Post-Mortem: Gun
We have a little chat with the boys at Neversoft about the release of their first non-Tony Hawk game in seven years.
Published: December 6, 2005
TPS: Now that the game’s finally out the door, is there anything you wish you could have added to the storyline or missions that had to get cut?
SP: Well, we would have written some top secret code that would detect what kind of gamer you were, and if it found you were a hardcore shooter fan or a game reviewer, it would have automatically ramped the game up into “Hard” or "Insane" mode based your skill level.
And I would have added a few more whores.
TPS: What do you think of other games that share similar themes like Red Dead Revolver or Dead Man’s Hand? Was there anything that you felt they did right, or was it more of a “f this, all those games suck, we need to make a real Western” approach?
SP: Well, our take is different. There were also other skateboarding games before Tony Hawk, but none that we thought either respected the sport or really captured the essence of it. We thought the West was in a pretty similar place in video games. It needed to be done right.
TPS: Hookay, for the inevitable question. What does it feel like to work on and put out a game that isn’t Tony Hawk. We know you guys split up the teams, but it has to feel nice to at least push something new out the door.
SP: Well, for one, it’s freakin’ hard! Gun was littered with new challenges for Neversoft: create a compelling main character from scratch, write a new streaming outdoor game engine, invent horseback control that didn’t suck, put some new wrinkles in the gunplay, write and produce a feature length story, work with A–list star talent, develop a new AI system in-house – and on and on. It was scary and exciting at the same time. But now that we’ve shipped THAW and Gun, we have two hardened, kick-ass teams in house, more experience, more talent, and we’re ready to hit the Next-Gen systems.
TPS: Any chance doing a game like this has sparked a desire to get back to some of the older stuff? Bruce Willis probably isn’t doing too much these days and we hear he sits by the phone waiting for you guys to call and ask him to do another Apocalypse game.
SP: Hey man, don’t make me drop some of the Bruce Willis voice clips from Apocalypse on you… We still have those around Neversoft, you know. If Activision calls up wants a Next Gen Apocalypse, well then, “LIGHT ONE UP, IT’S TIME TO JAM!”… Hooookay…. Maybe not such a good idea.
TPS: Have you had a chance to peek under the hood of the PS3, and would you care to make wild speculations about the power? We hear it runs on babies and the souls of the damned, but it’d be nice to get a developer perspective on things – especially since we update the PS3 section about once every two months.
SP: Unfortunately there’s this little thing called a Non Disclosure Agreement that all developers sign…. So I could tell you how powerful the freakin’ thing is but then some super silent ninjas would drop from the ceiling and cut my head off.
TPS: Finally, you guys seem awfully smart, and we’ve been trying to figure this one out for years now. How would one go about building a robotic woman a la Weird Science, but perhaps with slightly bigger boobs than Kelly LeBrock? We’re assuming Anthony Michael Hall will have to be part of the whole process.
SP: Man, you guys are still livin’ in the 80s? Do I also need to tell you how to get Kelly McGillis in an elevator? Look, there’s this thing called the Internet now, and you should maybe check it out…Google “boobs” and you’ll probably get close to what you’re looking for… Or maybe you’ll just get a picture of Anthony Michael Hall and that other guy... Who knows?
(PS: the underwear on the head is KEY…)
TPS: Hey, it was one of the most powerful documentaries of the 80s! And these internets are scary.
Congrats to the boys and girls at Neversoft for shipping something that didn’t include a 720 varial kickflip (at least not that we’ve found yet) and for taking the time to answer our questions.
SP: Well, we would have written some top secret code that would detect what kind of gamer you were, and if it found you were a hardcore shooter fan or a game reviewer, it would have automatically ramped the game up into “Hard” or "Insane" mode based your skill level.
And I would have added a few more whores.
TPS: What do you think of other games that share similar themes like Red Dead Revolver or Dead Man’s Hand? Was there anything that you felt they did right, or was it more of a “f this, all those games suck, we need to make a real Western” approach?
SP: Well, our take is different. There were also other skateboarding games before Tony Hawk, but none that we thought either respected the sport or really captured the essence of it. We thought the West was in a pretty similar place in video games. It needed to be done right.
TPS: Hookay, for the inevitable question. What does it feel like to work on and put out a game that isn’t Tony Hawk. We know you guys split up the teams, but it has to feel nice to at least push something new out the door.
SP: Well, for one, it’s freakin’ hard! Gun was littered with new challenges for Neversoft: create a compelling main character from scratch, write a new streaming outdoor game engine, invent horseback control that didn’t suck, put some new wrinkles in the gunplay, write and produce a feature length story, work with A–list star talent, develop a new AI system in-house – and on and on. It was scary and exciting at the same time. But now that we’ve shipped THAW and Gun, we have two hardened, kick-ass teams in house, more experience, more talent, and we’re ready to hit the Next-Gen systems.
TPS: Any chance doing a game like this has sparked a desire to get back to some of the older stuff? Bruce Willis probably isn’t doing too much these days and we hear he sits by the phone waiting for you guys to call and ask him to do another Apocalypse game.
SP: Hey man, don’t make me drop some of the Bruce Willis voice clips from Apocalypse on you… We still have those around Neversoft, you know. If Activision calls up wants a Next Gen Apocalypse, well then, “LIGHT ONE UP, IT’S TIME TO JAM!”… Hooookay…. Maybe not such a good idea.
TPS: Have you had a chance to peek under the hood of the PS3, and would you care to make wild speculations about the power? We hear it runs on babies and the souls of the damned, but it’d be nice to get a developer perspective on things – especially since we update the PS3 section about once every two months.
SP: Unfortunately there’s this little thing called a Non Disclosure Agreement that all developers sign…. So I could tell you how powerful the freakin’ thing is but then some super silent ninjas would drop from the ceiling and cut my head off.
TPS: Finally, you guys seem awfully smart, and we’ve been trying to figure this one out for years now. How would one go about building a robotic woman a la Weird Science, but perhaps with slightly bigger boobs than Kelly LeBrock? We’re assuming Anthony Michael Hall will have to be part of the whole process.
SP: Man, you guys are still livin’ in the 80s? Do I also need to tell you how to get Kelly McGillis in an elevator? Look, there’s this thing called the Internet now, and you should maybe check it out…Google “boobs” and you’ll probably get close to what you’re looking for… Or maybe you’ll just get a picture of Anthony Michael Hall and that other guy... Who knows?
(PS: the underwear on the head is KEY…)
TPS: Hey, it was one of the most powerful documentaries of the 80s! And these internets are scary.
Congrats to the boys and girls at Neversoft for shipping something that didn’t include a 720 varial kickflip (at least not that we’ve found yet) and for taking the time to answer our questions.