Blood Wake Developer Diary​ [Written for Gamespy in 2001]

Blood Wake's Lead Designer David Wessman speaks about his role in creating
Stormfront's vehicular-combat game for the Xbox.
By - ​David Wessman
Mission Editor - Camera Mode
As lead designer for ​Blood Wake​ my role is to make sure the gameplay is as fun as
possible. I joined the team after the project had finished pre-production and was in the
midst of transitioning to full production. The potential of the game engine was obvious,
and the story concept suggested all kinds of intriguing possibilities.

Stormfront wanted to do a story-driven, mission-based vehicular combat game, and for

eight years I had been the gameplay and story lead for the ​X-Wing​ series from Totally
Games and LucasArts, so it was a good match. When I started they told me they wanted a
game that combined the best of ​Twisted Metal​, (for its fast action arena combat), with
X-Wing​, (for its strong story and intricate mission design.), with… well, we wanted this
game to be unique so there is no other game to compare it to.

Most prior naval games have been more strategic in nature, typically concerning
themselves with managing battles between big ships, or else they've been fairly hardcore
submarine simulators. No one had done a small boat combat game since the mid-1980s,
and no one had ever done a boat combat game with such realistic water physics!

Mission Editor - Dreadnought

The consensus on the team was to lean more toward arcade action, rather than a complex
simulation. We drew a lot of inspiration from real world history, such as 19th century
gunboat warfare, (where the term "gunboat diplomacy" comes from), Vietnam riverine
combat, and particularly U.S. Navy PT boat operations during World War II.

Our fantasy world allowed us the freedom to invent more "colorful" boats and weapons,
and configure things in ways that just wouldn't work in the real world. Plus, we could fit
the story to the gameplay and vice versa without worrying about things like historical
accuracy. For example, an early decision was made to not have aircraft in the world, so
the appearance of an early 20th-century level of technology was chosen. Yet, we didn't
want players' situational awareness to suffer for the lack of radar, so we provide radar in
spite of the fact that it was invented in response to the threat of air attack. The central
driving force was always "what makes the game more fun?"

The designers helped tune the boat and weapon design, (not so much their look, but
more their "feel"), and I was responsible for defining and tuning their characteristics
(range, speed, firepower, ammo count, rate of fire, etc.) Some boats are definitely better
than others for certain situations, and the same can be said of the weapons. Originally,
there were only about a dozen boats, but as the design evolved we realized that we really
wanted more, and we shipped with over 30 player-controllable boat configurations. Some
of the new boats were simply to fill in gaps in a particular faction's lineup. Others, like
the Basilisk and the Eel, were meant to be really unique with unusual appearance and
special characteristics.

A console game lives or dies on its control scheme, so it was a real challenge to get it
right. It had to be simple enough to learn quickly, (preferably without reference to the
manual), yet complex enough to give players precise control over their boat and its
weapons. The HUD had to provide all of the essential information about where the player
was, where the enemy was, their respective conditions and, of course, what weapon was
selected and how much ammo was left.

Mission Editor - Dreadnought

II
Since we wanted to take advantage of the Xbox's advanced audio capabilities just as
much as its graphic capabilities, a lot of effort went into sound effects and voice. Rather
than rely always and solely on visual cues, we tried to complement these with audio cues
as well. They work together extremely well, and with a 3D sound system you get
amazing situational awareness.

With the level design, we started with various lists of typical naval combat scenarios
(convoy escort, blockade, shore raids, picking up key items, etc.), and typical
environments (river deltas, archipelagoes, narrow channels, naval bases, harbors, etc.)
Then we looked at the boats and weapons and worked out a progression that would
feature a constant mix of situations and match-ups against the various opposing forces in
ever-changing environments. Always, continuity had to be maintained with the story. As
much as possible we try to tell the story through the missions using gameplay
supplemented by character voice.

The actual physical environments for the story mode missions started out as simple
sketches that the artists then turned into 3D environments. Then the terrain was populated
with buildings and vegetation. Most of the environments are used for multiple missions,
but we made sure that the water and weather settings were always different, so all the
missions have a distinct 'feel' of their own. These environments are usually pretty large,
ranging in size from 16 square kilometers to well over 50 square kilometers.

Mission Editor - Dreadnought

III
For the battle mode arenas it was a much more freeform, seat-of-the-pants style of design.
In contrast with the story mode environments, these are fairly small -- typically a little
less than one square kilometer. Some arenas favor very symmetrical designs so as to
ensure a "fair start" for all players. Other are more asymmetrical arenas so as to provide
players with a better sense of place. And, some were created by simply taking a small
chunk of a particularly interesting story mode mission environment.

Mission Editor - Camera Mode

The Asian theme of the environments was part of the original story concept and drove the
architectural design of the buildings. Again, our fantasy setting allowed us to pick and
choose elements from a wide variety of Asian cultures, with just the right blend of the
exotic with the strangely familiar.

My main responsibility was to lead the mission designers in developing the gameplay
concepts and building the missions. There ended up being three of us, including two
really creative and enthusiastic designers named Chris Ferriera and David Hill. Before we
could really get going building the missions, I had to work with the programmers and
artists to spec out exactly what game elements we were going to need, how the AI was
going to work, what the ultimate scope of the game was going to be, and what sort of
tools would be required to get there. Naturally, these evolved over the course of the
development.

The sheer amount of horsepower dedicated to making the water look so good and act
so real created challenges for us on the game design side. But some clever design and a
lot of optimization let us create some pretty convincing battles. Sometimes a mission that
sounded good on paper wouldn't work out so well in actual gameplay. If it wasn't fun,
we'd scrap it and alter the story accordingly. Fortunately, that only happened a few times!
Other times we'd get a great idea for a new mission and change the story to accommodate
it.

Generally, the missions are more offensive than defensive. And, even when you're
protecting something, you achieve that goal by destroying whatever's attacking the thing
you're protecting! We put a lot of effort into making sure that the player's goals in a
mission were always clear; it's hard to get lost in a mission! Also, special attention went
to ensuring a steady pace to the action. There's never more than a few moments without
something to shoot at, or be shot at by. Some of the missions can get very frantic and
tense, but they've all been through a lengthy playtesting and tuning process to ensure
good game balance.

You will find that there are quite a few boats and arenas that are unlocked as you
progress through the story mode missions, depending on the difficulty setting. Also, there
are a handful of Easter Eggs and hidden cheats for the intrepid gamer to discover.

It is a great testament to the team that as development progressed, everyone's

expectations went up. Microsoft became more and more enthusiastic and everyone agreed
we should take more time and expand the scope of the game to include even more cool
stuff. The programmers, artists and audio designers on the team were a joy to work with,
and we really inspired each other to come up with as much cool stuff as we could cram in
with the time we had. We're all very excited and proud with how it's turned out, and hope
gamers enjoy it as much as we do.