Deadly Dozen 2: Pacific Theater is a squad-based tactical shooter set during World War II, with missions taking place throughout the
Pacific theater. The following is an interview with nFusion's Programming Director, Jason Zisk.
1) How long has Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater been in production, and what are you currently
working on in the game?
nFusion: The game has been in production for about 10 months now; we basically started
as soon as Deadly Dozen 1 was released. We expected to finish a few months ago but underestimated the amount of work it would
take to get multiplayer running as well as we'd like. We just completed the game, so right now we are working on getting some rest.
2) Is this the same dev team as did Deadly Dozen 1? Any new members?
nFusion: Everyone from the old team worked on DD2, plus we also hired two new
fulltime people. A new animator, Jason Marcil, and a networking code guru, Kevin Jenkins. Both of these guys really brought DD2 to a
new level, as you will see with the much smoother animation and the fact that we have multiplayer at all. :) None of the other programmers
have any experience with networking code so we got really lucky to find someone who knows it so well.
3) Tell us the timeline/storyline of the game.
nFusion: The game takes place during World War II in the Pacific Theater. Moving to the
Pacific was a natural next step for the DD franchise, after working in Europe for so long it was a nice change of pace. It was also a
nice challenge trying to recreate the thick jungles found in the south pacific.
What jungle level wouldn't be complete without a waterfall
4) How do you feel about doing a sequel? Is there more pressure to live up to the previous
installment? Or did it give you time to add things missed the first time? (MP, prone)
nFusion: Doing a sequel was an interesting experience. At first we figured it would be
easy; slap in a few features, fix some of the old features, and call it a day. But no, nothing is ever that easy in game development. It all
started off well enough, adding prone was actually pretty easy, all the new art was coming in fast and furious, it was a fun time at the
beginning. Then all the new features started breaking old features, art wasn't getting done on time, multiplayer wasn't getting tested
enough, etc. Now here we are a few months late. But in the end the game will be a huge leap over DD1 in playability, graphics, AI and
overall production values. Doing the sequel presented a different set of challenges than we were expecting.
5) What's new for Deadly Dozen 2? Any new weaps/items?
nFusion: The biggest addition to DD2 is multiplayer. Free for all (FFA) or
team-based Deathmatch, Cooperative mode so you can play the single player game with your friends, as well as a few other game modes to keep
things interesting. We went all out with the multiplayer component. There are tons of options so you can play pretty much any game type you
can imagine. Because of the move to the Pacific Theater that means we have a whole new set of weapons for the Japanese, plus we added a bunch
of weapons on the US side such as the Flamethrower (fry your friends!), the oft-requested BAR, the M1 Carbine, and who doesn't love getting
kills with a Samurai Sword. The most exciting new inventory item is the ammo belt, for the cost of one inventory slot you can get a few extra
magazines for all your weapons. I don't think I've seen something like that in too many games.
6) Tell us about the vehicles in the game. Any new drivable vehicles?
nFusion: In DD2 we took a different approach with the vehicles. Rather than
offer a lot of different vehicles, we instead focused on a few and made sure the experience in them was better. So you can drive the little
Japanese Scoutcar, a lumbering 2-ton truck, and tanks. Yes you can actually hop into the enemy's tanks and show them what it feels like to be
on the other side of an HE round. All of these vehicles are available in multiplayer as well. Tank battles in Deathmatch are a blast (pun
intended).
7) Without giving away too much, describe some of the missions we'll be undertaking.
Lots of great war action movie type of stuff. Rescues, blowing stuff up, more blowing
stuff up, stealth missions where you can't be seen, more blowing stuff up, and all of it tied into what was actually going on in the war at
the time the mission takes place.
Tank warfare
8) What game engine is being used? Any fancy stuff? (bump-mapping, cube mapping, per-pixel... blah,
blah?)
nFusion: It's basically the same engine as was used in DD1 with a bunch of
enhancements. Overall the game can push more polygons but runs a lot faster. We haven't added any whiz-bang features to the engine, but I
think anyone who sees DD1 and DD2 side by side will immediately say DD2 looks way better. The first time you are
sneaking through a dense jungle, not able to see 50 feet because of all the foliage, you get that "whoa I'm really there" feeling.
This is probably one of the few games where you can actually sneak up on someone in deathmatch and knife them in the head without them
realizing you were there. (Believe it! - Rush)
9) What new feature was the most difficult to implement or took the longest to get implemented?
nFusion: Well this is a no-brainer, multiplayer. We worked on it for the entire
duration of the project. Most of the other features were pretty easy. The ability to drive and fire the main gun on the tanks was amazingly
easy, one day it was just like "hey there is no reason the player can't drive tanks now". So we allowed it, and it basically
worked.
10) How is the AI shaping up?
nFusion: The AI gets my vote for "most improved featured from DD1".
When you see these guys rolling around on the ground dodging your shots, running away and regrouping, ducking down behind cover, or doing any
of the cool things they do you sometimes forget that they are just little slices of CPU time trying to kill you and you really get sucked
into the battle. Every time I play I'm surprised at something the AI does, its a huge improvement over the original Deadly Dozen.
11) What game feature are you most proud of?
nFusion: The incredible "Names Over Heads" option in multiplayer. Being able
to see the names over someone's head in multi is like a ray of sunshine through the clouds... okay I'm kidding. I'm sure everyone on the team
has a different answer for this one, but I think we would all agree that multiplayer turned out a lot more fun than we originally imagined.
The game ended up being a very enjoyable and unique multiplayer experience with little modification to the basic design.
Sword fight!
12) What do you think draws gamers to the DD series?
nFusion: I think it's a combination of a cool setting (World War II), a healthy dose of
realism, and a very simple to learn control scheme. Anyone can load up the game and play for a while and feel like they are part of a WW2
action flick, without having to learn a million keys.
13) Will there be mod support and/or a mission editor?
nFusion: The mod support is better than DD1, but still not up the level of some
of the other big-name games out there. People will be able to make maps for multiplayer, as well as full missions for single player or
cooperative play. We'll be releasing the tools soon after the game ships.
14) What modes will MP support? (CTF, co-op, DM, etc?)
nFusion: Right now we are planning on Deathmatch (Free for all or Team), Cooperative,
CTF, and a mission mode where you play a game on the single player map, one team of players trying to complete the objective and one team of
players trying to stop them. (Co-op baby! Also note that not only can games be joined in
progress, but the host can save MP sessions as well, and players not there when a game is re-loaded will simply be dropped, and the game can
continue. Sweet!- Rush)
15) Any memorable moments creating or testing the game?
nFusion: The first time a few of the core team members played multiplayer together. We
were like "hey this is actually fun!" We had no idea if the single player gameplay would translate well to multiplayer without
massive changes. Didn't need to change a thing.
Burn, baby, burn!
16) Is there a demo planned? What's the planned release date for the demo? What will be included in
the demo (SP, MP, tutorial? All the levels? :)
nFusion: There will be a demo released just before the game hits the shelves that
included one single player mission, one deathmatch map and one CTF map. You can play cooperative and mission mode on the single player map,
so that means you can try out all 4 multiplayer modes with the demo, as well as play through the mission in single player if multi isn't your
thing.
17) When is the planned retail release date?
nFusion: The game should be in store shelves sometime in late October.
18) What's next for the dev team? Patches? DD3?
nFusion: Hopefully no patches! But there are always bugs to be fixed so yeah we'll work
on patching the game for a while then jump into our next project. I can't say what it is of course. I'm not sure what happens if I tell, but
I'm sure it won't be pleasant.
19) As a follow-up to the last question: Do you see DD continuing as a series, say into the
Vietnam era, or do you want to go back to deer hunting or street luge games? =)
nFusion: Deadly Dozen will certainly be a series as long as gamers keep buying
it and supporting us. I don't know for sure where the series will go from here, if it goes anywhere, but I'm pretty sure the whole team would
love to continue working in this genre. It's challenging to make a complex game such as this on a shoestring budget, but we all thrive on
challenge and I think we produce our best work under pressure. Our company had some pretty humble beginnings but continues to grow with each
new title. Hopefully we won't have to go back to the days of making a game in three months for less money than you can find in your couch
cushions any time soon.
20) Anything else you'd like to tell our readers?
nFusion: Just a big thank you for making DD1 the success it was, and to not be
afraid of a game just because it costs ten dollars less than the one next to it. Remember us this holiday season when you are returning
"big huge game that is really boring but cost millions to make" because you fell asleep while playing it.
A big thanks to Jason for taking the time to answer our questions, and best of luck on the game's release!
