Stuntman: Ignition Developer Diary

Overdrive is a high-octane street crime movie, set in modern day San Francisco. The film is presented as a retro homage to 70's style action movies, with tough, hip characters and an unquenchable thirst for vehicular carnage. Our hero is Stone, a loose cannon cop determined to sweep the city clean of the drug dealer Varga and his new designer drug Gristle. Stone's crusade against Varga turns the once peaceful city into a warzone of high-speed chases and running gunfights. In the end Stone stands alone against Varga, mano-a-mano, machine vs. machine in a deadly duel to control the city.

The six scenes that make up Overdrive are directly inspired by the thrills of classic urban crime dramas; desperate men on desperate missions smashing their way though a dense urban environment at breakneck speeds. The film is a mash up of gritty 70's action and modern high tech vehicles, setting the player loose in a world of old-school car chases amped up with all the crazy stunts and high-end pyrotechnics we've learned to expect from 21st century Hollywood. In "Kill Stone" for example, the player flees through the city avoiding heavily armed drug dealers while dodging barrages of rocket fire from attack 'copters piloted by Varga's men. The resultant maelstrom of exploding cars, automatic weapons fire and collateral damage creates excellent opportunities for over the top stunts and sustains a constant high level of excitement.

The city's complex urban environment presented significant technical and game balancing challenges as well. The sheer density of terrain - particularly when combined with large numbers of active vehicles and characters - complicated level flow and put a heavy strain on our framerate. A balance had to be found for both gameplay and technical reasons. Too few vehicles, props and characters and the environment felt unrealistic and uninteresting. Too many and the scenes became crowded, snarling the player's path and creating problem areas where a single mistake would bring him to a dead stop. Thankfully, early focus testing had revealed that frequent dead stops were one of the most frustrating things for players to deal with. As a result we thinned out the traffic in the levels, made more obstacles breakable and generally removed elements that interrupted gameplay. Additionally we pushed hard to optimize the art assets and find technical solutions that would allow us to keep the environment richly populated while maintaining a steady framerate. This sort of problem solving is an excellent example of close coordination required between art, design and engineering when working on a complex project of this nature.

In the end, Overdrive has emerged as one of our most successful environments, combining dense, challenging gameplay with spectacular visuals, excellent pacing and a hip retro vibe.

Two men stand, one man falls….Overdrive.

Director Biography - Robert Rodino Although rather young, Robert Rodino, the director of Overdrive has rocketed to the top of the Hollywood elite in only a few short years. His first two movies blew the doors off of the box office and built a huge popular following by combining his unique taste for retro cool with a gratuitous "anything-goes" approach to over the top violence. Controversial and widely disliked within the industry, Rodino nevertheless is regarded as one of few true "superstar" directors and is often more widely recognized than the stars of his own top-grossing movies.

On the set Rodino is known to be an unpredictable tyrant, frequently breaking off into incoherent 30 minute rants about everything from failed stunts to bad catering. Ill-tempered and irritable as he might be, Rodino is committed and passionate about his film. Perform well for him and you're golden, but screw up and you may never stop hearing about it.