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BattleCry

Viktor Andonov on designing BattleCry

We talk to the art director who's work delighted us in Half-Life and Dishonored.

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BattleCry is fundamentally a very different game than Viktor Andonov's most recognised work in Half-Life and Dishonored. Instead of a singleplayer game with a measured and lengthy narrative, Andonov is trying to tell a story and describe a universe within the limited scope of a frantic multiplayer game.

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"I have actually worked on a couple of multiplayers, but the trade off is clear for me," says Andonov. "Instead of quantity and spanning over a big area all of the design creative budget is concentrated in something narrow. So for me that's a great trade off. Cause more detail, more stylisation and more time spent on a shorter experience."

"Rather than having epic scope and space you have a more intense experience that's of a smaller scale. That's the main difference. Less diluted work."

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Not necessarily a bad thing then from Andonov's perspective that's his working on a more limited canvass. The maps of BattleCry - the warzones - do their part in telling the story and the vision for what they are is quite specific.

"Solving a design problem of: How do you make something that could function is such a short intense experience?", asks Andonov. "We have 4-5 minute game cycles that are very adrenaline-driven, fast. And for me the first starting point is how does a soldier feel right before he dies. So I'm thinking of World War I soldiers in the trenches, and then it gets easier cause when you're about to die, when your veins are pumping full of adrenaline, you don't perceive the world like in your everyday life."

"Things are surreal. Details disappear. And people even could have hallucinations and they really are on the frontier of a different world. So this approach allows me to do very symbolist imagery and allgorical. Which I'll be using. Example, the sun that you see here starts dripping blood into the clouds and that's the most subtle first touch. But every time you lose or win the environment is going to change in a very expressive way. Therefore the world has to be bold, very expressive and reacting to you in a very dynamic way."

BattleCry is a class-based multiplayer game, with five classes announced as part of the initial line up. But from Andonov's perspective it's less classes and more character as each has a fully fleshed out backstory.

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"I'm working with a comic book artist called Francisco Ruiz Velasco. He was Guillermo del Toro's storyboarder and concept artist for all of his movies. And he just joined us to do this. And we're developing a comic book for each character that we're doing internally in the studio and we'll release it. And each of them have an origin story starting from their childhood, some story, drama that happened to them, and how they became a warrior. First you have the factions that are very opposite, British versus Cossacks, completely different flavours and cultures. And then of course every character is very specific."

The third faction is still secret for now as Andonov doesn't want to show it off until it looks as good as the Royal Marines and Cossacks do. Andonov did confirm the third faction will be from a different part of the world (no surprise there). Digging a little deeper into the design of the characters, Andonov offered more insights into the design philosophy he uses.

"Back to World War I where we started having planes and tanks and for the first time in history soldiers get to wear camouflage uniforms," says Andonov. "In this game there is no need to hide, cause you're like a gladiator in an arena. You're there to be massacred and sacrifice yourself. So all the uniforms are actual historically inspired parade uniforms that were used in the 19th century, the Napoleon wars, which was much more ritualistic way of warfare. You'd march with drumroll to your death in a certain step and it had this "civilised flavour" of soldiers killing eachother while the civilian population was untouched. It's a paradox between savage violence and clean and civilised war with the physical property and civilians don't get hurt. And politicians keep their hands a bit cleaner."

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Some of the characters you'll get to play as in BattleCry.

Uniforms aren't the only part of the of soldier that tells are story - the weapons found in BattleCry are also interesting.

"The fact that we are eliminating powder gives us a lot of opportunity to develop mechanical devices that are very functional and reactive. Imagine having a crossbow that's like a Swiss clock. Very handcrafted, hand designed mechanisms that are all mechanical."

As BattleCry is an online multiplayer game that will be adapted to its audience and fleshed out over time starting with the beta next year - does that mean Andonov's approach changes in any way?

"For me ultimately the player would react to this, but I'm trying to establish a very strong identity which the players would hopefully embrace and follow through," says Andonov. "That would be the best case scenario. Things could be added that are illogical or silly, that's fine, but right now I'm in the process with the BattleCry team of establishing the DNA. And having a strong DNA, a very strong identity - visual and game experience identity - is going to drive this. So further down the road we can open it, this is the tip of an iceberg. There's no ending to which continent we can go fight or time period, but I want a strong core. That's why right now every uniform, every weapon, and every building and cloud is very specific. And I'd like to keep it this way as long as possible.

For more on BattleCry read our hands-on impressions from the announcement event in May.

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What if gunpowder wasn't allowed? That's the novel premise for Bethesda's upcoming class-based online multiplayer effort BattleCry.



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