Delta Force - Black Hawk Down: Volume II

[DevilDog#1]

Gwen Ballantyne & Wes Eckhart

From production to level creation, we take another look inside Delta Force - Black Hawk Down.

Gwen Ballantyne - Level Creative Director
This is my first jaunt into the gaming world. I've been working in Hollywood for about ten years designing for commercials and "themed entertainment," and for the last four years I've been a concept designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. Mine is a new, in-house experimental role for Delta Force - Black Hawk Down. I'm involved in the sketching, illustrative preplanning, and storyboarding phase of the project. Though it sounds like my past work in the industry may not translate, I'm finding that in some ways conceptually designing a game is similar to designing a theme park because they are both completely interactive experiences for their prospective audiences. That said, every day I'm learning something new about gaming and I feel like a foolish newbie.

At the point I'm writing this, with our single-player demos complete and an overall look pretty much established conceptually, I've been doing tons of additional research from the movie, books, and online articles trying to flesh out the design document with the mission designers. We've been going to the original historic military documents of all that happened during operations "Provide Relief and Restore Hope."

We've gotten a lot more variety by trying to expand the scope of the game to include what really happened over the previous years, rather than purely what the movie DF-BHD showed us. The 10th Mountain Division Light Fighters went all over Somalia -- to the coast of Marka, the Shabele Valley, Jubba River, etc., whereas the Rangers and the Delta Operators stayed in Mogadishu. There is a pattern starting to emerge and it looks like structuring the missions chronologically will be the best storytelling device.

The "Subject Matter Experts" (SME's) who are working as military consultants came in a week ago and astounded everyone. (Sometimes my mind boggles at the idea of having a job where I needed to get real sniper training from a professional operator.) Hearing how they trained for close quarter's battle on the beach in an old ruined town was fascinating and will make our advanced training mission different from previous games and extremely realistic.

On their advice we decided to restructure a few mission stories and layouts. We added multiple and hidden objectives to keep the player guessing. David Durand, (another level creative director) started last week just in the nick of time. He's been sketching interior ground plans at a frantic rate (and saving my ass) so I could concentrate on mission layouts. Everybody has been working on multiplayer demos relentlessly, which are, by the way, really amazing.

David and also spent some time working on the cinematic storyboards for the opening and ending. Working only with the in-game engine as our production tool, I think we have finally come up with a dynamic flow that will make the most of it. We're using a variety of single-camera action sequences. Building a single terrain world inside the mission with five different sets seems to be the best way to go. We can go to black or white on transitions and use those for script to tell the backstory. Once we get into the computer we can muck around with the absolute best action angles, but I think as far as storyboarding we've got a good place to start from.

In addition to all of this I've also been doing a lot of pre-visualization layouts of the missions and consulting with the mission designers on how to create the best maps and sketches of gameplay to give each mission a signature feel. Incorporating the new occlusion technology in the layouts is as challenging as it is amazing. It's hard to see if the layouts are making the most of the new technology when you are only sketching on paper. So far in the game, when it is laid out right, it's a miracle of technology. We can have so much more art on the screen AND great action at the same time … but I'm learning that getting the biggest bang seems to rely a lot on the layout.

We are in the crunch witnessing great breakthrough's everyday, but we're feeling the heat in trying to push the boundaries with this game. Already the art and design are amazing, but still so much to do. GO, GO, GO!

Wes Eckhart - Producer
My name is Wes Eckhart, and I'm a Producer here at NovaLogic. I first started here in December 1994, just out of college, in tech support. I was on the phones, helping people deal with Comanche and conflicts with memory managers. When an opportunity to design missions came along (way long ago), I jumped at the chance to do the extra work. The result was I got to work on missions for my first game, Werewolf vs. Comanche. From there I did mission design work on Comanche 3, Armored Fist 2, and the F-22 series.

My first job as a producer was on the original Delta Force. Being NovaLogic's first shooter, it was a tremendous opportunity to be on the team and work with all of those incredibly talented people. I've been fortunate to continue working on the Delta Force series, and it's amazing to see all of the hard work that the programmers, artists, mission designers, sound designers, production staff, testers, and even the tech support folks continue to pour into the series. This is one of those games where everyone associated with the project is truly happy to be working on it.

As the producer on Delta Force - Black Hawk Down, my primary job is making sure everyone has whatever they need to do their jobs. A game of this size has a fairly large team working on it and everyone isn't always on the same page. (Yes, I use cheesy management phrases like "same page," "in the loop," and "I don't know, ask Barry," but I try to stay away from phrases like "paradigm shift" and "corporate synergy" -- they're just too annoying.)

I make sure people are communicating on the important issues, and watch the progression of the project to make sure it's going in the right direction. If we run into a problem during development; the weapons don't look right, the AI's not reacting properly, the flashbang's aren't affecting the name tags in multiplayer, etc, I make sure we get the right people to solve it. I get a chance to do other things like direct motion capture shoots, talk to the press, and work with subject matter experts. I also make sure everyone gets fed when we're working late.

We've got two big things coming up: a MOCAP shoot next week, and a multiplayer beta demo scheduled for release at the end of the month. I'll start first with the MOCAP shoot.

So far, I've done about four or five of these things, and they're always a little different. We use House Of Moves in Culver City. They've been around for quite a while, and have worked on a range of projects and platforms from the Delta Force series on the PC to the movie Titanic.

A lot of our earlier shoots have focused on stunt work with lots of dramatic death moves. Those always seem to be the real crowd pleasers. We have a library of several hundred "death" moves depicting everything from a character getting shot in the upper left arm, to running around on fire. This next shoot we're doing will focus on the friendly AI. The player's teammates need to move through the levels in an intelligent fashion. As a player you want to see four of your teammates carefully and methodically clear a room before moving on to the next target. While most of that is the AI, you need the cover of good motion capture to bring those characters to life.

The MOCAP shoot is this Thursday, so we're spending the time leading up to it culling down the move list and rehearsing with Brent, our motion capture actor. Brent also happens to be one of the artists on the project. On Thursday, we're going to dress him up in a lycra body suit with ping pong balls attached to it and ask him to shoot like a Somali street fighter and take down a target building like a trained member of Delta Force. Brent's a versatile guy.

To make sure we get the look and feel down for the friendlies, we've got a couple of SMEs we're working with. These guys advise us on proper weapons handling, movement techniques, and tell us what we're doing right and wrong. For now, we have them advising Brent on the proper movements necessary to approach a doorway silently and clear the room beyond.

In other news I'm starting to turn my attention towards the multiplayer beta demo. This is a biggie for us … we've never released a multiplayer demo before our single-player, and we've never done a multiplayer beta demo. One of the nice things about the Delta Force series is the fan base. We have thousands of squads around the world who are excited about the series, and give us feedback on what they'd like to see in the next version of the game.

Sites like DF3.net, DFMAX.com, and Nova-arena.com are filled with fans eagerly anticipating a first look of the game. We read the forums, posts, and petitions to see what they're looking for. While we don't take every suggestion, we at least give them a good read. I'm anxious for this group of people to get a good look at the demo and give us their feedback. If we're doing something wrong, they'll be the ones to catch it. Once we get feedback on the beta, we can make some adjustments before releasing the official multiplayer demo.

Finally, as we get close to releasing the beta demo, we've been putting in some late nights. Part of my job is making sure everyone gets fed. We do order the standards (pizza and Chinese), but by far everyone's favorite night is "sandwich night." In case you're wondering how much food to order for a large group of gamers, here's my formula:

• * ¼ pound of meat per person
  * 1/8 pound of cheese per person
  * White, wheat, rye, French rolls
  * Mayo
  * Yellow mustard
  * Dijon or spiced mustard
  * Stacker pickles
  * Pepperocinis
  * Tomato, red onion, avocado, and lettuce
  * Assorted chips
  * Potato salad
  * Pasta salad
  * Cookies

Delta Force - Black Hawk Down: Volume 1

Source: GamesSpy