PALGN: Thank you for participating in this interview. First off, give our readers a brief overview of your career.
Kent Hudson: Hi! I’m Kent Hudson and I am currently a systems designer focusing primarily on A.I. I started my career at Ion Storm where I worked on the PlayStation 2 version of Deus EX and Deus EX: Invisible War. I also helped out a bit on Thief: Deadly Shadows and that was the first time I worked with Jordon Thomas (Creative Director of Bioshock 2). I worked at Midway Studios Austin for three years and worked on a game that was never released or announced because the company ran out of money. I now work at 2K Games and I am the systems designer for Bioshock 2.
PALGN: Deus Ex and Bioshock are two very story driven FPS games that feature elements unique to the genre. How does it feel to have been involved with two games that are considered to be the best among alternative FPS?
Kent: It feels great! The reason why I went to Ion Storm in the first place is because Deus EX is my favourite game and I generally love that type of game. I love games like System Shock and Fallout because they are in a similar vein. It’s really great to make that kind of game of you love to play and it’s like a dream come true! Some people get tired of it but I still love it, it’s a cool job.
PALGN: Have you ever compared Deus EX and Bioshock with each other?
Kent: You can break down a lot of differences when you get to the lower level but at a higher level there are a lot of the same goals. There are a lot of player driven story elements and player driven gameplay. I love a game where a player has a choice to upgrade a character and even make their own story. I like how these games are not scripted in a way that you see a situation and decide how you’re going to tackle it. I like the sort of pace that is based on the decisions made by a player. I am not as into the roller coaster FPS design that tells you to go from point to point, shoot everything along the way and basically hit triggers. This sort of design is great for some people but not for me.
" I love a game where a player has a choice to upgrade a character and even make their own story."
PALGN: What kind of games do you reap inspiration from for A.I behaviour? Since that is what you primarily design.
Kent: Definitely the Half Life games, they have really moved forward over the years in A.I behavior. Valve did a lot of impressive work with the A.I in Left 4 Dead. The Halo games, they do a great job with the feedback and enemy reactions.
PALGN: We noticed in the demo that Delta handles like a normal FPS character, was there ever a point when you were going to make him bulky and clunky like a normal Big Daddy?
Kent: Its one of those ideas that sounds really good on paper but having a slow and bulky FPS character would have compromised the gameplay. Delta is a prototype Big Daddy, the very first one and so he is more ‘human’ looking than a normal Big Daddy. We were able to aesthetically capture the feel of being a Big Daddy using sound and visual effects such as the sound of his footsteps, his shadow and his helmet and we did it without having to compromise the gameplay. The Australian team did a lot of work on the helmet vision effect.
PALGN: In terms of technical aspects, is Bioshock 2 running on Unreal 3?
Kent: It was never running on the Unreal 3 engine, both Bioshock and Bioshock 2 run on a heavily modified version of the Unreal 2 engine. Its funny because I worked on the Unreal 2 engine for Deus EX: Invisible War and now I am working on it again. It’s been great working on the engine again because we are very familiar with it, we know what it does and how to stretch it and it makes it easier to focus on other things like the story and gameplay. It was great working on an engine that works for us, it really delivered.
"Both Bioshock and Bioshock 2 run on a heavily modified version of the Unreal 2 engine."
PALGN: Have you borrowed any ideas from Deus Ex for Bioshock 2, in terms of development?
Kent: That’s a good question. I certainly took a lot of development lessons from it. It’s very difficult to finish this type of game, testing it extensively to make sure everything is balanced. There weren’t any big lessons but you sort of get an aggregate experience over your career.
PALGN: What are your thoughts on BioShock 2’s multiplayer component? Do you personally feel that deep single player games like Deus EX and Bioshock need a multiplayer component?
Kent: I don’t know if it’s a question of ‘need’ or not. I think if you find something that makes sense then it can be cool. I think in Bioshock 2 the multiplayer is going to be really cool because of the sheer number of powers which will allow you to do some really crazy stuff. It makes sense to have multiplayer in a game that allows you to try many different things and there is even a unique setting as well, since the multiplayer mode takes place in the prequel timeline, you get to see the areas from the first game before they were destroyed. I don’t know if a FPS game needs multiplayer to be great, there are a lot of great single player only games like Fallout 3 but the nice thing for us is that we had Digital Extremes working on the multiplayer mode while we concentrated on the single player. There was no compromise, it was essentially ‘divide and conquer’ and it’s always a challenge to develop in different locations but it really made sense to us.
PALGN: Uncharted 2 certainly surprised us with it’s multiplayer mode and Bioshock 2 has certainly proven itself to be a very good franchise that warrants its own multiplayer mode.
Kent: The ability to dual wield and progress your character over time, unlock more powers and customize your character. It’s got a lot of depth and it’s certainly not a simple death match. It definitely has a lot of content and depth.
"It makes sense to have multiplayer in a game that allows you to try many different things."
PALGN: Going back to the technical side of things, we noticed that you have really increased the fidelity in terms of frame rate, anti aliasing and everything. In terms of developing for the consoles, are you guys pumping a lot more juice or are they more minimal increments.
Kent: There are mainly incremental improvements and part of it is because of the engine we are using, we were really able to optimise things and the game is a visual improvement over the first. The big thing about the time extension we got was that we got a chance to really refine and improve, go through the game again and thoroughly test and polish it. The team did a great job in optimising the engine and there were of course many tradeoffs but we were able to get what we wanted. The game could have shipped back then but it wouldn’t have been as good as it is now.
PALGN: So it was basically going through the game again and again to optimize each area?
Kent: We optimized the frame rate, polygon count, A.I and details. There are many little things and it takes time to work on them so it was great to have time to do that.
"The game could have shipped back then but it wouldn’t have been as good as it is now."
PALGN: What were your thoughts on the first Bioshock game as a gamer when it first came out?
Kent: Oh I was the biggest fan ever! System Shock is one of my favourite games so when it was first announced that they were working on a spiritual sequel I was really excited. I preordered the collector’s edition, talked to people about it and I was downloading wallpapers, listening to podcasts about it and was just a huge geek for it. It was actually great because my girlfriend at that time left the town for 10 days the same week that Bioshock came out and I said “I love you, goodbye! And now I have no one to talk to but this game!” I just geeked out.
PALGN: How has Bioshock inspired you as a designer?
Kent: I think it’s just the way you can take your character in any direction and the way the game meets player expectations, everything you should be able to do you can do. It’s actually a lot of work to meet player expectations, allowing them to combine all these different powers the way the want to. The physics, simulation and just about everything works, allowing you to create your own moments as nothing feels scripted.
"The way you can take your character in any direction and they way the game meets player expectations, everything you should be able to do you can do."
PALGN: We are certainly excited to play Bioshock 2 next month. Is there anything you would like to say to our readers?
Kent: Having worked on other sequels, I will say that Bioshock 2 is a really good sequel. As a fan of the first game I think that fans are going to love it. It’s more refined, takes the best of the first game, fixes a lot of things and expands on just about everything. The plasmids have better upgrades and the weapons have better upgrades. There are a lot cool additions to the gameplay but at the same time it doesn’t feel action oriented as the story driven elements are still there. It really is a true good sequel.
PALGN: Thank you for the interview!
Kent: Thank you!
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