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STUNTMAN: IGNITION DEVELOPER DIARY - NIGHT AVENGER

Howard Reitman, Director of Night Avenger

Night Avenger

"Rich, powerful and corrupt, Darkdom City has long been known as a haven for the greedy and the criminal, but that is about to change. A new force has emerged from the shadows, eager to wreak vengeance upon the villainous, to bring justice to the unjust and bring an end to the city's long nightmare. But who is this mysterious stranger, this Night Avenger embarked on a lone quest against injustice? And more importantly how will he survive the sinister machinations of Big Top, Darkdom's clandestine clown-king of crime? This and other dark secrets will be revealed in the summer's biggest blockbuster....Night Avenger!

Night Avenger is the final movie to be unlocked in career mode and we wanted it to feel spectacular. The super heroic theme gave the designers and artists free reign to push the limit with unique cars, flying vehicles, crazy stunts and the dramatic set design or "look" of the city. One of the challenging tasks facing the art team on Stuntman: Ignition was the number of unique set designs or "looks" needed for the game. Each movie required several unique "looks", for example the abandoned theme park used as Big Top's Hideout vs. the downtown streets of Darkdom City. One of our goals with Stuntman: Ignition was to put the player in unique driving situations, rather than just the normal streets, arenas and racetracks that are common in most driving games. That meant the art team had to support driving through buildings, jumping across rooftops, racing commuter trains, zooming along roller coaster tracks and anything else crazy we could think of.

The nighttime streets of Darkdom were an interesting problem for the team in order to create the strong contrast between light and dark we were looking for. Lighting a normal daytime scene can be challenging, but at least in that case there is one overall light source, the sun, which is used to derive light maps. With Darkdom the team was faced with numerous smaller light sources, such as streetlamps, which dramatically increases the effort needed to create accurate believable light maps. Additionally we needed to support dynamic lights, particularly for the player vehicles headlights, which are really crucial to a believable experience.

Night Avenger also pushed the limit with crazy props, vehicles and stunts. Our arch villain, Big Top, and his henchmen provided a fun evil circus theme that the guys used to tie every thing together and create uniquely memorable moments. There are not many driving games that feature giggling jack-n-the-boxes armed with quad .50 caliber machine guns, giant car-crushing pistons and maniacal clown heads vomiting slippery green goo! Combined with heavily armed superhero-themed vehicles the world of Darkdom really comes alive. Big Top's ride, a gaudily painted, heavily armed open-top roadster may be my favorite vehicle in terms of looks in the entire game. It also provided some unique stunt opportunities with its trunk mounted bomb launcher. In one sequence you pull a 180 in front of some pursuing cops, luring them after you, then launch a Bounce Bomb to take them out, while pulling a reverse 180 under the cop cars as the explode over top of you. The stunt that results looks fantastic on replay and offers a fun timing challenge to pull off.

Night Avenger's dramatic cityscape, crazy circus props and fantastic vehicles combine to create a darkly atmospheric world; while it's super heroic stunt sequences seriously up the ante in terms of both challenges and thrills. Darkdom is ready for you, but are you ready to take on the mantle of the Night Avenger?"

Howard Reitman, Director of Night Avenger

"Howard "Mr. Hollywood" Reitman is one of the best-known, most influential directors in the business. He's got connections with every major studio and is capable of making or breaking careers with a causal remark. Reitman's reputation is well deserved, his last four films have all reached coveted "blockbuster" status and he aims to make sure Night Avenger is at least as successful.

Reitman's success has bloated his ego to the point of gigantism. Everything on set must be done his way and he has assembled a veritable army of assistants to communicate "his way" to all other lesser beings such as actors, crew and, of course, stuntmen. What keeps him tolerable is his relentless drive for perfection and the success that results from it. Perform a top stunt in a Reitman film, and you've got it made."

Designer Blog Entries:

Enter the Avenger
"As this scene begins the Night avenger is patrolling on the rooftops using the Nightbike. He spots Big Top's henchmen staging a robbery, and drops down to intercept them. The Big Top Circus Van is the lead vehicle for most of the level, you need to stay behind and follow it.

You start out on the rooftops with a couple of simple jumps in front of you. Hit the nitro before the first jump, take the second jump but control your speed as you land since you need to drift right just afterwards. If you take it too hot, or wait too long to start the drift you'll slam into the rooftop vents and lose time. After the drift you'll pass through weapons fire and then hit another jump. Once you land, line yourself up for the next jump carefully before you hit the nitro zone, if you are in the middle of the ramp you should have no problems gapping through the center of the Big Top Helicopter. If you don't line up the jump properly it is likely you'll slam into the copter and fail the stunt.

Once you land, avoid the traffic and get to the right hand side of the street to hit the time gate. Pull a 180 at the end of the street and try to get back up to speed quickly in order to follow the lead, in this case the Big Top Circus Van. Use the action button to fire rockets at the small henchman copter in front of you and then take the ramp. You'll need to turn left as soon as you land and make your way quickly to the left side of the street to pass through an explosion from one of the Bounce Bombs dropped by the van. Turn right and keep an eye out for the rising warehouse door in the building to your left, pass under the door and through the warehouse. You need to be up to speed when you exit the warehouse in order to gap between the cop cars heading away from you and overtake another cop before pulling a quick turn to the right. The henchman van will be coming back at you along the left hand side of the street, pass close to him on the left and then turn right at the end of the street. Pop a wheelie under the elevated tracks and hold it for a second before turning right into and alley. You'll need to take the ramp at the end of the alley at a controlled speed so that you can drift left quickly and avoid the sliding semi. Another drift right sets you up to jump the raised bridge, use the nitro to get enough air to leap over the henchman van. Pull a 180 to head back towards the van when you reach the end of the street. Accelerate directly at the van and make sure you hit the action button at the correct time in order to leap off of the bike at the last moment. If you time it right the Night Bike will slam into the henchman van, halting its rampage while the Night Avenger leaps off and lands next to the wreckage."

Rabbit Hole
"In this scene the Night Avenger pursues Big Top while the arch villain tries to make his way back to his secret headquarters located in an abandoned amusement park. Big Top's Ride is the lead vehicle in this level so you'll need to stay behind it as it creates stunt opportunities for you. The Night Car is larger than a normal vehicle which allows you to smash through other cars a bit easier, but it is also harder to fit through narrow alleys so watch out.

You start out facing the raised bridge, avoid the oncoming traffic and jump the bridge, firing missiles with your action button in mid-jump. Head down the street and drift left to follow Big Top into an alley. Accelerate out of the alley to hit the motorcycle henchman and then scrape the henchman car while turning right, stay on the raised section of the road to smash through the guardrail and down to the street below. Accelerate quickly to hit the henchman cycle and drift left under the elevated train. Take the stairs to your left and smash into the cathedral. The pews in here are a great opportunity to rack up some closes as you make your way to the back and pull a 180. Hit the nitro and take the jump out of the cathedral and onto the nearby rooftop. You'll need to drift right, head through a timegate and an explosion and turn 90 degrees right again so that you are headed back off of the roof top.

Ahead of you is a small henchman copter, you need to hit the copter at a slight angle in order to set yourself up to turn right immediately afterwards and race down the raised train tracks. You'll need to overtake the first train on the left, the second on the right, passing between them before they cross and then quickly drifting left to drop down to the street below. Pass through the timegate and then hit the action button to nitro down the street, pass close to the oncoming car and avoid the traffic, turning left at the end of the street. Pass through an explosion and then fire rockets at the Henchman Van taking it out and turn right. Accelerate through the gap and pass under the falling statue before entering the amusement park. Pass through the gap and drift left. Pass through a timegate and hit the action button to take out the henchman van and head left. Hit the action button again to shoot the Ferris Wheel, drift right back around the other side of the fallen wheel and fire rockets to take out another henchman. Drift right to line yourself up with the entrance to Big Top's hideout. Hit the action button to fire the machine guns, cutting a hole in the door. Finally smash through the cutout doorway and into the hideout to end the level."

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