PC Gamer UK Interviews Valve

[Chris D]

As well as the great preview of SiN Episodes in August's edition of PC Gamer UK, there's also an interview with Bill Van Buren (Producer/Designer), Marc Laidlaw (Writer) and Bill Fletcher (Animator). PC Gamer have kindly allowed us to copy a few of the 25 questions, straight from the mag. The questions cover such topics as Marc Laidlaw's beard stangely resembling Gordon Freeman's, the story of Half-Life 2 and other probing questions to give us an insight into the making of Half-Life 2. Here's a preview of the article:

PC Gamer: Is it always that direction? Are you always writing the story to service the level design? Are you just fitting the story together?

Marc Laidlaw: Yeah, that's part of my job. We're all interdependent. They might make a decision from a level design point of view, and it's more like a fun challenge. "How can we do without that plot point? What does that afford us? Now that we don't have to do this piece, what can we do instead?" Usually I end up with two pieces that are not connected, but right up next to each other and I have to think of a way of linking them. But you see this really, really obvious connection, that was there the whole time. Then you organise around that.
That could have an odd effect. We eliminated the guy who was supposed to be Alyx's father, and suddenly that changed the whole balance of the cast. Originally, Alyx was a go-between for rebel forces, she was can-do, rugged and tough. Her father was an army general who'd been caught, and planted into a Combine installation. In the end we cut the Combine installation, losing him. We felt this was one character too many; we had a bunch of older men characters who started to feel kind of similar. At some point, I went "I don't think we need this Captain Vance, it'll be one less character to worry about." We weren't giving enough development to the characters we had. As we did that, for a little while Alyx was on her own, just floating over here. Meanwhile, we had Eli, here on the other side of the table, unconnected. We just pushed them together, saying "Ooh. We think they're related."

PC Gamer: Bill, you came to Valve from Disney. Does working in an interactive environment offer a different kind of challenge?

Bill Fletcher: It's a lot harder. In films, you have it all laid out for you. Everything is in there for specific reasons, you have close-ups, you have long-shots, we use them to tell the story. In this medium, we don't have that to fall back on. We have to make these characters live in this space. I can't make my life easier and animate just in close-up. You have no idea how close the player is going to be, you could be trying to create a nice, quiet, tender moment but the camera is right across the other side of the room. Controlling the camera gives you so much more power over emotions. We're not able to do that - what we try and do is draw you across and closer in, we do it so you feel you need to get in and close to the acting. But you can't just concentrate on the facial, like you would want to do in a traditional animation. You've got to work on the body-language, too. By the same token, you can't have them bouncing around if the player is really close to them. You choose your battles. I try and keep it pretty low-key in the more emotional moments. It's that much more gratifying, we're creating a character, not a movie clip.

PC Gamer: The moment that really stood out for me was when Alyx passes through the teleporter. You see her on the monitor: when she arrives, she gives Eli a little peck on the cheek. I've never seen that in a game... it just nails the relationship, and perfectly sets up the later jeopardy. I don't think I'd ever seen such a kiss like that in a game before.

Marc Laidlaw: That was when the scene really came to fruition. It wasn't in the script. It was implicit in their relationship, but that visual language is not... like... I'll do everything I can with the words, but I'm finding that we can actually cut lines because the acting and animation supports silence. That's what I'm shooting for, to get stuff into the animators' hands that lets them go even further. We know there's affection between them, we build it up like scaffolding, but when you're on top of that... A lot of the animation seems to be the extra one percent that tips it over. In that scene, the kiss seems really simple. Even to me, it came out of the meaning of the scene.

You can visit PC Gamer's website here or get yourself down to the shop to see the magazine for yourself.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Interesting a kiss, pucker up Chrisy boy

(your a newbie again btw)

 

[Varsity]

Disney? I wouldn't have guessed that.

 

[Insano]

Did you choose the questions or were they send to you? Because I think there were a bunch more interesting things than that kiss-question

Hmmm, Marc Laidlaw came from Disney. So he is the one who killed Bambi!

 

[nutcrackr]

Interesting that the kiss wasn't even in the script. Also sounds as though they moved characters to better the game, rather than having a solid story and build the game from that.

 

[Chris D]

Did you choose the questions or were they send to you? Because I think there were a bunch more interesting things than that kiss-question

Hmmm, Marc Laidlaw came from Disney. So he is the one who killed Bambi!

I chose my favourite questions.

No, Marc Laidlaw has never worked at Disney. That question was directed to and responded by Bill Fletcher, the animator.

 

[Insano]

I chose my favourite questions.

No, Marc Laidlaw has never worked at Disney. That question was directed to and responded by Bill Fletcher, the animator.

In you we trust

Ah, I didn't see that the question was answered by Bill Fletcher. I saw that the first and last were answered by Marc Laidlaw so I assumed that they all were

 

[baron insig]

the kiss at the time to me didnt seem very significant but looking back at it now it was that pinacle point which really showed the connection and level of relationship between the two characters

twas gd

 

[Geogriffith]

We just pushed them together, saying "Ooh. We think they're related."

 

[kaf11]

sounds interesting. too bad i cant pick it up, being in the U.S. and all.

 

[Chris D]

I've heard a few Americans say they can get the UK edition over there.

 

[Asuka]

I've heard a few Americans say they can get the UK edition over there.

Havnt seen it anywhere in nyc.

 

[Llama]

waht are you guys talking about? Ita not in the UK edition - Becuase ive got the UK edition (As i live in Birmingham) and i cant find it anywhere

the latest issue is issue 150, July edition

EDIT: Dammit, theres another one due out today?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I've heard a few Americans say they can get the UK edition over there.

than it must be very rare because i have never seen the UK edition in the times i have gone to purchase the PC Gamer mag.