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STUNTMAN: IGNITION DEVELOPER DIARY - STRIKE FORCE OMEGA

Karl Steele, Director of Strike Force Omega

Strike Force Omega

"Strike Force Omega is a military-themed action movie depicting the adventures of a covert special operations force, bankrolled-but not officially supported-by the US government. Their current assignment takes place in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous and arid Central Asian republic that once housed a cluster of advanced Soviet military bases. After the fall of communism, these bases were supposedly emptied of advanced weaponry, but the US has recently learned that a veritable treasure-trove of advanced weaponry including ballistic missiles was left in place. Taking advantage of Kyrgyzstan's weak and corrupt local government, an international mercenary group has begun operations to capture and reactivate the bases. Unable to intervene directly in the region, the US government has instead called in Strike Force Omega to eliminate the problem...or die trying.

The adventures of Strike Force Omega are a tribute to the ultra-patriotic unabashedly cheesy military action films of the 1980s. Secret ops teams in heavily armed all-terrain vehicles roaring across the desert with patriotic music blaring in the background, while ripped action heroes wade unharmed through deadly machine gun fire, dropping bad guys and one-liners with equal ease. The military theme provided an excellent opportunity to introduce weapon-based stunts as well as tons of explosions, machine gun fire and chaotic battlefield action. Imagine roaring though the Strike Force Base in a souped-up dune buggy, threading through deadly battlefields on an agile dirt bike or taking control of Commander Black's custom Scorpion assault car, smashing through mercenary motorcycles and gunning down hostiles with its built in auto-targeting chaingun.

The dusty desert setting of Strike Force Omega allowed us to create new driving challenges for players and to introduce all-terrain vehicles, such as dirt bikes, dune buggies and the Scorpion. We were determined that the experience of driving through loose sand and dirt had to be strongly felt by the player, magnifying the effects of the new motion models. Loosely packed sand allows easier and longer drifts and makes sudden changes of direction harder to control. These differences encourage players to analyze and adjust their playstyle to the new environment. Sections of terrain were marked with a variety of "material IDs" such as dirt, asphalt or rock. This ID tag modified the motion models of our vehicles when driving on the tagged surfaces, ensuring that they controlled differently in each area and simulating the effects of the different terrain types. Extensive testing of these values was done to make them feel "realistic" while still remaining fun and playable. Unique particle effects such dirt kicked up by the tires and clouds of dust combined with the crunch of gravel beneath the tires to complete the experience of driving through the Central Asian desert.

Interested in barreling full speed through an arid canyon, strewn with the burning wrecks of your enemies? Or jumping a multi-ton missile truck over a destroyed bridge? Then join up with Commander Black and the men of Strike Force Omega...your country needs you!"

Karl Steele, Director of Strike Force Omega
"When people hear the name Karl Steele they think of one thing and one thing only - action! Karl began his career as a stuntman, becoming famous for taking on the craziest and most dangerous stunts and quickly building up a reputation as one of the best in the business. Leveraging his success into the leading role in a small B-movie, he turned a potential flop into box office gold with his ripped physique and macho charisma. The man known as Mr. Steele has never looked back, cranking out hit movie after hit movie, while becoming Hollywood's unquestioned king of action heroes.

On the set, Karl's ego and intimidating personality tends to alienate the cast and crew, resulting in production delays and a steady stream of offended actors walking off the set. As hard as he is on the cast, Karl is twice as hard on his stuntmen, riding them for the slightest mistake and often placing them in extremely dangerous situations in order to get just the right shot. Any stuntman survives and prospers under his harsh tutelage has more than proved himself ready for the big time."

Designer Blog Entries: Dogs of War and Behind Enemy Lines

Dogs of War
"In this scene the player is driving as an enemy mercenary, rampaging through the Strike Force base. You begin outside the base with hostiles all around. Accelerate hard through the first set of explosion stunts and then drift right around the pole and head down hill. There is some wreckage that you can get close to along the way to maintain your string. Hit the ramp, pass through the explosion stunt and then drift left at the bottom of the hill. Stay left and drive up on the ledge, if you can maintain speed through the drift you'll be able to hit the timegate on the ledge early and earn extra points. Overtake the buggy ahead on the left and bear slightly right as you jump off of the ledge. Weave your way through the wreckage on the bridge and then head right, into the fortress. Ahead of you a buggy will smash into a missile truck, pass close to the wreck and make sure you hit the action button to take out the SFO buggy in front of you. You'll drift hard left and then be faced with a series of oncoming semis. Stay right initially to set yourself up for this dangerous stunt. You'll need to weave between them, weave right, then left around the second truck then back right again for the third. You'll circle around the base again, passing through an explosion, and then drifting left. Try to maintain your speed during the drift you can catch up and pass close to the buggy ahead of you. You'll need to turn left hard and then be ready to hit the action button again, keep bearing left and pass through the explosion ahead, setting yourself up for the final jump. Hit the ramp at full speed and slam into the SFO copter meeting a fiery end as you try to escape the alerted base."

Behind Enemy Lines
"In this scene Commander Black has been lured to an isolated meeting and then ambushed by desperate merc forces. Proving they've ambushed the wrong man, the Commander fights his way back to the SFO base, inflicting heavy casualties along the way. Accelerate quickly at the start and line yourself up for the nitro jump over the building. You'll need to lay off the gas and drift right quickly after you land. Keep left and overtake the buggy ahead of you and accelerate through the timegate, you can use the oncoming buggy and barrels ahead of you to build an early string. You'll pass through an explosion and then drift right as the road ahead of you is closed off by enemy combat buses. Smash through the gate into the abandoned farm and then weave left maintaining speed so you can overrun the merc motorcycle as you exit the farm. The next stunt is tough to control so watch out. You'll need to hit your action button to activate nitro and then smash a buggy and pass under a silo while retaining control of the Scorpion. You'll drift left after the silo, but if you are not careful and are going to fast you'll smash directly into the rock wall ahead. Accelerate out of your drift and pass between the two buggies ahead and then come up along the right side of the combat bus to take a bump. Keep right and drive up onto the ledge. Hit your nitro and jump off the ledge, keeping left to avoid the combat bus ahead of you and pass through the timegate. You'll turn right here and smash another unfortunate cyclist. Make sure you lead him and maintain speed during the drift, otherwise won't catch up to him in time to execute the stunt. You'll curl back left and activate one last burst of nitro to leap the destroyed train bridge into the SFO base. If you time it right you can smash the enemy cyclist during the jump. Pull a quick 180 once inside the base to complete the scene."

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