STUNTMAN: IGNITION DEVELOPER DIARY - WHOOPIN' N HOLLERIN' II

Whoopin' n Hollerin' II

As you ought to know by now, Stuntman Ignition's levels are based on a selection of movie-sets. We've already brought Overdrive and Aftermath to a THQ theatre near you. And now, the next in the series, Whoopin' n Hollerin' II is showing too. What's it all about? Well, over to the developers...

"Whoopin' n Hollerin II is the sequel to a very successful comedy-action film portraying the crazy antics of the Creek brothers, a pair of charismatic down-home rascals intent on saving their family farm by any means, fair or foul.  The brothers roar through town in an illegal street race, foil a pair of bumbling bank robbers for the "re-ward" money and torment the cantankerous local sheriff with their wild behavior.  Will the boys succeed?  Can they get the cash they need and free their Uncle Cletus from the local hoosegow all while competing for the attentions of Busty Lynn the sheriff's wayward daughter?  Ya'll best just come on down to Catfish County and find out....

Whoopin' n Hollerin' II gave us an excellent opportunity to emphasize humor, since many of our movies cover fairly serious subject matter, albeit in a fun, tongue-in-cheek manner.  With Whoopin' we relaxed a bit, brightened the color palette, included some fun "down-home" music scattered a few chickens around and generally had a good time.  We also created a particularly fun director for this movie, Andy Baxter and his obnoxious posse.  Each movie has its own unique director who provides introductions to the movies, brief openings for each scene and constant running commentary on the player's performance.  Each director was designed to have a unique personality that could be communicated through voice, and would provide a real differentiator between the movies.  Screw up in Aftershock and you'll get a taste of Richard Langston's dry wit, make the same mistake in Whoopin' and you get to hear Andy and the boys rag on you like you are one of their slacker pals.  Since Stuntman: Ignition's includes some tough stunts where the player may fail and need to restart a level we wanted to spend some effort trying to make those situations entertaining as well.  So rather than merely triggering a dry "Scene Failed" message we decided to include colorful commentary from the director that both explained the reason why you failed and also provided some fun moments.  The directors also have a range of responses to each potential situation, including wide variety of lines for both failure and success.  Early mistakes will trigger a relatively balanced and friendly response, encouraging the player to do better.  Repeated mistakes of the same type within the same scene will trigger more extreme responses that show off the director's personality.  It was extremely important to us to avoid slamming the player with repetitious and overly-negative feedback every time he made a mistake.  Instead the responses are varied, escalate appropriately and provide genuine entertainment value in their own right.  For Whoopin, we used a local improvisational comedy group to create Andy Baxter and the boys, a group of rambunctious, slang using slackers who rag on the player for his mistakes and howl with glee when he nails a scene perfectly.  They're loud, a bit crude and really, really funny.  It's worth deliberately running off course and failing the scenes a few times to hear their comments.  Andy himself is a riot, but it's the interplay between he and his posse that really makes the voice over work.  The writing and voice talent was so creative that a lot of it came from ad-libs and new ideas that came up during recording as the guys played off one another.  It worked out extremely well in game and provided just the right humorous touch we were looking for.

So welcome to Catfish County, where the girls are pretty, the whiskey flows loose and the locals like to play rough.  Just make sure you've got a lead foot and a steady hand on the wheel and you'll fit right in.

Whoopin' n Hollerin' II Director Biography - Andy Baxter
Make no mistake about it, when you list Hollywood's most polished, successful and professional directors; Andy Baxter's name... never comes up.  Baxter is cashing in on his ultra-successful anything-goes reality TV show and has swung himself a job directing for a big production company.  Unfortunately for the cast and crew, Andy has no clue how to direct a feature film...

Baxter's set can be best described as disorganized chaos, actors show up late, stunts are haphazardly laid out and the crew is both lazy and openly hostile.  Andy and his posse of slacker buddies are basically as confused and out of control on set as they were on their wacky reality show, undermining any attempt at film making.  Over-budget and increasingly behind schedule, Andy is counting on some crazy stunt sequences to rescue the production and keep the studio from pulling the plug.  That's where you come in.

Ridge Runner's Race
This level was actually one of the first to be designed, and made playable in a rough "blue box" format.  It showcases the Creek Boys in their custom muscle car in an illegal street race against their local rivals.  The race starts out on the outskirts of town, takes them through the lumberyard and town square where the police become involved.  The Creek Boys then race the cops out of town and escape by leaping the General Stuart over a roadblock and onto the back of a flatbed semi.

Keep in mind that this is a chase scene with a "lead car" so you'll be required to keep behind the lead at all times.  If you fall too far behind, or smash into the lead you'll have to reshoot the scene.  At several points during the run the lead car will disappear, taking a different route, just keep hitting the director stunts and you'll be fine, slow down or make wrong turn and you may fall too far behind.  The level is a ton of fun and not terribly difficult, but its long, so there are plenty of chances to make enough mistakes to strike out.

As you start out, accelerate hard and stay to the right of the lead.  You'll need to scrape a car, try to bump it gently and then follow the lead around the corner to the right and through the timegate and shack.  If you use the fence, hit the timegate and use the trees afterwards you should have no problems maintaining your string through this early section.  Ahead you'll see a drift left, make sure you control your drift, otherwise you could loose control on the dirt and drift too wide or under the semi.  Take another quick right turn into the lumberyard.  Hug the left side, getting close to the semi and jumping the oncoming truck.  If you can, get close stunts on the row of barrels to your left as you head into the 180.  Accelerate hard out of the 180 and hit the boxes, if you time it right you can get a close off of the forklift as it drives crazily past.  Through the timegate, under the logs and then a long tight left turn, try to maintain speed and get near as many boxes oncoming vehicles and other props as you can to keep your string alive.  Drive up onto the loading dock area then into the warehouse.  There are a ton of boxes and barrels to get close stunt from here and rack up a high multiplier.  Watch for the oncoming forklift as you jump out through the warehouse window.  Quickly control your car after you land and drift through a tough left, right, left sequence where it is easy to loose control or get hung up on obstacles.  Be careful, this is a place where it is quite possible to fall too far behind the lead car.

Hit the jump over the moving logs and then overtake first a car and then a truck before turning left along the road.  Watch out for the oncoming cop, if you hit him head on you may fall too far behind.  Keep left to get a close on the oncoming car and then drift right into the park, head straight through the trees and watch for the drift left.  Try to maintain speed and drift about 90 degrees to set up the jump over the police cars.  Hit the ramp and leap over the cop cars then turn right along the road.  You'll need to pass close to an oncoming car and then turn left onto the dirt road for the last chunk of the race. 

Follow the dirt road as it curls to the left and try to get some close stunts off of the hay rounds as you line up for a big jump through the barn.  Bust through the barn doors and chicken coop on your way out but maintain control and follow the road as it bends right.  The lead car smashes into a windmill and closes the road ahead of you, so smash through a fence to your left, curl right through the front yard and then out again, busting through a moonshine still on the way.  Gap between the two cops as they try to block the road in front of you and then follow the road as it curls left to the final jump stunt.  You'll need to hit the ramp squarely and with decent speed.  Do it right and you'll jump over the cops to land on the flatbed and escape!

Grab 'n' Go
In this scene you are driving for a pair of hapless local bank robbers trying to escape after a holdup gone very wrong.  The Armored Car is pretty quick for that type of vehicle but its no sports car, you need to try and preserve your speed as much as possible; if you come to too many hard stops you'll fall behind and miss stunts. 

As you start, accelerate hard and scrape the police car, try to use it to turn the armored car left without losing too much speed.  Try not to get hung up on the turnstiles in the drive through bank.  Turn left onto the road and take a bump from the cop car as you head through the time gate.  If you can thread between the oncoming trucks it is a nice gap to keep your string alive.  The drift right ahead is tricky since it is behind a semi, make sure you drift inside the box to nail the stunt. Maintain speed out of the drift to smash through a car and scrape the police car, setting yourself up to take the right turn ahead at some speed.  Try to use the scrape stunt on the semi to help turn the Armored Car right without losing too much speed.  If you can keep your speed you'll have an easier time hitting the time gate and the gap between the police cars heading away from you, too slow and the gap will fade out before you can get there.  Keep in mind that when you are late for a stunt sometimes it is better to just skip it and take the strike than it is to put yourself out of position by trying to hit it before it fades out.  Smash into the police car to send it flying into the tanker and then negotiate a series of quick turns and through the timegate. Try to keep your speed as you turn right into the alley so you can make the tricky double overtake, the second one between the two semis is particularly dangerous since you'll get pinched between them if you are too slow.  Turn into the alleyway and accelerate into the weapons fire zone to trigger the explosive ending!"

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