Saint's Row Interview with the developers at Volition
After being show a lot of gameplay of the new Saint’s Row, see here to learn all about that, I had the chance to ask many of the team members from Volition. From character creation choice to world inspiration, there was a lot to learn.
The members of the team that I got to hear from were Jim Boone - Chief Creative Officer, Rob Loftus – Executive Producer, James Hague – Design Director, Jeremy Bernstein – Lead Mission Narrative, Stephen Quirk, Associate Art Director and Frank Marquart – Art Director.
Maxi-Geek: Open world size can be a curse, as much as a blessing, so how have you balanced the size of the world versus things to do within it?
Jim: I am glad you asked that question, because that is a big deal for us as well. We have the largest world that we have ever created for a Saint’s Row game, but compared to some games out there, it may not be as large, so the reason why we do that, is the density of gameplay that we have in our open world, is beyond anything that I can think of. We truly have a vast amount of content that occurs in the open world, some of it will be things will be that when you wander around, they are discoverables, that you will find and then highlight on the map when you get close to them.
Some of them, like in the gameplay we showed you, is with the criminal empire that you grow, when you have these vacant lots and you get to decide what building you get to put on it and then that building comes with very specific gameplay, that then unlocks through out the city, all over the place, with rewards that come with it as well. Then there are just collectables, that you can find out in the world, so when you think of all the things there are to do in the world, it is the densest open world, we have ever done, the diversity of mechanics and the amount of things that you do, that slowly get unveiled to you along the way – so as not to overwhelm at the beginning, is something that we are really proud of and we can’t wait for people to see it, because there is a tremendous amount of depth to it, then rather to your question, just a big gigantic map that doesn’t have as many things to do.
Rob: One of the things for me, is just how player choice comes into that, you are selecting the criminal venture, you are figuring out how you build your empire, so while there all these things to do, what gets exposed to you, is part of your choice, part of your journey as a player.
Frank: It is also the most varied world that we’ve ever created, so by far we have more unique spaces and interesting layouts and places to explore then we ever had in any Saint’s Row ever.
MG: So, with choice being core to the game, and expansion of your empire a key driver of that choice, will the times when you can create a business, that is totally legit?
Jeremy: Legit is an interesting word, I would say that there are certainly business, I mean it is a criminal empire fantasy game:
Rob: They look legit.
Jeremy: Yeah, they look legit.
Jim: Some of them.
Jeremy: It depends on who you ask, I suppose then. But yeah, it is a criminal fantasy game, so at its heart, it always come back to that criminality. We did discuss briefly that you could give up this life of crime and just drive as a law-abiding citizen through this beautiful town, but those discussions didn’t go very far.
Jim: The only thing I could add to that, is that some of the things you do, there’s varying degrees of criminality, based on some of these different businesses. They vary in terms of the types of crimes, part of that is that player choice that Rob was talking about earlier, so if there is a certain type of crime that appeals to you, like you want to go steal cars and chop them up, then that’s the one for you. If you want to go collect toxic waste, that is there, but if you don’t want to have anything to do with that, you don’t have to do that one. So, there are some degrees to the criminality, but it’s all crime.
MG: Because you mentioned toxic waste, I have to ask, can you drive a sewage truck and spray folks with the contents?
Jim: Sadly, that is not, we do have some things returning from previous Saint’s Row games, but that is not one of them, unfortunately. It would be amazing to spray that all over the place like we did back in Saint’s Row 2, but alas, not in this one.
MG: As the game is being built around a new team of Saints, will there be missions that exploring the stories of the new characters?
Jeremy: Yes, I believe I can say that, so yes there will. As I alluded to before, we spent a lot of building these characters and building their relationships and we love them and I think so of the most fun moments in the game are in the missions where you get to spend time with them. We are not just building this world and these characters, we are building friendships with them and making that something that you get to experience as a player, is something that we have put a lot of effort into and for me at least, that really pays off.
MG: Taking a look at yourself, character customisation was touched in the presentation, but are there any restrictions on who you can create, for example gender versus voice, can players create someone that suits their own unique choices?
Rob: We expose a lot of choice within customisation, because we are a game about choice, we are talking just a little bit about customisation today, we will have more details to share about the depth that we go, today all we are saying is that this is going to be the best customisation that we have ever done, we are standing by that, we can’t wait to show you more as we get closer to release.
Jeremy: I think we can answer that specific question though, that there is no gender voice constraint
James: There is no constraint at all
Jeremy: Yeah, mix and match anything you want, anyway you want, that’s our philosophy across the board
Rob: It’s up to you
Stephen: Yeah, we want to encourage you to be creative, to find yourself or find anyone you want to be in this game.
Jim: We are so anxious to dive into that one, because there is a lot to dive into.
MG: So, letting the player be themselves, does that mean theft is an option. You can steal cars, that is a staple of the series, but you can steal clothes and shoes?
Jim: That you cannot do, that was something we talked about for a little while, not necessarily steal it, but we talked about the possibility of taking photos and getting outfits that way. But ultimately, it just wasn’t as fun as just going out and buying the clothing or getting rewards for that versus the ease of where you want to steal a car, that felt right, for that instant gratification. So yeah, we toyed with that thought, but it just didn’t feel quite right.
MG: Ok, given that you can steal cars and commit crimes, the police will likely be opposed to you at some point. As most movies around criminal empires have shown, there are cops that can be bribed. Can you put police on your payroll, to help you out from time to time?
Jim: Dare we talk about this? So, you have this criminal empire that you are building and you have different things that you can buy and ultimately try to earn, one of these things, I’m not sure how specific I am allowed to get with this, but one of the things you can build, I will leave it unnamed, so you can experience it, absolutely influences what you are talking about.
It doesn’t just influence it among the police, it does it will all the other three gangs as well, so its not necessarily that you are putting them on your payroll, but you have a way to influence the way they react to you.
MG: Are there times when you can stop the criminal work and just relax?
Jim: God, absolutely
Rob: you could a scenic drive through the game, if you like, there is an interesting route that goes all around it, it goes through the desert and the other biomes, so you could relax and do a road trip around Santo Ileso and see the sights.
Jim: I was honestly about to say the same thing, because do have Route 66 and we’ve got these little placards that you would see in the real southwest, where you go up to it and you push a button and it tells you a little of the history, we have that in the game, there are little rewards if you go do all of those.
But if you just want to ease around, like Rob was talking about, and check the area and the history of it out, that is literally in the game.
James: We thought about, what if you want to be a tourist, what if you need a break from criminal empiring, so we have stuff that is geared towards being a tourist that is intentionally low key and gives you a chance to learn about the world.
Frank: They are pretty fun, they give you little bits of narrative, help shape it some more for you.
Jeremy: It’s not just that the world is big, but the world is deep, there is a lot of very well developed, very rich history in this game, to the point where I have asked questions like, what is the name of this area and gotten a response like ‘Well, its named after someone who in the 1850’s’, so even I am blown away by how much background development has been put into the world.
MG: What would you say the inspirations were, if there were any, that helped shape the design of the world?
Frank: Wow, I kinda want to jump on that one. Where do I begin, certainly with the American South-West, there is so much to draw from, it’s just chock full of inspiration, either from the landscape to the beautiful towns and cities in that regions and then there is just so much in pop culture that we can draw from, you know whether it be in movies, tv shows, comic books, there is a lot of stuff that we pulled from, to try and get ideas, to make things visually interesting and fun across the board.
One of those things that we looked at, is just some of the weird, interesting and outlandish things that you find in the real world, out in the South-West. There is this pioneering, individuality, that people have these creations that people find out there, so we tapped into that as well, to help pepper the world, to create this really unique space in games.
