[Post-Mortem] Rogue Trooper
We sit down with the Lead Designer, Audio/Music Lead and Head of Production to get the skinny on what went into making one of this year's best third-person shooters.
Published: June 19, 2006
Among most circles in the US -- even the notoriously nerdy video game ones -- you probably won't get many perked ears when you mention 2000AD, the Brit-born sci-fi universe populated by faces such as Judge Dredd, D.R. and Quinch, and, yes, Rogue Trooper. Outside of perhaps some hardcore Heavy Metal readers, even comic freaks aren't terribly invested in the machinations of Tharg the Mighty.
When UK-based developer Rebellion bought the entire universe just before the turn of the century, most in the States responded by yawning or farting or something. Little did they know how much of a resource the purchase was for Rebellion, giving them a direct conduit some of the best talent to come out of the UK comics scene, with artists like Dave Gibbons and Simon Beasley and writers like Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.
It hasn't been until now, with the release of Rogue Trooper, that American audiences have had a good reason to get into just one small chunk of what 2000AD and its myriad "progs" have to offer. Rogue Trooper is at once immersive and foreign, humorous and tragic, and it's unlike most shooters you'll come across, culling all the lore and atmosphere of the Rogue Trooper comics and coupling it with a simple cover-based third-person shooter mechanic.
It's simple, but undeniably effective, and we got the chance to sit down with Alex Moore, Tom Bible and Mike Burnham (the game's Lead Designer, Audio and Music Lead and Head of Production, with respects). Read on to find out how Rogue was made, and what went into some of the more nuanced parts of its development.
When UK-based developer Rebellion bought the entire universe just before the turn of the century, most in the States responded by yawning or farting or something. Little did they know how much of a resource the purchase was for Rebellion, giving them a direct conduit some of the best talent to come out of the UK comics scene, with artists like Dave Gibbons and Simon Beasley and writers like Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.
It hasn't been until now, with the release of Rogue Trooper, that American audiences have had a good reason to get into just one small chunk of what 2000AD and its myriad "progs" have to offer. Rogue Trooper is at once immersive and foreign, humorous and tragic, and it's unlike most shooters you'll come across, culling all the lore and atmosphere of the Rogue Trooper comics and coupling it with a simple cover-based third-person shooter mechanic.
It's simple, but undeniably effective, and we got the chance to sit down with Alex Moore, Tom Bible and Mike Burnham (the game's Lead Designer, Audio and Music Lead and Head of Production, with respects). Read on to find out how Rogue was made, and what went into some of the more nuanced parts of its development.