Lost Planet

On to Part 2 of my exclusive interview with Lost Planet Lead Programmer Kohei Akiyama.

[Brian] What exactly is the process for taking an idea or concept that a designer comes up with and translating that into program code?

[Akiyama] Although I’m in charge of the software code, as the Director Oguro-san is the team leader for the whole project, so he does a lot to steer the team in the direction it’s supposed to go.

Click to read the rest of Part 2 of the interview.

[More:]

[Oguro] While I’m the director, part of my role is also as a designer. So for conversations about objects in the game or parameter settings, I’d play the designer role and talk to the individual programmers about how best to implement things.

Then, if what I want done is something more complicated, something that would take more than a day to complete, then I’d switch back to my director role and consult Akiyama-san. I tell him what I want to see happen, and he’d schedule it in.

[Brian] Can you talk a little about the role of programmers ? I know it doesn’t get the same attention as the production or even art side of development.

[Oguro] A programmer has to know everything about the game, because he or she has to know what the game can run in terms of graphics, effects, etc. If an artist or designer wants something, the programmer has to know whether it’s possible or whether that has to be scaled back or cut altogether.

[Akiyama] After the initial planning and design phases, the game doesn’t take form on the screen until the programmers create the code for it to run. And in order for the programmers to fully and faithfully recreate what the planners are imagining, what the designers want to show, what everyone is imagining in their heads, the programmers have to understand completely what it is everyone wants. Otherwise you end up with a completely different kind of game.

We have a vision of the plan of how the game will work that is formed through countless hours of working with the designers and planners going over all the tiny, minute details.

[Brian] Are you writing code that is close to final from the very beginning? Or is the code refined throughout the whole development cycle?

[Akiyama] We are constantly going back through it. We may put something into the game, but know that it will probably be changed or updated soon. When the updates come down the pipe later on, we build on the basics of what was put in originally. It’s like the game itself is a tree, and all the basic stuff we put in are branches. Then the details go in according to what the designers and planners request, and those are the leaves, and the veins in those leaves.

Everything we put in has to be flexible and adaptable to accommodate any changes that need to be made. Most of the requests we get from the planners and designers are to add on, refine, and flesh out what’s already in the game.

[Brian] Do programmers get any say in the design of the game? Or are they relegated to a more of a role where they do whatever they are asked to do?

[Akiyama] Good question. Through the course of development, we programmers have a chance to give our own opinions and suggestions for things that might work in the game. Talking with the designers and the people in charge of those areas is another one of my jobs.

I am in constant communication with the designers to make sure the programming team doesn’t go off in its own direction if that direction isn’t going exactly where the designers want it to. Of course sometimes programmers’ egos can get in the way, and it’s not unheard of for there to be some conflict between them and the designers. But we talk through everything and resolve any issues that should come up.

And if opinions really are divided and we can’t solve something on our own, we leave the decision up to the director or the producer as to what direction to take.

[Brian] Do programmers have to know video games? Or is programming for a video game the same as programming other kinds of software?

[Oguro] Programmers in general are really into games and know a lot about games. For example, for Lost Planet, the programmers have to know enough about games and have that background to know whether it will be more like a Halo-type shooter, or a more military, tactical kind of shooter. They have to have that background knowledge or it makes programming the game and the way it behaves very difficult.

[Akiyama] A major part of programming is communication, communicating with the designers and everyone else. If both the programmer and the designer or whoever know about video games, it goes pretty smooth. A designer can say like that one thing in that one game, and the programmer will understand and get the picture without it having to be spelled out in detail in a technical design document. So it makes it go much, much smoother because everyone here is a gamer and knows about games.

Of course we go through a lot of trial and error, creating prototypes. There are some things you have to get up and running and try out before you can tell how it will work and behave beyond how the specific code is written. This is especially true for brand new games that aren’t sequels based on previous titles. When you’re on your second or third in a series, you have a lot to build on already, and much of this trial and error has already been done.

With other kinds of software, programming may be more straight-forward than for an interactive game.

Jump to:
Part 1
Part 3

—Brian