The Pandemic elevators. They're world famous.

In the middle of the chaos of E3, Brian and I were invited out to Pandemic studios on the West side of LA. It was a nice break from the frantic action of the Expo to relax and enjoy a one hour commute in standstill freeway traffic amongst honking motorists. Living the dream.

At Pandemic I tried my hardest to not act like a child in a candy store… and failed. It was my first time ever setting  foot in an actual game studio, so I couldn’t help it. The Pandemic gas mask logo was plastered everywhere, there were shelves of unique merch and promo material for Star Wars Battlefront, Mercenaries, and their other titles, and they had massive TVs and developer consoles all over. I just giggled to myself and wore a huge goofy grin. If my life was played on Games for Windows Live, I would have seen the message ‘Achievement unlocked!’ and it would have been worth 1,000g.

We got to sit down with the majority of the key leadership on The Saboteur in a casual round table discussion format. With us was Trey Watkins, the director of The Saboteur, art director Christopher Hunt, and lead programmer Fidde Persson. We were able to ask them anything about the game (though they couldn’t answer all of our questions due to PR restrictions), and it was immediately apparent to me that this is a team that is very passionate about their project.  They’re excited about what they have achieved so far, and can’t wait to let the public see more of the game.

Trey explained to us that the game is still pre-alpha, and it’s currently in the polish phase.  Everything in the game is playable in its current state.  Now comes much play testing,  player feedback, and adjusting.  With the graphics engine being mostly in place, and being the most fascinating part to me, I focused my questions on the graphics tech of The Saboteur.

Our initial questions focused on the most visually striking aspect of The Sabotuer–the game’s color style in using both black and white and full color.  Trey explained that the game’s color style had evolved over many years. It was eventually decided that they wanted to change color styles depending on what was happening in the world.  The developers drew influences from graphic novels and films such as Sin City and 300, using stark contrasts that help tell the story and heighten the emotional impact.  Trey explained that the end goal was to make the Nazis look as evil as possible.

Chris furthered the color discussion by explaining the evolution of how they achieved the unique look.  Originally the look was a screen-based effect, meaning the entire game world was desaturated by the camera.  This method didn’t achieve the look they wanted, but rather gave a flat, 1950’s Buck Rogers look to the game.  It needed to have more depth.  So the engine was tweaked to allow seamless transitions from color to black and white areas, and vice versa.

Beautiful Nazi-occupied Paris with a low will to fight

This seemed to be a perfect opportunity to ask about the technology behind their current technique.  I asked if the look was achieved by adjusting textures, or if it was all done at a shader level.  Fidde explained that it is all shader based controlled per pixel and per object, and the look can be switched dynamically at any time from color to black and white.  This method is easier on the system, as it allows them to use the same set of assets for both black and white and color looks (known as Low and High “Will to Fight”, respectively).  Chris added that one set of assets can be used for low and high will to fight, as well as any shade in between.  This allows for easy adjustments of the looks, as black and white scenes still require adjustments to help the user perceive depth and be directed.  Using one set of assets streamlined the work flow, and expedited the process of making changes and tweaking the look.

I asked the team about self-shadowing, and how it’s handled in The Saboteur.  Many games today that use dynamic lighting will cheat the look by not casting shadow on smaller details of the world.  Fidde was quick to assure me that their engine shadows everything at all times without cutting corners.  There is no use of static baked-in shadows, and The Saboteur shadows everything.  He also mentioned that they only change shadowing for in-game cutscenes, and that switch is to higher resolution shadows to give a more crisp appearance, especially on characters.

I had noticed the use of wet textures during the demo they showed us back at the Expo.  The scene was outside a brothel, and the situation was low will to fight (black and white).  Rain came down in buckets from the sky, and everything around the protagonist, Sean, looked wet and reflective.  I inquired about the use of these textures.  Trey explained that the engine places rainfall in the particularly evil areas of the game with low will to fight.  It adds a significant emotional punch to the darkness of the situation.  He further explained that wet textures are introduced dynamically as the rain falls.  The effect was impressive, and the team is to be commended on their use of the technology.

The team has achieved much, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park.  A game of this scale, made from scratch, is an incredibly difficult task. Trey probably put it best when he said, “All of us have been working on games for 10 to 15 years, but none of us have ever worked on something this big.  We’re very proud of what we’ve put together.  We love it and we hate it. It is a harsh mistress every day.” Fidde explained that one of the greatest difficulties with modern development is that there are many concurrent systems that rely on each other, and even the slightest adjustment can bring the whole thing crashing down.  At that point, maintenance becomes a huge part of the routine.  Trey added that a project scope as large as The Saboteur’s makes it a very difficult thing to manage.  Mistakes are made every day, and those mistakes propagate in unusual ways. Sorting out those mistakes becomes their biggest challenge.  He estimates that the team averages approximately 700 bugfixes a week.

Trey went on to explain a particularly interesting fact on bug fixes–they don’t always achieve a desired result.  At one point they were able to squash a bug that fixed a single frame of lag on the camera during vehicular sequences.  The team noticed immediately that something felt “off” while driving the cars–the feel they had gotten used to just wasn’t there.  After many tests with old builds, they found that the bugfix had resulted in a different feel to the vehicles, which was an unwelcome change.  Trey admitted that they re-introduced the “lag” to the vehicle camera, as it achieved the desired feel to the driving mechanics.

The sun had set when we stepped out onto Glendon Ave, and darkness had wrapped its fingers around Los Angeles.  As we walked to the bus to return to the convention center, I couldn’t help but feel as if the world around me was affected by low will to fight–the color and life sucked out of it.  I felt hope, though; hopeful for The Saboteur and energized by our talk with the development team.  The darkness surrounded us, but we felt great.

Vive la vengeance!