "exact" awesomeness.
That was also the last time I played Gears.
Maybe the series has improved since then, but if that's the best 30 seconds Cliffy can give me, I'll spend my time elsewhere thank you.
Also, a good game can make each instance of the loop unique without breaking the core shared by all instances. Also also, while it's easier to speak of a single gameplay loop type for the sake of brevity, there's no reason why your game can't have several (e.g. regular Locust vs. Wretches in Gears).
Oh, and don't forget Cliff is mostly a spokesperson these days.
I get what Cliffy is saying, I think you're missing it Alan. Every game has repetition, it is how you make that repetition (or not) that makes or breaks your game. Platformers, shooters, puzzle games, etc etc. All repetitious but there are those that hook in the player and make it feel like fun and less of a chore. I never thought directly about that but that is definitely why some shooters fail with me, I notice the repetition and it starts to feel like a slog (Resistance 2 is a prime example).
Also AI gets predictable so repeating the 30 secs isn't as exhilarating as it is against human players--for me at least.
There is also the environmental factor. The setting definitely effects the 30 secs of gameplay, and aides in the reduction of repetition. In Halo, for example, my 30 secs of fun changes when I'm in a big map driving a warthog. It changes again when I enter close quarters with a sword or shotgun.
I've always felt that shooters had sound, graphics, level design, and gameplay down. It's the single player stories and character development that sucks. Something also seen in the hack n slash genre.
@Driver: Turok was awesome. I loved the nuke gun. My only issue was the heavy fog that plagued the land.
Cliffy nailed it, you have to make the repetitive part fun, no matter the game. I think you can claim any game to be repetitive:
Mario - Run, jump, pound
Need for Speed - Turn, accelerate, brake
Gears of War - Run, shoot, duck
Tetris - Turn, move, drop
Civilization - Build, explore, conquer
You get the point. It is fine that people don't like games like GoW or whatever, but trying to say that your game is less repetitive is ridiculous. I think the real point is that when you're making any kind of game, look at those things you have to do repeatedly and think of ways to make them more fun (I hate the word engaging).
awesome, ideas also,