It’s no easy feat to develop a best-selling computer game. With the gaming community’s insatiable appetite—always wanting better graphics, special effects, story, and, most importantly, gameplay—it takes a dedicated team of professional producers, writers, programmers, graphic artists, and others to put a finished game on the shelves.

Army Men is no exception. With an estimated budget of 1.5 million dollars, over 20 dedicated people spent two years of their lives making this game. The results are definitely worth it though—this game is one hell of an adventure!

One of the key members of the Army Men team was its producer, Nick Earl. Nick is currently an Executive Producer at 3DO, where he oversees the development of Army Men and BattleTanx products. He’s been with 3DO for over five years, starting out as one of the original 3rd Party Evangelists. Later, he founded and managed the Affiliated Label and Licensing Programs at 3DO, before finally climbing to the producer ranks at one of the company’s studios. As the producer of Army Men, Nick had the responsibility of managing the day-to-day concerns of the project, while keeping the development team in focus and motivated. Nice work, Nick, you did a great job.

Fortunately, Nick was able to spare a few minutes to answer some questions as he put the finishing touches on the game.

Nick Speaks: Q & A with the producer

From the start, what was the vision for Army Men? What did you want to achieve?

Nick: There were a couple of inspirations for Army Men. Back when we started thinking about doing a military game, we were playing a lot of Return Fire, developed by Silent Software. We all loved the game, but yearned for better enemy AI and the ability to give orders to intelligent squads. So, the first vision was an action/strategy game that would give the player depth. But the real and enduring vision developed when we were laying out missions with the little plastic green and tan soldiers one afternoon. Suddenly it hit us to do the game based on plastic army men! As we started to build the design, it gained momentum, and pretty soon we knew we were onto something big.

Where did you get your inspiration for Sarge?

Nick: This was really Keith Bullen’s (the designer of Army Men) idea. He realized early on that the player would want to bond and identify with a personality rather than just move plastic armies around a battlefield as is usually done in a strategy game. With the introduction of the plastic concept, the design really started to evolve from a strategy game toward immersing the player in a fantasy world created in the mind when playing with these great little toys. We knew right away that we wanted to have all of the classic poses, weapons, vehicles, and, most importantly, special effects, such as melting a Tan soldier into a pool of tan plastic with a flamethrower! Many other things evolved over time.

For example, at first the concept was to have Sarge ferry his units to different parts of the world and then issue orders to his troops, who would go off and carry them out. After talking to the magazine editors and focus groups, we realized that the player would want to bond with Sarge and his immediate world by being the one who gets to do all the destruction!

Therefore, we made Sarge tougher and able to carry and use all of the classic weapons. And most importantly, we gave Sarge the persona of a classic soldier. Now, we had what we thought was the best design for a game based plastic soldiers, one other evolution of Army Men was to use the MovieTone news concept. During their time, those clips did such a good job of making the war seem heroic, but not bloody and tragic. The nature of plastic physics lends itself perfectly to this notion—lots of action, heroism, and challenge, but none of the nasty and sickening effects of war.

Obviously, your team spent some time renting WWII movies. What movies were most inspirational?

Nick: Some of the mission objectives are loosely based on the classic WWII movies such as Bridge over the River Kwai, The Great Escape, and Kelly’s Heroes. There is something so dramatic yet clean about these movies—we thought that Army Men worked well within this theme. After all, plastic army men were invented right after WWII.

What’s the origin of the game’s engine? Did you modify an existing one or create your own?

Nick: We built one from scratch. The Technical Lead was Nicky Robinson, who, with the help of several engineers, built a great engine that allows this highly detailed art to come to life.

What has been the most difficult part of bringing Army Men to life?

Nick: Capturing the exact positions and then transitioning them into fully animated sequences. For instance, having a flame thrower start in the classic pose, then run with his weapon, fire it while running, dive, roll, and then move right back into the classic pose. We also spent a lot of time and energy balancing each mission to get the right combination of action, strategy, and intrigue. This is what really brings Army Men to life, because each mission is so fun and compelling that you keep coming back for more—you really feel like you are Sarge blowing up bridges, shattering Tan enemies, and liberating your Green troops from prison camps.

What else does Army Men offer the gamer?

Nick: We like to think that we will give the player a compelling, tough, and heroic character (Sarge), thrilling and humorous plastic special effects, absolutely beautiful art and animations, and an opportunity to really immerse oneself in those great battles we all played out in our backyards when we were kids. We see Army Men as a great blend of action and strategy, and of serious missions sprinkled with humor such as tanks flipping over to reveal hollow underbellies!

What’s your favorite strategy/tip for getting through the game’s missions? For a multiplayer game?

Nick: Wow, there are many. I think the best advice is to be methodical and thoughtful as you progress. There are numerous times that you think you have the mission solved when all of a sudden a Tan tank appears out of nowhere to shatter you! By thinking ahead and planning, you can neutralize such events with a few strategically placed mines or a mortar. I also recommend dropping to the prone position and rolling when in a fire fight. You are less vulnerable, and your chances of hitting the enemy are increased. For a multiplayer game, my favorite strategy is to hide in trees, and when an enemy runs by, melt him with the flame thrower before he knows what happened!

Any Easter Eggs in the game you want to confess to?

Nick: I don’t want to give much away, but after calling in air support a few times, you just may be surprised! I also recommend checking out the lake in the Alpine campaign’s Out of the Mountain mission. You will get a kick out of what lurks there. The best one by far, however, is the final-win cinematic—it has a really great twist.

On a personal note, what are some of your favorite things?

Nick: My favorite game, other than Army Men of course, is probably NHL Hockey ’98. My favorite musical groups are Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, U2, and the Grateful Dead. If I had to pick a favorite song, it would probably be “Comfortably Numb” by Floyd or “Unforgettable Fire” by U2, depending on my mood. As far as movies, my two favorites are Platoon and The Graduate.

What’s your next project after Army Men?

Nick: Army Men! I am doing an Army Men sequel for PC, as well as entirely new designs for PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

Thanks, Nick, we all look forward to Army Men sequels in the near future!

About the autor of “Army Men Official Strategies & Secrets Book”

Brett Skogen has worn many hats in the gaming industry: reviewer, strategy guide editor, marketing specialist, and producer. Brett is the author of Hexen II Official Strategies & Secrets and co-author of Final Fantasy Tactics Battle Strategy Guide, both from Sybex.