| MSN Home | Hotmail | Web Search | Shopping | Money | People & Chat | |||||||||
| |
 |  |
|
43527 Players Online
Take me to the game |
|
| Read all about it! An interview with the creative minds behind the Game of LIFE ! | |
|
Ever wonder what it takes to create an online game? What kind of zany imagination does it take to design one? Who are these game designers and how did they get such a cool job? Are there actually jobs out there where you get paid to have fun?
We interviewed Paul Mithra, Mike Berro, Scott Sava, and Paul Hoffmeier -- four pretty cool and imaginative fellows, who are Mass Media's creative brains behind the new 3-D animated Game of LIFE
.
Paul Mithra : We all work for Mass Media, a gaming company Hasbro contracted with for this title. I was the designer. Mike Berro : Lead Programmer Scott Sava : Artist/Animator Paul Hoffmeier : Producer Zone: Describe your job and the part of the Hasbro LIFE game you were in charge of. Paul Mithra : I wrote comics, made buttons, named things, designed the Life's Little Games, recorded some scratch audio, wrote the narration, made more buttons, harassed the artists, played the game a million times, designed and built the interface, found the houses, gave the AI its bit of "I," wrote and made the little help book in the game, and generally made trouble for everyone in an attempt to make everything better all the time. Mike Berro : I make the game work. Scott Sava : I was in charge of all of the Character Animation for the Game of LIFE . Anytime you see a character in the game, whether in the Sign-In screen, the Info Windows, the World Animations, or the Result Animations, that's what I did. Pretty cool, huh? Paul Hoffmeier : As a producer, anything that goes wrong is my problem. There are always a lot of problems, but we solved them. I did a lot of little things in the process -- a little writing, some sounds -- but mostly I keep the talented people happy and focused on the task. Zone: What do you like most about your job? Paul Mithra : Imagining a product in all its impossible glory at the start. Mike Berro : Answering questions like this. Scott Sava : I enjoyed giving life (no pun intended... Okay, maybe just a little one...) to the characters in the game. I tried to give them personality and humor. It was a real challenge and a lot of fun. Paul Hoffmeier : My job encompasses a lot of my hobbies: playing games, art, writing, and acting. I get to do all of them and get paid for them. Also, I never get tired of people saying, "Aw, you've got the coolest job!" Zone: What do you like most about working in a gaming community? Paul Mithra : Playing games and savoring the fact that this is an art more than a just a business. Mike Berro : Great T-shirts. Scott Sava : The people. Everyone wants to have fun and enjoy their jobs. We play games, go to lunch together in big groups [laugh], and tease each other...and still find time to create GREAT games. It's a fun atmosphere and a cool way of working! Paul Hoffmeier : Most of us here have our little quirks, and that's fine as long as you get the work done. In general, it's a very relaxed atmosphere. Getting dressed up for a meeting means putting on jeans. Zone: When was the first time you started playing the Game of LIFE? What were your first impressions? Paul Mithra : What I remember the most from the earlier versions of the game was how the spinner sounded and how it would shudder when you pushed it too hard. The pegs in the car were always fun, as were some of the more creative spaces, like inheriting a million cats and paying to get rid of them. Mike Berro : I was about 11 years old, and it was one of my favorite board games. Paul Hoffmeier : It was one of those Norman Rockwell moments -- my parents and my brother sitting down at the dining room table and spending an hour doing something as a family. We played games a lot but something about the humor, role-playing, and spinner just added up to make this game different. Zone: What made Hasbro decide to take this classic game and turn it into an on-line game? Paul Mithra : Name recognition. Clean game rules. Delightful graphics. Paul Hoffmeier : It really is one of their most recognizable games. People remember experiencing the game. Even if they haven't played it for years, just about everyone has an old beat-up game with tape on the corners of the box in their garage or closet. It's a natural. Zone: What kinds of new player experience does this new version create? Paul Mithra : An immersive 3-D experience, heightened reality, bright colors, fun little games -- and the computer deals with all the math. Mike Berro : An immersive experience. The animated comics and cartoons are entertaining, and letting the computer take care of the money, stock, insurance, and the like allows the player to concentrate on game strategy. Paul Hoffmeier : When all the options are on, there is so much going on here. The whole Game of LIFE board is 3-D; there are comics and animations coming up every spin. The enhanced game gives you even more opportunities to interact with the other players. There really is so much going on. It's hard to describe the entire experience. Zone: Was it difficult to recreate the board game as a 3-D multiplayer game? What were some of the challenges? Paul Mithra : Nah. What were some of the challenges? The main thing is that it is such a large game. There are 147 squares along the road, hundreds of animations, and sound effects. Rendering out the travel animation several times was enough to eat through some real computer time. Mike Berro : The main difficulty on the programming side was in allowing the player to manage his or her assets without the details becoming too intrusive. We also had to make paying taxes entertaining! Scott Sava : Yes...very difficult. It's very challenging creating a completely 3-D world that has over 145 spaces in which an African Safari is right next to Stock Market, and a Tropical Vacation, complete with a Lava-Spewing Volcano, right next to the space where you Run for Mayor. It was both visually and technically challenging to bring all of these LIFE events together on one board and have all of the parts create an interesting and appealing whole! Paul Hoffmeier : The gameplay was all there. It's tried-and-true since the '60s. Visually representing it all took a lot of time. The biggest challenge, however, was dealing with having the whole world on one machine. There are 147 squares to land on. Just about every one of those squares has a different structure that goes with it. The number of polygons was staggering! The driving view took about a week to render. Zone: Was there anything that conflicted with the old board game that had to be redone, changed, or updated? Paul Mithra : The main change is that we added enhanced features to heighten the gameplay and player interactivity. We reinstated many aspects of the earlier rule sets (spin for presents, revenge) in the enhanced version as well as adding a set of little games to thrill and delight the player. Paul Hoffmeier : The Game of LIFE has been through a couple revamps. We built the game to faithfully recreate the version of LIFE on the shelves right now. We also built the "Enhanced" game. In the enhanced version, we tried to revive a little of the spirit of past versions. Both versions ship on the same disc and each has something special. Zone: The new Game of LIFE has a very graphically appealing board with animations. How did you come up with the cool ideas for these? Paul Mithra : We started by brainstorming ideas for the board itself based on the board text, which would then be brought to life by our art director, Jeff Hilbers. Once the board defined this kind of futuristic-retro look, it was easier to imagine how to make it move and how the big-head characters would act within it. The characters had big heads just so you could see them in the normal board view, and the gags naturally followed the environment. All the 3-D animations are slapstick-type sight gags with very little dialogue. The comics are a natural outcropping of the text on the board, with a combination of word play and stoopid humor -- all influenced by Sunday comics and Mad magazine, with some Saturday morning cartoons thrown in for good measure. Scott Sava : Well...coming up with something funny -- it's not as easy as it looks. As the artists, we'd get a list of "funny" ideas from the designers, and look it over and then look to each other and say, "Hmmm...needs some work." We'd then call the designers in and they'd try and "sell" us on the joke, acting it out, jumping and hollering to make the joke sound funnier -- it was a blast!!! I think the jokes NEVER were funny enough until you get the characters on the screen acting them out and add the subtleties such as facial expressions and body language, putting in the props and getting the timing right for that perfect slapstick joke. That's when it all came together and we'd all sit back, look at the animation, and laugh. Paul Hoffmeier : I can't tell you how many versions of these animations we came up with. Three of us would come up with stuff that we would take to the artists. The artists would then do the animations they thought were funny first. We constantly updated the list, and they did the best of the list. It was a lot of work, and I can't tell you how many good ideas didn't get done. We even had to leave a few animations out because we filled the disc. Zone: What do you like best about this new version LIFE ? Paul Mithra : Playing the enhanced game over the network with five other crazy people. The art itself and the amazing variety of music styles. Mike Berro : Seeing my name on the credits. Scott Sava : The animations. But of course, I'm biased. I really like the look of the board too. It's NOTHING like the original game and yet it's so similar. It's great. I also like the games in the enhanced version: Treasure Chest and Skunk Money. They're a lot of fun. Paul Hoffmeier : There's a little thing we do called Skunk Money. It's one of seven little mini games in the enhanced version. There are 12 places to click. Nine spots are money amounts, one spot doubles your money, and two spots are skunks, which end the game and send you along with no money. You can stop at any time and keep the money you've found. But the urge is to flip just one more to get a chance at just a little more money. It's a good little exercise in self-control. I always push it and get that darn skunk. Zone: Is there anything you wish you could add to this game or change about it? Paul Mithra : Give us another year and we'll have twice as many animations! (And another disc in the package.) Paul Hoffmeier : I wish we could do more comics and more animations and more squares and more characters. In general, I just want more of the same. I hope everyone else finds it as entertaining as I do. Who knows? Game of LIFE II anyone? Zone: Why do you think, after so many years, this game is still so popular? Paul Mithra : It has simplicity of play coupled with a high entertainment value in part based on the fantasy of living through your life vicariously in the game. Paul Hoffmeier : A lot of people played it as kids. When they grow up, they buy it to play it with their kids. As long as families still play games, people will play LIFE and enjoy it like everyone before them. Zone: Any other comments or suggestions you'd like to share with your Zone players? Paul Mithra : Keep your leaden fingers off the function keys, please. Be creative. Type! Mike Berro : I hope the Zonians get a kick out of the tongue-in-cheek humor. Paul Hoffmeier : Just have fun with it. Use a taunt key now and then (F1-F12). |
|
