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The Interview
Well, here we go. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions for us.
SL: Could you please tell us a little bit about your history working in game development and how has this experience helped you during the development of SoF2?
Jon Zuk: I've been in the game industry and with Raven since 1996. The only game I've ever worked on that wasn't a Quake engine game was Take No Prisoners, back in 96-97. Since then, I've worked on the Hexen II Mission Pack, Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune, Elite Force, and SoF Gold. By now, I am very familiar with the Quake engine, and although details change between technologies, the mindset is always the same. I also have worked my way up from Designer, to Lead Designer, to Project Lead, and I'll tell you, nothing prepares you for that!
SL: What resulted in your becoming Project Lead for SoF2?
Jon Zuk: After Heretic II, I was on a mysterious '3rd project' that never materialized and I was supposed to the Lead Designer. Since things weren't coming to pass, I moved to SoF and EF to help them out in a design capacity. I was then going to be Lead Design again on the '3rd project' which was finally going to get underway. Then Quake 4 came along. The SoF leads moved over to that allowing me to move up to Project Lead and others to move up to lead positions.
SL: How much have you enjoyed working with your development team?
Jon Zuk: Are you trying to get me in trouble? Seriously, we have a lot of very talented people at Raven. We all are trying to accomplish the same thing and it gets difficult at times, especially here towards the end. But I do enjoy working with so many creative people even though they all have their own unique opinion on what the game should be.
SL: Would you care to argue about the importance of single player in first-person shooters, when so much is going towards multiplayer?
Jon Zuk: Single player still has a lot to offer. We are just now getting to the point now where we can concentrate on story and character as the driving force rather than the technology. In the future, we'll see games move towards a movie type experience. First person tends to offer an immersion factor that other perspectives don't match. Multiplayer is becoming more about community and teamwork, where as single player is more about story and sheer amount of features.
SL: Are you pleased with your decision to include multiplayer in the game?
Jon Zuk: Not at first I wasn't. Our schedule at the time was very tight and we weren't being given extra time to 'shoehorn' it in. But it has evolved quickly and nicely. Playing a CTF game in a randomly generated map with 32 players is probably the funnest thing I've played in a long time. We've done a lot in a little time.
SL: What are the multiplayer maps like and how to they differ from those in the single player?
Jon Zuk: We have some standard deathmatch and CTF maps, but we also have the RMG in multiplayer. As I said above, this is amazing. Having a map that no one knows is really unique, and it sort of equalizes the players out a bit. It becomes more about the raw skill of the player and less about their ability to memorize maps, pickups, spawn spots, and camping spots.
SL: What steps were taken and how much effort went into staying true-to-life with the weapons?
Jon Zuk: That's an interesting question because we're balancing them out right now. Visually, they are all very accurate. We built them straight off of reference photos our Associate Producer took at a shop in California. The OICW was challenging because there isn't really one available yet. Our rate of fires are pretty accurate as are the features of the weapons. Of course, they have to be customized or "game-ized" to make them interesting, useful, and fun. In the end, we really have a caricature of what the weapon is. As close to real life as possible while keeping it interesting for the player.
SL: What do all of the different locations bring to SoF2?
Jon Zuk: They bring variety of course. You can have a lot of variety in one square mile, but not nearly as much as having different world locales. We have jungles, snowy regions, cities, buildings, an ocean liner, an airport, etc. You don't want to bore the player with 37 factory levels. Of course, it all fits in with the story too. It shows the bad guys to be a world wide threat.
SL: How has the AI improved since the original game and how does it handle the new random mission generator?
Jon Zuk: The AI is completely new in SoF2, and has nothing close to the first game. The tricky thing now is that we can do so much stuff, that if a guy looks 'dumb', there could be dozens of reasons why. AI can take cover, lean around corners, crouch, rappel, jump, work in pairs, work in squads, leap over objects, etc. As you can see, they do a lot! We've had some issues with the RMG because it's very open and it's random. We've been working on how AI can handle the player at a distance, since you'll encounter them that way quite a bit. Indoors though, they work pretty much the same, although our buildings are a little more simple and generic in the RMG.
SL: Who, in your opinion, got the better workout on this game, the programmers or the artists? You have made so many graphical, audio, AI, and other technical advances, yet you are also exploring new locations and models.
Jon Zuk: I'd say that we had to push every department pretty hard on this game. For animation, we have 20 weapons, and 10 3000 poly character types as well as 16000 frames of animation (just in the male). For art, we have 100 characters, 9 locations, 1024x1024 textures, and a new effects system. For programmers, we have Ghoul2, ConfusEd, a new weapon system, a new AI system, and much more. Then, the designers have to take all of this new stuff, and make fun and engaging levels.
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