http://pc.ign.com/articles/914/914910p1.html
September 30, 2008 - Now that Crysis Warhead has shipped, the folks over at Europe's Crytek can relax a bit and look back as well as forward to what's up next. Warhead released to favorable reviews, and the game offers up a mix of spectacular shooter action and cutting-edge graphical prowess. So what's up next? We had a chance to throw some questions to Bern Diemer, producer of Crysis Warhead, as well as Eric Lagel, the producer for online multiplayer at Crytek.
IGN: So what's the reaction been thus far for Warhead? How well is it doing, and is it doing better than Crysis a year ago? Did the $30 price help?
Bernd Diemer: The majority of reactions in the reviews and on the forums have been positive, and this is very encouraging to us. This is the first time we made a game in a franchise we created and we are very happy that people seem to like the Crysis universe enough that they want to return to it in Warhead. Developing Warhead was a lot of fun, since it was less a technical challenge than a creative one, so we could listen to more ideas from the team, and it is very good to see that a lot of people share the fun.
The price point was a conscious decision on our part. Although Warhead grew in scope from an expansion pack to a standalone and even has Crysis Wars in the box, we felt that keeping the price added to the overall value of the product for our fans.
IGN: Are there plans currently for a patch, and if so, what are some the things that you'll address in it?
Bernd Diemer: We have a different patching strategy for Warhead and Wars. We do realize that multiplayer has different needs than a single-player game where updates are concerned, so the focus will be on Wars first.
We had a team on standby for Warhead in case there was something which required a release patch, fortunately we did not have to do so. Currently we look at the forums, reviews and all the email we get and evaluate what people think could be improved.
It is too early to talk about what will be in it or release dates, but most likely Crysis Wars will receive an update first.
IGN: There's still a lot of debate about performance. Some people see an increase, while others do not. What sort of tips do you have for people who want to run the game well?
Bernd Diemer: We implemented out-of-the-box settings that give you the best overall experience on the different quality settings. Personally, this is what I go for first when playing a game; I normally leave the default settings pretty much alone and enjoy the game, then I start fiddling with the settings.
We know that there are a lot of people who adjust the advanced settings before loading the first level, so we tried to give them as much options as possible. Over the last week I've seen a lot of custom configs appearing on the forums for improving visual fidelity, maxing out the latest and greatest hardware money can buy and boosting performance for specific hardware settings.
IGN: What sort of hardware should you have to run the game at "Enthusiast" settings? Do you think the vast majority should run at "Gamer" or lower?
Bernd Diemer: Enthusiast will give you the best of the best, but wants the hardware to support it. The next lower Gamer setting will give you the best balance between gameplay performance and visual quality. If you just install Warhead on a mid-range PC and play it on this setting, you will get a great experience, and this was a focus for us in the development.
We like our hardcore fans with uber-machines, after all they gave us the "But will it run Crysis?" meme, but decided to focus equally on the mid-range segment too. One of the perceptions about Crysis was that you could not play it without upgrading your machine, and I think that this kept a lot of people from playing it. The improved hardware base and our optimizations for the engine hopefully will get as many people as possible into the franchise, and maybe will prompt them to take another look at the original game too.
IGN: What are the plans going forward for updates to Crysis Wars? Do you plan to roll out new maps and modes definitely in the coming months? Any hard details?
Eric Lagel: We confirm that we are planning to support Crysis Wars with patches and further updates. There is new content and new features in the pipe, but we can't commit to any timeline for now. The team behind Crysis Wars is hard at work reading the forums, and making sure that we address the biggest wishes of the community.
IGN: What's one feature or level or weapon that you had to take out of the game that you wish you could put back? Why did you remove it in the first place?
Bernd Diemer: To be honest, I am pretty happy with what made it into the game from the first prototypes.
This is a spoiler warning if you haven't found them yet, but the hidden frogs worked out very well-- we always wanted to have something like this in the original game but never found the time to do so. Regarding this, my hat is off to Valve for the gnome in Episode 2.
IGN: This is a broader question: but what do you think is Crytek's role in the PC gaming industry? To lead? To make great games? To push the envelope?
Bernd Diemer: Making quality games has been Crytek's goal from the very beginning, the highest possible quality in all areas is paramount for us. In addition, we are a very tech happy company and certainly will continue pushing the envelope as much as we can with the evolution of the Cryengine.
IGN: Have you decided yet whether you will have future exclusive PC titles? Will there be other Crysis offshoots? How about a Crysis sequel?
Bernd Diemer: We certainly like doing PC games. There have been lots of heated discussions lately but I think the reports of the death of PC games have been greatly exaggerated. Our focus for this year was Warhead and Wars, and we are very happy with the reactions so far. We have a lot of ideas we are thinking about but nothing's final yet, and if I tell you too much Cevat [Yerli, Crytek CEO] is going to get me.
IGN: You have four studios across Europe working on a number of games, including cross-platform titles. What have been the challenges in adjusting your tools and workflow to create console games? What are the challenges of each platform?
Bernd Diemer: Warhead was the first game we developed in two of our studios in parallel, and we learned a lot during this process. We managed to hit our release date and the quality bar we set ourselves, which is a skill we are still learning as a company.
One of the challenges with multi studio development is ownership. We believe that giving personal ownership allows every team member to put their heart into an asset, feature or any other part of a game. We also have a very open feedback culture in our company, everybody is welcome to present their ideas and opinions and we do our best to listen to them.
To support this we use agile development, for example: Scrum and assign people from different departments into tiger teams which focus on a certain feature, level or aspect of the game and are responsible for it from start to finish. We try to give ownership of an idea to the person who came up with it in the first place.
A second important challenge is to keep the communication between the teams and studios flowing, and to make sure that it fits in well with the vision of the product. This process is sometimes not unlike herding cats, but I enjoy the challenge.
The third one is to be able to sleep well on airplanes; while not essential this can be a quite helpful skill to have.
IGN: Thanks, guys.
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