[AMA Request] Splash Damage Employee that had a hand in developing the videogame Brink
reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7o4n18/ama_request...
reddit.comPosted Jan 7, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC
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reddit.comWill we see Dirty Bomb's Undergrounds, the Battle Royale mode?
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They said
"Oh god no"
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"Thank god no"
FTFY
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Movement was always a key part in SD's games thanks to strafe-jumping in W:ET
Wasn't strafe-jumping an unintended bug in the Q2 engine that made mods like CTF, TF and Action Quake so much more fun?
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Yes, it was a quirk of the physics engine. We actually spent some time trying to replicate it in Unreal for DB, but it never really worked.
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That's actually really cool, i remember one of things that attracted me to DB was the way hip fire was so prevalent and maneuverability. I even remember saying, man i sure wish there was strafe jumping in this. Oh well, not everything can leave the cutting room floor.
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[deleted]
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Brink was a shitshow and we all know it so this might be interesting Splash Damage is also a shitshow
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Loved Brink, specially the ground slide move. Like to see that imported into DB, although it'd be pretty funny watching Rhino pull one off.
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Oh God no. Please.
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I loved brink too, it was just TRAAAAAAASH.
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Dirty Bomb is going to have a console release?
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The console thing is just for Brink. I don't remember where I read this, but I'm sure that it was mentioned that Dirty Bomb will be PC exclusive.
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Well in one of their extremely older videos they said that its suppose to be a PC Master race type game.
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It's not a never, but our focus has been on PC up until now and we still have a lot more that we need to do for it.
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Please. Rethink it towards a never. Consoles don't really have a place in a competitive shooter..
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Eh so an SD employee asks for an AMA from another SD employee? This jsut feels wrong
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I couldn't answer it in the AMA section so just cross-posted it here. I'm not a reddit pro!
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Hello u/TheVectronic! I'm Exedore, Associate Creative Director on Dirty Bomb at Splash Damage. I was Lead Designer and Lead Level Designer on Brink, and will take a stab at answering your questions!
When developing the game, did you expect that this game could be the inspiration to many games such as Titanfall? Given that we were trying a lot of new things, I think it was likely that some of those that worked well would be seen again elsewhere. Being acquainted with some of the devs at Respawn, I don't think they were directly influenced by Brink in making Titanfall, but many of us were thinking similarly in regards to how to evolve the first person shooter genre.
How did the SMART mechanic came to be? Movement was always a key part in SD's games thanks to strafe-jumping in W:ET and ETQW, so we wanted to do something novel with movement in Brink. Our Technical Designer on the game was a parkour aficionado, so that was the genesis of the SMART system. It was also made possible by the way that AI navigation is done in idTech, which is called AAS (Area Awareness System). This system was re-purposed to allow players to move from surface to surface with some bespoke transition work like mantling and vaulting.
Was there any cut content from Brink that never saw the light of day? I can't remember much that was cut, but the biggest one was probably female characters, which ceased development fairly early on in production. It's a huge reason why female characters are so prominent in Dirty Bomb.
What was the main inspiration when developing the game? A console-friendly version of Enemy Territory where we could create the universe and its art style from scratch.
What was the priority when it came to development process? Everything to do with getting it to run on consoles, as the studio had been a PC developer prior to Brink. A host of devs with console experience were hired to help make this happen (myself included). Some systems were very new for the studio; aim assistance for controllers is a hugely complex system, as well as integrating with the significantly different online service models for XBL, PSN and PC.
I did not expect a reply, so thanks for taking the time in doing so!
I’m looking into a bit into the development of Brink to make a possible article about the game and how it not only came to be,!how it’s become and how it could be improved upon, but also place it under an important significance in the new FPS genre we’ve come to know today as I believe that this is the turning point for the genre. Although I couldn’t find anything that describes the behind the scenes in much detail other than the art, and bits of the SMART mechanic.
Thank you once more for the reply, you wouldn’t mind asking a few more questions regarding the game?
Sure! This might help as well, though it's not particularly tailored for readability so might be puzzling (using the Notes is essential): https://www.slideshare.net/thrmoptc/gdc2011-level-design-the-design-conduit
Thanks for the slideshare! I'll be reading those later, and formulate questions to fill in the gaps. Though hopefully most of my questions will be answered from these. Thanks for the follow up! :D
That's a nice looking word. I'm stealing it.
You damn aficionado. I've had enough of you.
But we was such a good team. :(
Can we have these for this game?
Which?
The game of this sub that has more than the other game's 50 concurrent players
Do you mean an AMA? We did one just before the holidays...
Will be putting out another Ask the Devs vid tomorrow as well.
I think your biggest mistake in making Brink is that the quality jump from it to Dirty Bomb is too enormous for any game you make in the future to possibly meet the expectations.