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Rather than waiting and chafing impatiently for Brink, Brenna took it upon herself to hide inside a shipment of office supplies and be delivered directly to Bethesda's headquarters. Once inside, she quickly located lead designer Neil Alphonso, and threatened him with a loaded stapler until he agreed to this interview.
games.on.net: Splash Damage are kind of required to make first person shooters, but apart from that, what was the genesis of Brink?
Neil Alphonso: We've always made the same sort of games, with the original guys from Splash Damage working on Quake Fortress as a mod for Quake. The idea for the Ark and the whole setting, that idea has been around as long as Splash Damage, but it's a tricky thing to do a new IP as a new studio, so it has taken a while. It needed Wolfenstein and Quake Wars to happen before we had the cred to do what we wanted to do.
Coming up with the ideas, honestly, was pretty easy. It's how you execute them that's important. The idea for the setting has been around for a while, with the specific components being built on what we'd done previously, what the fans wanted to see, what we felt we should put in to draw more people in. That's what we're trying to do more than anything with this game. Quake Wars was a very hardcore game really; it wasn't very accessible so people had a lot of trouble picking it up. People who loved it were able to get into all the nuances of it, but we wanted to make something a bit more accessible, that gets people in slowly, but still has that depth. Basically so it doesn't scare them with everything all at once.
games.on.net: Is it difficult to balance accessibility with the needs of your hardcore fans?
Neil Alphonso: Yes! They have these stock phrases like "dumbed down for console!" Even if it's not, that's how they tend to react and we have to deal with it. I expect to get death threats! I think in the end people just fear change in general and don't want anything different, but we want to evolve the games we make as well as the genre as a whole. We're gonna push it and hopefully in the end people will think it was worth it.
games.on.net: How is Brink "evolving the genre"?
Neil Alphonso: The SMART system is definitely something, applied to a shooter, which we feel is really special, and people that play the game a lot at the studio know we're on to something big that's different from other shooters because it's something we really miss when we pick up something else.
games.on.net: But it's a controversial feature, people don't like the idea of it - especially the hardcores...
Neil Alphonso: Because they don't understand it. I'm not really worried about it. Once people get it in their hands they'll understand how it works. People tend to have this reaction like "it's doing everything for me" when no, it's really not. You're the one that's saying where to go. We can't actually make you lift something, it's not motion control! Hmm, actually, our players would be really fit.
The other thing (we're proud of) is we have very customisable characters, so people can create their own looks. Although this has become more of a standard these days, we have advancement, so you can get more things for your characters. Our take is different on it though, we don't really let you get more powerful. That way, you really just get more versatile abilities. … it's just that you can be more creative with what you have.
And wrapping it all together in a package that, say, people who play Call of Duty and only Call of Duty will get into, but people who like the team play aspect in Battlefield as opposed to Call of Duty will like it too, because we're even more team based than that.
games.on.net: Tell us a bit more about weapon customisation.
Neil Alphonso: (For example) if you don't like using iron sights, you can set up your weapon so you don't ever use iron sights. We have a lot of people who played our games previously who didn't like (iron sights) at all. Basically we want you to be able to tune your weapons to your own particular play style. None of the attachments make you more powerful. Say you put a big drum magazine on so you don't have to reload as often, but the reloads are longer and the gun isn't quite as accurate because it's a lot heavier, and takes longer to bring out. So there's a cost and a benefit to balance.
games.on.net: Bethesda own the Brink IP rights. That's interesting'; so there's a possibility that if the studio moved onto other projects, another team could take over the series - if it becomes a series. How do you feel about it?
Neil Alphonso: Not too bad really. There's a lot of legalese in there, but I'm not worried about them respecting our wishes. I think they will. The way it'll work is that if they wanna give it someone else, they'll make sure it's a developer we trust, and that we can work with. It's not gonna be the sort of game where you can push it off on another studio and have no communication whatsoever. Honestly they would really struggle because of how complicated it is to develop this kind of game.
games.on.net: Were there any design decisions that proved contentious among the dev team? Arguments? Inclusions? Exclusions? Dramatic scenes in the office?
Neil Alphonso: There's things that we argue about like whether we should have kills and deaths displayed on the leaderboards, 'cause we're not really a game about kills and deaths ratio, but people are so used to it now. That's one we go back and forth on. Actually, I disagree with the Creative Director on that one. I kind of think we should have it just 'cause people like it so much. Some people are all about that. They'll be way down on the leaderboard but they'll go "oh well at least I had forty kills to five deaths. I'm still awesome."
Thanks very much to Neil for taking the time to answer our questions, and for giving Brenna a generous thirty-second head start to avoid security. Are you look forward to Brink, or is Splash Damage reinventing a wheel that already spins just fine the way it is? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!
games.on.net: Splash Damage are kind of required to make first person shooters, but apart from that, what was the genesis of Brink?
Neil Alphonso: We've always made the same sort of games, with the original guys from Splash Damage working on Quake Fortress as a mod for Quake. The idea for the Ark and the whole setting, that idea has been around as long as Splash Damage, but it's a tricky thing to do a new IP as a new studio, so it has taken a while. It needed Wolfenstein and Quake Wars to happen before we had the cred to do what we wanted to do.
Coming up with the ideas, honestly, was pretty easy. It's how you execute them that's important. The idea for the setting has been around for a while, with the specific components being built on what we'd done previously, what the fans wanted to see, what we felt we should put in to draw more people in. That's what we're trying to do more than anything with this game. Quake Wars was a very hardcore game really; it wasn't very accessible so people had a lot of trouble picking it up. People who loved it were able to get into all the nuances of it, but we wanted to make something a bit more accessible, that gets people in slowly, but still has that depth. Basically so it doesn't scare them with everything all at once.
games.on.net: Is it difficult to balance accessibility with the needs of your hardcore fans?
Neil Alphonso: Yes! They have these stock phrases like "dumbed down for console!" Even if it's not, that's how they tend to react and we have to deal with it. I expect to get death threats! I think in the end people just fear change in general and don't want anything different, but we want to evolve the games we make as well as the genre as a whole. We're gonna push it and hopefully in the end people will think it was worth it.
games.on.net: How is Brink "evolving the genre"?
Neil Alphonso: The SMART system is definitely something, applied to a shooter, which we feel is really special, and people that play the game a lot at the studio know we're on to something big that's different from other shooters because it's something we really miss when we pick up something else.
games.on.net: But it's a controversial feature, people don't like the idea of it - especially the hardcores...
Neil Alphonso: Because they don't understand it. I'm not really worried about it. Once people get it in their hands they'll understand how it works. People tend to have this reaction like "it's doing everything for me" when no, it's really not. You're the one that's saying where to go. We can't actually make you lift something, it's not motion control! Hmm, actually, our players would be really fit.
The other thing (we're proud of) is we have very customisable characters, so people can create their own looks. Although this has become more of a standard these days, we have advancement, so you can get more things for your characters. Our take is different on it though, we don't really let you get more powerful. That way, you really just get more versatile abilities. … it's just that you can be more creative with what you have.
And wrapping it all together in a package that, say, people who play Call of Duty and only Call of Duty will get into, but people who like the team play aspect in Battlefield as opposed to Call of Duty will like it too, because we're even more team based than that.
games.on.net: Tell us a bit more about weapon customisation.
Neil Alphonso: (For example) if you don't like using iron sights, you can set up your weapon so you don't ever use iron sights. We have a lot of people who played our games previously who didn't like (iron sights) at all. Basically we want you to be able to tune your weapons to your own particular play style. None of the attachments make you more powerful. Say you put a big drum magazine on so you don't have to reload as often, but the reloads are longer and the gun isn't quite as accurate because it's a lot heavier, and takes longer to bring out. So there's a cost and a benefit to balance.
games.on.net: Bethesda own the Brink IP rights. That's interesting'; so there's a possibility that if the studio moved onto other projects, another team could take over the series - if it becomes a series. How do you feel about it?
Neil Alphonso: Not too bad really. There's a lot of legalese in there, but I'm not worried about them respecting our wishes. I think they will. The way it'll work is that if they wanna give it someone else, they'll make sure it's a developer we trust, and that we can work with. It's not gonna be the sort of game where you can push it off on another studio and have no communication whatsoever. Honestly they would really struggle because of how complicated it is to develop this kind of game.
games.on.net: Were there any design decisions that proved contentious among the dev team? Arguments? Inclusions? Exclusions? Dramatic scenes in the office?
Neil Alphonso: There's things that we argue about like whether we should have kills and deaths displayed on the leaderboards, 'cause we're not really a game about kills and deaths ratio, but people are so used to it now. That's one we go back and forth on. Actually, I disagree with the Creative Director on that one. I kind of think we should have it just 'cause people like it so much. Some people are all about that. They'll be way down on the leaderboard but they'll go "oh well at least I had forty kills to five deaths. I'm still awesome."
Thanks very much to Neil for taking the time to answer our questions, and for giving Brenna a generous thirty-second head start to avoid security. Are you look forward to Brink, or is Splash Damage reinventing a wheel that already spins just fine the way it is? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!
Interview with Australian website.
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