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Raider1one · 04-01-2008, 09:46 AM

GTA4 Rockstar Interview Continued:

from ign.com

IGN: Why isn't there's co-op throughout the campaign? Is that something were co-op is too much of a limitation to the story?

Houser: Yeah. We toyed with it and we felt we came to a compromise by putting in a separate mode that was designed and scripted and driven with more elements than the main multiplayer but less than the main story. Off-story elements that gave you both, but if you were saying that you would have to run around, make the whole game co-op, then the single-player game would be massively compromised. And I haven't yet played a game where that wasn't the case.

IGN: Why do you think that is? Obviously co-op is going to be a big part of gaming moving forward. Do you think there is a solution and that someone will find a way to tell a good story with cooperative play?

Houser: I'm sure someone will, but I'm also sure that at the moment you can't design a level using AI and then take out the AI and use another human being and have the level perfectly balanced for both. It depends on what you want. The game is either going to work better one or the other or you have to make two separate things, which is the path we chose to go down.

IGN: In our multiplayer session we've already perfected the art of the rocket jump.

Houser: Yeah. I think that the kind of loose in the world hang out mode, long term, will have a lot of life in the multiplayer world. Early on it will be the more structured games and that will come to the fore a few months in.

Choppers exist in single-player and multiplayer.

IGN: It will be interesting to see how that evolves.

Houser: I know. What people respond to. The only thing we've really done multiplayer-wise as a company was Midnight Club. By our standards very much a genre-based game. It clearly existed in a genre, with [it being the] first ones doing the open world stuff, but it still is a racing game. We set to make a racing game that was fun and progressive, which is more genre style than we normally get into. But we found from doing the multiplayer with that that after time just the free roaming around the world, becomes very popular, even in a car.

IGN: That's kind of how the single-player works too in GTA. Your first five hours, you're following the story and at some point you say, "I'm just going to wander around" and then you get lost in the world for five days.

Houser: I think creating that experience in multiplayer, that's why we put in [a free roam] mode. It would be the same kind of thing with like, "Well we can just go and hang out there and then we decide we want to beat up our friend over there, so let's go chase him around the world." It has a nice loose structure to it. That alongside all the structured modes I think is a good balance. The multiplayer is -- we're really proud of it. It's going to be a lot of fun for us seeing what people respond to. We've done a lot of work to balance it, to make it fun, to make sure every mode works. We've got a few ideas up our sleeves for future modes, but we want people's responses to what they like and what they don't like. We've never really done that before, so we did as complete a job as we could manage. We put a lot of modes in there, because we wanted to cover all the bases. Some bits are going to be incredibly popular and some bits not and it's going to fun watching that.

IGN: And that's one of the benefits of being able to modify your game after launch with online downloads.

Houser: Yeah. We're actually consciously not a focus-testing company. This is different to that... We definitely look at message boards, but we don't sit there scouring for this is the thing that everyone likes. We try and make games people haven't yet thought of. Stuff where people aren't going, "Oh, we should have that." Because then, well, that's not going to be amazing then is it? Our job is making things people haven't even thought of yet. In multiplayer, you're asking the player to be enough a part of the experience that you've got to see what people like.

IGN: One of the other big pushes for this generation is downloadable content. I know you probably can't talk about the downloadable content for GTA IV, but in general what is your view of extending the life of game through downloadable content?

Houser: Don't sell things that aren't worth selling. We've always focused on value for money. We're very conscious that games are a very expensive media product. A book costs about 12 bucks, movie tickets are like 10 bucks on Fandango, CDs -- if people even buy them anymore -- are $12 and a game's like 60 bucks. So we've always been conscious of it's a big financial outlay.

We can't guarantee people will love any of our games, but we do our utmost to ensure they will know they have been lovingly put together. The production values are high. We'll lovingly select every single song in every single game. We'll be throwing out one's we like because it doesn't quite match the tone in the game. We try out every voice. We try to make sure the voice of everyone acting stands out. If the guy's got a crap voice, we ditch the actor. We really try and do that stuff with attention to detail. Every mission, every mechanic -- we focus on the fact that it's a big commitment for someone to spend a bunch of money and a number of hours of their life [playing] this. We can't guarantee they're going to love it, but we can guarantee that they're going to know it wasn't us just trying to rip money out of their wallet without giving anything back.

Now in terms of how that relates to downloadable stuff, the business model is still very, very loose. Often in games it seems to mature as a business before it's matured as an art form. And I think that's an area where there's a danger of that happening, so our approach is going to be for everything: If we're going to sell it, we're going to make sure it's worth buying. And make sure it doesn't unbalance the game or make the game unplayable for everyone online in the multiplayer environment. And in the single-player environment when adding stuff there, make sure it's worth whatever money someone's paying for it.

Rockstar won't discuss DLC plans... yet.

IGN: And I assume also to make sure it feels like a natural extension of the game as well, so that it doesn't feel artificial?

Houser: Oh yeah... In general, if it's a very tight story game, as opposed to an open world game, there's often nothing you can really add. Add an extra level. Why? It's done. It's a story. With an open world game there's a little more maneuverability there, but we're super conscious that we want the games to be treated as serious medium. We take it very seriously. We love what we do. It's up to you guys to say if it's art or not. We try really hard. We're not in it just to go, "Here's an extra way of making a dollar." That's going to make all the people who already spent $60, half of them feel redundant. If there's anything that we're selling, we want it to be useful for people.

The game that you buy on the disc is the game. The extra stuff doesn't exist yet, but it exists in our heads... It's cool stuff. It doesn't undermine the individual game.

IGN: There's already a lot there for your $60.

Houser: The multiplayer game alone is a huge thing. The single-player game is enormous and other stuff you can, if you want to explore in the world, there's a $#!@-load of stuff there as well... There seems to be this weird idea that single-player games can get shorter. They can get more expensive and shorter. I don't understand that approach. It's not our approach.

Our thanks to Dan Houser and Aaron Garbut for taking the time out to give us a high-level view of GTA IV. We hope to get you more in-depth details on specific aspects of GTA IV as we head towards its April 29 release.

04-01-2008, 09:46 AM	#40 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: Grand Theft Auto 4-GTA IV-Maps, Previews, Reviews, Videos, Screenshots, and Cheats GTA4 Rockstar Interview Continued: from ign.com IGN: Why isn't there's co-op throughout the campaign? Is that something were co-op is too much of a limitation to the story? Houser: Yeah. We toyed with it and we felt we came to a compromise by putting in a separate mode that was designed and scripted and driven with more elements than the main multiplayer but less than the main story. Off-story elements that gave you both, but if you were saying that you would have to run around, make the whole game co-op, then the single-player game would be massively compromised. And I haven't yet played a game where that wasn't the case. IGN: Why do you think that is? Obviously co-op is going to be a big part of gaming moving forward. Do you think there is a solution and that someone will find a way to tell a good story with cooperative play? Houser: I'm sure someone will, but I'm also sure that at the moment you can't design a level using AI and then take out the AI and use another human being and have the level perfectly balanced for both. It depends on what you want. The game is either going to work better one or the other or you have to make two separate things, which is the path we chose to go down. IGN: In our multiplayer session we've already perfected the art of the rocket jump. Houser: Yeah. I think that the kind of loose in the world hang out mode, long term, will have a lot of life in the multiplayer world. Early on it will be the more structured games and that will come to the fore a few months in. Choppers exist in single-player and multiplayer. IGN: It will be interesting to see how that evolves. Houser: I know. What people respond to. The only thing we've really done multiplayer-wise as a company was Midnight Club. By our standards very much a genre-based game. It clearly existed in a genre, with [it being the] first ones doing the open world stuff, but it still is a racing game. We set to make a racing game that was fun and progressive, which is more genre style than we normally get into. But we found from doing the multiplayer with that that after time just the free roaming around the world, becomes very popular, even in a car. IGN: That's kind of how the single-player works too in GTA. Your first five hours, you're following the story and at some point you say, "I'm just going to wander around" and then you get lost in the world for five days. Houser: I think creating that experience in multiplayer, that's why we put in [a free roam] mode. It would be the same kind of thing with like, "Well we can just go and hang out there and then we decide we want to beat up our friend over there, so let's go chase him around the world." It has a nice loose structure to it. That alongside all the structured modes I think is a good balance. The multiplayer is -- we're really proud of it. It's going to be a lot of fun for us seeing what people respond to. We've done a lot of work to balance it, to make it fun, to make sure every mode works. We've got a few ideas up our sleeves for future modes, but we want people's responses to what they like and what they don't like. We've never really done that before, so we did as complete a job as we could manage. We put a lot of modes in there, because we wanted to cover all the bases. Some bits are going to be incredibly popular and some bits not and it's going to fun watching that. IGN: And that's one of the benefits of being able to modify your game after launch with online downloads. Houser: Yeah. We're actually consciously not a focus-testing company. This is different to that... We definitely look at message boards, but we don't sit there scouring for this is the thing that everyone likes. We try and make games people haven't yet thought of. Stuff where people aren't going, "Oh, we should have that." Because then, well, that's not going to be amazing then is it? Our job is making things people haven't even thought of yet. In multiplayer, you're asking the player to be enough a part of the experience that you've got to see what people like. IGN: One of the other big pushes for this generation is downloadable content. I know you probably can't talk about the downloadable content for GTA IV, but in general what is your view of extending the life of game through downloadable content? Houser: Don't sell things that aren't worth selling. We've always focused on value for money. We're very conscious that games are a very expensive media product. A book costs about 12 bucks, movie tickets are like 10 bucks on Fandango, CDs -- if people even buy them anymore -- are $12 and a game's like 60 bucks. So we've always been conscious of it's a big financial outlay. We can't guarantee people will love any of our games, but we do our utmost to ensure they will know they have been lovingly put together. The production values are high. We'll lovingly select every single song in every single game. We'll be throwing out one's we like because it doesn't quite match the tone in the game. We try out every voice. We try to make sure the voice of everyone acting stands out. If the guy's got a crap voice, we ditch the actor. We really try and do that stuff with attention to detail. Every mission, every mechanic -- we focus on the fact that it's a big commitment for someone to spend a bunch of money and a number of hours of their life [playing] this. We can't guarantee they're going to love it, but we can guarantee that they're going to know it wasn't us just trying to rip money out of their wallet without giving anything back. Now in terms of how that relates to downloadable stuff, the business model is still very, very loose. Often in games it seems to mature as a business before it's matured as an art form. And I think that's an area where there's a danger of that happening, so our approach is going to be for everything: If we're going to sell it, we're going to make sure it's worth buying. And make sure it doesn't unbalance the game or make the game unplayable for everyone online in the multiplayer environment. And in the single-player environment when adding stuff there, make sure it's worth whatever money someone's paying for it. Rockstar won't discuss DLC plans... yet. IGN: And I assume also to make sure it feels like a natural extension of the game as well, so that it doesn't feel artificial? Houser: Oh yeah... In general, if it's a very tight story game, as opposed to an open world game, there's often nothing you can really add. Add an extra level. Why? It's done. It's a story. With an open world game there's a little more maneuverability there, but we're super conscious that we want the games to be treated as serious medium. We take it very seriously. We love what we do. It's up to you guys to say if it's art or not. We try really hard. We're not in it just to go, "Here's an extra way of making a dollar." That's going to make all the people who already spent $60, half of them feel redundant. If there's anything that we're selling, we want it to be useful for people. The game that you buy on the disc is the game. The extra stuff doesn't exist yet, but it exists in our heads... It's cool stuff. It doesn't undermine the individual game. IGN: There's already a lot there for your $60. Houser: The multiplayer game alone is a huge thing. The single-player game is enormous and other stuff you can, if you want to explore in the world, there's a $#!@-load of stuff there as well... There seems to be this weird idea that single-player games can get shorter. They can get more expensive and shorter. I don't understand that approach. It's not our approach. Our thanks to Dan Houser and Aaron Garbut for taking the time out to give us a high-level view of GTA IV. We hope to get you more in-depth details on specific aspects of GTA IV as we head towards its April 29 release.