Articles
RedLynx is behind such N-Gage games as Pathway to Glory, High Seize, and now, Reset Generation.
The RedLynx team around their personal shrine: a 3D model of the Aggressor.
The Plumber fights with honor, the Plumber fights with plungers.
July 2, 2008
Resetting With RedLynx
We talk with Antti Ilvessuo about Reset Generation.
Antti Ilvessuo may not be a household name, even in his native Finland, but perhaps he should be. He is the co-founder and creative director of RedLynx, the talented Finnish developer responsible for some of the best games on the original N-Gage platform, including High Seize and Pathway to Glory.
RedLynx is also the developer of Reset Generation, the upcoming multi-platform game for N-Gage that is poised to redefined mobile connected gaming and shake up the videogaming world.
Scott Foe, executive producer of Reset Generation, agrees. "Antti is the most unfettered creative person that I have ever worked with: That passion and creativy is broadcast loudly and proudly through Reset Generation."
Ilvessuo played a critical role in developing Reset Generation, serving as both art director and game designer. Recently he sat down with us to talk about the game's development, a journey that began two and a half years ago.
The first time he ever heard of Project White Rock as the game was originally known, was in 2005 when he received an email from Scott Foe asking about RedLynx's interest in making a game for the next generation of N-Gage.
"Of course we were interested," Ilvessuo says with a smile. "Scott explained to us his original idea, where you have all these iconic characters from videogames rescuing princesses. He wanted to make a game that was lightning fast, suited to mobile devices and online multiplayer gaming, with an awesome storyline and really high production values."
Emails led to phone calls and face to face meetings, and the first playable prototype of what would become Reset Generation was delivered in late 2005. Even that earliest build featured the unfairly addictive and freshly original gameplay that would become the hallmark of Reset Generation.
N-Gage.com: How do you describe Reset Generation to people that have never seen the game?
Ilvessuo: You have a one hero, one princess and one castle. Your aim is to rescue princess from the other players' castle by using blocks, items, cannons, your character and special skills. But in the end Reset Generation is like the Matrix. You cannot be told what it is, you have to play it!
How did you manage to do both game design and art direction for the project? That's unusual.
On our previous game Pathway to Glory, I was the Lead Artist and also a game designer, although not in the lead role. So that was a natural path to go down.
But eventually when you have two roles, you need really talented people to work with in both areas. So in my field I must mention especially Ville Anttonen, whose key role was to create those hundreds of hand animated hero images, Jani Karttunen for creating in-game art and animations, and Mikko Kinnunen for his awesome contribution to castles and items.
Also on the design side, Olli Sinerma has really been the undisputed champion whom we had tuning the game design and creating the single player missions. And finally our internal Producer Kim Lahti for outstanding leadership and taking care of the project in our end!
All in all, about thirty different people contributed to the game's development, though no more than fifteen were ever working on it at one time.
Each character has a different special power, yet they are well balanced. How was that accomplished?
The key thing about the special powers is that they all somehow counter the Combos, allowing a hero to move over or around them, or otherwise destroying them. So once we established that, it was just about tuning the parameters.
How much testing of the AI did your team do?
Christian Brandt implemented the regression test bench, so Christian should definitively get a mention here. And our Scrum Master, Heikki-Pekka Noronen, also did a lot of programming. He should be thanked for tuning the AI to perfection using the test bench and getting rid of rare game mechanics bugs, which would have been difficult to spot with traditional black box testing.
Using this method we were able to have AI players playing against each other in multiplayer for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on a multiplayer server. Sometimes this uncovered funny cases that we never could have expected or planned for, but thanks to H-P we got a lot of extra tuning in. We also had human testers going onto the same servers, and at first they were wondering who all of these excellent players that never speak are! :D
What's your favorite part of the game?
I like the whole package. I'm very proud. Personally I really enjoy the gameplay, it just plays well. And I like the way the game looks, particularly the fight animations.
Which character is your favorite visually?
I tend to hurt myself often, so call me the Ninja! Watch his fight animations carefully, and you see that no matter what happens he's always hurting himself.
Can you describe some of the other animations players will see?
There are a lot, too many to desdribe really. Every indivdual character has three different attack animations and three different defensive ones. These are then combined dynamically to show the two characters interacting, so the amount of variety is huge.
For example, you migh see the Aggressor calling for help and his buddies come floating in from top to help him. Then they will all attack the Plumber, which causes the Plumber's belt to break and then his belly flops out!
Did you dream about the game during the game development process?
When game is at that certain point in the development process, you think about it all the time, so it does become a twenty-four a day obsession, yes. When the superpowers were under development, I once woke up thinking I was Dr. Lovebomber!
What other games has RedLynx done?
We started creating smaller Java games in 2000, and actually most part of them are still up so everyone can still play them. These two (Rollercoaster and Muumi Fishing) were so popular at the time that they crashed servers, hosted with millions of players. Hopefully that will happen with Reset Generation too!
After those games, we did a few Symbian applications for the earlier S60 series phones. Then we were noticed by Nokia, and that's when work on Pathway to Glory start for the original N-Gage game deck. After Pathway to Glory, we created Pathway to Glory Ikusa Islands, followed up by High Seize, all for the first generation of N-Gage. We then made one PSP and NDS game called Warhammer® 40,000: Squad Command™ and we have just released a PC game called Trials 2 SE.
We are polishing up Reset Generation now, and after that we are currently on a few secret projects.
What is your dream game to design or build some day?
It changes day to day, basically. In the end, you cannot fall in love with just one concept, otherwise you might get blinded to all the other great ideas and opportunties out there. So I try to keep my mind open to all kind of ideas, but of course there are a few.
For example, we once created a PC game called Phobia years ago. Basically it was just a plain alien shooter and that idea has been done a lot nowadays. But it would still be fun to make a new version of that which is up to date with different, fresher ideas.
Reset Generation is coming in Summer 2008
Resetting With RedLynx
We talk with Antti Ilvessuo about Reset Generation.
Antti Ilvessuo may not be a household name, even in his native Finland, but perhaps he should be. He is the co-founder and creative director of RedLynx, the talented Finnish developer responsible for some of the best games on the original N-Gage platform, including High Seize and Pathway to Glory.
RedLynx is also the developer of Reset Generation, the upcoming multi-platform game for N-Gage that is poised to redefined mobile connected gaming and shake up the videogaming world.
Scott Foe, executive producer of Reset Generation, agrees. "Antti is the most unfettered creative person that I have ever worked with: That passion and creativy is broadcast loudly and proudly through Reset Generation."
Ilvessuo played a critical role in developing Reset Generation, serving as both art director and game designer. Recently he sat down with us to talk about the game's development, a journey that began two and a half years ago.
The first time he ever heard of Project White Rock as the game was originally known, was in 2005 when he received an email from Scott Foe asking about RedLynx's interest in making a game for the next generation of N-Gage.
"Of course we were interested," Ilvessuo says with a smile. "Scott explained to us his original idea, where you have all these iconic characters from videogames rescuing princesses. He wanted to make a game that was lightning fast, suited to mobile devices and online multiplayer gaming, with an awesome storyline and really high production values."
Emails led to phone calls and face to face meetings, and the first playable prototype of what would become Reset Generation was delivered in late 2005. Even that earliest build featured the unfairly addictive and freshly original gameplay that would become the hallmark of Reset Generation.
N-Gage.com: How do you describe Reset Generation to people that have never seen the game?
Ilvessuo: You have a one hero, one princess and one castle. Your aim is to rescue princess from the other players' castle by using blocks, items, cannons, your character and special skills. But in the end Reset Generation is like the Matrix. You cannot be told what it is, you have to play it!
How did you manage to do both game design and art direction for the project? That's unusual.
On our previous game Pathway to Glory, I was the Lead Artist and also a game designer, although not in the lead role. So that was a natural path to go down.
But eventually when you have two roles, you need really talented people to work with in both areas. So in my field I must mention especially Ville Anttonen, whose key role was to create those hundreds of hand animated hero images, Jani Karttunen for creating in-game art and animations, and Mikko Kinnunen for his awesome contribution to castles and items.
Also on the design side, Olli Sinerma has really been the undisputed champion whom we had tuning the game design and creating the single player missions. And finally our internal Producer Kim Lahti for outstanding leadership and taking care of the project in our end!
All in all, about thirty different people contributed to the game's development, though no more than fifteen were ever working on it at one time.
Each character has a different special power, yet they are well balanced. How was that accomplished?
The key thing about the special powers is that they all somehow counter the Combos, allowing a hero to move over or around them, or otherwise destroying them. So once we established that, it was just about tuning the parameters.
How much testing of the AI did your team do?
Christian Brandt implemented the regression test bench, so Christian should definitively get a mention here. And our Scrum Master, Heikki-Pekka Noronen, also did a lot of programming. He should be thanked for tuning the AI to perfection using the test bench and getting rid of rare game mechanics bugs, which would have been difficult to spot with traditional black box testing.
Using this method we were able to have AI players playing against each other in multiplayer for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on a multiplayer server. Sometimes this uncovered funny cases that we never could have expected or planned for, but thanks to H-P we got a lot of extra tuning in. We also had human testers going onto the same servers, and at first they were wondering who all of these excellent players that never speak are! :D
What's your favorite part of the game?
I like the whole package. I'm very proud. Personally I really enjoy the gameplay, it just plays well. And I like the way the game looks, particularly the fight animations.
Which character is your favorite visually?
I tend to hurt myself often, so call me the Ninja! Watch his fight animations carefully, and you see that no matter what happens he's always hurting himself.
Can you describe some of the other animations players will see?
There are a lot, too many to desdribe really. Every indivdual character has three different attack animations and three different defensive ones. These are then combined dynamically to show the two characters interacting, so the amount of variety is huge.
For example, you migh see the Aggressor calling for help and his buddies come floating in from top to help him. Then they will all attack the Plumber, which causes the Plumber's belt to break and then his belly flops out!
Did you dream about the game during the game development process?
When game is at that certain point in the development process, you think about it all the time, so it does become a twenty-four a day obsession, yes. When the superpowers were under development, I once woke up thinking I was Dr. Lovebomber!
What other games has RedLynx done?
We started creating smaller Java games in 2000, and actually most part of them are still up so everyone can still play them. These two (Rollercoaster and Muumi Fishing) were so popular at the time that they crashed servers, hosted with millions of players. Hopefully that will happen with Reset Generation too!
After those games, we did a few Symbian applications for the earlier S60 series phones. Then we were noticed by Nokia, and that's when work on Pathway to Glory start for the original N-Gage game deck. After Pathway to Glory, we created Pathway to Glory Ikusa Islands, followed up by High Seize, all for the first generation of N-Gage. We then made one PSP and NDS game called Warhammer® 40,000: Squad Command™ and we have just released a PC game called Trials 2 SE.
We are polishing up Reset Generation now, and after that we are currently on a few secret projects.
What is your dream game to design or build some day?
It changes day to day, basically. In the end, you cannot fall in love with just one concept, otherwise you might get blinded to all the other great ideas and opportunties out there. So I try to keep my mind open to all kind of ideas, but of course there are a few.
For example, we once created a PC game called Phobia years ago. Basically it was just a plain alien shooter and that idea has been done a lot nowadays. But it would still be fun to make a new version of that which is up to date with different, fresher ideas.
Reset Generation is coming in Summer 2008
