When I was first told that Gearbox wanted me to write a Developer's Diary I was at first shocked, even scared. Almost immediately after, I felt rejoiced. This is my chance to yell out, or just gently type away on my dell keyboard, with thousands of nasty, hidden, microscopic particles such as doritos, cheetos, human flesh, and who knows what else gathered during Earned in Blood. But nasty dorito particle keyboard aside let this be heard around the globe. This is the diary of Skirmish level design. My name is Dorian Gorski. I am a designer at Gearbox Software. I worked on the last two Brothers in Arms games as a level designer, was involved with the design phase of Skirmish, and am now working on Skirmish content that will be available for download on XBOX Live very soon.Past
What Skirmish is today is very different from what we originally conceived. Skirmish began as an idea to give level designers more freedom when it comes to gameplay scenarios. During Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, one of the things we recognized early on was that it is very difficult to balance fun and authenticity. Being restricted to real locations and real battles in many cases meant we often had to sacrifice ideas that may have been more fun to play. Skirmish was the answer to this problem. The proposal was that we have a game mode called Skirmish, which includes tons of single combat levels focused primarily on gameplay. Of course authentic elements would remain, such as general locations and combat tactics, but the idea was to capture fun gameplay using ideal settings. The main concept still remains, however the scope was dramatically increased.
When creating Skirmish, we realized it was lacking one thing, more replay value. The first thing we decided to do was make these maps larger. So the map concepts expanded to have several combats rather than just one. However, after several play tests we decided this was not enough. We needed "more replay value!" So we added different modes of play, standard objective mode, defense mode, timed mode, and tour of duty mode. Still, even with as much replay value as it had in this state, we still wanted more! To top it all off we added several options to adjust accuracy, tactics, and suppression. If you didn't think enemies reacted smart or fast enough, you could increase these attributes. Creating Skirmish as it is today was much easier said than done.
Cooperative design is very unique, and in some ways, very difficult. A level can be designed to work perfectly with one player, but can be broken many different ways when another player is added to the formula. In my experience, cooperative games go one of two ways; everyone or anyone. In the "everyone" approach almost every puzzle or challenge requires two or more people doing the right thing to complete. This approach eliminates the possibility to play solo in many cases. Then there's the "anyone" approach where puzzles or challenges require just one person to complete. The problem with the "anyone" approach is that the game will be less cooperative.
Fortunately for us, even while playing solo, Brothers in Arms is an "everyone" kind of game. This meant there were very little changes we had to do design wise, to make cooperative play work. Most combats in single player require your squads to complete, especially towards the end of the game. If players choose to drudge ahead using Rambo tactics taught in many of the traditional first person shooters, usually our Situational Intelligence would force them to learn that we didn't create the traditional kind of game.
Unfortunately, creating Skirmish was not as easy as tackling just design barriers but also technical barriers. One of the first things developers learn about consoles is that they are severely limited as compared to their PC counter-parts. While the next-generation consoles have done fairly well to resolve this never ending problem, it is only a matter of time before the newest consoles are once again viewed as limited. What this means is that we had to make many smart and difficult decisions in order to fit the most content and fun into a limited amount of space, so the player can access it very, very fast. This meant taking advantage of the newest technologies, such as shaders and other rendering techniques, and taking advantage of older techniques to conserve space and bandwidth. Thanks to many of our talented staff, we were able to hide where whistles buzzed and buzzers whistled.
Present
You may have asked, "What's happening now?" Some of the guys who worked on the original Skirmish maps have created three new maps! The purpose was to deliver more content to the fans that couldn't get enough. Before starting this extra content I had several goals. One was to make sure these levels still hold the original concept, ideal locations for ideal gameplay. That every map has at least one combat moment which highlights Brothers in Arms' human-like Situational Intelligence, and that each level maintains the same quality that was required in Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, or better. Each map can be played in objective, defense, and timed mode, and just like the original maps, the best scores for defense and timed will be tracked for XBOX Live users.
One of the missions called, "Into the Farm," puts the player into a rural farm land which appears to be calm and peaceful- but is far from it. In objective mode, the player will have to fight his or her way through farm lands towards a German fortification. Along the way, be careful to watch for out for German mortar fire. Once complete, try playing the level at different skill levels with more advanced Situational Awareness. At higher levels of skill Germans will not only retreat from being flanked, but will try to flank you! If you still want more action play the level in defense mode and see how long you and a friend can hold the captured fortification from waves of attacking Germans.
Another mission called, "Across the Marsh," is set in open marsh land on the outskirts of a destroyed city. This map is very large, and very open, so the player must use realistic tactics in order to survive. In objective mode, upon arriving at the city entrance, watch out for Germans traversing the maze of a city looking for the best positions. This is the ideal time to surprise the enemy, but don't wait too long, the Germans will find their positions!
In another mission, the roles are reversed, where the player is in control of a German squad during the D-Day night drop. This mission, called "Flanked from Above," requires the player to defend a town from invading American troops. This level is full of flanks and counter-flanks so make sure to be extra careful and plan the right move. The goal in objective mode is to regain control of the town, while the goal in defense mode is to maintain control.
I am confident in saying that all the missions created accomplished the goals I wished to achieve before starting the content. It wasn't just the work of a single individual or group which made it all happen, but the work of three particular level designers. Mike D., Scott J., and Jason R. are three individuals who pretty much define what it is like to be new to the industry, while being damn good at what they do and having fun while they do it.
This is not to say they everything is fun and games. Making games is demanding and can also be very frustrating. The perks for our particular studio include defining our own work hours, an hour of game time every day, and even a snack room stocked full of goodies like snickers, chips, sodas, and more. Generally this sounds great but usually we work long days and about once a year something we call CRUNCH comes along where the work hours are even more demanding.
The short term side affects aren't that bad, but the long term can include short-sightedness, dorkiness, and usually at 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM the veterans bust out their needles for their daily dose of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome shots. (By the way, that last bit was not true.) At the end of the day you might ask, "why do you do it?!" Well the answer is simple, we like what we do. Not many people get to enjoy the freedom of being paid to do creative work. The pleasure may come with some costs, but to me, every day is worth it. Mike, Scott, and Jason are no exception, they know how and when to have fun but when it comes down to being serious and getting the job done, they have what it takes.
These shinning attributes are what make great games. Without the help of people like the Skirmish level designers, and the rest of the talent at Gearbox, games like Brothers in Arms would not be possible. Skirmish mode is no exception, especially with features like cooperative play, online play, personalized challenge settings, defense mode, timed mode, and being able to fight in battles as either Americans or Germans.
Let's face it, cooperative play is just cool. If you've never had a chance to try it, you really need to. Many games offer the ability to play against friends and family, but very few allow you to play alongside them. In many situations, head-to-head games can be frustrating when one player is much better than the other. Cooperative play resolves that issue. Instead of discovering who the better player is, play the role of Baker and Hartsock and utilize teamwork to defeat the Germans. Alternatively, play as Theodor and Lukas to see how long you and a friend can defend against American forces.
Skirmish and Brothers in Arms is about great, talented, motivated people, and that's what I believe it takes to make great games.
