Making the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk Video Games

Panelists

Justin Lambros, VP Interactive, Marvel Studios
Jeffery Tsang, Game Director, Secret Level
Mike McHale, Senior Producer, Sega of America
Beejay Enriquez, Producer, Sega of America

The session began with Justin Lambros providing an overview of the business case for these games, both as “movie games,” a term he used with an acute awareness of its connotations, and as games on their own. He spoke about the upcoming films, but also the true comic book fan – highly relevant at ComicCon – familiar with the lengthy histories of these characters, and consequently the opportunities to not merely tie into the film stories but to create deep, rich experiences that work on multiple levels.

Mr. Lambros commented on the ambitious scope of these productions, noting that Iron Man is coming out on seven platforms and Incredible Hulk on six. Concluding his opening remarks, he handed over to the producers attached to each game, Mike McHale for Iron Man and Beejay Enriquez for The Incredible Hulk.

Mike McHale stated that development was split into three teams across two companies: a team at Secret Level working on Iron Man for PS3 and Xbox 360; a small team at A2M, a Sega internal studio, working on the Nintendo DS version; and another A2M team working on the Nintendo Wii, PS2, PC and PSP version of the game. It was quite surprising to find the PC being classified alongside the PS2 and PSP, but that will probably speak to the design scope of the game.

He said that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are open-world games, challenges that Jeffery Tsang would address later on in the session. On the “current-gen” platforms, McHale stated that they overcame system limitations through clever design that utilized more interior areas.

Commenting briefly on assets for the game, Justin Lambros stated that the developer had access to digital assets used in the movie before passing control over to Beejay Enriquez.

Beejay informed the audience that development was split across two teams, with Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 and PC development handled by Edge of Reality while Amaze handled a distinct DS version. Speaking generally, he said that the emphasis was on creating a living, breathing city with highly destructible environments, even on the DS, though the DS version is adapted to the system’s capabilities.

As with the Iron Man game, elements were pulled in from the entire Hulk mythology, bringing in additional characters and creating experiences that are not strict movie adaptations.

During Q&A, Jeffery Tsang was asked about balancing the linear narrative of the mission-based game with the informal stories that each player creates and shares with friend. He responded that the game is a complete experience on its own, fully distinct from the movie. Players have freedom to pick their approach and strategy in completing objectives, with no artificial dependencies or restrictions on order. Even the dialog was written to reflect this style of play. “We just tried to handle all the cases of things we thought the player would do.”

He continued: “We also explore what being a hero is all about. It’s not just being cool and powerful; it’s about putting yourself in harm’s way to save others.” Based on this, Secret Level added “Hero Choices” to the game, particularly challenging but wholly optional objectives that make statements as to what kind of hero the player is. Mike McHale followed up to point out that Xbox 360 achievements were attached to the Hero Choices.

Asked how the film assets could be used across all seven SKUs of Iron Man, given the variances in platform capabilities, McHale answered that there are similar narration points across all versions, so cut-scenes and voice dialog were largely reused. He stated that the “next-gen” games, PS3 and Xbox 360, used the movie assets, but the other versions of the game either had to downscale the resolution on models and textures or have new, lower-detail assets created. “We basically created three separate sets of assets – visual assets – for the game. For music and audio, though, we reused as much as possible.”

Questioned why there was no planned PSP version for The Incredible Hulk, Beejay Enriquez first reiterated Sega and Marvel’s desire to make excellent games rather than “crap it out,” leading to their postponing a decision about making the PSP version. Justin Lambros pointed out that the PSP version of Spider-Man 2 was released later, too. “One of the challenges is fitting these open world games into the more limited platforms, so…”

In response to a question on scheduling games for promotional release around movies and trying to sustain quality, Justin referred to the lengthy histories their characters have in the comic books, meaning that developers can begin prototyping and playtesting abilities and gameplay without waiting for near-final compositions from the film. “We’re not going to do anything revolutionary to shorten the development cycle,” he said, “but we try to get a leg up,” speaking of the early pre-production opportunity presented by the fact that the movies are themselves adaptations.

Finally, an audience member mentioned the recently announced DCU/Mortal Kombat fighting game, and asked when Marvel would do the obvious – announce a new Marvel vs Capcom.

“We don’t have anything planned for a fighting game,” Mr. Lambros said, “but we’re definitely looking into it.”

Session coverage by Oluseyi Sonaiya

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