Nintendo Interviews Rare on Perfect Dark
After tirelessly toiling for years, undercover CI Agents have finally gained the trust and favor of high-ranking officials at Rare. What follows is an exclusive interview with the development team responsible for the creation of Perfect Dark. Brave men and women have risked their lives for this information, so use it well.
Firstly, congratulations on the successful launch of Perfect Dark. It’s certainly been worth the wait.
Thanks very much, I think that what we’ve produced certainly justifies the wait that you’ve all had to endure. With so much expectation we had to make sure that every aspect of the game was just right.
Exactly how long have you been working on Perfect Dark?
Work started on Perfect Dark soon after the completion of GoldenEye in late 1997 when the game began to transform from its GoldenEye origins into what you see today. The project as a whole took around three years during which time nearly every aspect of the original GoldenEye engine was overhauled.
How many folks were on the PD team?
It’s difficult to say exactly because so many people have made valuable contributions to the project. However the core team that worked on the game through to its completion was around fourteen people.
Although this game is not an official sequel to GoldenEye 007, it was obviously inspired by your original tribute to James Bond. Are you at all disappointed that you weren’t able to make another game based on James Bond?
Not at all, a follow-up Bond title would have been just that, a follow-up. Although Perfect Dark is the next game by the GoldenEye team and is closely linked to it in regards to genre, style, and gameplay, the result is a product that stands out in its own right. In effect we were in a very privileged position as we were able to innovate and create to the limits of our imaginations. Joanna Dark is a great character, a truly 21st century girl; the freedom that we have enjoyed in the game design has allowed us to create a thoroughly modern and appealing character. Having an open plot and location for the game meant that we could provide the gamer with a myriad of environments and challenges to explore, consequently leaving Bond behind has helped Perfect Dark break free.
Joanna is quite a foxy lady. Who’s face did you use to create Ms. Dark?
Joanna uses her own face exclusively.
How do like Michelle Merkin, the model who is currently portraying Joanna Dark in real life?
Michelle plays the part very well, glamorous, sexy and yet with the look of somebody that you would not wish to get on the wrong side of.
When you look at your completed project, what are you most proud of?
I think the fact that the game is truly the sum of its parts. Looking at the completed version I can see all of the different aspects that people have contributed and that make up the whole that is Perfect Dark. Consistently the standard of work in all aspects of the game is exemplary, and to be able to create a product that is both innovative and finely honed in so many areas is a real achievement and one that we are immensely proud of.
What was the most challenging aspect of the development of Perfect Dark?
Just the sheer amount of work that needed to be done to put in everything we wanted. To get it all done within the available time and to a standard we were happy with — this all added up to the biggest challenge.
The guns in this game are phenomenal. How do you go about inventing a new gun like the FarSight XR-20 or the Mauler?
One day the Programmer went for a walk. First of all he went to the canteen to see what was for lunch, and bumped into Cook.
“Hello Cook,” said the Programmer.
“Hi.” said Cook.
“I wish,” said Cook, “that I could have a laptop PC that fired bullets and could also turn into an auto sentry turret as needed.”
“Cool.” said the Programmer as he left slurping on some rice pudding. Next stop was reception.
“Hi.” said the Receptionist.
“Hello.” said the Programmer.
“Sometimes I could really do with a standard military assault rifle combined with a rapid-fire grenade launcher for secondary fire.” sighed the Receptionist.
“Cool.” said the Programmer as he eagerly headed back to his keyboard in a spurt of enthusiasm. Just as he passing through Admin the Programmer spied the Production Manager through an open door.
“I’ve had this great idea!” shouted the Production Manager. “How about a gun that zoom like a sniper rifle, but it can also see and shoot through walls? Wouldn’t that be great!”
“Nah,” muttered the Programmer, “it’ll never work …”
Well, there’s a shred of truth in there somewhere. We’re always chucking ideas around — each gun involves work from lots of people covering areas like effects, gameplay, graphics, sounds, animations etc. So for instance the actual FarSight idea was though of by one person, was modeled by someone else and then the x-ray graphics mode done by our resident special effects expert (apparently this stuff just constantly churns around in his head and he just transfers it from there to the video game screen. Quite a scary though, really!).
When you guys gather around in the Combat Simulator, what kinds of configurations do you normally use?
Varied tastes exist throughout the team but I personally prefer a good-old machine gun in open play. There’s something immensely satisfying about repeatedly spraying your best friend with the contents of your AR34. Playing humans vs. simulants or King of the Hill is also a great favorite. Most players toss a few simulants into the mix whenever they fire up a multiplayer match.
Speaking of which, how did you program these sapients to behave so realistically?
The first and hardest thing was getting them to move around all of the levels successfully, using ladders and lifts, taking shortcuts etc. Then we had to teach them how to use all of the weapons to attack other players. After a while they were a bit too good, so some had to be dumbed down to create easier simulants for practicing against. From there a lot of time and hard work was spent tuning their performance to make them as realistic and as fun to play against as possible.
We think it’s totally rad that you’re making Perfect Dark for Game Boy Color. How will this game interact with the N64 version?
The Game Boy Color version of Perfect Dark is connectable to the N64 version via the Transfer Pak. By doing this you will be able to unlock various aspects of the N64 version.
Do you any plans to make Game Boy Color companion Paks for any of your other upcoming releases like Conker’s Bad Fur Day or Banjo-Tooie?
I’m not sure what the respective teams have in mind but I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed.
In conclusion, we’ve fallen in love with Joanna Dark. We’re hoping that you have big plans to make her a franchise character and keep developing games which bear her bright smiling face on the box. Can we expect more Perfect Dark in the future?
I don’t think that Joanna has any intention of vanishing into the sidelines, and with the evil conspirators continuing to haunt the world of the future I think that we should all be very grateful that she is around to put them in their place.