Bryan Intihar, creative director of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for Playstation 5, visits WIRED to answer your questions about video games, the gaming industry, and your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s latest adventure.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 Hi everyone, I'm Brian Intihar,
00:01 Senior Creative Director at Insomniac Games
00:03 and at Marvel's Spider-Man 2,
00:05 and I'm here to answer your questions on the internet.
00:07 This is Video Game Support.
00:09 (upbeat music)
00:11 First question, Ben Edipel asks,
00:15 how did you guys come up with the web shooting sound?
00:17 First off, we hire a really awesome audio team.
00:21 They actually told me that what they do
00:22 is they have silly string, plastic wrap, shrink wrap,
00:26 and they even make those thwip sounds, like with their voices
00:30 and it's all integrated into making our awesome web sounds.
00:34 As a creative director,
00:34 I see overall see everything on the project,
00:37 but I do not offer my own sound effects
00:39 because nobody wants that.
00:40 @GamerPA asks, honest question,
00:43 do game directors focus
00:44 on the overall creative vision of a game
00:46 or do they have some type of programming coding skills?
00:48 So you actually don't need
00:49 to have programming or coding skills.
00:51 There's a lot of different ways
00:52 to become a creative director or a game director.
00:53 I actually started out as a journalist
00:55 writing about video games.
00:56 And eventually I said,
00:57 hey, I'd love to go work at a studio.
00:58 And I actually started working on SOMNAC
01:00 roughly 15 years ago.
01:01 And I started out on the community team,
01:03 answering emails, talking to our fans.
01:05 A couple of years later, became a producer.
01:07 And then one day back in 2014,
01:10 walked into the office of Ted Price, our present CEO.
01:12 He asked me, what do I think about working
01:13 on the Marvel game?
01:14 Yes, please.
01:16 And I said, I don't wanna be the producer.
01:17 I wanna be the creative director.
01:18 If you have a passion, willing to work hard
01:20 and you work well with others,
01:22 you can do anything you want.
01:23 @benzn64 asks, the game's Spider-Man 2 Venom
01:26 is the best Venom design.
01:28 Changed my mind.
01:29 Ben, I'm not gonna change your mind.
01:30 I completely agree with you.
01:31 So we wanna take all of the elements
01:34 that players and fans love about Venom,
01:36 whether it's his size, the symbol,
01:38 his teeth, his mouth, his eyes,
01:40 the transformation, the power.
01:41 So we wanna kind of be respectful
01:43 of the DNA of the character,
01:45 but also not be afraid to mix things up.
01:46 And we take that all into account.
01:49 Get 19 inches of Venom, all 19.
01:52 This is actually the part of the collector's edition
01:55 and that features both of our Spider-Men
01:57 fighting their toughest challenge yet
01:59 in the form of Venom.
02:00 Pretty badass.
02:01 Matthew Guz asks, what's your game design philosophy
02:04 in tweet form?
02:05 You wanna deliver the fantasy
02:06 while making a world and characters
02:08 that you absolutely love and wanna spend time with.
02:10 Silent_Rafe87 asks, how do you decide
02:13 which suits go in the game?
02:14 Is it personal preference
02:16 or do you think about abilities
02:17 and which suits would match up well with them?
02:19 And are you free to pick or do Marvel have a say?
02:22 Wow, where do I begin?
02:23 We know there are suits that everybody wants.
02:25 We talked to Marvel, we talked to our Sony producers.
02:28 We get artists to create brand new suits
02:29 that have never been made before.
02:31 Suits are unlocked via basically having,
02:34 hitting a certain hero level
02:35 and then having the right resources to craft it.
02:37 So that's how you do.
02:38 And then, because we have two heroes,
02:40 we have like over 65 suits
02:42 and now we wanted to go even bigger with that.
02:44 So now the majority of suits have what we call suit style.
02:46 So there's usually four different suit styles
02:49 you can unlock for that suit,
02:50 which means we have like over 200 different suits
02:53 in the game, which is crazy.
02:55 But at the same time,
02:55 we hope we got everything everybody wanted.
02:57 It's like Christmas and it's all the presents
02:59 are under the tree and you're like,
03:01 I hope I got them everything they wanted.
03:03 Clay864 asks, but is there going to be
03:06 a Spider-Man 5 console like we got with the PS4
03:08 from the first game?
03:09 Damn straight there's gonna be.
03:10 Got this sweet controller, Symbiote Takeover,
03:13 but the real cool stuff is this sweet, sweet, sweet console.
03:19 I don't even have one yet as we sit here.
03:22 This idea of the Symbiote and Takeover,
03:23 not only thematically works for the console,
03:25 but it ties very heavily to what we're doing in the game.
03:28 So it's awesome design,
03:29 super happy that PlayStation wanted to do it.
03:32 @despumpkins with a Z asks,
03:35 is New York City and Spider-Man 2 built to scale?
03:38 It is not.
03:38 Our idea is we want to create a New York City
03:41 that kind of you have in your head,
03:43 whether you've been there, seen in the movies,
03:45 there's tons of recognizable elements,
03:46 whether it's certain neighborhoods, certain buildings,
03:49 and then of course, this is Marvel's New York,
03:51 so we want to have things like Avengers Tower
03:53 or the Wakandan Embassy.
03:54 And what's been really awesome on Spider-Man 2
03:56 is that we've nearly doubled the size of the city
03:58 with the addition of Brooklyn and Queens.
03:59 So now you see things like Coney Island,
04:01 you can see where Miles goes to school
04:03 at Brooklyn Vision's Academy,
04:04 and even Pete now living at Aunt May's old house.
04:06 And now with things like the web wings,
04:08 you can cross things like the East River and our bridges
04:11 much easier than you couldn't pass
04:12 because in the last games, you couldn't even do that.
04:15 @theanimegee asks,
04:16 the web swinging with certain aspects added
04:19 are so refreshing.
04:19 I'm kind of interested to see how they can make
04:21 Spider-Man 2 as cool as Miles Morales' web swinging.
04:24 How we can make exploring the world
04:25 and getting around the world better, the web wings.
04:27 We knew really early on, actually,
04:29 we actually prototyped it really early in Spider-Man 1,
04:32 but we were like, ah, we don't know.
04:33 It's a cool idea,
04:34 but we just don't really have the time for it right now.
04:36 So we knew by the time Spider-Man 2 was rolling around,
04:39 it was like something we really wanted to do.
04:40 So that's a big element.
04:41 It really does change, like, you know,
04:43 so many times playing Spider-Man 1,
04:45 you'll be above the buildings, you're like,
04:47 well, I want to keep going.
04:48 And now you can just press triangle and boom,
04:50 pop those web wings and keep gliding.
04:53 Just keeping that momentum
04:54 when you don't have a web line available.
04:55 But I think we've added other things,
04:57 like being able to turn a corner really, really fast.
04:59 What people have asked for a long time is,
05:00 yes, you can do the loop-de-loop now.
05:02 In our game, you can unlock that skill.
05:03 So adding all new animations, adding more swing animations.
05:06 We know, we've heard you.
05:07 You guys like swing animations.
05:09 We get it.
05:10 We've added more.
05:11 @ferk729 asks,
05:13 do you think that Spider-Man 2 is story-wise,
05:15 combat-wise, better than the 2018 Spider-Man game?
05:19 God, I hope so.
05:20 'Cause we've been working really hard to deliver that.
05:22 It's not just a story of Peter.
05:23 It's not just a story of Miles.
05:25 It's a story of both Peter and Miles.
05:27 And they're not only their journey together,
05:28 but individually.
05:29 So one mission may just be as Pete.
05:31 One mission may just be as Miles.
05:33 Some missions you actually be playing as both of them
05:35 or switching back and forth.
05:36 So we kind of control it.
05:37 While in the open world, we give you a lot more choice.
05:39 And then basically what we've done is,
05:40 created content that is specific for Peter,
05:43 specific for Miles.
05:44 And the combat front, we've just been adding a ton of stuff,
05:47 whether it's new powers for Miles and the evolved Venom
05:49 to obviously our symbiote abilities with Pete.
05:52 Hell yeah, this game is better than Spider-Man 1.
05:56 @09missinggenie asks,
05:58 how do you write a compelling story
05:59 that works for an open world game
06:01 where the player could experience it out of order
06:03 or even circumvent parts entirely?
06:04 Part of an open world thing that people love
06:06 is having that freedom, right?
06:08 When you're making something like Spider-Man,
06:09 we understand when it comes to Marvel,
06:12 everything starts with our story.
06:13 What are they going through,
06:14 not only in the mask, but out the mask?
06:16 It's a balancing act.
06:17 We have an amazing team of writers
06:19 that work on this for years.
06:21 We start really, really broad.
06:23 Give me the paragraph of what the story is about.
06:25 And then we go into a story treatment.
06:26 And the story treatment can go half a page to one page
06:29 to five pages to 20 pages.
06:31 Like here's what act one, act two, act three is about.
06:33 And then we go into, okay, within act one,
06:36 there's probably five, six, seven missions.
06:38 And we start to build out a macro,
06:40 which shows kind of how it's gonna flow together.
06:42 And then from there, when we have kind of buy-in
06:44 from the team and everybody on what the story treatment is,
06:47 we start to write scripts.
06:49 Lazy Justin asks,
06:50 "How does Insomniac manage to put out
06:51 "such high quality games like every two years?
06:54 "Like what is their secret?"
06:55 There is no perfect answer
06:56 because no development is perfect.
06:58 It's not gonna go perfect.
06:59 But what we always try to do
07:00 is kind of self-evaluate ourselves.
07:02 What can we learn from our previous production
07:04 that we can apply to the next game?
07:06 Back in the day, you would release a game
07:08 and you'd kind of be done with it.
07:09 Now, even for a single player game,
07:11 you're looking at player feedback.
07:13 Maybe there's something that is tripping people up
07:15 that we can update the game really quickly.
07:16 Obviously with a multiplayer game,
07:18 they're continually updating, they're rebalancing,
07:20 they're putting out new content.
07:22 The industry has evolved.
07:23 Development is still going even when it's out.
07:25 @ZachRudin asks,
07:27 "How exactly does one go about designing a game
07:29 "to optimize the serious horsepower of a PS5?"
07:31 So first off, we're very fortunate to have Mark Cerny,
07:35 the architect of the PlayStation 5,
07:36 be one of our producers.
07:38 I think it's this combination of
07:40 learning about what the console can do,
07:42 what can the console do that maybe we couldn't do before,
07:44 what could we do in previous games now we can do better?
07:47 I think when you look at Marvel's Spider-Man 2
07:49 in comparison to our previous games,
07:50 there are a multitude of things that we couldn't do before.
07:53 We could not swing as fast as we do now.
07:55 The world wouldn't have loaded the way it needs to load
07:58 as you're swinging if we didn't have that.
08:00 Our hero switching that we do in the open world
08:02 would never be as fast as it is.
08:03 I think our set pieces,
08:04 we'd have to do a lot more smoke and mirrors
08:06 than we actually are doing.
08:07 Taking our favorite comic panels,
08:09 our favorite movie moments and going,
08:10 "Hey, we're gonna do that in a video game,"
08:12 and put you in control.
08:13 Night Persian asks,
08:14 "How does Insomniac get such detailed textures?
08:17 "Damn, their engine is amazing."
08:18 It is amazing.
08:19 Our teams work really closely with our engine team.
08:22 One of the benefits of having our own engine
08:24 is that there's so much collaboration going on
08:26 between our artists, our lighters, our effects team,
08:30 everything to come together
08:31 'cause you can have an awesome texture,
08:32 but if it doesn't have great lighting,
08:33 it's not gonna look as good as you want.
08:35 @MoonlightGames asks,
08:36 "What do you think has been the most significant
08:38 "advancement in gaming recently?"
08:40 I would say the amount of accessibility
08:41 that all developers across the world
08:43 are adding to their games,
08:44 whether making swinging more accessible, combat,
08:47 anything we can do to get more players playing our games
08:50 is a huge win and it's something we're always
08:51 gonna continue to do from here on out.
08:53 @PostMesmerick asks,
08:55 "I often wonder how video game developers determine
08:58 "what should be considered the default settings
09:00 "in their games."
09:01 I think it starts off with,
09:03 who are you making your game for?
09:04 Our goal, first off, is we wanna make it accessible
09:08 and playable by as many people as possible.
09:10 So that's whether it's our difficulty,
09:12 enemies are our defeat, to our traversal controls,
09:15 our combat controls, but at the same time,
09:17 we understand that there are also hardcore fans
09:20 who want a really tough challenge,
09:22 so we offer difficulty modes.
09:23 But what we usually do is we're testing our game
09:25 with people who come into our usability labs
09:28 and check it out and sometimes they say,
09:29 "This is way too easy."
09:31 Sometimes they say, "It's way too hard."
09:32 And then we kind of go back and forth
09:34 and just try to find that sweet spot.
09:35 @IndieWolverine asks,
09:37 "Was there a single game that impacted you so much
09:40 "that you can confidently say it led to you
09:42 "having a career in the video game industry?"
09:43 Maybe not one game, but it was one console.
09:46 It was the original Nintendo, the 8-bit Nintendo.
09:48 I think, you know, I remember that Christmas
09:50 I got my first Nintendo and playing Zelda and Metroid.
09:53 I remember like when I lost the code to Metroid,
09:55 where I was, I cried my eyes out,
09:57 even realizing the game wasn't as long
09:58 as I thought it was when I was a kid.
10:00 From when I was a little kid all the way to now,
10:02 I still use it to kind of escape for a little bit.
10:04 And I mean, I know it's probably cliche to say,
10:06 but I can't believe I got paid to do this.
10:08 @VonRomero asks,
10:09 "How often do you alter game mechanics to fit the story?
10:12 "Or perhaps how do you use game mechanics
10:14 "to benefit a story?"
10:15 Spider-Man 2, a big element of the story is the symbiote.
10:19 They talked about forever.
10:20 When are we having symbiote story?
10:21 Well, guess what?
10:22 It's coming, but it's not just a part of our story.
10:24 He has that black suit, but it's not just a new suit.
10:27 You know, he has all these plethora of symbiote abilities
10:30 that we wanted to show off how different
10:32 it makes Pete's fighting style.
10:34 You know, so when we think of our Spider-Man
10:35 as these acrobatic improvisers.
10:37 With the symbiote, it was really important for us
10:39 to show off not only the power of this substance,
10:42 but also its transformational nature.
10:43 So people love the symbiote.
10:46 @126gaming just cares if there's any new variations
10:49 to random crimes.
10:51 I remember in Ultimate Spider-Man, which is a great game,
10:53 sometimes smaller villains like Shocker and Boomerang
10:55 would spawn as an event.
10:56 Do you guys have anything like that in this game?
10:58 We definitely have done more to spice up our random crimes
11:01 with more surprises.
11:02 We also have a bunch of things in the open world
11:04 that you can do where you can discover some new storylines
11:07 that aren't part of the main story that are optional,
11:09 but I can promise you, if you like villains,
11:12 you will be rewarded.
11:13 @JMain518 asks, "Will Spider-Man 2 have multiple graphic
11:17 and performance mode options like the remaster
11:19 in the Miles Morales games?"
11:20 It sure will.
11:21 So we'll offer fidelity mode,
11:23 which runs at 30 frames a second and runs in 4K.
11:26 We'll have performance mode, which goes around to 60,
11:28 but takes a little bit.
11:29 We reduce the resolution a little bit.
11:31 And then for people who have 120 hertz TVs,
11:33 we actually have an option where you can run at 40 hertz
11:36 and kind of get the best of both worlds.
11:37 But no matter what mode you're running in,
11:40 we will have ray traced reflections.
11:42 So when you want to see how awesome,
11:44 like you go up to a window
11:45 and you want to see your Spider-Man suit,
11:47 not just on the character,
11:48 but in the reflection of the windows,
11:50 it's going to look white shit hot awesome.
11:53 @2Fool asks, "Why are video games important?"
11:56 Sometimes real life is not the greatest thing in the world.
11:59 And sometimes we just need to find a way
12:01 to take a break from it, reset.
12:03 Whether we want to, you know, be Link, be Mario,
12:07 be Spider-Man, sometimes we need that time to ourselves
12:10 to kind of escape for a little bit.
12:11 It's okay to take a break from real life
12:13 because sometimes as great as real life can be,
12:15 it can be stressful, it can be hard, it can be tough.
12:18 But having those moments to kind of take a break
12:20 and reset has been really great.
12:21 And I hope that we can do that with the games that we make.
12:25 Thank you for all the questions today.
12:27 They were, in the words of Marvel, amazing.
12:29 (upbeat music)
12:32 (whooshing)
12:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]