At E3 2009, nobody with a pair of eyes could deny that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction looked utterly flooring – and it appears to play just as well. Sam Fisher is back and frankly, we're almost positive this will be his finest, most original adventure yet.
After an extended behind-closed-doors demo, we sat down with Conviction's Creative Director, Maxime Béland, for an in-depth discussion on where the game' concept began, where it's going, the level of immersion and a handful of very cool points on what still needs to be done before Maxime and team will be satisfied. He also drops a few hints about Sam's next steps after the E3 mission – so read on!
IGN AU: Take me back to 2005, if you can. You're on the cusp of starting this project – you have a teaser video; the old style of designs. How much has the idea evolved and how much has stayed in place since then?
Maxime Béland: Well, I think the concept we have now is definitely an evolution of Splinter Cell, right? What I'm most excited about is that we're changing what people think about stealth games. We're changing the way we play them, the way we design them and the way the players are going to play them.
I want players to feel that they are Sam Fisher. He's the best elite agent in the world; he's not like me in real life – I am me in real life – I'm slow when I walk, I can't climb pipes – I wanna be that guy! What I tell the team is, I want the player to feel like a predator, not a grandmother.
But it's so much stealth. All the references, moves – I don't know if you saw Vantage Point, but the scene when he's going up the stairs and he puts on the mask, and then he's killing guys with the mirror – Pew-pew-pew! Super-fast, super-silent - but dynamic.
The game will be littered with environmental interactivity, particularly in the interrogation moments.
IGN AU: Vantage Point is a really good example – but what other inspiration points did you have going into this iteration?
Maxime Béland: The three 'JB's – James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer. And for me, a personal one is 'Man on Fire'. It's a guy who has nothing to lose; it's interesting for us, now that Sam has lost his daughter. I love what they did with the subtitles – when he was asking a guy questions in Spanish, the subtitles – call them 'alive subtitles' – the would move and get bigger. That was the original idea we had for the projected objectives. Also, what they did was overlap two shots at the same time – there's a guy in the car, but in the window, there's what he's talking about.
It fits with making games, because we want to make games where people are always inside the game. I love the games that have a shitload of cinematics, but it's not necessary. I started as a game designer, I love interactivity and I want the player to be in control as much as possible. Now, with the storytelling technology we have – the projected objectives, the projected movies – they're super-interesting and sexy.
And it's an actual light, you know, that's projecting them. When you're in front, it moves across your body. It's super cool.
IGN AU: Does it surprise you that people haven't really done this yet in games? Well, Grand Theft Auto IV's title credits – but that's it.
Maxime Béland: We've had the idea for more than a year; we iterated and iterated, and four or five months ago we got the black and white grainy filter – and it was like "Okay, we got it." And every time I was watching a new game, I was like "they better not have it, the better not have it!" [laughs]
Now, GTA IV's intro – that was a cinematic! I don't care! If people do it in cinematics, I don't care! But in-game… [laughs] That's important. I want to do it while you're in control, because you're playing a game. Interrogation's the same – we could show you it, but why not just play it?
Using the in-world text was an evolutionary idea that really sets the look of the game apart.
IGN AU: Don't just show me – let me do it myself.
Maxime Béland: Exactly.
IGN AU: You have this beautifully context-sensitive environment now, and we've seen some wonderful examples of how Sam interacts with it – the bathroom interrogation stuff is hugely impressive. Is it as densely context-sensitive throughout the rest of the game? Or did you ramp it up for the E3 demo?
Maxime Béland: We're building every interrogation sequence to be like that – of course, right? What's cool is, we have this base technology where, if you're holding a guy and you're not close to anything, Sam can just boom - head-butt. He can also detect horizontal and vertical surfaces, so if you bring him towards just a normal wall, he'll bash on that. If you bring him to a horizontal surface, the same thing will happen.
So you have the generic stuff, and that always works. And then, from there, you can look at where you are – okay, 'breakable', 'breakable', 'special animation' – all mo-capped – and the guys are having a blast with that too.
IGN AU: So can you tell us a little bit about where the story's heading? You've set it in Malta, right?
Maxime Béland: Okay, the game starts on the island of Malta and Sam is going after the killer of his daughter. As you saw in the demo, he is going after Kobin at the end of the demo. He grabs Kobin and Kobin basically says "if you want answers, go with them." And then suddenly it's Third Echelon on the scene and they're like "surrender, surrender!" and the camera pulls back.
I don't wanna talk about it but… well, after the camera pulls back, you're in Third Echelon and they're like "roger that, bring him home." So now we're going to Washington. And the rest of the game is set in Washington.
Basically, our E3 demo is a compressed version of the beginning of the game. Right now, what I can tell you is that Third Echelon captures Sam – you saw the three lights and the three lights are red – you can see them on our title screen – red. Red: is red good? Is it bad? Sam has always been green. I don't know what's happening – well, I do, but they don't want me to talk about it! [laughs]
Infiltrating the mansion presents players with a range of play styles and execution methods. It's still stealthy, but a little more ballsy too.
IGN AU: Naturally!
Maxime Béland: Sure. But the other thing I wanted to talk to you about was, while making the game and making sure the player is in control as much as possible – if you saw, from the bathroom scene to the mansion, we have a transition movie.
IGN AU: The big fly-through of the city streets?
Maxime Béland: Exactly. My dream – and I hope we can pull it off – is to have the whole game with no cuts. One f***ing seamless experience with no stops! You saw it – what's cool is that it hides the loading scenes; we play full-HD movies in full screen and you don't really notice that we're loading in the background.
We will do it – it's just that sometimes, when you use the mirror to look under the door for example, we do a cut. But no! Right now, we weren't able to do it for E3, but the idea is that next time Sam uses his mirror, he's going to pull out his mirror, the camera's going to shift down to the mirror and you're there the whole time. Same thing with the sticky camera.
Yeah, the sticky camera is back – I know a lot of fans loved it, so now you're going to throw it and the camera's going to go into the sticky cam. What I love about the sticky cam is, yes it's an old gadget that we're bringing back, but it works so well with the Mark and Execute. Now you and throw it, mark enemies with it and then also mark the sticky cam and blow it up, so enemies don't find it!
It was one of our top games of E3, and we're convinced that SC:C is going to be rock-solid when it releases later this year.
IGN AU: Man! Genius – so thought through. I love it.
Maxime Béland: Well, I won't say it was too thought through, but by building emergent systems, you sometimes get some nice surprises! [laughs]
IGN AU: Have you come across any weird quirks when developing these new systems? AI that's a little too dynamic, maybe?
Maxime Béland: Well, the Mark and Execute system is something that we changed a lot and tweaked a lot. We wanted to give players that feeling of taking out multiple guys super-fast, but we did so many iterations of it before getting it right. I don't know if you noticed, but you need to do a stealth hand-to-hand kill before gaining the right to execute. But what it does now is, when you play, you always have in the back of your mind "okay, okay – do I have my execute? No? How do I get it? Okay, okay – hand-to-hand kills." So when you're playing, you always keep this in the back of your mind. Mark-mark-mark, come out.
The idea is to always keep the player moving forward and in the loop – having the fewest possible disconnects, you know?
IGN AU: The pace seems a lot faster this time around too.
Maxime Béland: You know, it's not so much that it's faster, it's more that you're always in control. You can take your time, stick to the pipes and watch patrols and stuff. But you're always in control and taking care of it.
IGN AU: Thanks so much for your time – we can't wait for this one.
Maxime Béland: My pleasure. Thank you.
After an extended behind-closed-doors demo, we sat down with Conviction's Creative Director, Maxime Béland, for an in-depth discussion on where the game' concept began, where it's going, the level of immersion and a handful of very cool points on what still needs to be done before Maxime and team will be satisfied. He also drops a few hints about Sam's next steps after the E3 mission – so read on!
IGN AU: Take me back to 2005, if you can. You're on the cusp of starting this project – you have a teaser video; the old style of designs. How much has the idea evolved and how much has stayed in place since then?
Maxime Béland: Well, I think the concept we have now is definitely an evolution of Splinter Cell, right? What I'm most excited about is that we're changing what people think about stealth games. We're changing the way we play them, the way we design them and the way the players are going to play them.
I want players to feel that they are Sam Fisher. He's the best elite agent in the world; he's not like me in real life – I am me in real life – I'm slow when I walk, I can't climb pipes – I wanna be that guy! What I tell the team is, I want the player to feel like a predator, not a grandmother.
But it's so much stealth. All the references, moves – I don't know if you saw Vantage Point, but the scene when he's going up the stairs and he puts on the mask, and then he's killing guys with the mirror – Pew-pew-pew! Super-fast, super-silent - but dynamic.
The game will be littered with environmental interactivity, particularly in the interrogation moments.
IGN AU: Vantage Point is a really good example – but what other inspiration points did you have going into this iteration?
Maxime Béland: The three 'JB's – James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer. And for me, a personal one is 'Man on Fire'. It's a guy who has nothing to lose; it's interesting for us, now that Sam has lost his daughter. I love what they did with the subtitles – when he was asking a guy questions in Spanish, the subtitles – call them 'alive subtitles' – the would move and get bigger. That was the original idea we had for the projected objectives. Also, what they did was overlap two shots at the same time – there's a guy in the car, but in the window, there's what he's talking about.
It fits with making games, because we want to make games where people are always inside the game. I love the games that have a shitload of cinematics, but it's not necessary. I started as a game designer, I love interactivity and I want the player to be in control as much as possible. Now, with the storytelling technology we have – the projected objectives, the projected movies – they're super-interesting and sexy.
And it's an actual light, you know, that's projecting them. When you're in front, it moves across your body. It's super cool.
IGN AU: Does it surprise you that people haven't really done this yet in games? Well, Grand Theft Auto IV's title credits – but that's it.
Maxime Béland: We've had the idea for more than a year; we iterated and iterated, and four or five months ago we got the black and white grainy filter – and it was like "Okay, we got it." And every time I was watching a new game, I was like "they better not have it, the better not have it!" [laughs]
Now, GTA IV's intro – that was a cinematic! I don't care! If people do it in cinematics, I don't care! But in-game… [laughs] That's important. I want to do it while you're in control, because you're playing a game. Interrogation's the same – we could show you it, but why not just play it?
Using the in-world text was an evolutionary idea that really sets the look of the game apart.
IGN AU: Don't just show me – let me do it myself.
Maxime Béland: Exactly.
IGN AU: You have this beautifully context-sensitive environment now, and we've seen some wonderful examples of how Sam interacts with it – the bathroom interrogation stuff is hugely impressive. Is it as densely context-sensitive throughout the rest of the game? Or did you ramp it up for the E3 demo?
Maxime Béland: We're building every interrogation sequence to be like that – of course, right? What's cool is, we have this base technology where, if you're holding a guy and you're not close to anything, Sam can just boom - head-butt. He can also detect horizontal and vertical surfaces, so if you bring him towards just a normal wall, he'll bash on that. If you bring him to a horizontal surface, the same thing will happen.
So you have the generic stuff, and that always works. And then, from there, you can look at where you are – okay, 'breakable', 'breakable', 'special animation' – all mo-capped – and the guys are having a blast with that too.
IGN AU: So can you tell us a little bit about where the story's heading? You've set it in Malta, right?
Maxime Béland: Okay, the game starts on the island of Malta and Sam is going after the killer of his daughter. As you saw in the demo, he is going after Kobin at the end of the demo. He grabs Kobin and Kobin basically says "if you want answers, go with them." And then suddenly it's Third Echelon on the scene and they're like "surrender, surrender!" and the camera pulls back.
I don't wanna talk about it but… well, after the camera pulls back, you're in Third Echelon and they're like "roger that, bring him home." So now we're going to Washington. And the rest of the game is set in Washington.
Basically, our E3 demo is a compressed version of the beginning of the game. Right now, what I can tell you is that Third Echelon captures Sam – you saw the three lights and the three lights are red – you can see them on our title screen – red. Red: is red good? Is it bad? Sam has always been green. I don't know what's happening – well, I do, but they don't want me to talk about it! [laughs]
Infiltrating the mansion presents players with a range of play styles and execution methods. It's still stealthy, but a little more ballsy too.
IGN AU: Naturally!
Maxime Béland: Sure. But the other thing I wanted to talk to you about was, while making the game and making sure the player is in control as much as possible – if you saw, from the bathroom scene to the mansion, we have a transition movie.
IGN AU: The big fly-through of the city streets?
Maxime Béland: Exactly. My dream – and I hope we can pull it off – is to have the whole game with no cuts. One f***ing seamless experience with no stops! You saw it – what's cool is that it hides the loading scenes; we play full-HD movies in full screen and you don't really notice that we're loading in the background.
We will do it – it's just that sometimes, when you use the mirror to look under the door for example, we do a cut. But no! Right now, we weren't able to do it for E3, but the idea is that next time Sam uses his mirror, he's going to pull out his mirror, the camera's going to shift down to the mirror and you're there the whole time. Same thing with the sticky camera.
Yeah, the sticky camera is back – I know a lot of fans loved it, so now you're going to throw it and the camera's going to go into the sticky cam. What I love about the sticky cam is, yes it's an old gadget that we're bringing back, but it works so well with the Mark and Execute. Now you and throw it, mark enemies with it and then also mark the sticky cam and blow it up, so enemies don't find it!
It was one of our top games of E3, and we're convinced that SC:C is going to be rock-solid when it releases later this year.
IGN AU: Man! Genius – so thought through. I love it.
Maxime Béland: Well, I won't say it was too thought through, but by building emergent systems, you sometimes get some nice surprises! [laughs]
IGN AU: Have you come across any weird quirks when developing these new systems? AI that's a little too dynamic, maybe?
Maxime Béland: Well, the Mark and Execute system is something that we changed a lot and tweaked a lot. We wanted to give players that feeling of taking out multiple guys super-fast, but we did so many iterations of it before getting it right. I don't know if you noticed, but you need to do a stealth hand-to-hand kill before gaining the right to execute. But what it does now is, when you play, you always have in the back of your mind "okay, okay – do I have my execute? No? How do I get it? Okay, okay – hand-to-hand kills." So when you're playing, you always keep this in the back of your mind. Mark-mark-mark, come out.
The idea is to always keep the player moving forward and in the loop – having the fewest possible disconnects, you know?
IGN AU: The pace seems a lot faster this time around too.
Maxime Béland: You know, it's not so much that it's faster, it's more that you're always in control. You can take your time, stick to the pipes and watch patrols and stuff. But you're always in control and taking care of it.
IGN AU: Thanks so much for your time – we can't wait for this one.
Maxime Béland: My pleasure. Thank you.
