Interview: World in Conflict

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 23rd July 2008

World in Conflict as a huge hit on the PC, so can we expect the same for the console version which releases later this year? We spoke to the games lead designer, Magnus “Soundboy” Jansén to find out.

RG: For those who don’t know about the game, how would you best describe the game?

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is an explosive action game of super-charged superpower warfare. The engrossing story in the campaign and the thrilling team-play of the multiplayer combines into a nuclear explosion of gaming goodness. It sounds like marketing speak, but I’ll be damned it if isn’t all true.

RG: World in Conflict was a huge hit on the PC, how have you gone about transferring that success to the console version?

The biggest and most important part of our approach to the console adaptations is just that – to adapt, not port.
Heartbreaking amounts of resources and time have been spent on adapting the controls (not porting them!). If you get the controls right then the rest of the game (the great single player campaign and the great multiplayer) will work automatically.
Getting the graphics and rendering up to par with the PC version has been a lot of work too, but it’s finally there – we even have some features that was DX10 exclusive on the PC.

RG: Have you been able to implement features that you wish you could have included in the original game?

Yes several. For example we have a very nice field manual where you can read up on all the units etc in the game.

RG: Have you tweaked anything from the PC version that you feel didn’t quite work the way you wanted?

A lot of things have been fixed and polished. The Swordfish Studios team in Manchester (who are heading up the console adaptations) constantly find technical and design flaws which we then fix. We are of course rolling as many of those changes as we can back into the PC version.

RG: Console gamers tend to br a different breed to PC gamers with strategy games not really receiving the attention they deserve, is this something you’ve considered when developing World in Conflict for console?

We always try to make the best game we can, adapting controls and features depending on the needs of the platform.
I’m not arguing that there are such things as “console gamers” and “PC gamers”, but I hope that the majority are just “gamers”. We think that a lot of gamers will like World in Conflict: Soviet Assault regardless of the platform.

RG: We’ve often seen console versions of successful PC games have features or parts stripped out of them, is this something you’ve had to consider?

There are always things that don’t fit on consoles. But it’s mostly things that just don’t make any sense like the benchmark feature or the Massgate online portal (we use Live and PSN instead). The heart of the game is so eminently suited for consoles (first person shooter-like camera controls, short action-packed team-based multiplayer etc) that no major amputations were needed.

RG: Can console gamers expect the same multiplayer modes as featured in the PC version?

Yup!

RG: New content is being introduced in the console versions of the game, what can you tell us about it?

The biggest new addition is the new Soviet single player story. We have added a parallel story where we follow some Russian characters through the same events the US characters experience.

We always wanted to add a Soviet point of view to the story. With the original campaign we were accused of being “pro-American” when, in fact, we had worked hard to avoid demonising the Russian forces. Now when we get to tell the story from the Soviet perspective we can show that greatness and weakness in character does not depend on country of origin.

RG: Will there be any differences between the two console versions or will PS3 and 360 gamers be getting exactly the same?

The online components will be slightly different when needed due to the differences between Live and PSN. The gameplay and feature set will be exactly the same, and the graphics will be more or less the same.

RG: How has the multiplayer aspect been tweaked to take advantage of the console online abilities and what new multiplayer features can players expect to find?

The matchmaking and game creation etc has been changed to fit Live and PSN, but the actual in-game experience will be very similar to the multiplayer in the PC version. We’ve added a cool feature we call the “War Room” where you can get an overview of how all games played in the past week adds up in terms of faction performance. This means you can see how US/NATO is doing against the USSR on each map, and even globally. You can then use the War Room as a game finder to quickly even out the score on a particular map.