Jaws, GoldenEye 007. Reloaded All photos courtesy of Eon Productions
Video games are bigger business than films, but they require many of the same production skill sets. To find out how the most successful video games are made, OffScreen met with David G. Wilson, an executive producer on the current Bond games.
Words by Zoe Campbell
In 1997, Nintendo released the first ever James Bond video game for its brand new N64 console, “GoldenEye 007″. It quickly became the biggest video game release ever. Based loosely on the original film title, it sold 8 million copies at a time when console games were lucky to ship product in the six figures. No one had ever seen anything like it and to this day it remains one of the most popular game titles of all time.
In November of this year, games publisher, Activision – hoping that lightning in a bottle can strike twice – released their homage to the film with their new title, “GoldenEye Reloaded”. It is in every way an entirely new game, redesigned and redefined for the new HD console platforms – Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.
Reinventing such a beloved film was never going to be easy. Just witness how feverishly fans have debated casting changes to the James Bond character himself over the years and you’ll understand the situation. But Activision and games developer, Eurocom, wanted to make the best Bond game ever and felt that they could deliver a great property – just as the filmmakers had done with Daniel Craig.
The timing could not have been better. Games have finally come of age. They are big business now – bigger than film, even. And the games market is still growing year on year.
Unlike film, however, game development is very sensitive to technological changes. If a film is delayed for a year, it isn’t going to make much of a difference to its audience. Even if the film is special effects heavy, radical shifts in the industry occur once a decade, if that, with releases like ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Avatar’. Console games, on the other hand, live or die by their cutting edge technology. If a game is delayed, even by six months, whatever technical edge the development team may have had will have been lost to the competition.
Consequently, game developers have very tight, punishing schedules that must be adhered to. On average, a triple-A console game title takes 18-24 months to get right. Some titles take several years. It’s not uncommon to see hundreds of people pulling all-nighters for six months in a row, as the team reaches the final lap.
Games budgets have increased. Each ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Modern Warfare’ release is rumoured to cost $50-80 million in production costs plus hundreds of millions in promotional spend. This puts even more pressure on the development team to keep the heat on, streamline their process and abandon anything that doesn’t service the game.
Enter the Storytellers. In the case of Bond, this is Eon Productions Ltd – the producers of the James Bond film series and protectors of the franchise. More specifically, enter David G. Wilson, VP of Global Business Strategy, who is also an executive producer on the current Bond games.
Iconic Tank Chase Sequence
“Everybody presumes that storytelling and narrative are important to games but in practice nobody treats these elements with the same reverence as rendering speed, game engine design and other engineering pyrotechnics,” says Wilson. “Luckily, both Activision and Eurocom take story seriously enough to make this an important differentiator for Bond.”
Wilson’s job is to ensure that the game is true to Bond and that it preserves the characters and quality storytelling of the original film.
“Games often focus on the action to the detriment of all else. And why not? Players are there to play, not to watch a movie. But stories can be told in many ways… not just through cut-scenes.”
The challenge is greater in First Person Shooter games (FPS), like GoldenEye Reloaded, because players prefer to ‘run and gun’ rather than take the time to explore the story environment. The challenge, as Wilson sees it, is “to make not-shooting more exciting than shooting.”
This is a tough call, given that FPS console games are becoming ever more violent. Games like “Medal of Honor” and “Battlefield 3″ are given restricted ratings for their violent and photorealistic depiction of combat. These are games in which everybody dies, many times over. Bond, on the other hand, has opted for a balance between weaponry and intelligence. The phrase often used by the GE Reloaded production team is, “a thinking man’s shooter”.
Eon and Eurocom have had an unusual collaboration this time around. Most publishers keep licensors and developers far apart. However, Eon brings a wealth of talent to the table with its film crew – many of whom have worked on Bond films for generations. For instance, the game’s script was penned by Bruce Feirstein who wrote the original film screenplay.
Rob Cowper, a veteran of the Bond Art Department, provided concept art and set designs for the game. Bond composer, David Arnold, has rewritten the score and Daniel Craig’s stunt double, Ben Cooke, was brought in to work with the Eurocom motion-capture team to ensure that all the fight sequences in the game were as authentic as the ones in the current films. In fact, Cooke’s choreography and moves resulted in the ‘take-down’ feature that is now intrinsic to the gameplay. Instead of dealing with every situation with lethal force, Bond has the option of stealth take-downs – furthering the team’s goal of positioning Bond as an intelligent adversary who doesn’t require firepower to get results.
Dam Artwork Concept
Says Wilson, “Great gameplay, great characters in a great story is what you get with Bond. Story matters.”
And it seems that the public concurs, despite the game being launched against its stiffest competition. Which just goes to show: you don’t have to make a killing to make the best game.
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is now available for Xbox & PS3. For more information visit:
www.GoldenEyeGame.com
