Quick-Fire Insights
What is your:
Favorite movie?
Mulholland Drive, by David Lynch. That man is the master of the mysterious and the weird.
Current gaming obsession?
Prey. I just think the way that Arkane Studios managed to make that space station feel so alive was incredibly impressive.
Favorite all-time game?
Half-Life. The thrill of that introduction sequence going down into Black Mesa still haunts me.
Favorite book?
The Road. The sparsity and poetry of the language in that apocalyptic world of ash and gray is just out of this world.
Favorite band?
Boards of Canada. I love many genres of music, from black metal to Lana Del Rey, but Boards of Canada touches some special place deep inside; I don’t have words to describe it.
Biggest hobby?
Maybe food. I like cooking, making kimchi, and watching MasterChef Australia.
Motto?
Turn your pain into creativity.
Background
How did you first become interested in pursuing a career in video games?
I was in college and Half-Life had just been released. At the time I thought I wanted to work with writing scripts for movies. I started playing this game that I had heard about from friends who said they liked it. And when I played it I just had this epiphany that this is what I wanted to do. It made me realize that there is so much potential in storytelling for games and I decided right there and then that I was going to become a game story writer.
How long have you been on the team?
I started in spring 2011, so I’ve been here for over six years now.
Give the reader an idea of your day-to-day tasks.
Depends on where we are in the development process. At the beginning of a project, my days consist of a lot of meetings, brainstorming story ideas with Jens, and days of just writing scenes and dialogue. In the middle of the project, there might be pickup dialogues that need to be written, as well as in-game fiction and fleshing out side characters and ambient conversations. Or later in the project there’s much more technical work that needs to be done, like timing the dialogue in order to break up the subtitles into smaller chunks.
What’s your favorite aspect of a project?
I think it varies, but probably the start of the project when you’re mapping out the story and going into the actual writing process of fleshing out scenes and different characters and plotting out their character arcs.
The New Colossus
How does Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus fit into the storyline of the Wolfenstein series?
It’s a direct continuation of the story in The New Order and it starts off with B.J. severely crippled after the assault on Deathshead’s compound. Struggling with a body that is slowly breaking down on him, he has to consolidate the remaining fragments of the Resistance and spark a second American Revolution. We also get to learn more about B.J.’s backstory and how he became who he is.
What were the overall goals in creating the next chapter of the Wolfenstein universe?
Wolfenstein: The New Order was a statement about the type of game that we wanted to make, so we had that as a starting point when we began working on The New Colossus. Our goal was to find ways to dial up the intensity and quality on every core component. How do we write better character arcs, how do we make our enemies more varied, and so on. I think we’ve written a story that’s both more ambitious and even more personal. The gameplay is wilder, and yet remains grounded enough to feel authentic. When we made our first game we were still building the studio. The New Colossus is us firing on all cylinders and we hope that shows.
What key decisions were made to reinforce and accomplish those goals?
Early in pre-production the idea of “freedom” emerged as the gameplay theme which would feed into the story’s theme of “catharsis.” So, the result is a game about liberating America while going on this personal cathartic journey through Nazi-occupied America. Many game design and story decisions stem from those two ideas that would turn up the intensity of both story and gameplay.
What do you feel has the most impact in making the Wolfenstein series stand apart from other video games?
Ever since Wolfenstein 3D, the series has been like looking at history through a cracked mirror. Moving the game into this alternate reality where the Nazis won the war emphasizes many of those qualities that Wolfenstein 3D had—crazy sci-fi elements, over-the-top violence, twisted antagonists like General Engel, and towering Nazi robots. But above all, it’s about one thing and one thing only: killing Nazis.
What was the trickiest task assigned to you and how did you solve it?
That was probably creating all of the Resistance characters that inhabit the submarine hub. We wanted all of them to feel unique and as you play the game, this motley crew keeps growing bigger and it was a bit of a challenge to keep track of that progress and make them feel like they were actually inhabiting this space.
Game Design
What were some of the challenges in creating the gameplay experience this time around?
Perhaps the biggest challenge has been empowering the player with the three playstyles—Mayhem, Tactical, and Stealth. We’ve tried to allow for organic movement between these styles while playing, which means that every enemy and area has to support all the playstyles. This puts tough requirements on level design and game mechanics, and you need the entire studio to work towards that goal.
What elements did you incorporate into each level to make them unique?
Wolfenstein is an action-adventure, and so we want to keep you constantly on your toes, not knowing what comes next. So we spend a lot of effort making sure that the gameplay of the levels goes hand-in-hand with the story. We try to keep the experience fresh and exciting by taking you to new, strange locations and by switching up the gameplay. One moment you’re in a wheelchair fighting Nazis in a submarine and in the next you’re riding a Panzerhund through New Orleans setting Nazis on fire.
Art and Design
What fresh approaches have you brought to the design of the principal characters for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus?
The visual development of the main characters has been an exciting part of the project. In the previous game we established the core visuals for our protagonist B.J. and his closest allies in the Resistance. They started off as a ragged-looking bunch and in this game we’ve allowed them to breathe a bit more, refining their visual character traits to create a broader gallery of portraits. They’ve gone from a scavenging Resistance group to a more established organization and so each character has had a chance to carve out their own visual niche, while still keeping the core visuals we established for them in The New Order. In the end, I think we’ve shaped the characters of The New Colossus into a gallery of personalities that have evolved together with the story.
Talk about your inspiration for the artistic look and feel of The New Colossus’ alternate-history setting.
Creating an alternative reality that uses history as a springboard, while at the same time throwing the world into this pool of crazy sci-fi and cathartic violence—everything that makes a Wolfenstein game Wolfenstein—has been challenging but, most importantly, extremely fun. This is by far the most ambitious project we’ve ever worked on. In The New Order, we laid out the foundation of a world being rebuilt in concrete and steel by a Nazi regime that had changed the course of the world. For this sequel game, we looked at what components we felt worked the best and added new ideas to strengthen the overall concept of Nazi-occupied America in the ’60s. The core concept is a world dominated by Nazis with huge robots and super-advanced technology, over-the-top weaponry, colossal structures made out of concrete, and tons of hard steel. Underneath this oppressive mass of fascism is a vibrant world that is full of life, color, with people filled with a sense of revenge and a will to survive. Visually, this is represented with overgrown ruins, flooded cities reclaimed by marshlands left to rot, remnants of a world that once was. It’s this contrast between brutal steel structures of the new and the colorful and irregular patchwork of the old that makes this game world come alive.
Narrative
At the core of every Wolfenstein game is the fact that you get to kill Nazis, but The New Order brought a level of complex storytelling to the series. What challenges did you face in furthering that narrative in The New Colossus?
One of the main challenges has been to bring over and continue the story arcs of the characters that we know and love from The New Order, while at the same time injecting some fresh blood with new characters, without overcrowding the game. It’s a fine balance, and I think when you have such a big gallery of likable characters as we have, it feels like you want to see even more of them.
In Conclusion
What are you most proud of concerning the game?
That we’ve managed to create an experience that is emotionally engaging, funny, thought-provoking, and a kick-ass action game at the same time. It’s not like any game I’ve ever seen before.
How would you summarize the experience of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus?
Like going on a burning roller-coaster with the people you love while pulverizing Nazis with laser rifles.