Adrian Chmielarz (Painkiller) Q&A

notice subtleties of generic AI (for example it's really not such a huge difference between the monster with field of vision = 140 degrees and the one with FOV = 180 degrees), and it's easier to enjoy original behaviours (like, for example, only Vampires can feed both on the players and their fallen comrades).

Painkiller is a first-person shooter but could it have worked in another genre?

Nope, the whole design is based on the fact it's FPS.

The weapons in Painkiller seem limited at first glance.  In your own words describe the weapon system in the game.

That's common misunderstanding. First, I don't believe in a rule that says the more weapons you have, the better the game. It's not about the quantity, but quality. Look, I can easily have 100 close combat weapons in the game (butcher knife, axe, bayonett, scissors, shovel, etc. etc.), but these are just mutations of exactly the same weapon: they just differ in damage and maybe in range. Our goal was always to have very unique weapons, every one as different from each other as butcher knife is from grenade luncher.

We have 5x2 weapons in the game. "5x2"? It's like this: we have 5 weapons, each one has 2 modules. A good example of such weapon is machine gun (module #1) with grenade launcher (module #2). As you can see, in "normal" FPS each module would be considered as a separate weapon, so in other words what we have in Painkiller is equivalent of 10 "normal" weapons.

Why did we choose such solution? For 2 reasons. First one is that you can execute combos, for example you can fire the machine gun at the grenade you just shot out of your grenade launcher, and – assuming you hit the grenade, of course – have a much more powerful explosion that normally. Second reason is that in the heat of battle it's much easier to choose from 5 weapons than from 10 or 20.

Is it worth the effort to provide interactive environments for gamers?

Anything that makes the game world more believable (not necessarily more realistic – but that's another story) is worth the effort. If you shoot a rocket at the window, and the glass doesn't break, you are reminded it's just a game, a computer program – and the immersion is gone.

Every genre requires different kind of interactivity (eg. it's more important to have well written dialogues in adventures than in racing games), but in shooters like Painkiller having environments you can interact with (let's be honest: "destroy" is a better word) is quite important.

The engine that powers Painkiller, was it developed in-house or licensed?  How well does it balance wide-open spaces and interiors?

It's our own engine, humbly named PAIN, and it's something we are very proud of. It handles everything well: we have levels that are entirely interiors (eg. catacombs), we have levels that are entirely exteriors (eg. docks), and we have levels that are a mix of both (eg. military base). We knew from the very beginning that we want to have extremely varied map design, and build PAIN around this idea. Luckily, such flexibility comes with the speed – the amount of polygons this engine can move per frame makes me a very happy man.

As of now, what’s been the most difficult part of Painkiller’s development?

Our main problem is Mr. Time himself. You can't imagine the amount of afterhours we need to work in order to make sure the game ships this year. I can honestly say we've already done the work that some more sane teams would do in 3 years.

There’s been a lot of talk about “emergent gameplay” recently.  Do you think emergent games will develop as its own genre or will the idea seep into other genres?

Ok, "a lot" might be overestimation, because until I checked Google I had no idea what you're talking about :-) For others like me: "emergent gameplay" is about "players discovering/creating ways of playing not foreseen by game designer". Like in GTA3.

First, I think that "emergent gameplay" has been with us for a looong time, it's just we have a fancy buzz word for it now. Take Quake for example: rocket jumps are something Carmack never thought that the players would do on purpose. So it's no revolution by all means.

Second, there's place for "emergent gameplay", and there's place for "interactive stories". Some people want to be free to do in the game whatever they please (so it's their choice whether they buy the bread or steal it), and some people want to hear a good story that someone else made (so they go through "Final Fantasy" pretending it's a game). There's nothing wrong with either solution and they're both here to stay. It's exactly the same as with single player and mutliplayer games: we need both kinds.

Does the increasing power of computing hardware (PC and console) make it more difficult (or easier) to make a game?

Unfortunately, I need to use "both" word again. Sometimes it's easier, like now if you need a texture of paper, you just scan the paper – previously, because of the resolution, you needed to painfully paint it by hand. And sometimes it's harder, like when you can no longer tell the gamers that this 3x3 pixel blob (30 minutes of one graphic arist's work) is an evil alien from Mars; now you need to have a 3D model, with lighting, textures, motion-captured animations (many days of many people's work), etc.

The good news, though, is that this "increasing power" allows us to make better games.

While feedback from the gaming press might be helpful to a limited degree, does it influence how you approach your games and what you might want to add or remove?  Or is the general gaming public a better source of what is liked and not liked after the game ships?

The best solution is to match the best of both worlds and have the general public's opinion before the game ships. This is what Blizzard does with their extensive public beta testings and they can't say they're not happy with the outcome, eh? :-)

How many people are on Painkiller’s development team?  Do you guys do anything together away from the office?

There 20 people in team, and yes, we do socialize. It's not that easy with the amount of work we have, but we manage to steal the hour or two for occassional pool or bowling. We like each other here and I think you'll hear way more often "I work in PCF" than "I work for PCF".

What’s your choice of beverage and how much you’ve consumed in the last 6 months?

Lately I prefer whisky. As much as I hate Johnnie Walker, I must admit their Swing tastes like heaven. As for the last half a year, well, the amount of beverage I consumed was not as crazy as in my younger years, but still would probably zombify most people. Nothing to be proud of, I don't live a very healthy life.

(June 1, 2003)