Chris Seavor
A Rare Talent
Chris Seavor is the lead designer at a game development studio in England called Rare®. Perhaps you've heard it—do GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, or Conker's Bad Fur Day ring any bells? Yeah, it's that studio. These guys have been leading the way in the industry since 1983, and now we're proud to have them developing games like Grabbed by the Ghoulies™, Conker™: Live and Reloaded, and the upcoming Kameo™: Elements of Power for Xbox®.
Seavor recently had some time to sit down and talk to us about the Xbox game that Conker fans have, quite literally, been going nuts for …
Xbox.com: If you had to summarise the core design philosophy of Conker: Live and Reloaded in a few sentences, what would you say?
Seavor: Keep the structure tight. Give the players choice in how they want to play the game. (It’s not just about shooting things.) Don’t over-complicate for the sake of it. Make sure it goes at a steady 30fps. I’ll let you decide if I’ve stuck to my own philosophy …
Xbox.com: What changes did you make in the single-player game in the transition from the Nintendo® 64 to Xbox?
Seavor: Lots of little gameplay tweaks here and there (some not so little). Basically, we’ve tried to grade it better, and in the process, we've made it a bit easier—less frustrating some would say—than the original game. That isn’t to say it’s no longer challenging to those unfamiliar with the original, though. Far from it.
There are a couple of new jokes here and there, and obviously both the visual and audio quality are night and day to the original. We’re all very happy with the way the single-player game has translated onto the Xbox. It far exceeds what I originally had in mind and stands alone in its own right as a game. Any cynics out there that think it’s just going to be some half-arsed tag-on are going to be pleasantly surprised.
Incidentally, it was very interesting to have an opportunity to revisit an old game and "fix" all those little things that I didn’t like about it.
Xbox.com: Can you estimate how much work went into the ported content versus the new content in this game?
Seavor: Easy: 50/50. That wasn’t the original plan, but it’s just how it worked out. The team has been effectively split into two for the last two years.
Xbox.com: Are there plans for Conker downloadable content?
Seavor: Yes, we’re working on stuff right now, including four multiplayer maps that will be available for free (quite a bargain). Hopefully we'll get those out to Conker gamers within a couple months of launch.
Xbox.com: What are Rare's tools like? For example, how do you actually build a map? Do you have your own custom visual editor, like UnrealEd?
Seavor: The tools written in-house (for Xbox) do the job well. When it comes to designing, I use Maya to build maps. What could be better than that! Although, to be fair, I was originally employed as a graphics engineer, so using Maya wasn’t really a big deal, more a natural progression.
Xbox.com: What were some of your design limitations?
Seavor: From a design point of view, it was without doubt the maximum number of players that we could have running around in a live game. It doesn’t matter a how good your GPU and CPU is—it all comes down to packet-sizes, bandwidth, and how you deal with both.
We got what we wanted for Conker, which is 16 players, and for that, I’m grateful and very happy. The levels are designed for "skirmish"-type games anyway, which range from 12 to 16 players, but that doesn’t mean they don’t play very well with fewer players. Quite the contrary. The levels are appropriately choked (with capturable spawns) to keep the action focused and busy.
Xbox.com: Can you tell us a little about how the 'bots work in Conker multiplayer? How much designer involvement is needed to "teach" them a map?
Seavor: The 'bots are good. For one reason or another, we’ve had very little time with the 'bots, and in spite of this, they’ve turned out pretty damn good. The initial brief for 'bots was just to have them running around and shooting you and each other. Once this was working, we started to break everything down in "possibles."
Next, we started using secondary weaponry. Then grenades, then abilities, then vehicles, then special ordnance. Then they became task-aware, and then dog-fighting … They are still being refined, but suffice to say, they do everything in the game that a human player can do.
The overall tactics of the 'bots is defined by the level itself as much as anything. Going for the flag, defending teammates, sniping, setting up sentry guns, finding the best weapon to use for the current situation—the list goes on and on and on. The more things you add to this list, the more intelligent the 'bots will seem to be. We’re still adding to this list …
Xbox.com: What is the team's favourite map so far?
Seavor: Favourite map … hmm … I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury of playing the game that much, only when we’re about to send the weekly build to testing. Even then, it is merely to thrash the hell out of it to see if there are any show-stoppers floating near the surface. You’d have to ask testing that one. Let’s see what the punters think when it hits on the shelves.
Xbox.com: What other games do the designers enjoy when they are not testing their own maps?
Seavor: Personally, a bit of EQ2, if I get a chance. Half-Life 2 is pretty darn good, too, although the boat section gave me nausea within 10 minutes of playing, so I had to get through that bit in stints. I'm also waiting patiently for Gothic 3. Gothic 2 was the best! Fable® had some nice stuff in it. I also played Halo® 2 a little bit. I thought the Limited Edition silver box was quite nice.
Xbox.com: Who is the voice of Conker, and is he anything like the character?
Seavor: That would be yours truly … and I suspect there are "elements" of me in there …
