WET Developer Interview

27 Apr 2009 at 16:24:21 by

IncGamers caught up with Ashraf  Ismail, lead game designer for upcoming Bethesda title, WET.

WET was an Activision-Vivendi game, and now obviously picked up by Bethesda.  Can you talk to us about the journey the game has taken?

When the Activision-Vivendi merger happened, a lot of games were let go and we were one of those games.  A2M bought the rights back for WET, so we owned it and we ran with it, honing the game and trying to outline what the core and the essence of the game is.  It was the stylistic and acrobatic aspects of the game, and those are what we wanted to focus on and sell.

Eventually, when we thought we were ready, we started to look for a publisher and right from the get-go [Bethesda] picked up on what we wanted to do with the game and it seemed like a great partnership because they knew what we wanted and they let us run with it.

Let’s talk about the art style.  There seems to be a fashionable trend for that 70s inspired B-movie style at the moment.  Is this something you had planned right from the beginning, or did you take your inspiration from other games?

We’ve always had this need to go after style, and the Grindhouse stuff was part of the process, and it was used to really give the visual presentation another depth.  But, stylistically speaking we’ve really tried to include that in all aspects of the game.  The storyline we had cracked from the beginning and has been written by Duppy Dimitrious from 24, and the characters, along with the twists and turns the story takes, add to that style. 

Let’s talk about the game mechanics because it’s hard to introduce a new style of gameplay to an already established genre.  There are a lot of shooters out there, but we know Bethesda is big on storytelling and lore.  Did this have to be considered when you were making the game, especially because it is “another” shooter title?

This game was always going to be a shooter, right from the beginning.  And we thought about the same things, such as how to differentiate ourselves from the competition.  This is where the mechanics, such as split targeting comes in where one gun is always targeting an enemy, leaving you to choose who else to shoot at.

One of the main objectives of this game was - as clichéd as it sounds - to be easy to pick up, but hard to master.  And this is where the idea for the split targeting was born and we really think that once people start to play using this system, and the other mechanics in the game, you’ll really start to master the game, picking up upgrades and style bonuses along the way. 

As for the story aspect, of course Bethesda has a lot of respect for lore, but when you see WET you’ll see that the universe supports itself, its own appeal and it has a lot of lore. I think Bethesda saw that when we presented the game to them.  We have a lot of crazy characters.  Rubi we feel is a very iconic character and we feel she can stand up on her own and Bethesda picked up on that. 

Rubi's got some stiff comeptition in the female lead character stakes. How did you decide on her character?

Yes, well right from the beginning, the character was female and the main reason for that was that we felt that Rubi herself added a lot of character.  We didn’t want a Teen A type game, we didn’t want another girl with big boobs just running around and when you play the game, we really push Rubi’s character.  We’re very proud of what we’ve done and I don’t think the game would feel the same without Rubi.  The acrobatics she does are very graceful and very over the top, and we don’t think it could have been done with a male lead in the same way.

How long does it take to walk through the game?

Eight to ten hours.

And there’s no multiplayer?

No, no multiplayer.  We really wanted to focus on the story and get the gameplay mechanic right.

What’s the replayability factor then?

We have a couple of modes that get unlocked as you progress through the game, and there are two of those modes.

The different modes have a lot of different content and gameplay in them.  SO there is a racing concept, a run-and-gun concept and the maximising of weapons content, so there is a lot more than just the singular story experience.

We also have an extra difficulty setting which changes the gameplay slightly, we’re not going to say what it is just yet, but we do give a lot of incentives for our players to play the game through again.

Don’t forget too that we have a great upgrade system that we want players to maximise as much as possible.

Look out for our preview later on in the week.

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