X-Men Executive Producer Interview

Marvel Comics fans are in for a double treat this summer. Along with the upcoming blockbuster movie, one of the most eagerly anticipated Xbox 360™ releases is X-Men: The Official Game from publisher Activision and developer Z-Axis.

Rade Stojsavljevic, the Executive Producer of the Xbox 360 version of the game, graciously took a few minutes out of his extremely busy schedule at Z-Axis to give us some details about the newest entry in the franchise.

Xbox.com: Once the decision was made to develop a new X-Men product, what came next and how did you handle the first phase?

Rade Stojsavljevic: The first phase of production was dedicated to the selection of the playable characters, the definition and development of their mechanics, and the creation of a storyline that would support those characters. As the story behind the game developed, the locations that would be used for gameplay were selected and the construction on the levels began.

Don't get Wolverine mad …

We were fortunate to be able to work with Marvel closely all along on X-Men: The Official Game, which made coordination of all of the choices for our locations, character, and story arcs, as well as the villains the player battles, much easier.

Xbox.com: What has been your primary goal as you worked within the legacy of the X-Men series, and how do you feel you've lived up to it?

Stojsavljevic: The primary goal of X-Men: The Official Game is to allow the player to experience the full power of several members of the X-Men in environments that have been custom designed with each of the characters in mind. With many other superhero games that allow the player to select from a broad roster of different characters, it is very difficult to allow the player access to the full suite of powers for each character.

Marvel provided us with character direction,
art style guides, and helped us make sure the
characters and world had an authentic feel.

The advantages we enjoy by limiting our character roster to three selectable characters is that we can fully realize the depth of these characters' powers. Iceman can fly on his ice trial, Wolverine can face wave after wave of deadly opponents, and Nightcrawler can find himself in places where his acrobatic and teleportation powers are critical to success.

Iceman zips through the sky.

Xbox.com: In what ways did you use Xbox 360 to improve the game?

Stojsavljevic: Xbox 360 offered us several ways to improve the game besides just support for HDTV. First, we took advantage of the improved graphics features to include more detailed character models, improved and more numerous effects, and higher resolution textures for environments. Second, all of the audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a greater variety of effects due to the increased system memory. Finally, the game's overall frame rate is much faster than other platforms which provides for smoother movement across the board.

Xbox.com: What was your greatest challenge while working on this game and how did you overcome it?

Stojsavljevic: Our greatest challenge has been to build three distinct styles of gameplay for each of the playable characters and create environments to match. We've overcome it by breaking the team into three functional groups, each assigned to a specific character and gameplay type. For example, the Iceman team focused on larger levels where that character could move around freely on his ice slide, while the Nightcrawler team focused on adding areas where the character could utilize his acrobatic abilities and BAMF from enemy to enemy.

We've only scratched the surface
of what Xbox 360 is capable of.

Xbox.com: What aspects of the game that you conceived make you the most proud?

Stojsavljevic: I'm most proud of the fact that we were able to create three distinctly unique playable characters and make it work on multiple platforms. It's almost as if we've built three completely different games in one; the amount of behind-the-scenes work that went into making this happen was significantly greater than the team anticipated when they started the project.

Xbox.com: How difficult was it to develop the game simultaneously for five different platforms?

Stojsavljevic: It was challenging, but wasn't the most difficult problem we've faced. The team has experience developing for multiple platforms in the past and we were able to effectively use that knowledge to keep us out of trouble.

It's a long way down.

Xbox.com: How does the game's story enhance and integrate with the X-Men movie plots?

Stojsavljevic: The game's story ties nicely into the X-Men movie plots. We brought on Zak Penn, the writer for the films, to help us tie our game's story in with the films. In the game, we bridge certain elements from the second and upcoming third film. The story touches on Scott's (Cyclops) grief upon losing Jean Grey, what Nightcrawler is up to, and hints at a possible new love interest for Wolverine.

Xbox.com: How closely did you work with Marvel during the development of the game?

Stojsavljevic: We worked very closely with Marvel. The original game story was written by Chris Claremont, who wrote for the comic series. Marvel provided us with character direction, art style guides, and generally helped us make sure the characters and world had an authentic feel that X-Men fans have come to expect. They've been a pleasure to work with.

Xbox.com: What role did Chris Claremont play in writing the storyline?

Stojsavljevic: The story is an original piece of fiction penned by the master himself. The entire team has a tremendous amount of respect for Chris and the fiction he has been able to craft, so it was very exciting and rewarding to have the opportunity to bring one of his stories to the interactive audience.

Xbox.com: The screenshots look so realistic and spooky. Did the advanced graphics capability of Xbox 360 influence the atmosphere of the game itself?

Stojsavljevic: Absolutely, we've only scratched the surface of what Xbox 360 is capable of and we're really looking forward to seeing what we can do for future titles.

Xbox.com: We can't wait to play the game when it's released this May. Thank you for your time, Rade!

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy