GamerZines: A lot of developers are looking towards the free-to-play model as a method of getting their game into people’s hands. Was that ever considered for Section 8: Prejudice?
Adel Chaveleh, president of TimeGate Studios: So when we were looking at the various ways of getting this game to market, we had every opportunity to do something like that. We could have taken it to retail and the amount of content we have could certainly support that. We could have taken it down the free-to-play route and with all the upgrades and the modularity it could easily go there, but we thought the best way to get this game out and do something really solid while being easy to understand and over deliver to our consumer was to come out with an attractive price point.
When you look at the existing market place with Battlefield 1943 and Blacklight Tango Down and what they got for that $14.99 and what we’re giving them, the quality of it and the amount of content and not being nickled and dimed at the end of the day, we thought that was the home-run angle to go for. We’re obviously not opposed to looking at new business models, so we’re looking at everything very careful. The industry when we launched originally and where we are now is substantially different, so who knows where we will be in the future. However for this product we want it to be easy to consume and people to be very happy with what they’ve spent their money on.
GZ: Many reviewers complained about Section 8 not having a proper single-player component. Do you think it’s impossible for shooters to come out now, without having a proper campaign as well as a multiplayer component?
AC: It was an expectation that wasn’t managed properly. One of the lessons learned was that we didn’t set the expectations properly. This time around we wanted to make a solid single-player campaign. The first product’s scope didn’t allow for that, but this time around it did. Every product is different at the end of the day, could there be a multiplayer only Section 8 down the road? Maybe. So it really depends on the product and what you are trying to do, you could easily do a multiplayer-only product and it be successful, but you need to know what you’re marketing and how you are marketing it. You need to communicate that to players.
GZ: The mechs involved in the original game were great, but there was only one design. Is that still the case in the sequel?
Brett Norton, design director at TimeGate Studios: Well, we’re sticking with the current vehicles and the mech design we have. We’ve made a few improvements to make all the vehicles more useable, but we didn’t want to modify their role too much. We have expanded the roster which is why we put the Hoverbike into the game, because we wanted something that felt very different from the existing vehicles. We kept the current classes to help players, especially newcomers, figure out what each vehicle does and how they are used. It was easier to have a completely new vehicle rather than modify the existing ones.
AC: The piece of candy that the mechs did get are new fatalities. You can walk up to a bike and stomp on the bike and slam him against the bike. There are quite a few new things like that.
BN: We’ve added quite a few new fatalities. Mechs also work great in the Swarm mode as well, as they are one of the key lynch pins of harder difficulties.
GZ: You have mentioned previously that TimeGate already has a team dedicated to post release content for Section 8: Prejudice, what sort of DLC should we expect? Will it be more about fulfilling player requests or do you have plans already?
AC: We can’t completely sit around and wait for the community to tell us what they want. We have to get things rolling.
BN: If you want to get content out there close to the release date, you need to plan a lot of it.
AC: The first drops are pre-planned, but clearly the intent is to react to community and press feedback post launch. It is a living, breathing thing at the end of the day. We’re very restricted on previous projects and what we could do to support the game, because we physically couldn’t put out DLC packages. We were prohibited, because we didn’t have the gateway to release it ourselves. This time we’re pre-planning the first few drops to keep it alive and support the crap out of it after launch.
GZ: Is Prejudice’s five hour single-player component a taster for what could be a much longer and deeper campaign in a future game?
BN: Down the road we’d love to expand and do more single-player narratives. We’ve been trying to build the fiction up. We always had an idea for this fiction and the background of this universe even prior to Section 8, however in each game we can only showcase so much of it at time. We always have more elements than we can focus on in any given game. If we ever wound up doing an RPG for this universe then there would be tons of narrative stuff to pool from.
AC: We are trying to look at cross-media things to tell the mythology because as said we have five hours and we have a campaign that has to work well in a game, there’s only so much you can tell. We are working on those things as well to build it up over time.
GZ: So like comics, dvd spin-offs etc?
AC: Those are some of the methods we’re thinking about.
GZ: So many publishers are looking to corner extra mediums with their IPs. Is it just to raise awareness?
AC: One great example to pool from is Warhammer. When it started out it wasn’t the be all and end all IP, but the more chances you have to iterate and tell the next part of the story the better it gets. Any touch point you have out there for your IP allows people to dive in and get a little bit deeper involved in the universe. It just gives you another vehicle to pull people in. Games are one part of that, but if it’s an IP, games are just one component. Obviously we’re just focused on games, but a reach that a game has is based on the IP at the end of the day.
GZ: Gentlemen thank you for your time, and we look forward to finally getting our hands on Section 8: Prejudice.
Tags: Section 8, Section 8 Prejudice
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