Chili Con Carnage Interview

Total Overdose was released by Eidos in September 2005, and proved to be a rather spicy little action game that didn’t really get the recognition it deserved. Not to be deterred, developer Deadline Games is re-inventing the game for the PSP. We spoke with Søren Lund, Game Director at Deadline, about the forthcoming Chili Con Carnage.

Pro-G: Total Overdose didn’t really receive the recognition it deserved. Why do you think this was the case?

Søren Lund: I think Total Overdose was moving in on other games’ turf and was losing a bit of focus on what kind of game it really was or wanted to be. Therefore it was not as much as it could have been on some fronts and too much of what it shouldn’t have been on other fronts. That, combined with people’s perception that it was a GTA clone, meant that the game never reached its full potential. Still, we’re very proud of the game as it was a massive achievement for us as developers and for Deadline as a company.

Pro-G: What made you return to the game on the PSP instead of creating a brand new IP?

SO: Well, we looked at Total Overdose and said to ourselves: There is so much untapped potential in the mechanics, so if we were to do this again what would we change and what would we keep? In the end, we ended up with a much cleaner, more refined and focused game that took the best elements of Total Overdose and maximised on those and removed the elements which were either contrived or not as well realised. Then we added some new spicy elements to enhance the game experience. The end result is a full-blown action game that is perfect for the handheld platforms. What better platform than the action-starved PSP?

Pro-G: Where does Chili Con Carnage fit into the Total Overdose game world?

SO: Chili Con Carnage is a re-invention of the Total Overdose game and as such the two stories have nothing to do with each other. We have used some of the same characters, simply because we got so attached to them, but in essence it’s a completely new story, new universe. Much like Rodriguez’s stories of El Mariachi and Desperado. Chili Con Carnage is much crazier, faster and more over-the-top than its spiritual predecessor.

Pro-G: To call Total Overdose explosive would be doing it a disservice. Can we expect more of the same on the PSP?

SO: Very much so. In fact I would say that you could expect more. One of the things we have done is to optimise on some of our core systems and that means we can have twice as many active enemies on screen on the PSP compared to the PS2. The result is more action, more explosions, bigger combo-chains and bigger scores. We’ve also added end-bosses, bigger enemies and improved Loco Moves, so expect an action fest in overdrive and with the afterburners on.

Pro-G: Did you learn anything from Total Overdose that will make Chili Con Carnage a better game?

SO: We learnt a lot from the development of Total Overdose but also from the feedback from customers. Our QA department did a fantastic job collecting and cataloguing the feedback from testers and reviewers and we used the data to analyse Total Overdose from a game mechanics point of view. This helped us immensely in accurately pinpointing areas where we need to work more on this or that feature. It helped us decide to remove the free-roaming sections of the game, for instance, and concentrate on the in-mission levels and gameplay; it helped us refine the whole moves/combo-system gameplay and make it much more immediate with instant gratification for the players, instead of between missions or via collectibles. All in all, the game has ended up much more streamlined and focused on a fast and enjoyable game experience.

Pro-G: 19 missions sounds like a pretty lengthy single-player campaign. How many hours do you think the average solo gamer will get out of Chili Con Carnage?

SO: Well, first of all, that’s 19 story missions in just one of the single-player modes, the game has so much to offer with literally dozens of side missions, a second single-player mode and two multiplayer modes, each with their own missions! The game has so much replay value that people can spend a long time in the game. Here, a year later (for some of the guys on the team, twice as long), we’re still having fun with it. We’ve got 19 story missions but they can be completed to bronze, silver and gold awards; it all depends on how many points you score. The levels are sized and paced so it’s inviting to play them again and again to better your score. We’ve even got an insane award if you manage to complete the level in one long combo-chain! These awards unlock extra health, combo-time, playable characters, unlimited ammo for weapons and extra levels, areas and arenas for the three other game modes in the game. There’s easily more than 30-40 hours of gameplay in Chili Con Carnage!

Pro-G: Controls are always a big issue with third-person shooters on the PSP? How are you tackling this problem?

SO: Controls have been one of the major focus points on this title. The game is very much about moving forward, fast acrobatic action, turning the camera to get new enemies in your sights all the time. The first hurdle was to get all the action down to a one-stick control scheme and tweaking the camera system to take that into consideration. It’s often quite difficult to get fine control on the stick of the PSP, therefore we spent a long time finding the right balance in the sensitivity. It wasn’t possible to use the D-Pad to control Ram as it’s quite difficult to move forward while moving left or right on the D-Pad. Try it out. It’s ergonomically impossible! We would have liked to give the players that option but we decided not to. Lastly we had to find the correct button layout so we could get the functionality where people would expect it to be. We did a lot of focus group testing on this and revised, tweaked and adjusted based on the feedback we received.

Pro-G: The current fad with the PSP is to tack on some kind of multiplayer mode to your game. How much work is going in to this aspect of Chili Con Carnage?

SO: Apart from story mode we have three new game modes in Chili Con Carnage: El Macho, which is a kind of single-player endurance mode; Hangman, which is multiplayer on one PSP; and lastly, Fiesta mode, which is ad-hoc WiFi multiplayer. Hangman is a game where up to four players take turns to best each others’ scores. The person to miss the previous score gets another stroke in the hangman drawing. The person to first have a full drawing is the loser. Fiesta is a game where up to four players play in their own arena trying to send enemies and ‘baddies’ to the other players. If you do a cool takedown move the enemy will be sent to your opponents, making life difficult for them. You can also pick up ‘baddies’ which, when unleashed, will cause havoc on the opponents’ machines, like turning the screen upside down, earthquakes or stealing their weapons etc. It’s very much in the crazy spirit of the game.

Pro-G: What’s development like on the PSP and how are you pushing the hardware with Chili Con Carnage?

SO: It’s been fairly painless to develop on the PSP compared to a lot of other platforms. That said, our technology was also “ready-made” to be ported, so it would have been surprising if we had any major problems. We’ve had to cope with lower precision in the 3D hardware, less memory, a completely new sound system and of course performance, but that goes for any game on any platform. You always want to push more and more out of the system. One area where we spent some time is in our collision system. Optimizations in that system alone meant that we can have twice as many enemies on screen compared to what was possible for us on the PS2! It gives a much more action-filled and frantic gameplay experience. In general we’ve achieved what we aimed for and I’d like to think that the game looks great on the PSP.

Pro-G: Total Overdose featured some great music. Will PSP owners get a new selection of tunes?

SO: It’s always a balance between what we would like to do and what we have time or money to do. We felt that the music worked so well for Total Overdose that there was no compelling reason to change a successful formula. There are still plenty of players out there yet to experience the cool soundtrack. We’ve toyed with it a bit more though. We’ve added more depth to the combo music so as your combo-chain grows, the music gets fuller and more powerful, enhancing your game experience. We did use more of the ‘full spectrum’ of songs that were licensed, so you will most likely hear songs in Chili Con Carnage that you never heard in Total Overdose. We’ve also added a bit more ‘crazy’ music as well, with traditional Mexican folk songs etc… all in the name of humour of course!

Pro-G: Moving away from the PSP slightly. Are there any plans to bring the series to next-gen systems?

SO: We would love to see the game on a next-gen systems, however, there are no definite plans at the moment to do so. Let’s see how well this game fares on the PSP, then we can talk about the future.

Pro-G: Lastly, when is Chili Con Carnage due for release and why should people be excited about it?

SO: We’re getting towards the end of development with Chili, so we expect the game to be on the shelves during the first few months of 2007. Why should people be excited about the game? People should be excited about it because Chili Con Carnage is the wildest, craziest most over the top action game to be released on the PSP, with more game modes, unlocks, power-ups, replay value and humour than most games could ever dream of!

For more info, take a gander at our Chili Con Carnage first-look from late last year. Expect more on the game as its Q1 2007 release date approaches.