Volition’s Saints Row: The Third has thrown the cat among the pigeons this November, with its winning combination of humour, obscene weapons, crazy characters and over-the-top action the perfect counter to straight-faced shooters and RPGs like Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim.
With the game now available worldwide, PSU decided to catch up with Producer Jim Torbit and get the skinny on The Third’s development process and what Volition has planned as far as post-release content goes.
Check out our full interview below.
PSU: What were the design meetings like while making the game?
Jim Torbit: They were quite interesting at times to say the least, but always a hell of a lot of fun. One of the game’s pillars was “Over the Top” and it quickly became apparent that interpretations of over-the-top were quite varied. We had some designers who were new to the franchise and their initial reactions were at times somewhat incredulous. I remember a few of them stating they couldn’t believe we were going with some of the proposed ideas.
The overall process of determining which design ideas fit and which did not was very iterative and collaborative. In early pre-production, we considered nearly every idea insofar they weren’t patently offensive to one particular group of people or violated age-rating criteria. The design team then took what we thought were the best of the lot and improved upon them in further brain-storming meetings before putting them into a detailed spec format. We then took the specs and put them in game as early proto-types, iterating and changing focus based on what was fun and what wasn’t working.
Many on the SRTT team also worked on Saints Row and Saints Row 2; we have a team that’s been working on the franchise for upwards of eight years. They know the game identity better than anyone else and have come to understand what works and what doesn’t in this franchise.
It was a very exciting and rewarding stage of the project, and it’s very satisfying to see so many of those crazy ideas appear in the final game.
PSU: Was it a few people or the studio as a whole who decided that it was time to go all out and make everything insane (in a good way)?
JT: There wasn’t any need for directional consideration on SRTT. It was a no-brainer. After SR2 released we saw that our fans wanted the over-the-top gameplay that had come to identify the franchise. That made us incredibly excited because during SR2’s development we weren’t sure how far we could take things. After we started reading SR2 comments and reviews, we knew that SRTT’s goal was to take the over-the-top and uniquely self-referential tone and blow it out. Our goal was to surpass player expectations, not meet them. And from the start, both THQ and the studio were very supportive of this direction.
PSU: I think it’s safe to say that with the amount of hype for Saints Row: The Third there has to be DLC planned — any word on that?
JT: Definitely. PR won’t allow me to discuss specifics, but I’ll say we’ve had a team working on DLC content since SRTT went gold. Players can expect to see a variety of DLC content that ranges from mission packs to individual weapon and character packs. The team is very excited about what we’re going to offer here : the intent with SRTT’s DLC is to continue with the over-the-top theme and see if we can push things even more.
PSU: What led to the creation of the lovable Professor Genki?
JT: The design team was working on a new activity for SRTT and the concept just wasn’t clicking; it wasn’t crazy enough. So they kept pushing one another and eventually they came up with the idea of creating gameplay that was a cross between “Running Man” and a Japanese game show. Most of us are huge fans of Schwarzenegger, and combining the basic idea behind The Running Man with a Japanese game show just seemed like a perfect combination for SRTT. From there the design team worked with the art team on creating the art direction for the activity. Professor Genki spawned from those discussions and you know the end result. Internally he really caught on and the team started expanding the Genki universe, which ultimately paved the way for additional Genki-themed gameplay like the Manapult and Mollusk Launcher. He’s actually a character who spawns in the world. He’s very rare and difficult to kill, but if you manage to do so you receive a nice perk.
Genki kind of exploded. We didn’t think he would be as huge as he is. When he appears at events, he can’t walk more than two feet before getting asked for either a photograph or autograph.
PSU: Did the team enjoy building the new city of Steelport, and in what ways did it allow them to have more gameplay variety?
JT: There was no question that SRTT was going to take place in a new city. We wanted an original city that could best take advantage of the game’s new engine and we knew players would want a new world to explore. It just wouldn’t have made sense to put all that technology towards showing off an out of date game-world ask players to play in Stilwater again.
The team really enjoyed creating Steelport. They were able to create new art that took advantage of the new engine and were able to work directly with design to create space that complimented gameplay. Because SR2 took place in SR’s city, design had to retro-fit gameplay into preexisting space. When you’re creating a new city – and a completely original one at that – you have the luxury of creating the city around the gameplay. The end result is better gameplay. And by starting from scratch the art team also had the creative freedom to establish an art-direction that supports the over-the-top gameplay theme. That’s a really wonderful thing about working on original IP – the team has a lot of creative freedom to do what is best for the game.
PSU: Giant purple dildo: good or great decision?
JT: A great decision. What’s not fun about whacking away at virtual enemies and pedestrians with that appendage?
PSU would like to thank Torbit for taking the time to answer our questions. Saints Row: The Third is out now for PS3 and Xbox 360. Check out our review here.