| RTCM: |
What where your teams first BUILD projects? and How did these come about? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: At first we did some simple maps and weapon
additions for Duke3D. I remember one of our first maps being Mexico-themed with a
bull-fighting arena, sleeping Mexicans and some angry flying and exploding suicide
chickens chasing you. We also transformed the pigcops to Mexicans too who shot you with a
shotgun. This thing was never released, though. I also did a winterwar map which was
released on our initial TNT website. Heikki: Yeah, I also remember the
Mexico map, it was really fun to make that. It was summer 1996 then and we had just
started designing levels for Duke3D. Later that year I continued making the M-16 weapon
mod, and the Beirut map for it.
{EDITOR NOTES: Beirut Map -A ruined city at night. Dark alleys,
abandoned and destroyed buildings,sandbag barriers, artillery bombarding the city... It's
a great DukeMatch level designed especially for use with the M16 patch. Watch out for
those snipers ! Look for the m16duke.zip and d3dguns11.zip files in the duke3d-cons
download section here at RTCM}
About the beginning --- although the Duke3D engine was quite restricting from the
modmakers point-of-view, BUILD gave us the possibility to create large outdoor areas for
our maps, and we thought that was something really cool. The first Quake demo was released
at the same time, and although it had the amazing new 3d engine, we preferred Duke3D, it
was more fun.
IceBreakR: At first I've started working on DM maps for Duke and soon
they've become quite popular (if someone still remembers them): Mallice, ArabCity, Dang
Street, CaveFear, House71, etc... I immediately signed up for my first Internet project
around 1996. The project was a TC for Duke Nukem named "Aliens 3D". The leader
of the project was Raul Aguilar, but due to copyright infringement rights 20th Century Fox
forced us to cancel it.
Then I've met Tuco and Heikki.
{EDITOR NOTES: This occurred near the end of platoons development. He
did some graphic work.}
|
| RTCM: |
Where you aware of the high popularity of the Beirut Map? |
| TNT: |
Heikki: Not really. I remember that I spent quite a few
hours making that map, but never thought that someone would really want to play it. Maybe
the blocky map design appealed to some people :) |
| RTCM: |
Is the old "Aliens 3D" conversion in some form available today? |
| TNT: |
NOTE from Tuco, I haven't received an answer from Lado to this question
yet... ...he did not give a straight reply. |
| RTCM: |
How did things evolve into making a conversion for Duke3D, The Platoon
TC? What type of plans where made? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: In the previous maps and other small modifications
we had done simple things which could be used in a TC about Vietnam. These included
weapons and tests how to make jungle maps. After that it was all about putting things
together and adding the final touch. Heikki: We had the theme decided
early on, and started replacing the existing material of the Duke3D world with their
Vietnam War counterparts. We never made any too specific plans for Platoon TC, we just
tried to make it as fun and fresh as possible.
|
| RTCM: |
What where some of your resources for editing and enhancing the Duke3D
game, like FAQs and tools used? Could you be specific? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: There were con editing faqs and map making
tutorials that we learned from when working on Platoon. However, there were also a lot of
things that we simply had to do by trial and error type experimenting. Heikki:
The tools we used... well, I think we used the good old DOS Edit for editing the .con
files, also some DOS paint program for the graphics, and GoldWave for sounds. Simple
programs.
Heikki: It's been such a long time that we can't remember too many
details. I think we learned the level editing basics from Jonah Bishop's MapFAQ and the
.con basics from Joris Weimar's documents. And after we learned the basics we started
experimenting
Tuco: Oh yeah, I remember Jonah's MapFAQ as well, I think we had a
printed version of it which we used when making maps. I think we also had some sample maps
which showed how to use some of the tricks.
|
| RTCM: |
The version of Duke3D your team used was 1.3D, which at the time was the
most available version to players. Despite the lesser version your team was able to
produce unique special effects, it shows how cunning you can be with a minor version
of the game. What where some of the effects you worked on in Platoon? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: One of the things I remember working on was
airstrikes which proved to be a very good feature for Platoon. This feature was also
something that did not exist in the original game so we had to implement it by trying
again and again different ways to pull if off. And finally we did succeed in making a good
looking airstrike having moving planes on the sky and huge explosions on the ground from
the dropped bombs. {EDITORS NOTE: These bombs where actualy dropped,
they existed visually as they fell} Heikki: The airstrikes
were really fun to make. I also remember the landmines, artillery...I think there was
something else too but can't remember right now. {EDITORS NOTE: The F-4
Phantom Fighter that dropped bombs used the Duke3D's Trashcan as a host}
|
| RTCM: |
How long did it take for you to complete the majority of the special
effects you did? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: In about a month or two. We did not have that many
features in Platoon so that's why the development time was so short. |
| RTCM: |
How long did it take to finish each of your jobs? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: Platoon was done very fast, maybe in just 3-4
months. Heikki: I think we started working on it sometime in May 1997,
and got it finished early August.
|
| RTCM: |
Having a TC being completed in such a short amount of time and still
being successful was unheard of back then in '97. Did you have second thoughts about
releasing it so soon? and if so why? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: No, we didn't have any second thoughts about
releasing. We didn't have a strict deadline so we worked with "release when it's
finished" mentality. After finishing building the maps, we had a solid package and
there wasn't a need to improve it any further. We thought we could always make a second
release with more content if people liked the first version. |
| RTCM: |
Did you and how did you do research for Platoons environment, the world? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: I remember watching most of the Nam movies like
Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. Also the movie Predator had some good
jungle fights which gave us a lot of good ideas. We also checked out all the Internet
sites about Nam. These sites mostly provided us information about weapons and tactics used
in the war. Heikki: We didn't do too much research, I think we got
most of the ideas from war films as Tuco said. Just so that the weapons and everything
else was correct, and the general atmosphere would be captivating enough.
|
| RTCM: |
How difficult was it to make the decent weapon artwork? and What methods
did you take to produce the artwork? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: There weren't any decent 3d modeling programs
around at the time that we could get so the weapon models were handdrawn by Heikki mostly,
if I remember correctly. Heikki: Oh yes, there was a lot of pixel
tweaking going on with those weapons. I had some reference images but everything had to be
created from scratch. And at the time I had very little experience from making any sort of
graphics. I just did the best I could do then. And luckily the graphics became good enough
that they didn't bother the game experience too much.
|
| RTCM: |
How where the sound effects chosen? Was there sound editing? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: Well, basically we used what we could get and
there weren't many to choose from. Sound editing was quite minimal as we our programs were
limited. Heikki: On the contrary I think we put a lot of effort to the
audio design. We digitized sounds from different sources, from war films and sound effect
CDs and edited them.
|
| RTCM: |
How did you help keep your team together? and How was team
management handled? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: The team size was very small, just 3 people, so it
was easy to communicate. For most time of the project we used just one computer in turns
and the person on the break was constantly looking over the other's shoulders to see what
he was doing. Not because of control, but because it was just so exciting to see what new
things the other one was doing. We did not have a designated project leader, but all acted
as designers, mappers, sound guys and graphic artists. The main motive behind our work was
to just have fun. |
| RTCM: |
The maps in Platoon where filled with action. How was this coordinated
with the design? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: Our design method was testing, modifying and
testing again if it worked better that the previous time. We used this method of
prototyping in all aspects of the game from game features like the workings of mines to
the layout of maps and placement of enemies. We just played those maps through many times
and tweaked them until they were good. |
| RTCM: |
The map tunnel designs gave the current situation a boost in realism. How
did you feel about the tunnels? and Do you see those as a success point? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: I think the tunnels brought a nice change to the
game from the usual jungle fighting. A change of pace, you could call them. Heikki:
Maybe it was good that we didn't overuse the tunnel theme - I think there was only one
level in Platoon which had them, and that gave certain edge to that map.
|
| RTCM: |
Where the mines used in the game an early item to be implemented? and How
did you decide where to place them in the maps? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: I think we placed most of the mines on slower
paced parts of the map which didn't have that many enemies. And of course on grass where
if would be harder to spot them. I think we implemented the mines near the end of the
project. |
| RTCM: |
One advanced effect, that since has been improved on. Is the
"Character Class" rooms, where you pick the type of weapon load out you want.
During the time of Platoon this was seen as something wonderful. How did this come about?
and Why? |
| TNT: |
Heikki: Can't really remember why we did those. It just
seemed like a nice feature then that player could choose his weapons. Tuco:
Yep, the idea to be able to play the game with different loadouts was the main reason for
this feature.
|
| RTCM: |
Why was it required that almost every SINGLE door was 'Locked'? and yes
everyone did check them. ;o) |
| TNT: |
Tuco: There are a couple of reasons to this. First, the
build engine did not support making true 3d buildings so it was almost impossible to make
a building which could be entered and which had a roof to walk on. Also it would have
taken much more time to develop the game if had done interiors to most of the buildings.
So we decided to put locked doors almost everywhere. Hopefully no-one was looking for the
keys. Heikki: "Lock all the doors", I think that was in our
internal production manual :)
|
| RTCM: |
The airstrikes where a revolutionary effect and still is. Do you see this
effect of importance to Platoons success? and How? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: Yes, I think airstrikes definitely were one of the
key features contributing to Platoon's success. It was a very powerful effect both
visually and soundwise. And it was something new at the time which other games did not
have, at least not in the same scale as we did. The use of radio and then the approaching
loud jetfighter sounds with huge explosions is always fun to watch. People also knew how
airstrikes worked thanks to movies like Platoon and Apocalypse Now so when airstrikes were
executed on maps, people knew what they were. |
| RTCM: |
The Radios that called for airstrikes, bombing runs and naplam runs where
a fun factor. The excitement with the real radio voices made it that much better. How did
you see the manual operation of using the already impressive airstrikes as an additional
success point? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: The radio chatter used to call airstrikes was
building the atmosphere as most people had watched some Platoon war movies and knew about
the radio voices. So including it in the game so that you could actually talk to a radio
and call in airstrike was very natural choice. And also the fact that the player could
control when the airstrikes are executed made the player feel very powerful. There was
also a tactical decision to be made, when to call in the strike that made the most damage
and helped to advance in the map. |
| RTCM: |
What were some of the limitations of the Game/BUILD engine you had to
deal with, or live with in the end? and given the BUILD portion of the game, What would
you have had added or changed? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: The weapons were hard to make, you basically had
to invent a weapon for each slot that had the same charasteristics as the same weapon in
Duke3d. So Duke's rocket launcher became bazooka and pistol became M16. We also managed so
sneak in a sniper rifle made out of the freeze gun which took some time to pull off. The
fact that the engine wasn't real 3d caused some problems, you couldn't make a house with a
proper roof and which you could enter. But compared to the other engines we thought about
using like Quake, the lack of true 3d was compensated with huge outdoor areas that could
have lots of trees and bushes. I also remember that the enemy AI was not very good in the
game. They just started shooting when seeing the player. We would have wanted to make the
AI better but the engine simply did not allow this. So I would have added a more
configurable weapon system and more functionality for the enemy AI to the Build engine. |
| RTCM: |
Despite the games limitations after Platoons release your team began work
on Platoon II, How long did the team take leave from the Mod before beginning the new
work? and What where the plans? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: We had vacation for about a month. During this
time we tried to stay away from the computer and do some other things, but just had to
check the emails and download counts daily. I remember the feedback being very positive
and we kept receiving it daily for quite a long time. The positive feedback and reviews
were important factors when we were thinking about doing a sequel to Platoon. Finally the
decision was made and we started working on the sequal. We didn't have any bigger
development plans at this time so we just started trying out new things and map ideas. |
| RTCM: |
How far along into Platoon II did you get contacted by a commercial
publisher? and How where they led onto TNTs work? |
| TNT: |
Tuco: We had only worked for about a month when a
publisher contacted us about the possibility to publish the sequel we were working on. I
don't remember exactly how they found us but I suspect Platoon's review on the Avault
gaming site might have done the job. The review is still online on that site in case you
want to look at it.
{EDITORS NOTE: This review is at
Avault Platoon
TC Review /
Full page done in
August of '97. Following this interview is a Platoon review/description done by RTCM
including highlights on some design issues. |