I am lead programmer on Cold Fear. At the beginning of the project I worked on the boat's movements and their impact on the hero. Here at Darkworks we have a very good development team of 10 programmers, all experienced and dedicated.
How did you render the movements of the ship?
We had two objectives on this subject. We had to recreate a storm environment out at sea, but then we also had to give the player all the means to fight in this specific environment. Therefore, the challenge was to build a better control scheme than what is usually the norm in horror games.
Creating a storm environment
We were quickly able to make the ship move. But to achieve a more realist movement we had to develop a complete roll editor. When out at sea, a ship moves both on a vertical axis (roll) and a horizontal one (pitch). Our Darkwave editor allows us to separately generate the pitch and roll following two different curves, and it is the combination of both that creates a realistic movement.
Monitoring the movement
Creating the ship’s movement was not enough. From a gameplay point of view, it was important to control it step by step to better manage the rhythm of the action and the surprise effects in the game. In the end the Darkwave system allows us to control everything that happens, just as if we were directing a movie like Titanic or The Perfect Storm. That means that each event falls in place at the right moment at the right place so that we are sure to offer the best show to the player as an actor.
New camera angles
Once the ship movement scheme was built, the second challenge was the camera system. In terms of development, Cold Fear is a real challenge when it comes to camera system. It was a real headache because at the same time we had to efficiently render the movement of the scenery, and follow the hero who is also behaving to compensate this very movement. For instance, in the early stages of development the camera was constantly going through the walls because of the roll movement. So we had to develop an inertia control system for the camera, just as if a cameraman is using a steadycam behind the hero. The whaler offers very different and complex situations, including vast exteriors like on the main deck, and confined interiors like most corridors. Each of these configurations means a specific constraint in terms of camera.
For a horror game another innovation is that we have a directing-oriented camera system combined with autonomous cameras that follow the actions of the player. According to the action, our directors have 12 camera modes at their disposal to let the tension grow, highlight the atmosphere of a room or lead the player toward the next event or combat. And of course the player also has the opportunity to switch to the over the shoulder view at any moment.
Over the shoulder view
Most horror games put the emphasis on hand-to-hand or close-quarter combats. In Cold Fear, we wanted to create the possibility that the enemy shoot at you. We wanted to enrich the action gameplay and not have only creatures or mutants to shoot at.
We quickly developed an over the shoulder view to allow for shooting action and long range combat. We opted for an autolock-free targeting system so that the player would have a total control of his actions and not be frustrated by a strong assistance. When compared to other horror games, this OTS camera really unleashes the action and makes it even more immersive. The player can strafe and move back while firing until the very last moment before being caught, which makes the combats more interesting and more tactical. It also makes contact with the creatures even more impressive and stressful. With all the camera systems - combined with the OTS view - the player is never frustrated by the view of the game he has on his screen. It was something we really wanted to improve so that the player would really be able to fight the way he likes and immerge himself in the horrific atmosphere of the game.
Managing Tom interactions with the environment
In Cold Fear the characters spontaneously compensate the movements of the ship until the deck reaches a certain angle where they fall, and begin to slide. While sliding Tom can still turn back, stop himself falling by catching hold of the hull, and keep on shooting. To achieve the best possible visual quality, the characters animations had to perfectly match the movements of the ship. The characters must compensate in all direction: forward, backward, on both sides and in all intermediary directions. Which gives us a total of 9 animations that have to be mixed together to create a movement that constantly follows the deck angle variations. So we had to implement 9 times more animations than in the average third person game. Even if we managed to use some techniques like Inverse Kinematics, we still have 250 animations for Tom, and 150 for some enemies not including compensation animations. Our animators did a tremendous job to achieve such a result. The game engine dynamically manages the impact of the moving environment on all entities: compensation, fall, slide… Everything is rendered in real time and even the corpses are still affected by roll movements.
Action!
Having good animations was a key issue in Cold Fear; but we also wanted the game to be able to show many enemies on the same screen. So we optimized the game again and again to reduce the size of the animations in the memory, with good results. In some scenes, we have a dozen of enemies including mercenaries, mutants, exocels… all interacting with each other and with the environment. This allows for really intense action sequences
What I like in Cold Fear
Cold Fear offers a never-seen-before visual experience in terms of animation richness. The interaction between the storm and the characters that are on the deck sometimes creates some really breathtaking moments. And on top of that, we managed to offer some really intense action sequences featuring far many more enemies than in most horror game.
The player has no time for relief in Cold Fear; it is this mix of strong atmosphere and intense action I am the most proud of.
Cold Fear Diary