Monday, January 18, 2021

Game development: Learning through old games : GoldenEye 007 (N64) #1

 


It still amazes me how developers of "old games" created technologies /principles that are still used today.  That's the resume of this post. 






Even new heavy resource games can learn from it. What game is this? 


From Wikipedia:

 

..is a 1997 first-person shooter developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64.

Based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, it features a single-player campaign in which players assume the role of British Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond as he fights to prevent a criminal syndicate from using a satellite weapon against London to cause a global financial meltdown.

The game includes a split-screen multiplayer mode in which up to four players can compete in different types of deathmatch games.

(...) it received critical acclaim and sold more than eight million copies, making it the 3rd best-selling Nintendo 64 game. 

The game was praised for its visuals, gameplay depth and variety, and multiplayer mode. In 1998, it received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Games Award and four awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Retrospectively, GoldenEye 007 is considered an important game in the history of first-person shooters for demonstrating the viability of game consoles as platforms for the genre, and for signaling a transition from the then-standard Doom-like approach to a more realistic style. 

It pioneered features such as atmospheric single-player missions, stealth elements, and a console multiplayer deathmatch mode. The game is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Screenshots:


I've never worked with game development, but I'm curious about it.

I really believe that reading information about how a game is developed is a path to know how the same principles/ideas are (could be) still used today. Games like this should be the object of study to newcomers in the game design/development area.

What I will share with you: Q&A that you must have in mind when thinking about creating a game. For more information, really useful, to know the history behind the creation of this game, visit the sources. 
  

Let's start:


0) You must have the will to create a game
Take in mind that creating a game is different from playing, or even, playtesting, bug testing.   
Martin Hollis (former Rare developer) was a pretty big James bond movies fan. Having a passion to do something, especially if you really like it, helps a lot in any job, anything you want to do.



1) Create a High concept document
(Click here to see another example)

What is the game name? Goldeneye 007

What kind of genre? Adventure / Shooter / Kind of spy 

Number of player(s) / On line / Co-op / Split screen / etc?

Campaign mode: 1 Player | Versus mode: 1-4 Players 

What is the target audience?James bond fans / FPS fans

What is the target platform? (PSX, Xbox, PC?)

The target platform is the Nintendo64 (ULTRA64). At the time, the console didn't exist, the closest thing was a Silicon Graphics Onyx – a $150k computer.

Team roles? 

Source: melmagazine



The GoldenEye Team as they appear in the game.
L-R Martin Hollis, Mark Edmonds, Karl Hilton, B Jones, Duncan Botwood
Steve Ellis, Graeme Norgate, David Doak, Grant Kirkhope, Robin Beanland, Adrian Smith
Source: goldeneyedecoded


10 members in total, including programmers, graphics designer, character artist, sound, background artist, level designer, etc.

How the game might look? 

Source: nintendolife

Something like Sega's Virtua Cop, ID Software's Doom, Time Crisis. 

The player's enemies are intelligent, for example - these characters would react appropriately to situations like alarms, taking orders, or even running away.

There is also a great degree of interactivity, for example, bullet holes being left in walls. Feedback from the environment/enemies.
James Bond would react to the pressure used in the analog stick, he would not only have a basic movement of walking fast or slow.

Is based on reality or fantasy?

This game is based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, it features a single-player campaign in which players assume the role of British Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond as he fights to prevent a criminal syndicate from using a satellite weapon against London to cause a global financial meltdown. 


How so?
The concept of the game is based on the film, so much so that the team went to the set to obtain materials related to the film, such as scripts, photos, miniatures, locations, recordings. This is the rate photo of the game.
Source: nintendolife



Source: Wikipedia


Source: Raregamer


What kind of emotion is this game trying to evoke in the player(s)?
The feeling of being the James bond, acting like him, using the tools he uses in the film, saving people, detonating enemies, using his intelligence to pass the challenges (phases).


What is the project release date? TBA


2) Create a History bible document 
(Click here to see my example)

The history of this game won't be put here to save post space. 
But is resumed in the (1) document.


3) Create a Game design document 
(Click here to see my example)


How is the Game interface?
The interface is like a first-person shooter but refined in the sense that you see yourself as 007, using advanced weapons and equipment, as well as the James Bond wristwatch to change options and manipulate the environment.

The menu system is presented as an MI6 dossier. Four save files are available to track the player's progress through the game's twenty missions, each of which may be played on either "Agent," "Secret Agent," or "00-Agent," difficulty settings, with higher difficulties requiring the player to complete additional and more complex objectives. M, Q, and Miss Moneypenny provide background information on the chosen mission and its goals.


Source: nintendolife


Once a mission is completed, the player may either continue progressing through the story or choose to replay a previously completed level. Completing certain missions within particular target times enables the player to unlock bonus cheat options which make various changes to the graphics and gameplay, and upon fully completing the game on the 00-Agent difficulty level, an additional "007" setting allows the player to customize the challenge of any mission.

The design document also included a list of levels, weapons, features, characters and visual effects Hollis hoped to include in the game.

 

What does the player do? 
In the game you are a spy, the vision is in the first person, you start the missions with a pistol with silencer (PP7) or even just slaps. Depending on the mission, there are several specific weapons and tools to accomplish the objectives in a hidden or noisy way (bazooka). You can attract enemies silently, or kill them from afar.

Tell me more!
..Stealth is an important element of the game: in order to avoid gunfights with multiple opponents, it is advantageous to eliminate soldiers and security cameras before they spot or hear the player. 
Certain weapons may be powerful enough to shoot through doors and helmets but are very loud, while others incorporate suppressor or zoom lens attachments to aid the player in killing enemies discreetly.

Some gadgets from the James Bond film series are featured in the game and are often used to complete particular mission objectives; for example, 007's in-game watch includes the laser from the GoldenEye film, the remote mine detonator and Moonraker, and the electromagnet from Live and Let Die.

The control scheme
The Game Commands are Complex. The Analog moves, the A weapon switch, B to reload Ammo, and Do actions like Open doors and activate Machines like locking computers. L and R to aim, The C Buttons to Look up and down. [C Up and C Down] and walk to the Sides [C Left and C Right] and Z to shoot and Z + A to return to the Previous Weapon. In the beginning, you choose 4 Save Slots and you will have 2 Modes - Single Player and Multiplayer.
Constraints?

The N64 was not "ready" at the time. It was still being developed, even the controller. The final "format" of the controller was not defined. A rumor that would have an analog stick also existed. 

Since final Nintendo 64 specifications and development kits were not initially available to Rare, the team had to estimate the finalized console's capabilities using an SGI Onyx workstation and Nintendo's custom NINGEN development software.

Is there any innovation? What makes this game unique?

Rather than simply blast everyone and make good his escape from each level, Bond enters missions with a number of specific objectives, relevant to the scenario and current difficulty setting, which he must fulfill before moving on.  

It required players not only to survive until the end of the level, but also to complete other tasks along the way. As if that weren't enough, objectives changed based on the difficulty level. Paired with the looming task of beating a level within a designated time, this added a new depth and complexity to FPS gameplay.

Full use is made of the analog controller as 007 employs stealth rather than an unnatural resistance to bullets in order to make progress – he can walk and run at variable speeds, duck, climb and look in any direction, interacting with the scenery wherever possible (hiding, blowing up the furniture, attaching mines, peppering walls with bullet holes and so on).

The game  provide a fully 3D free-roaming environment, allowing for the cinematic experience to be recreated as closely as possible – with the player dropped into the leading role.

Motion captured animations

Most of the game's firearms are modeled on real-life counterparts, while others are based on fictitious devices featured in the Bond films, such as the Golden Gun and Moonraker laser. The weapons vary in characteristics such as rate of fire and type of ammunition used, and inflict different levels of damage depending on which body part they hit. 

GoldenEye’s realism and loyalty to the film are the main factors setting it apart from other first-person shooters on the market. 

The enemy soldiers have over thirty different animation routines for being shot or blown up, depending on how and where they get hit. The development team put great effort into the AI routines, ensuring that Bond’s polygonised opponents copy human beings in every way but emotions. 

Stealth is significant, and frequent gunfire can alert distant guards, and alarms can trigger infinitely-respawning enemies. Certain weapons incorporate suppressor or telescopic sight attachments to aid the player in killing enemies discreetly.

There are no health-recovery items, although armour vests can be acquired to provide a secondary health bar.


4) Game's legacy (This is not a GD document!)

  • The use of split-screen in multi-player death matches was so effective and well done that it has been endlessly refashioned for countless titles, so much so that it's now hard to imagine an FPS without it. GoldenEye's popularized respawn points, whereby, after being killed, a player respawned at one of many different locations. 

Source: Vandal

  • But really, GoldenEye's most significant multiplayer contribution is its robust number of options. 

  • A lot of what makes GoldenEye so influential is not what it did first so much as what it did better than any other FPS before it. Even so, first-person shooters would arguably not exist as we know them without it. So next time you shoot a terrorist in the face and watch gleefully as his twitching body dies, remember the game that made it all possible 

  • While purists held that a proper first-person shooter couldn't exist without a mouse and keyboard, the N64's analog stick was just begging to test this theory. This new controller, paired with a user-friendly auto-aim, allowed GoldenEye's developers to conquer the daunting task of adapting FPS controls to the home console, helping to ease countless gamers into the formerly niche genre. Although modern, dual-analog controllers make the original set-up seem somewhat shabby by today's standards, there's no denying how innovative it was for the time.  

  • GoldenEye set the standard for computer AI. Arguably, in no other type of game is intelligent, believable AI more important. No, it doesn't hold up against modern shooters like Halo, but for its time, GoldenEye was the golden standard. Enemies would actually react and shoot when Bond made a sound, as well as go to great lengths to duck and dodge incoming fire. 

  • The development team took great measure to ensure that Bond's baddies seemed like real people rather than simple blockheads whose sole mission in life was to shoot where the player happened to be standing. They batted at flies when not much else was going on, grabbed their crotches when shot in the marbles, and, quite famously, made time for bathroom breaks. 

  • Friendly A.I. would even assist you in battle, running, shooting and occasionally declaring, "I am invincible!" all without the player instructing them to do so. 

  • GoldenEye pioneered many conventions that are now staples of the genre :  It popularized stealth gameplay in an FPS (AKA sneaking up on enemies) as well as zoom-able sniper rifles, which allowed players to headshot nameless terrorists from a distance before being spotted. That's right, headshots -- GoldenEye invented them and popularized context-sensitive wounds. Shoot a guy in the leg, he stumbles. Shoot him in the head, he died.


Well, that's for today's post. I will create a follow-up regarding optimizations and HW adaptation.



Sources:
Videos:
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