Enemy Front: Exklusives Interview - Englisches Original

Quelle: City Interactive Enemy Front: Exklusive interview on topics like Cryengine 3, level-design, atmosphere and swastikas.

Enemy Front - Developer Q&A for PC Games Hardware

Enemy Front uses Crytecs CryEngine. What version are you using and what makes this the most suitable engine for Enemy Front?
We are using a version of CryEngine 3. Enemy Front has been in development for over 2 years and so we made a commitment back then on the best version of 3 to use. It can be problematic to switch between versions once full development is in progress. So it is crucial to make sure those early decisions are the right ones. We're very happy with the outcome! The game has benefitted from some great artwork, effects and lighting throughout. CryEngine provides a great solution when working with outdoor spaces as we do in the majority of Enemy Front.

Enemy Front will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Did you consider Next-Gen as well and what made you decide against it?
There were a number of factors in this decision. The main ones being the length of the development period, scope of the project, and target audience. When the project went into development the plan was to release before the new generation were released. As the project needed some extra work to get certain features right, the release date has been brought forward to now. We don't see this as a disadvantage however, as the Xbox 360 and PS3 markets are still huge and our target audience exists here.

We already saw Enemy Front in action on the PC and it did look quite good. There's bound to be some extra eye-candy for PC. Can you tell us more?
The PC version of Enemy Front will include higher resolution textures of course. We'll also benefit from a higher level of detail and general improvements across performance and artwork. When you consider the consoles are 7 year old technology, the PC version has so much more power you don't need to optimize as heavily. So the improved visual differences will be seen across the game.

We found the variance in looks, level-design and gameplay depending on which level the player is in pretty clever and intriguing. Do you also change shaders to achieve these quite different experiences ­­- how does it work?
We are using different shaders across our levels in order to achieve the mood and tone set out in the original concepts for each level. The rendering techniques are similar throughout, but tweaks allow us to get the right tone for the particular geographical region, or to compliment the desired lighting and artistic mood for instance.

Again, the looks and feel of the levels are quite different, while still being coherent. What about art- and level-design? Did a different designer work on each scenario?
CI Games have a number of development studios involved with Enemy Front. So we were able to have certain levels created in certain studios. You have to be very careful that the results do not deliver two separate games, or gameplay experiences are not inconsistent. But we believe the coherence is supported across the different level sizes, shapes and mission types. In a nutshell we have two types of level - the closer, more claustrophobic Warsaw Uprising levels and the open, sandbox style of the flashback levels. Where Warsaw levels provide more of a run&gun experience a'la Call of Duty, the flashback levels provide more strategy and the opportunity to experiment more with tactics, introduce stealth and sabotage into gameplay. The player is provided with a number of toolbox items in order to help them on their way, but the key experience we're looking to deliver is as a first person shooter. We can never drift too far from what the market expects in this genre.

CryEngine offers a lot of lighting-based-techniques and the lighting in Enemy Front looks especially good. What techniques do you use to realize the looks of your game?
Lighting is a crucial part of games and has been for some time. Lighting affects so much, not just the visual, but where the player' eyes are drawn to. It allows the developer to steer players. So it's very important to get this right. From the start of Enemy Front development, a lighting direction was set. This is in part to provide consistency, but also to tie into the game IP so people will see a screenshot for example, and immediately know the game it is from. Working on the older console technology has meant the team experimented with any and all techniques in order to achieve the goals set out per level, whilst trying to maintain a level of performance.

As already said, the levels are quite different. Some are pretty linear and remind us of Call of Duty with a hint of the Metro-Games others are more open and rather reminiscent of Far Cry. How does the AI cope with the different demands?
AI can be a very difficult thing to get right. Systems get designed and very quickly become over complicated behemoths that take many months to get working. The original approach on Enemy Front was to tackle two separate systems for the two styles of levels. That was quickly identified as too much work for the project within the time frame. So a single system was needed to cover all possible AI responses and outcomes. The resulting system now in place covers all possible player tactics and approaches. If a player decides to tackle a level using sniping, AI can deal with the long ranged combat by using cover, identifying where the threat is, and closing the distance. If the player decides to use Stealth gameplay, AI vision systems are in place to let the player know when he is being acquired, and once this happens AI can relay player position to their squads and engage.

Lastly, something a bit different: Here in Germany Swastikas and similar symbols have to be removed from any game, regardless it's tone and setting. This is because games aren't officially considered art ­- like movies are for example. So distributing such symbols via games is considered a crime by German law. You being a polish development-studio, what are your thoughts?
Actually Poland has similar laws that look to stop the spread of Nazi ideology, although it doesn't go as far as banishing artwork from video games. Speaking with some of our developers here, the general consensus is not to forget what happened, but to learn and educate from it in order to avoid it again in the future. An opinion I agree with. But we also understand and accept the German Federal Law in Germany and so will be making sure all illegal symbols will be replaced with an appropriate alternative. Most important is that in the end the tone of Enemy Front can be appreciated across all territories.

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Das Thema Zweiter Weltkrieg scheint nach wie vor nicht tot zu sein: Mit Enemy Front erscheint Mitte Juni ein frischer Shooter, der den Spieler in den Zweiten Weltkrieg zieht. PC Games Hardware hatte die Möglichkeit, bei CI Games einige Fragen zum Spiel und zur Cryengine zu stellen. Das spannende Interview lesen Sie hier in einer deutschen Zusammenfassung sowie im englischen Originalwortlaut.

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