In a special GDC Europe keynote today, Guerilla's Managing Director Hermen Hulst talked about how the studio was founded as a startup, how it worked with Sony, and the development process of the Killzone franchise. (He also used the above header -- a Destructoid original -- in a slide!)
He showed a video of a tech demo, featuring space marines, that it showed Sony in 1999; it didn't look bad for a 1999 tech demo. It impressed Sony and the rest, as they say, is history. He told the audience about how it was inspired by Nazi and Russian World War II military outfits and machines for Killzone's Helghast soldiers, and that adding glowing eyes was great for bad guys because they always look evil.
It then found out about Jin-Roh -- the Japanese anime featuring soldiers with glowing eyes -- one year before the original Killzone launched. That little thing didn't please Guerilla very much, but it stuck to its concept in what Hulst spun as the design being based on universal values. He seemed pretty honest, so he probably meant it... although as a Dutch guy I can, of course, never trust a Dutch guy.
Seriously though, he came across more as an old indie guy. He stressed how Guerilla's transition, from indie studio to Sony-published and then to Sony-owned allowed it to keep its culture. Interestingly enough, ex-Westwood hero Louis Castle had a talk earlier today about how you will always have to adapt after acquisition. But Hulst did create some confidence by talking about how it first looked at Gran Turismo developer Polyphony and Uncharted dev Naughty Dog and how they dealt with being owned by Sony.
On the Killzone side, he had some more interesting things to discuss. Guerilla apparently created a method which he dubbed "top-down and bottom-up." (He is so Dutch.) This consisted of analyzing all reviews of Killzone 1 and "all forum posts", which resulted in average scores, what was wrong about the first game, and what was good about it. It then took the top five best and worst elements and made it the objective to turn the worst five into highlights for Killzone 2. In a second analysis after Killzone 2's release, it turned out that three awful aspects of Killzone 1 (AI, death animations and cover) were now seen as being great in Killzone 2.
The studio did the same thing with Killzone 2, compiling a list of some of the game's most negative aspects as perceived by gamers and critics. Although I couldn't make out the entire sheet at a distance, one aspect that was badly received in Killzone 2 sprung out: Vehicular Combat. Suffice to say, it's highly likely that this will be a main focus for Killzone 3. It would also easily fit into their more open terrain level design that is hinted at in the trailers. Another aspect was the lack of variety. This led Guerilla to conclude that there was a lack of focus on unique experiences. "Call of Killzone" anyone?
Finally, Hulst announced that Guerilla is starting up a new studio (in Amsterdam's downtown area) which will develop an as-of-yet-unannounced new IP. They are hiring, so get on it.
How Killzone 3 will shape up is something we'll be able to find out in the not too distant future, as Hulst says the studio is "going to put their creativity in the pressure cooker" and finish it really fast. The game is apparently already stable, except for "the occasional crash here and there."
Contest:
11:10 AM on 08.17.2010
| 
What do you mean by that? As in, completely ridiculous, off-the-wall scenarios like MW2's outer-space shit?
"that it showed Sony"
"He told the audience about how it were inspired..."
Great article. You hurt my brain.
Your points are valid (these errors are my fault in quick editing between the huge flood of gamescom news coming out today) except for this:
"that it showed Sony"
What's the issue? Guerilla ("it") showed Sony something.
Also, yawn another FPS that looks like every other FPS. But good job on the write up Professor!
Even though Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade came out in 1999, Mamoru Oshii's Kerberos saga universe has existed since 1986. There has been manga, books, radio shows, animated and live action adaptations of the franchise thus far. It's awesome by the way. Like buy Jin-Roh right now.
Fan of Killzone too.
Hopefully Killzone 3 won't be like that.
Too bad I can't find it on Blu Ray to save my life. I'm stuck watching it on DVD.
Oh yeah, Killzone. Yay.
YesAsia has the Taiwan Blu-Ray version for 40ish dollars, but it's only dubbed in traditional Chinese. There's the Japanese Blu-Ray/DVD combo but that's over 100. Has both the English dub and sub though.
Totally getting stoked on it *Bump chest*
man, killzone 2 was not garbage. the very fact that you think that must mean that you have impossible taste. seriously. either that or you define "garbage" in your own personal way. i can understand if you didn't like the game, but there are too many things one can observe that have nothing to do with gameplay or controls or whatever to merit a description more favorable than "garbage".
Also, that "top-down" and "bottom-up" terminology isn't new to projects of any kind. There's also a "middle-out" and "all-around" set of approaches.
honestly the only way i could classify the controls of a game as being garbage is if they prevented the player from gaining a competent grasp over the play mechanics and actually worked against him or prevented him from completing the game. I don't think this was the case with the controls of KZ2. They were heavy and slow, but the game didn't expect you to be able to 360, no-scope headshot.
Different doesn't equal garbage. I'm still at a loss as to why every FPS should feel the same. Its not the case with racing games or fighting games. Its a slippery slope when the fanbase of a the dominant genre demands that all controls start feeling the same. I can see both sides of the argument, but we need to tread carefully.
@Neroisonfire: he meant both top-down and bottom-up, but yeah. Hulst also said that their method didn't have any name and that he thought it up on the fly, but he didn't really pause for it in a way someone would when thinking stuff up on the fly.
I
Simply, put the controls were a hindrance in KZ2. While I don't agree that every game should just plop CoD/Halo controls in and be done with it, those control schemes are used as a measuring stick for a reason. They feel polished and responsive.
Guerrilla used the KZ2 controls to slow down the game. The problem is that the game itself isn't as slow as the controls. The combat pacing still moves along at a fairly speedy rate. That disconnect between control speed and game speed is what killed KZ2. I have to give Guerrilla credit for trying to do something different, but it turned out to be a bad move this time.
If you look at some of the Ghost Recon games, they have slow combat speeds due to their tactical nature, yet the controls still have the snappy response of a CoD/Halo game. If a game with slower combat pacing can have more responsive controls, there's no reason for the cumbersome movement in KZ2.
I disagree. The controls were not a hindrance for me and I was able to complete the game with a reasonable level of difficulty. The only thing I had a real problem with was that last part while storming the presidential palace. The enemies kept spawning until you gained ground. I play methodically so I try to take out everyone... took me forever to figure out I had to rush the front door.
Anyway, haven't played much Ghost Recon so I can't comment about that one but I get what you're saying.
Guess we just disagree about KZ. I'm sure controls won't be an issue for KZ3 tho.
@Bigmoose85
I agree with that statement, but I still enjoyed the game.
I hope that doesn't mean the game will be rushed.