Developer Interview

Where did you start in your game industry career, what was your first title, and what do you like most about working in the game industry?

My game career started as a modeler at Mainframe Entertainment. I transitioned into the game industry when I got hired at Relic to work on the original Company of Heroes game. The thing I like most about the game industry is getting to pursue my passions for a living.

How does an average day at Relic look as Art Director for CoH2? What are your major responsibilities and what skills do you must commonly use?

As an Art Director on CoH2 I was responsible for creating the art vision for the game. As the project progressed my focus went more towards environment art and campaign experience.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job in general? What was most challenging in working on CoH2?

The most challenging aspect of my job is in finding time to add all the features I wanted into the game. On CoH2 we were lucky enough to gain a bit of extra time on our project. We used this extra time to push the quality of our art and were able to fully realize the feature set we desired.

Who do you work with most often? Which parts of your job are more collaborative and which are more autonomous?

On an average day I worked most often with the campaign designers and the environment artists. The work we do to create maps for our game is very collaborative and extends beyond our two disciplines.

What’s the process of doing research for a game like CoH2? Did you go on the trip to Russia or any other trip? What’s your best and funniest Russia or travel story?

For CoH2 I was privileged with the opportunity to go on a research trip to both St. Petersburg and Berlin. Getting to visit the locations of several of the key Eastern Front battlefields was very insightful and heavily influenced the look of the environments for CoH2.

When you’re telling people stories about “that time you worked on CoH2” in a few years, what experiences or events will always stick in your mind?

My fondest memories on CoH2, was when we first announced our sequel to the public. The response from our fans was overwhelmingly positive. Our team was feeling positive about the work we were doing on this sequel and the response from the public reaffirmed that we were on the right track to producing a great game.

How would you describe CoH2 to someone who is unfamiliar with it to convey how awesome it is?

Strategic tactical warfare in an interactive environment.

What about your work during CoH2’s development would have most surprised you to hear when you first started on the project?

The most surprising development on CoH2 was that we are now a Sega product.

How do you manage the balance of realism and fun/accessibility/simplicity in your area of CoH2?

The art on this project is a stylized semi-realistic approach. By this I mean that the game is authentic, but not tightly constrained reality.

In your area, how much were you able to draw from the original CoH and its expansions in developing CoH2? What improvements did you specifically seek to make?

I have worked on all of the CoH products and was definitely influenced by its history. I sought to upgrade the visual quality of our game assets and to take advantage of the graphic improvement developed over the last few years. I also worked to improve the interactive quality of our environments and to make our weather an active force in our game.

What are the craziest ideas that found their way into the game?

Interactive Ice. Creating ice that has a walkable surface, is destructible, and can be re-frozen was a great technical feat.

If you played the original Company of Heroes, which faction was your favorite?

Commonwealth.

Which CoH2 faction do you prefer to play? What’s your favorite commander? What’s your favorite unit?

I prefer to play as the Soviets and my favorite units are the Sniper and the Katyusha Rocket Truck.

Describe your style of play in CoH2: Do you build your army around certain units? How aggressive or conservative are you? What would you name your style?

I like artillery and soldiers. I am a conservative player and my style is probably best described as turtling.

What’s your favorite way to play CoH2? (e.g., 1 vs. 1 automatch, 4 vs. 4 annihilation custom matches with friends/family, 2 vs. 2 leagues in the office)?

I enjoy 4 vs. 4 games because they provide the resources and time to fully explore the army tech trees.

How difficult is it to become good at CoH2? Do you need to be good to enjoy it?

The learning curve on CoH2 can be challenging, but even with limited knowledge modes like Theater of War and campaign can be very enjoyable.

What would you tell a player who wants to know how to have the most fun with CoH2’s Theater of War and multiplayer modes?

Play against the computer and just experiment with the different units. Don’t focus immediately on winning, but rather on how to build your army.

Questions about Art

How do you make the winter characterful and varied?

For our winter maps we focused first on creating appealing layouts with unique elements to their design. Once we have a good layout we layer on snow to enhance our layout and push the look of the winter visuals. Strong lighting on top of this gives our maps a strong unique quality.

Tell me an entertaining story about the development of CoH2’s art.

One of first experiments with a multi-season map was on Semois from the original CoH. I had played this map hundreds of time in summer version and had developed gameplay patterns for playing this map. I was playing this map for the first time in winter and I was not doing too well. My opponent had set up a bunch of defenses near a choke point coming on a river crossing and I kept throwing away units trying to push him away from this point. I played this way for about two-thirds of the game before I remembered that the waterways were frozen and I could just go around his defensive line. I had been so use to playing this map as a choke point map, that the realization that the map was now open was rather startling. This moment solidified the idea that ice would be a game changer in our game.