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MI6 quizzed Executive Producer Patrick Gilmore this
week about the forthcoming "GoldenEye: Rogue
Agent" game...
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GoldenEye Rogue Agent - Patrick Gilmore Interview
(1)
27th July 2004
Who do you have onboard with the GRA development team
and what do they bring to the game?
Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, who wrote "The Rocketeer"
and several other movies, and an outgoing and gifted writing
team helped us to crack the initial story. They're basically
Bond fans so they know the universe inside out.
Beyond that Ken Adam, production designer and Oscar winner,
knighted for his work and knowledge of Bond, but also movies
like Dr Strangelove, came back to basically revisit some
of the environments that he created; like the Moonraker
shuttle launch bay, Fort Knox. He also created new areas
for this game to attach to the ones that he'd originally
built for the James Bond films, then to work with us to
create all new environments so Ken is really the visual
stylist of this game. So that was really huge for us.
Kym Barrett, costume designer for The Matrix, designed
a lot of the costumes for the characters in our products.
Rene Morel, who did the characters for "Final Fantasy: The
Movie" built all of our replica's of the classic Bond villains,
we did that to look like the original films. So that's some
big California Hollywood talent onboard. Plus we've got
great talent on the team, so we've got the best in the industry
and the best in EA that have come together to make this
game.
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Above: "The Rocketeer" poster, which starred James
Bond # 4, Timothy Dalton.
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Whereas the original "GoldenEye N64" was one of the
most the original FPS games for consoles, "GoldenEye Rogue"
agent isn't. What magic does it have to give it some of the longevity
that the original game has?
The original GoldenEye broke new ground in a lot of area's. It wasn't
the first, but it was the first to really do it well. They'd built
the game on these basic principles: great multiplayer, hot environments,
great AI. What we've done with our product is to acknowledge that
several years have gone by since that game and that technology's
advanced. People's concepts of AI have advanced but those fundamental
pillars are the same for us so we're simply taking what made the
original GoldenEye great and we're making a game that focuses on
the exact same thing. We're trying to give people that exact same
thing but in more of a contemporary context.
Above: Original "Moonraker"
(1979) concept artwork by Sir Ken Adam.
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With the amount of stiff competition that there is
in the market for FPS games, what's going to make this game
stand out from others?
I think the villain angle for this is very unique, I think
the goldeneye is very unique spin on first person shooter
game play. It's a tool you use, it's not a replacement for
a weapon and it's not a replacement for some of the fundamentals
for FPS, but its definitely an interesting catalyst for
unique game play. Especially how our game works with characters
hiding behind cover and E.V.I.L AI that pursues you, you
can use the eye to pull guys out of cover, you can use the
eye to make their weapons stop working, to shield yourself,
to activate death traps and things like that. So it's a
pretty powerful device in conjunction with all the weapons.
What about the graphics of the game, how is it going
to keep up with games that are being created at the moment,
and what improvements are there on previous Bond games?
We've pulled a lot of engine components from Electronic
Arts to build the engine for "Rouge Agent". We've built
it using some fundamental technology we had here in EA LA.
We took the character rendering from "Lord of the Rings"
then we took another part of the rendering from an EA Sports
game. Basically we took the cream of the crop from around
the company and assembled the engine by taking the key components
and then adding on top of it things like environment mapping,
light mapping so we've really taken this to the next level.
So we've given our artists the tools that are adaptable
and more advanced then most engines that are out there.
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..."No Bond, no rules, no mercy" is our tag
line...
What about the storyline of the game - is it comparable
to the movies that we've seen so far? What aspects of the
movies did you take in order for it to fit into the storyline?
Well the fun of the product is that you play on the villain
side of the universe so strictly speaking its not a James
Bond game. I mean "No Bond, no rules, no mercy" is our tag
line, you play a character with a different edge than someone
who's working for Her Majesty's Secret Service. But at the
same time we're trying to deliver the sort of entertainment
value that you get from a James Bond game. So the same kind
of battle sequence with huge scope and sweep of an espionage
thriller that you'd expect from James Bond, and we've gone
back to characters that would never have had a game made
for them and use them for the center pieces.
You've got Auric Goldfinger, you've got Doctor No, you've
got characters that are unbelievably recognizable as being
part of the James Bond universe that you're seeing here
in a game for the first time.
Will we actually see the face of the Rouge Agent himself,
and if so, will he be played by anyone?
Well he's totally unique character, he is unique to this
product and he's a brand new designed character so you will
see his face and can decide who you think he looks like.
We tried to make him as unique as we could.
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Patrick Gilmore
Bio
Patrick Gilmore joined the EA LA Studio in
October 2003 and serves as Executive Producer overseeing
the production of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
Gilmore was previously the senior executive producer
for Dreamworks Interactive, where he started and oversaw
all development in the console department at the studio.
He was the original executive producer on the highly
successful Medal of Honor franchise as well as other
projects including Jurassic Park: The Lost World and
Small Soldiers.
Before joining Dreamworks, Gilmore spent close to
seven years at Disney Interactive where he led the development
of more than 25 products including Aladdin. |
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Above: Dame Judi Dench will reprise her role as M. |
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How important are the cut scenes in progressing the
game level to level?
The cut scenes in this product are sort of the glue that
holds all the gameplay together. You get briefings by Goldfinger
and Pussy Galore about the action you're about to dive into.
Scaramanga is well connected in the blackmarket and is pulling
technology from all sources as you fulfill your missions,
and then beyond that there are people like M - Judi Dench
makes an appearance in the game.
All of them help us to solidify our grounding in the James
Bond universe, but also help us advance the story of a guy
who was rejected by MI6, went the wrong side and got swept
up in this big gang war between Goldfinger and Doctor No.
So there's quite a big story there and there's quite a few
twists in it along the way. As much as possible we tried
to get those to happen in gameplay, and then cinematics
help give a sort of richer texture to that.
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What stage of the development are we in right now?
We are just a couple of weeks from Alpha. Which basically means
that the entire game is complete from start to finish with all
the assets created. With Alpha you are just polishing everything
to a sheen.
Are you on track for this release?
Absolutely.
You have no worries about it being put back?
I have no worries about that whatsoever, I am totally confident.
Images copyright EA Games - used with permission.
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