STUNTMAN: IGNITION DEVELOPER DIARY - NEVER KILL ME AGAIN

Jean-Benoit Bernard, Director of Never Kill Me Again

Never Kill Me Again

"The latest in the long-running Simon Crown franchise, Never Kill Me Again drops Crown into yet another perilous situation, surrounded by all the big guns, beautiful girls and breathtaking stunts the audience has learned to expect from the well-known super-agent. This time Crown's on the hunt for an advanced hovercraft prototype, armed with cruise-capable missiles and radar-defeating stealth technology, it would be the perfect weapon for surprise attacks launched over the Arctic ice pack. Crown must infiltrate the sinister mastermind's secret Manchurian base and abscond with the prototype before losing either his heart or his life to the seductive and mysterious counter-agent Lin Yi.

Never Kill Me Again is an action-espionage film that focuses upon impossibly skilled super agents using high tech gadgetry and tricked out vehicles to complete seemingly impossible missions. NKMA gave us a chance to really amp up the weapons fire stunts, which the player had seen only rarely in the previous movies. All of the player-controlled vehicles in this movie are armed with guided rockets, machine guns, or a combination of both. Each scene is packed with tightly choreographed weapons-fire stunts, many of which set up further stunts down the line. A perfect example of this is Basebrawl, a long, involved scene that shows Crown breaking into the enemy base, wreaking havoc and escaping again. He starts outside the base and uses his guided missiles to destroy two gun-trucks and smash the gate creating a gap stunt into the base. Once inside he encounters the rival spy car and chases it around the base and eventually into the villain's super-secret control center. Along the way the player gets opportunities to detonate guard towers with missiles, two-wheel past an incoming rocket, and race through closing laser fences before demolishing the control center. At the finale the player uses his nitro to escape out of the upper floor of the exploding building in one of the most spectacular jumps of the game. And that's just one level!

NKMA also provides players with a significant new wrinkle in gameplay, controlling their vehicles over a mixture of snow and ice. These new terrain types create interesting handling issues for vehicles, turning even a simple drift into a stunt that needs to be carefully approached. Snow provides a somewhat slippery surface but is only a minor challenge when compared to driving on sheer ice. On icy surfaces it is crucial that the player anticipate the stunts and find a good driving line through the scene. Normally, players can do fairly well by simply reacting to the stunts as they pop up, correcting their speed and path on the fly. Driving on ice it becomes very difficult to change course suddenly or to correct for major mistakes. It becomes crucial to control the throttle and start your drifts earlier than normal. In a lot of scenes players can simply drive at a drift stunt and then e-brake through the turn once the reach the stunt box. On ice it is critical to start the drift early and actually drift through the box, using the drift to change directions in a controlled manner. Once mastered, the icy scenes become a joy to drive and watch others play. Never Kill Me Again offers some of the most challenging and rewarding scenes in the game. Where else can you race over an icy lake and throw a complete 180 drift-turn so that you're sliding along backwards while blasting pursuing helicopters out of the sky with the guided missiles built into your exotic high-tech spy car?"

Jean-Benoit Bernard, Director of Never Kill Me Again

"Jean-Benoit is a rarity among action movie directors, a true student of film theory he takes movie-making seriously...perhaps too seriously. Bernard is known for attempting to meld serious new-wave film theory with the modern American blockbuster. After all what action film would not be improved by the addition of a 14 minute sequence of jump-cuts that establish the main characters mysterious yet tragic obsession with a particular brand of aftershave? When questioned about his technique, Bernard explains that in this post-post-modern world of filmmaking, it is crucial that the director escape the prison of narrative film and instead embrace the fragmented and impressionistic values of children at play.

Needless to say most of the crew and actors on set do their best to tune Jean-Benoit out and focus upon their jobs, although this can be hard to do when he holds production meetings in a walk-in freezer in order ensure that the entire staff be "informed by the wild and free spirit of the arctic wastes". As a stuntman on his set its best to just keep quiet and try to look interested as he explains that the relationship of your tires with the snow is meant to "represent the oppressive weight of the modern industrial West pressing down upon the freshly innocent snow of human free will.""

Designer Blog Entries: On Ice and Hovercrash

On Ice
"On Ice is a level that introduces driving on ice to the player and allows them a chance to master some relatively easy stunts on the ice. A lot of the level takes place on snow, but once you reach the ice it becomes even more crucial to anticipate the stunts and start your drifts earlier than you would on grass or even loose dirt. You won't able to recover from mistakes as easily as you can on a normal driving surface, so its important to be patient, control the throttle and find a good path through the level that allows you to hit the stunts without making any unnecessary changes in direction.

The level starts with Crown escaping the base with numerous enemies in hot pursuit. You'll hit the action button to take out the oncoming gun-trucks then U-turn in front of the base wall, get closes off the stacked boxes as you head back under the rock arch for a tight drift that is almost a 180 in itself. Now headed back to the wall you hit your action button again to fire missiles and take out a gun-truck which smashes through the fence and creates an escape route for you. Jump off of the wall and hit your action button again in midair to take out the helicopter in front of you. You'll need to get back into control quickly to gap the oncoming gun-trucks, through a time gate and pass close to an explosion. Ahead is a slippery drift stunt, try to drift through it by accelerating towards it, releasing the throttle as you turn and then accelerating back out, rather than using the e-brake, that way you can maintain momentum to reach the take-a-bump stunt just around the corner. Another quick turn and you are facing a building and another action button stunt. Fire your missiles and keep right to make use of the ramp that is created by the destruction in front of you. You'll land on the second floor and drop right back out the other side of the building onto the ice. Keep in mind that things will get considerably slipperier here, so you'll have to start your drifts even sooner. The first stunt is a shallow drift left that you want to accelerate out of pretty strongly since a short chase sequence starts just afterwards. You'll need to keep your speed up, but still maintain control through the next several stunts. Hit your action button to take out a gun-truck ahead, and then accelerate hard to reach the close to gun-truck stunt ahead of you before it fades out. If you take your initial drift poorly and come out of it too slow you'll have a hard time reaching this guy. You'll face a series of action button stunts and drifts in the next section; try to drift left through the first action button stunt ahead to line yourself up for the next one. Another left drift and a long circular left turn to line yourself up for a big jump. It's crucial to get lined up with this ramp, since last minute adjustments on the ice can be trouble. Try to keep to the center of the ramp to land in the box and line yourself up for the second ramp which follows immediately. The jump will take you high over the wall and into an icy crevasse. You'll need to keep to the center and hit the action button stunt to trigger your nitro since the pursuing helicopters fire rockets into the crevasse and create a nasty avalanche. You'll face a series of three nitro stunts in a row to escape, so keep your speed up, stay in the center of the crevasses and make sure you hit each nitro zone; otherwise you'll be crushed in the falling rock and snow. One massive final jump from the center of the crevasse later and you are home free."

Hovercrash
"In Hovercrash Crown has stolen the advance hovercraft prototype and is escaping with it in the climactic scene. The hovercraft drives pretty differently from the other vehicles but it also handles the snowy surfaces considerably better. In general it's better to control your turns with the throttle and stay off of the brake entirely when possible. Also keep in mind that you can actually steer this thing in the air, so if you need to fine tune your jump or start a turn before you land then go ahead. This scene is also a bit tight on time so one of your challenges will be hitting the stunts fairly quickly, you don't want to lose control, but if you are too slow you'll run out of time just before the end. You start out in the hovercraft with the guards trying desperately to stop you. Accelerate hard and smash through the first gun-trucks and the gate. You'll fire missiles and get close to an initial explosion to set yourself up to circle around to the right. Smash through a gun-truck and drift right circling around the ICBM's. Fire another missile to destroy a guard tower and then weave your way through the base and through a timegate.  Another quick drift right, close to an explosion and wind your way around the path where you'll destroy another guard tower with your missiles. And jump into the construction pit. Pass close to the boxes in the pit to maintain your string and then leap out of the pit, firing missiles on the way. Your missiles will destroy some scaffolding and create a ramp behind you. Throw a 180 to head back the other way and then use the wreckage as a ramp to escape the construction pits. Hit a couple more action button stunts to destroy the guard blocking your way and circle around back to the left. Slam through a gun truck, smash through some stacked barrels and then turn left along the building wall. Here you'll use your action button to fire missiles and take out your last opponents while accelerating towards the final ramp. Make sure you hit the ramp squarely and stay in the middle to complete the final jump into a cargo container dangled high above the cliff by a friendly helicopter. If you miss this final jump you'll go off the cliff and need to restart so it's important to make sure you have it lined up. Once your in the container your home free!"

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