Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/18322
■ ■ ■ ■ Games diff erent dimensions, Beenox decided to have four diff erent art styles within the one title. In Noir, the artists used mostly black- and-white textures but with some warm yel- low lighting, giving its levels a look similar to Frank Miller’s Sin City. For Amazing, they paid homage to vintage comic books, choosing washed-out colors and thick out- lines, giving its levels a look that the crew likes to call “pen-and-ink treatment.” For Ultimate, they went with an approach that would be as close as possible to modern-day comic books by using cell shading and vi- brant colors. Finally, for the future world of 2099, the team employed lots of complex shaders to truly make it look high tech and futuristic, with very detailed textures. According to Gravel, Beenox was lucky enough to have talented artists who were in- spired by the great work of likewise talented Marvel artists. Also, there was a very strong collaboration with Marvel in order to make sure that the game’s look was authentic and that any redesigns required by gameplay would still fi t in the Marvel Universe. “We would constantly submit art and builds to Marvel, and they would come back to us with benefi cial feedback on how we could improve the game to better fi t the Marvel brand, while working within the established design choices we set out for our game,” ex- plains Gravel. “It was a good experience, and fans should rest assured that the game we’ve delivered is true to the character and spirit of the Spider-Man brand.” Bringing Spider-Man to Life Beenox employed its proprietary game engine to develop the title. T e robust engine allowed the team to use a wide range of tools that all the current-generation games employ: normal map blending, rim lighting, edge detection, edge extrusion, cell shading, deferred lighting, fully dynamic lighting, HDR rendering, dy- namic light beam, light shafts, rag-doll phys- ics, soft-body simulation, IK, facial-morph 26 October 2010 Beenox integrated four very different Spider-Man styles—all from Spider-Man comic lore—into each game level, whose backdrops and imagery is refl ective of that look. animations, muscle-morph animations, and procedural animations. “We have rag-doll physics and soft-body simulation, so when enemies are thrown into the air, you get reactions that are appropriate,” says Gravel. “For example, Vulture’s cape re- acts well to his moves, because it is simulated instead of animated via multiple segments that sometimes might look unnatural.” In addition, this technology allowed Bee- nox to develop the game for all three main consoles, with players getting the same experi- ence on all three versions. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is the third game the developer has created with its technology. And for each project, the technol- ogy continues to improve, resulting in better graphics and gameplay each time. “Using our own engine allowed us more fl exibility in what we could do; if we needed the engine to do something, our tech team could easily fi nd a way to implement that seamlessly,” says Gravel. “Also, being experts of the engine we’re work- ing with helped us in the end when it came to bug-fi xing and overall polishing the game.” To bring Spider-Man Noir to the video- game world for the fi rst time, Beenox dealt with a wardrobe malfunction that ultimately resulted in a new look for the superhero. “If you have read the comic books, you might have noticed that he wears a trench coat,” ex- plains Gravel. “We tried it in our game, but with all the web swinging and wall crawling going on, it was getting in the way too often (and not looking good while doing it). So, we suggested to Marvel that we should use a short leather coat in- stead, and they were open to that option. T en, since the mood of that dimension is much darker and grittier, we decided to place the emphasis on stealth. And, like a spider on a wall prowling and stalking his prey, you can get behind your enemies and take them down effi ciently, without being detected or hurt.” T e team then built environments for this Spider-Man to fi t the stealth gameplay. Since all the levels occur during nighttime, the team created locations that were creepy after dark. One example is the train-yard base for Hammer head, which was chosen because he’s a gangster and his primary occupation is smuggling goods. By judiciously placing patrol- ling guards around the yard and hiding hostag- es within it, the team created puzzles that force the player to decide who to take down fi rst and whether to remain stealth to avoid detection. “We’re talking about Spider-Man here, an icon that is recognized all around the world by people of diff erent ages, so we wanted accessible, fun, and responsive controls, and really good-looking characters and locations,” says Gravel. “Also, by keeping a unifi ed control scheme, even though you get to play basically four diff erent versions of Spidey, you don’t need to go through a learning curve every time. It makes the title easy to pick up and play.” SUPERHEROES’ FUTURE Moving forward, game publishers seem keen on going their own route when it comes to bringing superheroes to the small screen. Even upcoming comic-book games, like Sega’s T or, will follow in Iron Man 2’s jetpack trail by blending the actors from the big-screen ad- venture with a new, interactive adventure. And with the latest MMO games, the virtual stories will never end—as long as subscribers support the titles. New technology is allowing game creators to focus on creativity, allowing them to break through the lines and off the comic-book pages to appeal to the new generation of su- perhero fans. Let the games begin! ■ John Gaudiosi has been covering the world of video games and the convergence of Hollywood and computer graphics for the past 16 years for a variety of media outlets.