Designer Diary: Backyard Wrestling, Part 1
See what BYW Lead Designer Kevin Gill had to say about why he chose to work on backyard wrestling game.
Published: September 20, 2003
Why Backyard Wrestling? What was the draw to the license and style of game? Why not a more "traditional" wrestling game? What were the challenges in approaching this style game?
Kevin Gill, Lead Designer:
Backyard Wrestling was chosen because it is a multi-cultural, multi-national home video/dvd and Pay Per View juggernaut around the world, that has captured the imagination of wrestling fans, as well as casual videogame players around the world. Backyard Wrestling delivers the "Holy Shi*" factor of pro wrestling, and over the top stunts, flamboyant characters, and unique combat environments, driven by a killer 41 song soundtrack. Timing also played a big part. This isn't a few years back when ECW, WCW, and WWF were thriving and drawing turn-away crowds. Take a look at the wrestling business today in America. The pro-wrestling wrestling industry in the US now a monopoly, controlled by a former billionaire, desperately trying to recapture his glory days, while completely alienating his core fans, and shoving his untalented family down everyone's throats, while people tune out in droves. When we had the chance to team up with the visionaries at BYW, inc and shake up the genre, and give the industry a kick in the pants, we jumped at it.
The draw of the license and style was the unprecedented freedom it offered in terms of environmental interaction and game play. While most video game genre's continue to evolve and innovate from game play and design perspectives, the developers of wrestling games have essentially been churning out the same game for many years, while lacking any true innovation. A huge part of this is due to the fact that the developers of wrestling games are forced to re-create the production of a television show, and are unable to use their imagination to make the genre better. We saw backyard wrestling as something that completely captured the "magic" of pro-wrestling, with a huge cross-over appeal to the casual gamer. We look at is "all killer, no filler". We give the player complete freedom to explore and destroy the environment, while doing the sickest moves imaginable, picking up and using countless weapons, and doing real time damage to their opponents, in imaginative environmental locations
The challenges were that a game like this has truly never been made before. You've always been confined to a ring, forced to adhere to rules. To give the player complete freedom to explore and use the environment any way they want took a lot of time to conceive and design. The first thing we did was sit down and start brainstorming about the environments you would fight in, the weapons you would be able to use, how you would be able to use them, and of course the characters you would play as. The engine and the tools that were used had to be revamped from a 1 on 1 fighting game to make the environment interactive. Al the basic systems, especially the camera had to we worked on extensively to support the go anywhere game play. We experimented with a lot of control types, seeing what worked best, the overly complicated system of meters and extensive button combinations didn't feel right, so we opted for a more pick up and play style. The damage system was also a real challenge, as it offers varying degrees of damage occurring on various parts of the body. It took a lot of work to get right, and more importantly, balanced. When you consider we had to make most of this stuff up from our imaginations, as there was no groundbreaking game we were trying to emulate. We ere trying to break new ground ourselves.
Part 2 >>
Kevin Gill, Lead Designer:
Backyard Wrestling was chosen because it is a multi-cultural, multi-national home video/dvd and Pay Per View juggernaut around the world, that has captured the imagination of wrestling fans, as well as casual videogame players around the world. Backyard Wrestling delivers the "Holy Shi*" factor of pro wrestling, and over the top stunts, flamboyant characters, and unique combat environments, driven by a killer 41 song soundtrack. Timing also played a big part. This isn't a few years back when ECW, WCW, and WWF were thriving and drawing turn-away crowds. Take a look at the wrestling business today in America. The pro-wrestling wrestling industry in the US now a monopoly, controlled by a former billionaire, desperately trying to recapture his glory days, while completely alienating his core fans, and shoving his untalented family down everyone's throats, while people tune out in droves. When we had the chance to team up with the visionaries at BYW, inc and shake up the genre, and give the industry a kick in the pants, we jumped at it.
The draw of the license and style was the unprecedented freedom it offered in terms of environmental interaction and game play. While most video game genre's continue to evolve and innovate from game play and design perspectives, the developers of wrestling games have essentially been churning out the same game for many years, while lacking any true innovation. A huge part of this is due to the fact that the developers of wrestling games are forced to re-create the production of a television show, and are unable to use their imagination to make the genre better. We saw backyard wrestling as something that completely captured the "magic" of pro-wrestling, with a huge cross-over appeal to the casual gamer. We look at is "all killer, no filler". We give the player complete freedom to explore and destroy the environment, while doing the sickest moves imaginable, picking up and using countless weapons, and doing real time damage to their opponents, in imaginative environmental locations
The challenges were that a game like this has truly never been made before. You've always been confined to a ring, forced to adhere to rules. To give the player complete freedom to explore and use the environment any way they want took a lot of time to conceive and design. The first thing we did was sit down and start brainstorming about the environments you would fight in, the weapons you would be able to use, how you would be able to use them, and of course the characters you would play as. The engine and the tools that were used had to be revamped from a 1 on 1 fighting game to make the environment interactive. Al the basic systems, especially the camera had to we worked on extensively to support the go anywhere game play. We experimented with a lot of control types, seeing what worked best, the overly complicated system of meters and extensive button combinations didn't feel right, so we opted for a more pick up and play style. The damage system was also a real challenge, as it offers varying degrees of damage occurring on various parts of the body. It took a lot of work to get right, and more importantly, balanced. When you consider we had to make most of this stuff up from our imaginations, as there was no groundbreaking game we were trying to emulate. We ere trying to break new ground ourselves.
Part 2 >>
