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Hi Sunil, tell us a little bit about your background, your journey till now and your current role at SPARK.
I grew up mostly in Kochi, Kerala. While in college doing my Bachelors degree, I started a few cartoon columns including Short Circuit for the Indian Express newspaper, The Doctor is In for Psychology and Human Behavior Digest, and a political strip again, for Indian Express. After college, I selected to the animation program of NID, Ahmedabad. The year was 1991. Amazingly, out of the three (!!!) students selected for the animation program that year, only one – that is, me – showed up for registration. So believe it or not, NID had to cancel the graduate animation course for that year. (This also shows how far along animation has come in India today). After I got back my strength after the demoralizing event, I resolved to study animation abroad. My only source regarding animation, was the book, “Animation: From script to Screen” by Shamus Culhane. There was no internet during that time, mind you. From this ‘bible’, I learnt of the UCLA Animation Workshop, in Los Angeles where I eventually applied and got admission to. Getting funding to finance the three year course was an equally dramatic story in itself. In the interest of not boring the reader with the details, I can surmise by saying that after a long and stressful period of knocking at various doors, I was awarded two scholarships: the Rotary Ambassadorial scholarship, and the Inlaks Foundation scholarship.
The rigorous three year program at the UCLA Animation Workshop (leading to an MFA degree) ended with an offer to work as a junior animator at DreamWorks Interactive, the games division of Steven Spielberg’s studio that was just starting up then. After a couple of game titles, I was promoted to a Lead role for animation. The highlight of the experience was being part of the small crew that created Medal of Honor, as animation director. After the game turned into a huge hit, and having worked on a few more versions of the game as the lead animator, I left the studio (which was now called Electronic Arts Los Angeles, since EA had by then purchased DreamWorks Interactive) with other game veterans to form Spark Unlimited Inc. Here we worked on Call of Duty Finest Hour, the first console version of the franchise. It did very well as well. Fast forward a few more years; and here I am still at Spark, working with my dedicated colleagues on a set of next-generation titles, including the just announced game Turning Point Fall of Liberty, a game on a surreal alternate history where the Nazis won World War 2, and is taking over the USA! My role as head of animation is to stock the studio with great talent, and make sure they have all the tools, inspiration and guidance to express their talents the best.
How was your latest visit to India? How was the experience to be a part of the FICCI FRAMES?
It’s always a magical experience returning to India. I have been trying to get to FICCI FRAMES for the past three years. I am very excited to have been able to participate in it finally. I found the conference very informative, done to international standards and well organized. I hear the number of attendees has been continuing to rise over the years. I was quite stunned at the number of visitors from abroad at the event. I was surprised to run into so many industry folk from my own Los Angeles- it shows the growing prominence and promise of India in the world of next-generation media.
What are the games you grew up with and how did they influence your work and life?
Honestly, I did not grow up with games. The only games I ever got a chance to play growing up, were arcade racing games, some Pong etc. Games were things only very affluent kids played, I was conditioned to believe. My companions growing up in Kochi were mostly books, comics, and movies.
So after falling into the gaming world, there was a lot of catching up to do on my part- I still am several years behind many of my hard-core gamer colleagues, for whom games are what comics are to me. Interestingly enough, the new-comer attitude has been a great blessing to me, and how I operate in the game making world: It gives me a very fresh approach to games. I am often able to re-imagine things for games; that veteran gamers have learnt to take for granted. The behavior of characters in games; their interactions with the player and their surroundings etc have been things I typically imagine very differently from how most of my colleagues see, because of my lack of history with games growing up.
Do you believe that instead of just being a mode of entertainment, games have become more of an art form and a very strong medium of modern expression?
Of course! We began to see this around 2003 when more games started to express themselves with unique styles on the PC, PlayStation2, DreamCast, and Xbox (the next generation console systems of that time). Since then, most games have been visual delights to experience. More than the graphic aspects of expression, games have developed into a medium with its own ‘vocabulary’, ‘syntax’ and ‘grammar’ to communicate to the player. Ideas such as cutting between first and third person cameras, entering a movie mode, pressing a button to interact with objects in the 3D game world, etc are things we are beginning to take for granted, but its really a form of expression that did not exist even a little over a decade ago. What other medium do we have where the audience can travel around in a disembodied form as an avatar, observing himself in first or third person, expressing himself with activities-shooting, destroying mythical looking monsters, recklessly driving super fast cars- that would be impossible (or illegal) in the real world? It’s a medium that is turning into a forum for humans of the 21st century to ‘be a super-being for a few hours’ whenever he wants.
How far do you think video games are affecting the current & future generations way of thinking & expressing themselves?
Whether we like it or not, there has been a modification in the way humans operate with media over the past decade or so: interactively. Though I don’t believe traditional media – printed media (books, newspapers, magazines etc), linear story telling media (movies, TV, music etc) – is gone for good; the fact is that interactivity has added a huge dimension to human relation with media. The ramifications of this can be seen in the current crop of teenagers: humans that got heavily exposed to interactive devices during their pivotal years of development. This generation and every generation to follow; will be vastly different from folk like myself in their thought processes, and the way they express themselves. We can see this already in the use of Second Life, Myspace, ipod, news blogs, customizable newsmedia etc. Customization of content by rapid interaction with it is a key feature of this kind of thinking. Video games in my opinion are an extension of the expressions of this interactive generation. I can even go so far as to say that video games and other mini-virtual medias are in the process of permanently shifting the definition of what is real and what is fictional. I dare say that to many people that grew up dealing with mini-virtual worlds such as video games, Second Life, etc, these worlds are not works of fiction. They are as real as the natural world around them. A very sobering thought, to me I must say.
With games having free roaming & open ending dependent on player actions, where do you think is the fine line that divides simulations from games? Do you fear that one day maybe all games will become mundane simulations of the very world we try to escape while playing a game?
Games have various genres even now: first person shooters, third person action, side scrollers, real time strategy, etc. It seems reasonable to expect that these genres will continue to grow in number and styles; and some of those would be based on realistic simulation of real-world settings. However, remember that a key staple of any artform is compelling and dramatic content. So no matter how realistic the medium would look and feel, there would always be a competitive push to keep improving the content to engage the player more and more. So the question of being mundane does not arise, in my estimation.
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In games you have worked on, much time is generally spent on R&D, compared to actual production time?
The way R&D for games is done, has evolved considerably over the past few years. It used to be that a small percentage of time was spent doing the pre-pro work. For the games I has worked on, this used to be about 4-5 months of the 21 month production cycle. It included not just art, story, and style planning, but also tools, technology and processes. However, recently we have been more organic in how pre-pro is being done: instead of confining pre-pro to just those months, we have a staff that works parallel to the game production team doing R&D almost throughout the length of the game production. The reason we evolved into this model was to cope with the fact that during game production, the scope and content keeps changing. It’s a fundamental nature of interactive media productions: it’s hard to predict what is going to be fun and compelling without actually experiencing it in actual gameplay.
Can you give us a glimpse into the challenges involved in creating the AI of first person games?
Ai is the life-blood of good first person games, and a lot of work is involved in designing, planning, writing, and tuning it. In the initial stage, the lead designer writes out a spec of what he thinks the Ai should be like in the game. From this initial spec generates a ton of debate, discussion, and addition of further ideas from the other leads and the rest of the team. The actual act of implementing Ai into the game is a very slow, systematic and laborious process of coding from the most mundane and basic low-level functions, and building up to the more sophisticated high-level intelligence routines. The low level functions- the way the enemy paths towards the targets by avoiding obstacles, the logic involved in finding, evaluating and choosing targets, etc. etc. - are so called because its very primal in nature as far as human behavior is concerned. By the way, there are several off-the-shelf engines that allow many of these features to be plugged in as it is. With each passing months, more functions keep getting layered on the Ai code. Note that all through this, the animation team is cranking away creating good Ai animations- walks, various speeds and styles of runs, attack maneuvers, hits, deaths, etc. etc; and working hand in hand with the programmers to slowly build out the Ai abilities. Animation and Ai, if designed correctly; compliments, gives meaning and enhances each other.
Fast forward a few more months, and the Ai would be dealing with sophisticated routines such as flanking around the player, moving and attacking in coordinated groups etc. There is always a point reached when too much Ai makes enemies hard to manage and predict –you could say that they get too intelligent for their own good. So a big challenge throughout the process is for level Designers (the guys in charge of putting together the gameplay in a level) to make the Ai do what they want it to do. The last stage involves a ton of tuning- the code, the animations, the gameplay etc to extract the best amount of fun from the Ai.
Can you talk about the use of sound design in games?
Sound plays an extremely crucial role in creating the illusion of crowds, activity and ambience. In one of the games I worked on, we pulled off the illusion of ‘hundreds of people running up a large beach’ when in actuality there were less than thirteen at any given time. The illusion was created by a very rich sound track that sounded like a hundred men. Working in games truly makes me appreciate the magic sound does to the human mind. You can try this out yourself by turning down the sound the next time you play a game, or watch a movie. See if the images alone can keep you interested.
How important do you think technology is in making a game successful?What advice do you have for companies trying to balance b/n new technologies and basic core gameplay?
Video games would be impossible to make without technology, so it does play a central role in the medium. Having said that, its not the technology that truly attracts and engages a player: it’s the gameplay. So the technologies that create a firm foundation of gameplay should take precedence over technologies that add fluff and sparkles on a superficial level. They both have their place, but the order of importance should not be missed. The wrong mindset for a game designer is, “ look how cool this particle effect is!” What is preferable is a mindset along the lines of, “hmm.. how can I use particles to engage the player more?”
From MOH to COD Finest Hour to your upcoming “Turning Point : Fall of Liberty”, in what ways, do you think , have the games excelled over each other?
Many areas of games have improved over time. Primarily of course, is the level of immersion. Games we are working on currently are absolutely gorgeous to look at. Especially since next-generation systems such as XBOX360, and PS3 supports play on hi-def TVs, the detail and subtleties need to be seen to be believed. Another element that allows for a greater level of immersion for the player, is the sheer number of animating characters on the screen that can be supported. As I said earlier, I have worked on a game where we had to do with less than 15 characters, and rely on sound alone to create the illusion of being fully immersed in a ‘heavily populated’ level. The current games we are working on actually supports dozens and dozens of characters.
What are the projects you are working on right now? When are we going to see more of your stuff?
The main project I am working on currently is Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. There are other undisclosed projects in development at the studio as well. They all look stunning, and are shaping up very nicely. Keep looking out for reviews, previews, press releases and other tidbits of Turning Point. It’s looking to be a very compelling game.
What is your opinion on the Gaming and Game Development Scenario currently in India??
India is in a very curious nexus: we have the people, the technology and will power to make games, but lack the tradition. I mean, games are made by people that grew up with games, and know the medium. Such people are at present very scarce in our country. In other words, the vast majority of the population does not understand games. I too was an oddity in the games industry with my lack of game awareness (still am, to some extent). The current generation of 10 to 20 year olds are exposed to them more, however. So its inevitable that very shortly India too would become a great game creating nation.
What advice do you have for people waiting for the game industry to boom in India?
Don’t wait for the boom. Don’t start off with mega projects either. Do small ones and gain experience in the medium, and ‘grow” an audience a game at a time. India is reasonably experienced with casual games. This is a good place to be in, and can be extended into the console area – as you may know, XBOX360 has a system where small independent developers can upload original but tiny games to the XBOX servers, making them accessible to the entire world. The users can access either your game demo for free, or the entire game for a small fee. This is in my opinion the greatest thing to have happened to small game developers worldwide. You don’t have to rely on publishers or big budgets. Just have a neat small-game idea, put a team together to create a level or two, and upload it; and see what happens. The democratization of the gaming industry is happening right now- take bold steps to enter it.
It is great to have you onboard in cgTantra.What or your comments on cgTantra community?
I love the cgTantra community. I am very pleased and proud of the kind of high-caliber artists, animators and CG watchers this community is attracting. I can see this in the quality of postings, and the sincere dialog that happen in the pages. The sincerity and professionalism is what truly inspires me. You guys have done a wonderful job in creating this space for all of us to meet, exchange ideas and grow. I consider it a privilege to have been invited onboard.
- Satbir Singh and R.K.Chand, cgTantra
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