GZ Interview
6/18/02

Go inside the world of D&D: Heroes with Infogrames Brenda Brathwaite
By Michael Lafferty

Thirsty for a little action? Hungry for adventure? Tired of laying about, dead, all the time. Well then Infogrames has a nice little tale that may be right up your alley.

The game is Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes, and it is coming out this fall on the PS2, Xbox and GameCube.

As with any good game, there is an immersive storyline:

In the course of time, your avatar has died and entered another realm of existence – or maybe not. It seems that an old enemy, one that only you were able to vanquish, has somehow been able to return. The people of the land know of only one way to stop this vile foe – and that is to resurrect you.

The press release for the game challenges players to “journey through a world filled with magic and monsters, treasures and traps, good and evil — a world unto itself where heroes are made not born. Take on perilous quests through never-before-seen planes of existence and carve a path to righteousness.”

(For a look at the game, please see http://xbox.gamezone.com/gzreviews/p20274.htm )

Game features include D&D 3rd Edition skills, feats and character building systems, the opportunity to battle classic and the latest D&D monsters, a streamlined controller interface, and solo or four-player cooperative gaming.

Award-winning game designer Brenda Brathwaite, with an assist from Will Gee, took time to talk about this game, and share some thoughts on the world of role-playing games.

Question: When designing a D&D-type game, what are the most important elements that "must" be in the game?

Brenda: “There are a lot of them, actually. First and foremost, you need the classic D&D character classes, like the Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard we have in D&D Heroes, along with everything that goes into making them what they are, from their statistics and skills to their magical spells and feats. You need a believable, medieval world in which the characters exist, and you need a strong story. Lastly, you need lots and lots of monsters. Almost all of ours come from the 3rd Edition of D&D, and there are even some new creatures we hope players will soon see in future D&D books and modules. D&D has the best monsters, hands down. Throughout the development, we’ve been working really closely with Wizards of the Coast, and they’ve been really supportive of D&D Heroes.”

Q: Does the design team do any research into the elements that fans want from a game? And if so, without tipping your hand too much, what did you find was missing from other titles that you incorporated into Heroes?

Brenda: “A deeper, more tactical combat. Watching people play some of these other games and playing them ourselves, it seemed that players were forced to hit the same button over and over and over again. Sometimes the sword might swing a slightly different way, but essentially, players were locked into a particular style of fighting. So, we studied a lot of different games in different genres, ultimately coming up with a system that was broader, more fun, more strategic and more exciting, and we’re continuing to tune it every day. In D&D Heroes, each character has around 15 moves that they can choose from as they become more experienced. These moves are markedly different from one another, from the damage they do to the range of strike to the visual effects. Some even have physical effects upon the world.

“Every one of them can be powered up, too, so you have some real strength in each one. At any one time, the player will have three moves mapped to his or her controller. A fourth button allows players to block. Players can also switch quickly between five different gems that they collect during the course of the game. The gems vastly modify each attack. For instance, the Ice Gem can cause monsters to freeze and possibly shatter. All these moves can be changed on the fly, so the action never stops unless you want it to. The style of combat will be completely different depending on the moves you map and the moves you choose when your characters gain levels. That’s really just the beginning.”

Q: Let's talk a little big about the graphical elements of the game. What kind of engine does it use and what did that engine enable you to achieve in the general design of the program?

Will Gee, lead programmer: “Our graphics engine is based around the idea of 3d world tiles.  Basically, through the use of instanced level geometry, combined with overlaid decorations, we are able to render detailed environments that don't seem repetitive. That allows us to get high-poly counts and to really make each area as full as possible visually.”

Q: You stated at E3 that this program was designed to be the first of many in this particular style. Will the characters transfer or the storyline continue, or will future game feature new characters and a fresh story?

Brenda: “It’s too soon to divulge where the story will go, let’s just say that D&D Heroes is only a chapter of a much larger tale. And as you can tell from the www.us.infogrames.com Web site, the company is committed to the brand, with three D&D titles coming out soon.”

Q: What aspects of this game do you think will set it apart from the plethora of other RPG titles hitting the market in the coming year?

Brenda: “The most obvious is that it’s a four-player cooperative multiplayer game. It’s not split screen, either, which is a question we were asked a lot at E3. You, the other players and as many monsters as you can handle all in one place. For overall fun factor, there’s nothing as good as that.

“Another thing that sets D&D Heroes apart is that it provides an immediate and immersive D&D experience that’s faithful to the series. Within two minutes of starting the game, sooner if you decide to blow by the intro, you’ll be deep in the action. The combat style will set D&D Heroes apart from a lot of the games coming out. I know I’ve already said a lot about it, but it deserves that – it’s really different, versatile and fun.

“Another thing that we’ve done is given each character one primary weapon, two in the case of the Rogue. Your characters are heroes. They wouldn’t just pitch their weapons, toss them away like garbage. No, they’d work on them, upgrade them, polish them, and that’s what they do in Heroes. Throughout the game, your character will constantly improve that weapon, by finding secret upgrades and runestones. A lot of RPGs have made a whole separate game of inventory juggling and carrying capacity management. I don’t think that’s a lot of fun, particularly in a game where we want to keep the focus on the action. When I get a new weapon, even in a hardcore RPG or in traditional D&D, the first thing I ask isn’t ‘Oh cool. What’s it’s name and what’s it look like?’ I ask ‘What does it do?’ Between the upgrades and the gems, we give you every possible combination in a single weapon. I think players will appreciate that. To me, it’s a lot more realistic – a hero just wouldn’t toss his sword away.

“That brings me to another point. Since the characters in the game are heroes, they start off a few levels up so you’re not fighting rats and bats just to scrape up XP. Also, everything they do has a heroic feel to it. I think that’s a pretty unique thing in games nowadays. You’re not in the Kingdom of Baele to savage it. You’re there to save it. That’s not saying you can’t smash things. There’s plenty of that. Your missions, though, are noble. That carries throughout the story.
When you’re playing, you can also return to earlier levels you’ve beaten to play through them again. The monsters there will be tuned and populated accordingly. That allows you to get an edge on leveling up and to discover secrets you missed along the way. Also, we have experience reflect the character’s ability, which is far more realistic. I mean, that big spider might have been a challenge when you were level 5, but when you’re level 20? He’s a splat mark on the floor. The tougher the encounter for you, the more experience you’ll get.”

Q: What was the hardest aspect, or presented the biggest challenge, in creating this game? What aspect of it, when realized, brought the most pleasure - to date?

Brenda: “The combat was the most difficult, because it’s different from your usual RPG and so important to the game as a whole.

“So, in designing something different, naturally, you take two steps forward and one step back. Some things that we originally thought would be great didn’t feel so good in practice. That’s where tuning comes in. Fortunately, we have a very talented team that really cares about making a good game, so our end result is something we think everyone will be happy with. For me, it was most telling when I recently picked up a game I had been playing a while back. It’s another RPG, and it has a single attack button. It was kind of weird, and after playing our game, I felt sort of cheated.”

Q: Demographically speaking, to whom do you think this game will appeal?

Brenda: “Really, D&D Heroes appeals to everyone. I know that sounds broad, but I think it’s realistic. It’s fast paced, exciting and immersive, and gets the players right into the action. The D&D purist and the RPG fan will recognize a lot of things: the stats they’re familiar with, D&D monsters, feats, spells and skills. On the other hand, if a player has never played an RPG before, he or she will still have a blast, particularly with four players. We’ve had a lot of experience with RPGs, and we were able to streamline many things that people found cumbersome or difficult about them. Tackling those elements has widened our appeal tremendously.

“There’s not a ‘D&D  Players Only!’ sign hanging on the box. You don’t need to know anything about D&D to play this game. In fact, this element was so critical to our design that we solicited opinions from all different kinds of gamers, and still are. It’s inherent in our team.

“Take people like me, Jim Crawley (artist), Chris Esko (programmer) and Scott Elson (programmer). We’ve all been playing D&D for a long time. Jim’s my DM, in fact. Now, take people like Brad Hoppenstein, our production assistant. Brad, and I’m using his words here, “doesn’t like hardcore RPGs,” but Brad’s a walking game bible. I think he’s played every game ever released, including most console RPGs. We wanted to make a game that appealed to him as much as it appealed, to Scott, Chris and Jim. We have that mix on the team: action gamers, RPG gamers, you-name-it-gamers and even a couple of casual gamers. And we want them all. Everyone on our team is pretty vocal, so we’ve been able to create something that appeals to everyone without diluting the RPG or the action experience at all.

You know whom else this would appeal to? Parents. It’s a multiplayer co-op, so it’s a great game for families. Also, our game isn’t pushing overt sexuality, so it’s safe for kids. Even the quests are heroic, so parents don’t have to work that Johnny’s just learned to jack a car from his latest game (not that I don’t regularly play games that teach me such things, but that’s another point).”

Q: What do you perceive as the future for RPGs? Where is the industry headed?

Brenda: “The U.S. RPG market continues to amaze me, really. There was a time in the mid-90’s when it really looked like it was on its last legs. Some great RPG series ended then. At the time, I was working on Wizardry 8. RPGs were something you made for love and not for money.  Then came games like Diablo and Fallout, and RPGs were the latest and greatest thing. Suddenly people who wouldn’t have played an RPG were raving about these games. It was amazing, and it started a renaissance.  Purist RPG players, of course, dismissed games like that as ‘RPG-lite.’ Then came MMORPGs and everyone was hooked. Just in the last year, we’ve seen no less than 10 solid RPG titles released, not to mention the incredible 3rd Edition D&D Rules, which have appeared in pen-and-paper versions as well as a few video games. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are both fantasy/RPG-type flicks. It’s everywhere.

“At E3, I couldn’t get over how many RPG titles I saw. The RPG industry is just booming. Where’s it going to go? I think we’ll see the broad spectrum of RPGs mature on the consoles; everything from fast-paced, action-RPGs like D&D Heroes to the slower and more traditional, hardcore RPGs. In many respects, I think our RPG console market will soon resemble the Japanese console market. Series like Final Fantasy and Wizardry, for instance, have been on consoles in Japan for years, and there are dozens of others. Also, other genres are beginning to incorporate RPG elements into their games. For instance, Gran Turismo and Tony Hawk have cars and characters that you improve through time and experience. Overall, I think RPGs have finally become mainstream.”

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