The Bourne Conspiracy
Developer: High Moon Studios
Genre: Single-player; Third-person; Action
Engine: Unreal 3 / 3.5
Platforms: Playstation 3; Xbox 360
Released: June 2008
Gameplay Overview: A cinematic, action/espionage game with melee brawling, gunplay, stealth sequences, quick-time events, and boss fights
My Role: Game Designer (generalist)
Duties: Level design and initial block out (two levels), gameplay scripting, bug-fixing, polish (multiple levels)
Responsibilities:
Principal design, blockout, and gameplay scripting for two missions:
Substantial scripting and polish work on two other missions:
The Bourne Conspiracy was my first professional game right out of The Guildhall. I joined midway through development and worked on it up through ship, which was nearly two years.
I started as an Associate Designer but was promoted to mid-level during production.
Highlights for me were:
Building the outer shell and upper levels of the super-yacht for the Assassinate Wombosi mission (we called it Wom-boaty) in 3DS Max and populating it with gameplay.
Designing and scripting the final boss fight for the game.
Leading a small pod of junior designers during the beta/polish phase to triage and knock out bugs.
Coming up with crazy hacks to fix issues and improve the gameplay late at night (hello invisible scripted AI in the Marseille docks helicopter fight).
Cutting my teeth on the Unreal engine and big dev team processes.
Mission 2: Shipyard Infiltration
Shipyard Infiltration was a level I inherited and did heavy scripting work on from beginning to end. It was one of the most technically challenging levels for development, as it was very large and contained some complex set-pieces like a mini-boss fight against a helicopter and a melee brawl on a moving boat.
Other than bringing the level up to shippable quality, I’m also most proud of the work I did in Unreal Matinee. I spent hours perfecting a sequence of a sinking boat that was reused many times.
Mission 3: Assassinate Wombosi
Assassinate Wombosi was not only my first assignment on the project but it was also my first time pairing with a designer to collaborate on a single mission. Luckily, we hit it off and coordinated well throughout. We split the mission in two (upper and lower halves of the boat).
I’m also proud of the 3D modeling work I did to block out the outer shell and upper decks using 3DS Max, which led to a happy and successful relationship with the lead environment artist.
Mission 8: Disarm Renard
Disarm Renard was another level that I inherited during the beta phase and was tasked with bringing up to shippable quality. It was a beast of a level with both narrative and technical challenges. It started with a stealthy infiltration, followed by a guns blazing shootout in a museum filled with destructible art pieces; it had big action set pieces like enemies rappeling in to combat through the roof, and it ended in a timed chase sequence.
It was also one of the oldest levels that had already changed hands before. Tying all that together and making it sing both from a technical and experiential sense was a big accomplishment.
Final Mission: Treadstone Safehouse
Treadstone Safehouse is a level that I was asked to take over and do major revisions on due to some design pivots. I ended up blocking in new geometry and scripting brand new setups, including the addition of a stealth sequence and a boss battle.
One of the major challenges was how to have a satisfying and believable pinnacle encounter against a challenging enemy that would test all the skills players had learned… when that enemy was essentially a guy in a nice suit.
I ended up going deep in blueprint scripting (then known as Kismet) to craft a boss fight that built on the basics of our AI but also took it to the next level. I believe I created something that satisfied the brief, but also, I learned the value of techhnical design and good scripting organization.