I had an opportunity recently to have a phone interview with Tim Willits, id Software creative director for RAGE. We talked about many different aspects of the game - it was a great conversation, so here it is for your enjoyment!
First things first - can you give us an overview of who you are and what your role is as it pertains to Rage?
I am the creative director on the project, so I am in charge of all things RAGE, you know, and as the project has progressed, my role has changed. In the beginning, it was much more creating the concept of the game, work with the writer on the story, figure out the plot points, the pacing, you know, what IS RAGE? Basically to get everyone on the same page. Then, as production started, I made sure the designers, artists and programmers were all marching to the same drummer. Now as were finishing the game, Im doing a lot of the marketing stuff, the press stuff... I mean, Im not a programmer so Im not here fixing bugs that QA finds and stuff, but Im going to PAX and Gamescom and stuff like that. So its definitely an evolving position.
Speaking of the development, when RAGE was just a twinkle in ids eye, was there a specific primary platform in mind as the development started, or were you guys pretty platform-agnostic as things were kicked off?
Well, one of our main goals, and one of the reasons why we decided to do new technology, is [John] Carmack wanted to develop an engine that was true across platforms. Weve all heard of developers struggling with this console or that console because theyre trying to take older technology and shove it into these new consoles, and so many of these old techs were single-threaded engines so when John and the programming group set out to create RAGE, they looked at all the similarities across all the platforms and saw that they all do multi-cores now, and so he wanted 90% of the code for each of the three platforms for RAGE to be the same. And he wanted all the assets, the textures, the levels, the models, and cars and stuff that the artists built to be used across all systems. So at the end, theres not any console-specific artwork, besides the PSN front or the XBox Live front. But all the content from the PC down is exactly the same and really, the game code is all the same, the engine is basicaly all the same. The only differences are the graphic APIs and some kind of back end stuff for each specific platform. But really the meat of the game code is identical across all platforms. Of course, were a PC-centric company - we have PCs on the mind. But I think we did a pretty good job of making sure each platform had equal priority in the development process.
Ok, thats good to hear. Now this one should probably be pretty easy to answer. If someone is walking through the game, not sprinting through just the storyline and not taking their time to do each and every little thing, about how long should it take to complete the main storyline?
Well, most people here, because everyone heres just playing, it takes most people like fifteen hours to play through. It takes some people eighteen, if theyre doing everything, but what weve been telling people its not a short game. Were all tired of paying sixty bucks for a four-hour game. *laughs* So RAGE = not a short game. But yeah, it should take you around fifteen hours. It takes me about that long, but I take notes, and I know what Im doing but most people, yeah, thats about right. But man, its wildly different. I mean well have these two or three hour press events where well bring members of the press to come in and play through the first few hours of the game, and some journalists get far, and some journalists barely got out of the first level! *laughs* Its crazy. So yeah, I think fifteen.
Ah yeah, understanding that RAGE isnt an RPG, but I think back to the days when I first opened up Oblivion and got out of the sewers - the game told me to go west and the first thing I did was go east, and then 120 hours later into the game I hadnt even advanced the storyline at all, just because of all the different things the game allows you to do. It completely depends on your playstyle - I have heard of people who have cruised through that game in just a few minutes, it seems, and then people like me to take just a bit longer. *laughs*
Yes, well, in RAGE, when you go out of Dan Hagars settlement, we tell you to go right. If you go left, you will get F***ED UP! *laughs* It got so bad with people going left at that point that we put up a little message that said Hey if you refer to your mini-map it will help you get to where you are going. But if you turn that corner and you get to the blockade there, where eventually Dan will give you a sniper rifle, and youll sneak up there and snipe those guys off. But you drive in, and theres a rocket launcher dude. And you just see this rocket coming in from a mile away and its like Oh, youre dead..... BOOM. So unlike Oblivion, if you turn left, you will die pretty quickly. But it is quite funny to watch people ignore the mini-map and turn that way and just die. Even if Im standing behind them, Ill tell them Hey, you shouldnt do that, youre going to die... and they just ignore me and BOOM! But in general, once the game opens up, there is much more exploration. Its just really funny watching people try to do that initially.
Hah, I bet. Ok, so how does the overall map size compare to say, Fallout or Oblivion? Again understanding that this is not a strict RPG but from a map size perspective, what are we talking about comparatively?
Ooh, thats a tricky question- I havent gotten this question before. We do things a bit differently than they do actually. For us we have the Wasteland, which is kind of like a plate. This is where all the dungeons, hideouts, towns, levels, instances kind of sit on. When you get to the Shouded Base, or the Wasted Garage... when you get to these levels, they are the typical maps you would expect, that take 30-45 minutes to get through. These are your typical first-person shooter, meat and potatoes, action-packed id experience. Youre using cool weapons to kill cool guys. But then when you need to go somewhere else youre out in the Wasteland, thats when you have your vehicle and maybe some bandits will get in your way; maybe youll have to jump out and snipe some people... So it kind of varies like that. RAGE is, and Ill be the first to admit it, its not the easiest game to explain. Theres more to it than just running and gunning and shooting. And that is why we have these press events where we let people play for three hours and at that point the journalists were like oh, ok now I see how these pieces all fit together. RAGE really is the sum of the parts. Its more than just an RPG, which I really try not to use the phrase RPG ever with RAGE, its more of an action-adventure with some elements that make it more than just shoot-run-shoot-run-shoot-run. You shouldnt really think that RAGE is a faster Fallout 3, or a more action-paced Fallout 3. They are really different types of games. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it does. Absolutely. So you just said RAGE is an action-adventure game but it does go a bit deeper than that. Could you maybe flesh out how it goes deeper? Like, unlockable and upgradeable skills? Again, you hesitate to use the term RPG so were not going into that territory, but can you speak a bit about how you go deeper than your typical action-adventure game?
Yes - for us its all about player choice and how you play through the game. Now, we have a narrative. So youre not going to align with one band or clan, and youre not going to end up being a good guy or a bad guy at the end. You follow this narrative. Of course, along the way you have these choices, things like the races, the ability to upgrade your vehicles if thats what youre in to, you can do all the posted missions and pick up some rewards that way, but really the meat of how you progress is what you actually decide to do as your character. So we have of course an arsenal of weaponry, those weapons have ammo types, and then we have the engineering items. What some people do when playing RAGE, and I play like this as well, I love the different ammo types. I pick the roughneck armor when that choice is available to me, and that gives me more health. I am into classic fighting. I make fat boys, pop-rockets, and thats an ammo type you can engineer, and I change ammo types all the time. I also know that feltrite-tipped rounds do well against armored guys, pop-rockets are better against fleshy guys, fat mamas I can take out multiple targets if theyre in a straight line, you know, so I have that skill set. But then there are other people that love the engineering aspect of the game. They usually pick the fabricator armor type, when you have that choice in the game, and it gives you perks with most everything you can make, and they are into finding all the little pieces, the wire kits, the hardware packets, small gears, and they make turrets, RC bomb cars, sentry bots... You find a more strategic and slower-paced game when you play like that. And then we have some people here at id, you know, bless their hearts, they just buy shotgun shells and play the whole game with the shotgun. *laughs* So thats really where the choice and variety of this game really comes into play. Every weapon you pick up in RAGE, you carry. You never drop a weapon, you never sell a weapon. You can sell ammo but nobody ever does. Then of course you explore the world and you can find plans and mutant glands and special components where you can make things that increase your health, with regenerative ingredients. So thats your arsenal; thats kind of how your character evolves - through these different kinds of items that you can craft or make, or choose to use or not use. Does that make sense?
Yeah, yes it does.
So youre never at Level 50. You just progress with the bad-ass stuff that you have.
Right - so its kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure game but instead of deciding different over-arching outcomes for the game, you are following one specific narrative, and moreso the choose-your-own-adventure aspect is how YOU choose to go through the levels and go through the game. You can go through as a shotgun-jockey or you can do any of the other things that you mentioned but its really how you want to experience the game yourself is how the differentiation comes into play.
Exactly, yes. And we had to make our AI robust enough to accommodate that. You know, in most games nowadays youve got two weapons, and frankly, the designers know what you have, so they design their AI to know what you have as well. But in RAGE, you can have anything at any point. So like in the first area, in the first Ghost hideout, if you happen to cheat and give yourself a turret and throw it down (normally you cant get a turret this early on), theyll know about it, and talk about it, and try to kick it over or try to avoid it. So we had to make the AI robust enough to handle everything since you can have everything at any point. So that really makes the guys super-smart.
Ok, great. Now, RAGE is running on an in-house engine, id Tech 5, and RAGE has also been in development for a good number of years, since 2007. So, was the development of id Tech 5 part of the reason RAGE has taken as long as it has?
Yes, you are absolutely 100% correct! Doom 3 was the same way. We build in a brand new tech, and that stuff takes a while, then you find something and you say, oops that doesnt work. Or oh, we can do it better or ok, now we want to do this. We throw away so much stuff in the first years of a project and thats just the reality - youre making brand new technology and a game at the same time. But that was one of the reasons why we were attracted to Bethesda because we have too many IPs and not enough people and time to develop them all. So thats why we built the second team, everyone there is working on Doom, with the same technology, so instead of taking forever to make tech and then the game, those guys can prototype faster, iterate faster, they can learn from our mistakes, they can follow our lead. So youll start to see games come out of this studio at a much faster pace because we can now focus on multiple projects at the same time whereas in the past we were always just too small to do that.
Ok, yeah that was going to be my follow-up question. Will the continued usage of id Tech 5 kind of streamline the process and get your projects out the door in a more timely fashion as a result?
Yes. Yeah, its hard making games at tech at the same time. *laughs*
Yeah, I believe that! *laughs* One depends so much on the other, you know? You cant get really far in the games development if the engine has some kind of a bug that needs to be worked out first.
Yeah, and sometimes you just dont know and you think yeah, this should work. And you work on it for a few months and then you realize ugh, that didnt work at all. But thats just the nature of developing tech and the game at the same time.
I see, yeah. So speaking of id Tech 5, given the announcement around this time last year that only games that are in-house to Bethesda or Zenimax will be able to utilize that engine... First of all, Im assuming thats still the same case? Are id/Bethesda games the only ones given the ability to use id Tech 5?
Yes, thats correct. John [Carmack] in a recent interview summed it up nicely when he said technology licensing is not really anything that we... you know, yes Call of Duty and Half Life originally used our engine, and so we had these two mega-titles used our technology, but we were never really into licensing because John never really wanted to build a whole team to support external developers and have engine sales people. John just wanted to make cool tech, cool games, and keep the company small. So honestly it was a relief to us. But we still have a number of studios that work under Bethesda, so were still working with outside developers, but it is a big stress off of our shoulders.
