Although the information about the project is classified so as not to reveal the story, what we can do is talk a little about the development process.
Using TEN Engine, a new updated Tomb Raider Level Editor, we are going to develop a second part of Portal Runner. With no need of more introduction, here we go with some of the development notes for future reference.
Tomb Engine test / Showcase:
During the presentation of the project idea with our collaborators, we made a demonstration of how it works and how to work in Tomb Engine (TEN)
In the graphics we can see the simple geometry of a stage, the texturing and then the lighting. None of this is a final product, just an early test.
Level Design:
In Portal Runner 2 we will visit new scenarios, but also several places and worlds already known, therefore we will imitate the designs of other games.
Level Textures:
We are going to extract and use textures from old games, to imitate the look and feel of those games. But there is a problem, at least with the textures of the Playstation 1 games, which are mostly 32px, while the old Tomb Raider ones are 24px (or 48px). Well, they are 8px X 4 = 32 and the TR ones are 8px X 3 = 24. That is, multiples of 4 when in TR they are multiples of 3, therefore they have to be converted to multiples of 4 without changing the appearance, because then when putting them next to other textures the image limits can noticeable.
Army Men 3D Texture (x32)Army Men 3D Texture (upscaled to x48)
For now, the textures will remain as they were originally, but manually enhanced with the “nearest” resampling method. We will only add a few new variants. But as soon as we see that they work well, we may remaster them.
Major Mylar’s initials are MM (he uses them on his badge). Major Malfunction’s initials are also MM. Major Gooding was Lord Malice, so in “Major Malice” we can also find MM. Which member of the 3DO team that designed some of the games has those initials: Michael Mendheim.
But before you think anything of it, this is just a joke, we’re not theorizing anything 👀. But here’s what it’s all about… and this is the fun part.
Theories in fandoms are exciting for a number of reasons:
Creativity: They allow fans to use their imagination to fill in gaps in the official story, creating new narratives and possibilities.
Connection: They foster a sense of community, as fans discuss and debate their theories, sharing their enthusiasm and passion.
Deepening: They help fans explore the story’s universe further, uncovering details and connections that may not be apparent at first glance.
Interactivity: They make the fan experience more interactive, as fans don’t just consume content, but actively contribute to it.
By the way, it has been proven that some theories in other fandoms were so plausible and amazing to the creatives behind that fandom’s franchise, that they ended up making these fans’ “dreams” come true.
Here are some instances where fan theories or requests influenced the creators to make changes or additions to the story:
Peter Parker in “Iron Man 2”: This theory suggested that a young boy wearing an Iron Man mask at the Stark Expo, who is saved by Iron Man, was actually Peter Parker. Tom Holland, who plays Spider-Man, confirmed this theory in an interview, stating that the boy was indeed Peter Parker.
Rex in “Return of the Jedi”: Fans speculated that the bearded Rebel trooper seen on Endor in “Return of the Jedi” was actually Captain Rex from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels.” This theory gained traction when “Star Wars Rebels” confirmed that Rex fought in the Battle of Endor. However, the character in “Return of the Jedi” was originally named Nik Sant, and while the theory is popular, it remained a bit complicated for some time, because was not officially confirmed by all sources. But later Dave Filoni itself confirmed it on X, and this was confirmed in “Galaxy of Adventures” animation and in a newly released Star Wars children’s book titled: “I Am A Clone Trooper”.
Desperate Housewives: Fans were so vocal about wanting Mike and Susan to end up together that the show’s creator, Marc Cherry, changed his original plan. He had intended for Mike to marry Katherine, but fan demand led him to pair Mike with Susan instead.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Fans were eager to see Keith Richards, who inspired Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Jack Sparrow, appear in the films. Due to this overwhelming demand, the writers included Richards as Captain Teague.
Lord of the Rings: An unnamed elf in “The Lord of the Rings” films became a fan favorite and was given the name Figwit (Frodo is great — who is that?). Due to the character’s popularity, director Peter Jackson gave him a speaking role in “The Return of the King”.
Supernatural: The character of Castiel was originally intended to be a short-term character, but fan enthusiasm led to him becoming a series regular.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Fans shipped the characters Jake and Amy so strongly that the writers decided to develop their relationship into a central storyline.
These examples show how powerful fan voices can be in shaping the stories they love. But on other occasions, the fandom simply came up with their theories about something that would be a reality later and that had already been thought of, end even executed, by the creators of the franchises. We have the examples of:
Jon Snow is a Targaryen: In “Game of Thrones,” fans speculated that Jon Snow was not Ned Stark’s illegitimate son but the child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. This theory was confirmed in the series, revealing Jon as Aegon Targaryen.
Stan Lee in the MCU: Before it was confirmed, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans theorized that Stan Lee, the creator of many Marvel characters, was playing the same character in all his cameos. This was confirmed in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” where he is seen talking to the Watchers.
Palpatine’s Return: In the “Star Wars” saga, some fans speculated that Emperor Palpatine didn’t actually die in “Return of the Jedi.” This theory came true in “The Rise of Skywalker,” where Palpatine returns as the main villain.
Snoke’s Identity: In “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” fans speculated about the true identity of Supreme Leader Snoke. While many theories were incorrect, the revelation that Snoke was a creation of Palpatine in “The Rise of Skywalker” was anticipated by some fans.
Bruce Willis is Dead in “The Sixth Sense”: Fans speculated that Bruce Willis’s character was dead the whole time in “The Sixth Sense.” This theory was confirmed in the movie’s twist ending.
The Identity of the Man in the Iron Mask in “The Flash”: Fans of “The Flash” theorized that the Man in the Iron Mask was Jay Garrick, the original Flash from the comics. This was confirmed in the season 2 finale.
The Joker’s Identity in “Batman: Arkham Knight”: Before the release of “Batman: Arkham Knight,” fans speculated that the Arkham Knight was actually Jason Todd, the former Robin. This theory was confirmed in the game.
The True Nature of Westworld: In the TV series “Westworld,” fans theorized that the park was actually on another planet or in a different time period. It was later revealed that the park is on a distant planet.
The Real Villain in “WandaVision”: Fans speculated that Agatha Harkness was the true villain behind the events in “WandaVision.” This theory was confirmed when Agatha revealed herself.
But in our case we are just connecting unfinished dots with factual possibilities, within the possibilities of the Army Men universe (which we call Toyverse) and trying to fix the inconsistencies that plague the entire saga in a convincing way, which will also require the generation of convincing images, since many times “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
The best enemies ever molded: friends!
Did anyone notice how many traitors there were in the Green ranks alone? The Green Colonel in Army Men 2, H.F. Blintz turning into King Plurtz the First in Army Men RTS, Major Godding turning into Lord Malice in Sarge’s War and Sarge Hawk himself turning into Major Malfunction in (right) Army Men: Major Malfunction.
Another plausible theory (within this theory) is that the AWOL Green Colonel and Blintz knew each other, or at least talked about the same crazy stuff.
We’re going to tie all of this together in a convincing way, adding Major Mylar betraying Plastro in Army Men 2 (talking about the same crazy stuff). But we’ll leave that to the narrative of our project.
Sarge is Sarge Hawk?
A much discussed theory with a simple answer: there is no official answer, and there never will be one. 3DO don’t want to answer the question because they wanted us to believe they are the same, but it was OBVIOUS they are visually very different (the voice of Jim Cumming tried to be the same than the original Sarge). And if there was one answer today, it is unlikely to be genuine.
The reality is that Sarge Hawk and the whole Sarge’s Heroes era was a “soft reboot” where 3DO wanted (without saying so) that people believe that it was the same protagonist, so as not to lose that initial push of the first games. Something like those franchises where the actor changes without any explanation of why, like the 007 films: each film is usually just a stand alone installment, although later there was a series of films where the stories were a continuation (although this did not impact much on the story of each film). But when the 007 franchise changes actors, they simply continue creating films without specifying if it is about the same individual, if in fact the agents are different people who are named as such and finally, there is not even a real temporal progression. This writer’s theory is that different agents are called 007 as they die or retire. This can be seen in Daniel Craig’s latest film, where another female agent is called 007 because Craig’s character was missing ad considered MIA (or AWOL).
So there you have the answer. As far as we are concerned, it’s not about what we believe, but about what we want to do. And we have a GREAT answer to this question that will satisfy everyone… you’ll see!
What do you think?. If you have any good theories, leave them in the comments!
P.S.: Because of this last theory and the statement: “The best enemies ever molded: friends!” we want Hawk to fight the copies of him an his friends of the Bravo Company Commandos. The same for the female protagonist being a Tan version of Hawk’s girlfriends, Vikki.
Flags, logos, and other visual representations are powerful tools in graphic design, serving as symbols that convey identity, values, and messages of groups, nations, factions, and communities. Let’s explore these elements from a graphic design perspective, focusing on representation, iconography, and the meanings behind various design elements and their users.
Army Men Nations flags
Flags in the Army Men franchise are somewhat diverse. Some use Real-World references, their initial font, or some kind of Shapes or Symbols. Black and White are used for the contrast element.
Army Men Green Army FlagGreen Flag from SH DreamcastArmy Men Tan Nation FlagTan Flag from SH DreamcastArmy Men Blue Nation FlagBlue Flag from SH DreamcastArmy Men Red Nation FlagSarge’s War GC Red flagGrey Flag from SH Dreamcast
Toyverse Project Original Flags
White Army FlagOrange Army FlagCyan Nation FlagViolet Nation Flag
In the case of the Orange and White armies we used the W and O from the “Real World” logo, which is heavily based on the “Real” slogan from 3DO. But the most for the White Army, because that W is too captivating for us to leave it alone in that logo. It also follows a bit the design aesthetic of the T of the Tan Army.
In the case of the Cyan Army, it is a flag more in the classic style of a Real-World country flag.
But in the case of the White Army flag, we are considering this idea for the design. Although it may end up being a mirror image… or even more distant, it may end up being the logo of Lord Malice or Major Malfunction!
Lord Malice possible logoMajor Malfunction possible logo
Representation in Graphic Design
Representation in graphic design involves creating visual symbols that encapsulate the essence of the entity they represent. This could be a nation, a company, a social movement, or a community. The goal is to create a design that is instantly recognizable and communicates the core values, ideas and identity of the group.
Other flags & logos
Storm Legion Flag (AM Strike’s Tan Colonel Destruction)Colonel Destruction’s Storm LegionBaron Von Beige squadron flagBaron Von Beige squadron CGI original textureAqua Marines flag (Water or Winters Marines)
Iconography
Iconography is the study and use of images and symbols to represent ideas, concepts, or information. In graphic design, iconography is crucial because it allows for the quick and effective transmission of messages. Symbols and icons are more than decorative elements; they are the shorthand of communication, cutting through the clutter of words to convey complex messages swiftly.
The Army Men video game franchise, which began in 1998, is known for its distinctive iconography that draws heavily from the classic green plastic toy soldiers. Here are some key elements:
Color-Coded Factions: The games feature different factions represented by distinct colors, primarily the Green and Tan armies. Other factions like the Blue and Grey armies also appear, each with their own unique characteristics and allegiances.
Toy-Like Aesthetic: The visual style of the games emphasizes the plastic nature of the soldiers. When characters are defeated, they often melt or shatter, reinforcing the idea that they are toys.
Real-World Settings: Many of the battles take place in exaggerated real-world environments, such as kitchen counters, gardens, and bathrooms. This juxtaposition of small toy soldiers in large human environments adds a playful and imaginative element to the games.
Military Symbols: The games incorporate traditional military iconography, such as medals, ranks, and insignias, but with a playful twist to fit the toy soldier theme.
Vehicles and Equipment: The franchise includes a variety of toy-like vehicles and equipment, such as jeeps, tanks, and helicopters, all designed to look like they belong in a child’s playset.
These elements combine to create a unique and nostalgic experience that appeals to both fans of classic toy soldiers and video game enthusiasts.
Original logotypes:
A remake of the Army Men Classic Logo
This was the first logo for the game franchise, later used in Army Men 3D. Later they used different versions for Army Men 2, Army Men Toys in Space and even Sarge’s Heroes and Air Attack. But it was right during the release of these last 2 games that they came up with the final version:
Definitive Army Men logo, with “Real Combat .Plastic Men.” slogan
This version was used in most (if not all) of the later games, with out the slogan. It was used for last versions of Sarge’s Heroes and Air Attack, until 3DO went out of business. Even after that it was still used for Sarge’s War and Major Malfunction.
Our Army Men Toyverse Project Logotypes
Army Men Real World Project
This logo is from our Toyverse project, the logo that the Army Men Alliance uses in their research initiative into the Real World, the world of humans. The design uses the REAL logo from the defunct company 3DO, a kind of slogan they used. It is worth noting that the 3 colors between the letters of REAL are the colors of the 3 pieces of the key that opens the portal in the first game and in Army Men 3D. Since we couldn’t find any matches for the font used, to add WORLD we cloned the R and the L, and created the other letters trying to respect the same style, giving a special emphasis to the W.
This logo captures the mystery and novelty that the Real World means to Army Men.
Army Men Revolution new videogame logo
This is the logo for our video game project. We wanted a somewhat innovative logo, without losing the essence of Army Men. And since it revolves around the Red Army, we gave it that color and some of the essence of the fonts used in the propaganda of the Soviet Union, in which our version of the Reds are strongly based (not for nothing their official flag is a star). Something that helped us finish the idea of the logo was the 2024 movie “Deadpool & Wolverine”, because of that texture of worn painted and metal underneath, which also alludes to the fact that one of the super weapons of the Red Army will be that they manufactured a massive army of vehicles and all kinds of war tools in Real World metal alloys.
Army Men Toyverse project
This is the logo for the Toyverse project, which serves to encompass other projects under the same initiative, in which ideas, canon and assets are shared. Read more in Army Men Toyverse project.
If you feel like the style sounds familiar, it’s because it’s very similar to the style of “Toys in Space”, which we think is a game that represents the imaginative diversity that can be brought to the world of Army Men.
Army Men REAL PLASTIC MEN logo
This is almost the same logo as the 2.0 logo, but in our case we used it for the branding of the plastic soldiers line in the Real World (Real Plastic Men).
Elements in design and their meanings
Colors: Colors play a significant role in visual representations. Each color can evoke specific emotions and symbolize different concepts. For example:
Red: Often associated with passion, energy, and danger. In the case of the Reds, it is appropriate because it represents their nationalist passion and protection of themselves and their culture. They believe that their ideals are correct above all other beliefs, and they defend their culture to the point of being totally closed to the outside world. At first they will be conservative and extremist in keeping it that way.
Blue: Represents calmness, trust, and stability. In the case of what brings us here, Blue is usually a color related to the sky, but especially to the Sea, Water and Ice. For this reason, the element dominated by the Blues will be water or ice, as we can see in the defensive towers of Army Men Warfare. Blue is also a cold and dark color, which helps to go unnoticed in the dark, which is what every spy needs to operate.
Green: Symbolizes nature, growth, and harmony. In the case of our project, it symbolizes the Greens’ initiative to respect the nature of the other worlds and maintain them in harmony, trying not to interfere with or modify them.
Orange: They represent fire, the element that the Orange Nation will dominate. Although the personality of some of its characters will go hand in hand with the intensity of fire.
Gray: They represent neutrality and the absence of diversity. In our Toyverse, the greys were like the Nazis: they rejected everything they considered incorrect or out of the normal status. Their colors lack individuality and diversity. It is also useful when it comes to camouflaging with the environment, one of the most neutral colors for this purpose.
Black: Can denote power, elegance, and mystery. You’ll know why…
Plants: Trees can symbolize life, growth, and wisdom, while flowers like roses can represent love and beauty.
Shapes and Symbols: Shapes and symbols are integral to iconography. Common shapes and their meanings include:
Circles: Represent unity, infinity, and protection.
Triangles: Can symbolize stability, power, and direction.
Stars: Often used to denote excellence, aspiration, and guidance.
Imagery: The use of specific images can convey deeper meanings. For example:
Animals: Different animals can symbolize various traits. For instance, an eagle often represents freedom and strength, while a lion symbolizes courage and royalty.
Historically, the Army Men franchise is full of cultural references from literature, film and television… and we are not going to be left behind of this habit.
Since many of us in the Army Men Toyverse project are fans of Sci-Fi, war and action films in general, we take references from here and there, not only visual, but from the personality of a character being based on an iconic popular character, to certain sounds or weapons based on popular sound pieces.
We think that in the Army Men Microverse the toys themselves adopt and personify characters, as if they were children in a game, and that personality they adopt becomes the purpose that drives and defines them.
Army Men known references
Army Men: Green Rogue:
The introduction of the Omega Soldier in Army Men Green Rogue is almost a copy-paste of the storyboarding of the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 appears in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgement Day T-800 introduction into the story
Army Men: Green Rogue Omega Soldier introduction into the story
The previous suspense, the tempo, the metallic beat music sound typical of the Terminator franchise and the nudity of the character, among other details, are totally based on these introductory scenes of the films of this franchise. For this reason one of the frames of reference for Omega’s personality will be Arnold’s T-800.
T-800 Arrival in The Terminator movie
T-850 Arrival in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes game cover
Kelly’s Heroes movie poster
Sarge’s Heroes is an obvious reference to Kelly’s Heroes, the film of the same name. In fact, each member of Bravo Company has a very different personality and appearance from each other, and each member has a different specialty. The same thing happens with Kelly’s men. Besides, everyone is crazy… in their own way.
The Red Baron and the Beige Baron
Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen, known as the “Red Baron” or “Baron Von Richthofen”, was a German fighter pilot during the human’s World War I. He is considered the ace of aces of war because he managed to shoot down eighty enemy airplanes. The obvious parallels with Baron Von Beige don’t need much clarification, but it has nothing to do with the Red Baron’s personality, except that he was an honor fighter equivalent to the English gentlemen he fought against. The Beige Baron has equal respect for his enemies, like Captain Blade and instead of finishing off his opponents, he just knocks them down and leaves them a Beige scarf as his trademark. Therefore Von Beige is not a murderer, but an avid fighter who likes to compete against other great pilots.
During the First World War, pilots were considered to be medieval knights “riding” the skies, and that rivals recognized each other as such when they crossed paths on the battlefield. Certain pilots had the habit of giving the military salute to their opponents when passing each other during a reconnaissance mission, but that solemn salute was soon replaced by a much more practical gesture within the context of a total war, although perhaps less chivalrous: the aviators began to carry guns (and use them).
One of the reasons World War I pilots wore scarves was not to be thrown at downed enemies (although they got used to doing it), was the combination of open cockpits and open engine oil systems, which used castor oil. Many early aeronautic engines used an open oil system, in which, instead of circulating the oil, it was dripped out of the engine and replenished from a reservoir, since being rotary engines, the castor oil used It was thrown in all directions, even towards the pilot. Ingesting castor oil not only tastes disgusting, but can also cause quite catastrophic effects on the digestive system. A silk handkerchief filtered out most of the castor oil.
Cajun Joe Colonel
“Cajun Joe’s mansion” was written in the back of the mission list, or description of some kind about missions, in the poster of an Army Men PC special edition, product of a partnership of 3DO with Ubisoft, which led us to the lyrics of a song, called “Cajun Joe (The Bully Of The Bayou)”, a “Country” 60′ style song that coincides in some sort of way with the Gray Colonel mission, like the terrain where the mission take place, the Bayou land.
Colonel Blintz, Lord Malice, Major Malfunction and a Green Colonel
Both the former Colonel Blintz, later called “Blintz” or “King Plurtz One” from Army Men RTS and the Green Colonel from Army Men 2, were clear references to the character of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz from the movie Apocalypse Now. In some very diluted way, the plot of both games, RTS & 2, was based on the primary idea of this movie: hunt down the renegade Colonel because he is out of control or knew a lot, and that is considered dangerous…
Even Lord Malice was also partially based on this character, and Sgt. Hawk goin evil when he became Major Malfunction. Or at least the game’s plot was. Only at the end of the game we found out that Malice was Gooding and Hawk was Malfunction (when in the movie the identity of the villain is known from the beginning). All of them were good men that went crazy.
Army Men: Sarge’s War: The eulogy for an entire series
It’s a complicated subject, the Army Men series. The 3DO Company released somewhere in the realm of 25 games between 1998 and 2002. When you consider some of the ports were made from the ground up and entirely distinctive to the platform they were released on, the actual number of unique games is probably around 35 or more. I’m sure you can already see the problem.
Army Men Sarge’s War Vikki Dead
“The problem was with all the early success of these Army Men games, the executives at 3DO thought they could ship an Army Men game (or bundle) every quarter and be successful,” Michael Mendheim, creative director of Battletanx and the Sarge’s Heroes subseries, told me. It’s obvious. The output was stunning, putting even history’s most prolific market spammers, like Guitar Hero, to shame. What started as a promising series with a few hits on its hands quickly declined into one that was treated with scorn and derision by players and the press.
The result is that the Army Men games are poorly remembered. I’ve previously compared the series to a shotgun blast: a sudden and abrupt spread, sometimes causing a lot of agony. Few mourned the loss of the franchise, but I still visit to place flowers on its grave.
Army Men Sarge’s War Col Grimm dead
The 3DO Company was founded by Trip Hawkins, who previously founded Electronic Arts years earlier. Hawkins dreamt of a console that would become the universal medium for games. Licensing fees would be almost non-existent, so developers and publishers would jump aboard with little risk, abandoning frontrunners Nintendo and Sega. Hawkins left EA to pursue this dream, but by 1996, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer flopped under the weight of FMV game ports, and the company had to pivot to purely making software. Hawkins even took on a creative role to help out his teams.
Army Men started out quietly enough in 1998. The first game on PC, merely titled Army Men, was a reasonable success. Early the next year, Army Men II came out alongside a PlayStation remake of the first game called Army Men 3D. Again, these were pretty successful. By the end of 1999, however, a second PC title, Army Men: Toys in Space, the 3D action title Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes, and the top-down helicopter game Army Men: Air Attack were all released. Five titles in its second year, and the snowball had only just begun rolling.
Army Men Sarge’s War Riff dead
That’s where Michael Mendheim comes in. In 1998, he was creative director on Battletanx, which was a hit for 3DO. He was then given creative license on his own Army Men title and envisioned a character-driven game with more of a story, and that became Sarge’s Heroes.
Once again, Sarge’s Heroes was a hit. If I can wade into the story for a moment, it’s where I was introduced to the series, and it’s one that still holds a place in my heart. It had its rough spots, but a lot of its design, especially when it came to its levels, was fantastic. I remember following it through Nintendo Power up to its release and playing the hell out of it.
While I’ve trudged through a great deal of the Army Men series since then and could give you the full and detailed history, that’s quite a detour. We’re going to hurry the story along here.
Army Men Sarge’s War Scorch dead
The important fact is that not only did the quality of Army Men titles start to plummet almost immediately, but the public’s appetite for the games declined just as fast. I’d say that the four PlayStation Army Men: World War games are pretty consistent fun, but by the release of the last two titles, the press was practically ignoring them.
It became something of a laughing stock. In 2001, Portal Runner was released to harsh reception. After a particularly scathing review in Gamepro Magazine, Trip Hawkins even went as far as writing to the Editor-in-Chief to defend the title in an almost comical fashion. He described the staff as “angry young men” and threatened to reduce their advertising. I can understand him wanting to defend his creation, but the letter wasn’t a good look.
Around 2002, the pace of releases from 3DO had slowed and the writing was on the wall. “We already had a round of layoffs; everyone was nervous about the company’s future,” said Mendheim. He had a team working on a game called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. “It was an edgy, gritty, post-apocalyptic nightmare, based on the Book of Revelation.” Mendheim also believed this to be the best chance at saving 3DO, but it wasn’t to be. “I was called into a meeting and told that I could keep a small team working on Horsemen but everyone else, including myself, would need to make another Army Men game. That Army Men game would be Sarge’s War.”
Army Men Sarge’s War Thick dead
Sarge’s War would be the last 3DO developed Army Men game, put together in haste as the company took on water. “Honestly, it was like developing the game on the Titanic and it took 9 months for the ship to sink,” described Mendheim.
If you’ve played Sarge’s War, you may have been stricken with how tonally different it was from previous games. The series’ standard features were there, but a lot of the color was washed out of it. In its place was a grittier veneer, even over its more cartoonish elements. The entire supporting cast of the Sarge’s Heroes sub-series–all of them–were killed in an explosion, sending Sergeant Hawk into an avenging rage.
This was the sound of a series dying. There are plenty of franchises that have disappeared from the face of the planet, never to be heard from again. Jazz Jackrabbit, Top Gear, F-Zero; there are many easy examples of games that have just…gone away. Sarge’s War was a game on its deathbed, one last defiant scream before the embrace of oblivion. It was a deliberate move to put the final nail in the coffin and bring closure to the series.
Army Men Sarge’s War Hoover dead
I think Michael Mendheim put it best. “There are certain games that you just put your heart and soul into because you love the content, they are your babies. Sarge’s Heroes was one of those games for me. Every character in the game was developed with love and passion. Sarge’s Heroes was fun, positive, and hopeful. It was a game that made you laugh and feel some magic.”
“Sarge’s War was the opposite of that. It was grim and dark. The story in Sarge’s War was about loss. Losing everything that you love and care about. In the plotline, the entire cast and crew – Sarge’s Heroes died with 3DO. Everyone except for Sarge.”
“When I killed off Sarge’s Heroes, I also killed my desire to ever design another Army Men game. I designed the first and last game in the Sarge’s Heroes product line.”
By the end of development, 3DO had already breathed its last, and Sarge’s War wound up getting released by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Take-Two and the new home of the Army Men license. Some sources credit Tactical Development for completing the game, but according to Mendheim, “Our orders were to finish the game and that is what we did…the game was delivered completed as the ship went down.”
Army Men Sarge’s War Shrap dead
In comparison to the Army Men games that came before it, Sarge’s War was less rickety. It’s obvious that some of 3DO’s best remaining talent had worked on it, though under less than ideal constraints. It doesn’t reach the height of the series, but knowing the story behind it underlines it with melancholy. It’s a surreal experience.
“There are no bad guys in this story; everyone did their absolute best to try and keep the company alive,” explains Mendheim. “No one sets out to make a bad game. No one worked harder than Trip Hawkins, who even put his own money on the line to try and save the company. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending.”
Global Star made a token effort at continuing the Army Men series. Their first attempt was Team 17’s Army Men: Major Malfunction in 2006, which I’ve previously covered, and it’s awful. Later they’d try another reboot with Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune in 2008, which is similarly terrible. There was a mobile game for pre-smart phones, and then that’s it. Aside from a few re-releases, the series has been left to rest peacefully.
Army Men: Sarge’s War Hawk
Whether or not it deserved that fate is a matter of opinion. On one hand, it was unwise and intrusive to flood the market with those titles. Releasing games of questionable quality to bank on a brand should never be commended. But on the other hand, they weren’t without merit or appeal. The best games were just buried under the worst. It could have been straightened out. It didn’t have to end this way.
Or, as Michael Mendheim put it: “I always look back at my time at 3DO and think what could have been if we had managed the brand better by releasing only one Army Men game a year and each year releasing a different type of Army Men game with cool innovations and game mechanics…maybe, just maybe Army Men and 3DO might still be alive.”
The first very revealing article was Team17’s recalling history of their first 100 games, when celebrating the release of game number one hundred, PLANET ALPHA. In this chapter, they’re heading to 2005 & 2006, a time of both 2D and 3D Worms games and their first foray into work-for-hire projects on both Lemmings and Army Men.
In an unexpected twist, Team17 was granted creative freedom while working on the Army Men franchise. This allowed them to introduce a new main character and even eliminate the recurring character, Sarge, in the opening sequence. This bold move highlights the unique creative liberties Team17 enjoyed during the development process. You can read the complete article in: https://team17.com
1. Team17’s 100 Games – Part Nine: 2005-2006 (Published: Nov 7, 2018)
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48/100 Army Men: Major Malfunction
Year: 2006 | Developer: Team17 | Publisher: Global Star | Format: PlayStation 2, Xbox
When Team17 was founded in 1990 it was entirely possible, thanks to open platforms like the Amiga, for a small group of programmers and artists to make and release their own game. But times changed. As next generation consoles took over, team sizes grew and budgets ballooned. Releasing a game was virtually impossible without publisher support and this meant you had a limited number of ways to get a game made. Either own a best-selling IP or develop for somebody else’s. In this climate, Team17 found itself pitching to publishers for “work-for-hire” projects. Sometimes this led to us working on a game like Lemmings, other times it led to Army Men: Major Malfunction… Perhaps the most surprising game in our entire history.
Recruited to Team17 after a 10-year stint at Rare, Gavin Hood found himself in command of the Army Men project and worked on the pitch. “I had literally only joined the company a few months before and was sitting opposite the head of design,” says Hood. “I remember most of the designers were working hard on a Worms title as it neared the end of production so I was asked to come up with something to pitch. I guess it went okay because we got the deal and I got the chance to lead it.”
Working on someone else’s franchise, you’d think that the publisher would have final say on any creative decisions but actually, as Hood explains, Team17 were given free rein on Army Men and even got away with a few unexpected choices. “We wanted to use a different main character to many of the other Army Men games and not only did we not meet resistance to this, but we even microwaved recurring main character Sarge in the opening sequence to set up the introduction of our own character. I’m actually proud that we were able to melt a series character in the opening of a game and everyone concerned be okay with that!”
Army Men Major Malfunction Huey Helicopter
Every game has its unique challenges and for Army Men it was designing a 3D world in the era before off-the-shelf game engines made the process more streamlined. “The programmers wrote a set of tools that, because of the limited time we had, were made to work on development kits using the Xbox Controller,” Hood explains. “We had to place enemies, assign A.I. to them and set their patrols all using an Xbox Pad, even the cutscenes were done in the same way. Using those tools was a nightmare but the advantage was we could throw a load of stuff into a level and just hit play. It was awful to use with a pad but the speed at which we could test ideas and get something into each of the environments is probably the only reason we hit deadlines.”
A WIP CG animation from the Escape From Precinct 17 mission
“It was an interesting game to work on,” concludes Hood. “I remember having grand ideas about what the game would end up being and although it might not have exactly reached those heights there are some things I think we got right. There are a lot of pop culture references in there that I still think we handled well .” Even the subtitle, “Major Malfunction”, was a reference to a line from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket!
“Looking back, the game obviously wasn’t a masterpiece but everyone on the team got everything done in a very short development time with makeshift tools! It probably won’t go down as Team17’s finest hour or be the game I’m proudest of, but I did at least get to buy a lot toy soldiers and put them all over the office!”
Before 3D design and video game design, other talented artists had to face the challenge of making small beings look realistic, and showing giant environments from their perspective. In this first part of this series, we will reveal some of its ingenious secrets, knowledge that will help improve the experience of the small world of Army Men: Revolution
Films like “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids”, The Indian in the Cupboard, Ant-Man, Fantastic Voyage, Inner Space, Willow, Hook, among others, are all movies that have used different techniques of visual effects to do large things smaller, or show how the world looks from the perspective of a plastic soldier.
The visual effects supervisor, Eric Brevig, has worked on this type of films, including one of our favorites, “The Indian in the Cupboard”, which presented visual effects by the ILM of George Lucas, a visual effects company created by “The Creator of Star Wars” to be able to make Star Wars.
These techniques have varied, from the forced perspective, large sets, filming on green or blue screen and, of course, digital media such as 3D.
But before reading this text we copied and pasted, with our opinions interjected, we ask you to go first to read it in the original source, attached below!
vfxblog: What had been your experience with any miniaturisation effects prior to The Indian in the Cupboard?
Eric Brevig: I had done certain short sequences in other projects. I did a 3D, double 70mm Disney EPCOT film for the theme park around 1980. It was like a dream sequence for a pavilion that they built there about imagination. And part of the dream sequence had the little boy, who was the main character, imagining that he was looking at a miniature circus, maybe three feet across, filled with tiny clowns a few inches tall and so forth. Then later on he shrunk down to fit into somebody’s hand.
And so that was the first time I had to really wrap my head around how you shoot mixed scale characters like that so that the perspective is correct and so forth. And since that was a 70mm 3D, meaning stereo 3D, project, there was much less tolerance for cheating things like scale and perspective.
I also did work on the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience for another Disney theme park several years later and just continued the same sort of things. I was on Hook at ILM as well with Tinkerbell. It was very familiar territory for me by the time The Indian in the Cupboard came up.
vfxblog: What is the major thing you think you have to get right with any kind of scale or miniaturisation work?
Eric Brevig: You have to be able to have the tiny element look like it was photographed from the same camera as the large element. And that means all aspects of photography – depth of field, shadow size, obviously camera position and camera motion and lighting. In Hook, because most of the time Tinkerbell was a fairy character that was glowing, the lighting became a combination of casting her light onto the background.
I remember we had a scene that I’d actually proposed to Steven Spielberg because I loved it in the Peter Pan animation, where the little Tinkerbell character walks up Peter’s shirt. Robin Williams was wearing a shirt and we had the character, Tinkerbell, walk through an ink pad so she left tiny little footprints. And it was just a lot of fun to work with Robin and getting him to, in a very tight close up, track his eyes where I was going to composite in the Tinkerbell character, and I gave him a little guide to follow. And then on overscale piece of blue screen set, we shot Julia Roberts following the same path.
But one thing that’s kind of fun when you’re doing little characters like that is that you can speed up the action because little things can move quickly. So I was adjusting the timing so that, at the rate that an adult Julia Roberts, full size, could walk up a set that looked like somebody’s blue chest, laying down of course, that her character, composited in, would track exactly where his eyes had been looking.
vfxblog: With Tinkerbell in Hook, and in several other films like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, one of the main methods was to build over-sized sets. And then there’s also shooting the actors against bluescreen and compositing them in, and there were some forced perspective shots. But was that kind of the idea, to mix it up a bit, so that audience isn’t really quite sure how you’ve done it?
Eric Brevig: Yeah, I think that’s the most fun. We did one or two forced perspective shots, which I love to do and I kind of, growing up really was enamoured with the work that the Disney studios had done on Darby O’Gill and the Little People, which was all essentially forced perspective. There’s maybe one or two composited shots in the entire movie, but most of it was very sophisticated forced perspective and mirror shots, where a front surface mirror is partially removed, revealing a background set that’s painted and lined up precisely to match the foreground.
When I was a student in college, one of my student films, because I had no technical equipment to do anything sophisticated, was basically a mixed scale student film, where I bought $1 mirror tiles at the local construction supplies store and carefully scraped off the silver from the back and lined it up with the foreground set and the background set. So that was all stuff that I loved to play with and experiment with as a kid. And then, because I think on Hook Steven really wanted to do that the old school way, my art director and I set it up for him, so we could make it look like Julia was in the doll house, and the doll house was in the foreground, and she was on an oversized set in the background.
But the reality is, it is so cumbersome to take the time to do that in front of camera, and so much faster and easier to use compositing and CG that we did it one time and they said, ‘That’s great, let’s not do that anymore, let’s just go back to the way you want to do it,’ which is using multiple photography elements.
vfxblog: Hook came out in 1991. By the time Indian and the Cupboard came along in 1995, had digital compositing moved on to a point that was even more beneficial for pulling off scale shots?
Eric Brevig: Well, it didn’t necessarily help with scale, because both the large scale and small scale characters were played by actors, so you’re obliged to photograph them both. If you have a small character in a fantasy world or in a CG world, life is much easier. But if you’ve got both characters, large and small scale on screen together in a photorealistic world, you’re obliged to come up with a way to photograph them both so that they both look like they’re in the same environment. And also, for the actors and performers, you have to come up with a way for them to interact and act together.
So a lot of the work on Indian in the Cupboard was to facilitate that kind of emotional relationship that was the core of the movie. It wasn’t a fantasy – well, it was a fantasy, but it wasn’t a spectacular visual effects extravaganza that was showing off, look what we can do. It was an intimate tale of two characters from different worlds and different scales who developed this emotional bond. So it was really important to allow the actor, his name was Litefoot, who played Little Bear, to be able to hear and react to, as an actor, this giant boy. And similarly I had to help the boy, who was played by Hal Scardino, find where to look and so forth and be able to act with the Indian actor so that there was this genuine sense of two people communicating.
vfxblog: I’m curious if going from optical compositing to digital compositing made any difference at all?
Eric Brevig: Well it didn’t really make a big change because essentially we were just replacing the clunky, mechanical, optical printer phase with the equally clunky, primitive digital compositing stage. But it gave me the opportunity to do some fun, nuanced enhancements. I remember there was a shot of, I think it was a cowboy, he’s supposed to be two inches tall and he’s walking across a bed with a comforter on it, and I had a big uneven surface that was blue and shot David Keith, who was playing the cowboy, walking across that.
And my director of photography is a fella named Chuck Shuman, who I worked with on a lot of movies, from Total Recall to The Abyss, and he’s one of the most precise and brilliant directors of photography in understanding how to match the lighting between a small set and an oversized set. And he would actually match the size of the lights, scaled up, when we shot the actors portraying little people, because that’s the way the light wraps around you, is the relationship between the size of the light source and the size of you. And so, when we would shoot the normal set, we would have normal sized lights, whatever size they were, a foot across, and he would rig, for bluescreen miniature people, I think the scale was like 24:1, 24 foot wide illuminated surface that would cast the matching shadows.
In any event, we would shoot these, but there really wasn’t a way to puppeteer how the footsteps would move the fabric because oversized fabric never looked convincing. One of the things that I learned early on was, if you can always shoot the non-miniature stuff on real sets with real cloth, like you would normal macro photograph, it adds a verisimilitude to the scene that you can’t get with oversized props and so forth, which are very difficult to pull off and not have them look a little bit like oversized props.
In any event, as our character walks across this blanket, we were able to digitally put in little divots and depress the cloth wherever his foot stepped, which just sort of locked him in, in a way that you could never had done without digital. Because we’re essentially just warping, or morphing a little bit, some of the background imagery as his foot is making contact. So there were really nice little enhancements like that, as well as just the ability to perfect the compositing edges and so forth, in a way that photo mechanical compositing did not allow us to do.
vfxblog: You mentioned a really cool thing there, which was matching lighting for when a character is shot big and when they’re shot small. What about camera movement, did you use motion control to match up small and large shot plates?
Eric Brevig: I would decide based upon the needs of the shot, which camera – because we had to photograph foregrounds and backgrounds with cameras because they were both real environments – which camera would lead the shot. Let’s say it’s the little boy and he picks up this tiny Indian and he moves across the screen with it in his hand. I would photograph that with a traditional camera, tracking the boy. And he’d have just a little tiny object, I think I used something that looked like a bent paperclip, so that he had something in his hand that was showing him where to put his eye line and kept him honest about how he was holding it, but was easy to paint out.
And then after we had shot that, we would analyse the footage within the duration of the shot that was intended to be used in the movie and we’d say, ‘Okay, here at the beginning we’re one foot away from his hand and six inches above that. Okay, well that’s equal to 24 foot back and 12 feet above.’ And so we would design a camera move, using a very big crane arm, so that we would, as the boy moves through the shot, the camera’s now six inches from the character and one inch above his head, well, that equals 12 feet back and six inches would be six feet above his head.
So, we would basically plot out in the real world what we were doing in terms of matching that camera. And because you have a lot of space for leeway when you’re moving a camera 50 feet through a sound stage, it doesn’t matter if you’re a little bit to the right or the left of where you’re supposed to be, because then by tracking the two and using digital compositing to lock the two together, you’re able to make the perspective of one non-motion control shoot fit the other one by sort of locking them together afterwards.
If instead the shot is driven by what the little characters are doing, well, there was one very nice shot where the camera’s creeping across the little boy’s bedroom, and we can hear the Indian is singing some sort of traditional song. And the camera peers over this toy box that’s in the foreground, and we see that the Indian’s sitting on top of this little half-built structure that’s going to be his home. So what we did is, we figured out the total distance needed at the scale of our adult actor, and it was like a 100 foot camera move, and then we’d come down and we’d peer over where the box would be and then we boomed down, basically into a close-up of him, and we shot that first.
And then by tracking it and using a motion control system to shoot the same move on a bedroom set, we were able to lock them together precisely in photography and really get that sense of no hindrance to the camera wherever it went, because we were shooting on a genuine bedroom sized set, rather than a little bluescreen of the Indian. All the depth of field and focus and all that stuff was exactly as it should be, so it felt like you’re crawling, you know, the camera sort of creeping through this room and peering over a little toy box and there, in shallow depth of field, on this half built house, we’d find the Indian character.
Once again, my director of photography, being aware of what we were doing, would take incredibly precise notes on, for example the bedroom set. Including colour temperature from each of the lights and positioning, and we’d really create that on the giant scale of the screen stage and the two fit together really, really precisely.
IGN64 brings you an interview with Army Men: Air Combat’s director plus the first-ever N64 screens.
The Army Men franchise has proved to be most profitable for 3DO. The company recently released Army Men: Air Attack, a polygonal 3D top-down shooter similar to the Nuclear Strike series. Now Nintendo 64 owners get their own take on the experience with Army Men: Air Combat. IGN64 recently chatted with project director Kudo Tsunoda about the toy-based shooter.
IGN64: 3DO recently released Army Men: Air Attack for PlayStation. Now Nintendo 64 owners are getting Army Men: Air Combat, a very similar game. Can you explain the idea behind it for those who are not familiar with the PlayStation title?
Kudo Tsunoda: Yes. Air Combat is helicopter combat in the Army Men universe where you fly a little toy helicopter through these giant, oversized worlds. We’re really trying to focus more on the playing with toy aspects of the franchise for the Nintendo 64 version. We’re really playing up that it’s a little plastic toy helicopter so, for example, instead of firing off missiles you’ll be firing off bottle rockets.
Like other Army Men games, it’s the Green Army versus the Tan Army. But we’re also throwing in a lot more neutral environmental enemies so you’ll have bees that swarm out and attack you and mutant bugs that you have to fight against. A lot of the missions are based more on using your helicopter’s winch and interacting with the environments than they are on flying around and blowing things up.
IGN64: What are the differences between Army Men: Air Attack for PlayStation and Army Men: Air Combat for N64?
Kudo: There are some parts of the engines that are similar, but obviously for the Nintendo 64 we’re doing a lot more hardware-specific stuff. They’re definitely different systems so you want to max out the potential for each. We rewrote a lot of the code for the Nintendo 64 version, we’re doing new missions and we’re playing up a lot more of the multiplayer stuff. We don’t have a four-player mode for PlayStation, but Nintendo 64 does. So, we’ve really worked on that. Besides the campaign missions, we’ve got cooperative ones. We’ve got four different four-player head-to-head games.
IGN64: How is the framerate in four-player mode?
Kudo: It’s doing great. We’ve always got lots of stuff on screen, too. One of the problems about making a game like this is that you can pick up everything in the world [with the helicopter winch] and put it down somewhere. People tend to pick up stuff and build a little encampment with all of the different world objects — pile up all of the soda cans and things like that and then have a huge battle with it all. It’s difficult technology-wise. I mean, it’s great for the gamers, but when I talk to the programmers about what we want to do with the game they look at me like, “I’d like to kill you.”
We did have a lot of time to work on the technology though, so even in multiplayer we still have all of the objects on-screen, everything still looks as good graphically and it all runs at a good speed. So we’re pretty happy with that.
IGN64: Are you using the 4MB Expansion Pak for the game?
Kudo: Yeah, we will be, mostly for different [presumably high-resolution] graphic modes.
IGN64: Can you give us a few examples of the different missions in the game?
Kudo: Most of the missions are based on using things in the world or capturing toys that you can take into different missions. In Army Men there are the “Our World” missions and the “Their World” missions. The “Our World” is more of playing with toys in these huge environments and the “Their World” is more of the normal scale, military based missions. So, one example is in the “Our World” missions you can go and collect some toy that doesn’t animate. But once you get into the “Their World” missions we tried to keep a lot of the fun of playing with toys alive, so instead of having it straight military based, we’ve added in a giant, for example, a giant toy that walks around and blows up Tan units.
Army Men: Air Combat N64 Multiplayer
We’ve also got ways of using things in the world to manipulate different insects. So there are bees in the world that you can control by moving flowers around. You pick up a flower, drop it off somewhere else and it’ll attract all of the bees to that area and they’ll help you take out the Tan units.
IGN64: How do play mechanics work?
Kudo: One of the interesting things about making an Army Men title is that it’s such a mass-market license. Because of that it’s hard to make a game that’s going to be fun for a six or seven year old to play as well as advanced players — you know, people our age who played with Army Men as a kid. So we made the helicopter mechanics as simple as possible so that gamers can get into quickly and start flying around shooting stuff. Even a little kid can play, but you still have the added depth of game play like figuring out what every object in the world can do. For example, you can pick up a soda can and then pull the helicopter behind it where it will act as a shield. You can drop it on stuff and squish guys or you can build barricades. You can take a bunch of pinecones and lay them down around an anthill so that the ants are trapped. Then you could remove one pinecone and the ants will drum out in that direction. You can essentially guide where you want the ants to go.
IGN64: How does it control?
Kudo: Since we don’t have any vertical control, you can just use the analog stick to move the actual helicopter around. After that you’ve got a simple winch mechanic buttons, some strafing buttons — it’s very simple.
Multiplayer Army Men: Air Combat
IGN64: Tell us about the multiplayer modes.
Kudo: There is a two-player split-screen cooperative mode. Plus we’ve got four different four-player modes. We’ve got a mode called Flag Nabbit, which is basically Capture the Flag. We’ve got Food Fight where you going around collecting different food items and seeing how you can use them to take your enemy out. We have a bug hunt kind of game where you get points for killing each different type of bug. You can use items in this mode to lure insects your way, where you can kill them all. This mode is pretty cool because you’ve got everybody not only trying to kill the bugs, but also swooping into each other’s areas trying to retrieve various items that will lure the bugs their way. The last mode is Air Rescue, where you go head-to-head trying to rescue little Army Men guys while trying to kill the competition’s guys.
IGN64: What sort of 3D environments do you get to play in?
Kudo: We’ve got a backyard environment with a patio and everything. We’ve got a beach area with lots of big sandcastles that you can fly through. We’ve got a park where you can fly up on the Jungle Jim, through a slide and a park-type environment. We’ve also got a campground area with lots of little picnic blankets. We’ve also got military environments like an alpine forest and an Arctic level.
IGN64: What sort of weapons does the game feature?
Kudo: In the “Our World” missions we’ve got bottle rockets, Roman candles, different swarm rockets that’ll come out like a four-pack, machine guns and napalm that you can use to melt guys with. But even more, everything in the environment can be used as a weapon. You can pick up the soda can, pinecones — whatever, and drop it on enemies.
Multiplayer Army Men: Air Combat in Nintendo 64
IGN64: In your opinion, why is this game better than Nuclear Strike?
Kudo: To me Nuclear Strike is pretty much a straightforward military shooter. The Army Men franchise is based around playing with toys — out in your backyard building a sense of nostalgia of stuff you used to do as a kid. Back at the office we get busted all of the time by security late at night because we’re out in the parking lot lighting Army Men up and firing Roman candles at them. Or when we first started development we had this huge ant farm that we expensed to the company to help develop our “realistic ant AI engine.” But we’d come and take Army Men, dip them in honey, drop them in the ant farm and watch the ants go to town on them. To me, there is only so much of the “Hey, I’m going to go pick up an oil drum and save the POW” missions before it starts to get taxing.
Plus, in Air Combat you can interact with everything in the environment as opposed to the Strike games where you fly around and blow stuff up. Having the depth of game play where it’s not just flying around and shooting stuff, but also learning what you can do with the environment and interacting with it, adds a whole lot.
IGN64: When can we expect Army Men: Air Combat on retail shelves?
Kudo: The end of the first-quarter 2000.
Multiplayer Army Men: Air Combat on Nintendo 64
IGN64: Finally, can we look forward to more Army Men games for Nintendo’s upcoming Dolphin system?
3DO: You can pretty much expect that 3DO will be bringing all of its major franchises over to the next-generation of machines. We support Nintendo. They like us.
IGN64 talked with Michael Mendheim, Creative Director on Sarge’s Heroes, about the game & the industry.
IGN64: How did you get into the industry and what were the first titles you worked on?
Michael Mendheim: I started in advertising and eventually became a freelance illustrator. I got involved in the industry by designing and painting box covers for video games, that led to character design and eventually game design. The first title I ever designed was Fester’s Quest (NES). The game was a hit and I decided creating and designing video games was incredibly satisfying and fun, so I started a company that specialized in character and game design. I had a small team and we designed numerous games from Tazmania (SNES) to the Mutant League Series (Sega Genesis).
IGN64: What was your most satisfying product to work on and why?
MM: Tough question since I have enjoyed the majority of products I’ve worked on. I can’t pick one but I can pick my 3 favorites.
1). Mutant League Football (Genesis):
This product was a dream for me because I love football, mutants, and carnage. Every aspect of this game was fun to work on from character and field design to testing. The game was quite successful and spawned one of the first video game animated television shows and a toy line.
2). BattleTanx (N64):
This was the first product I designed at 3DO. Trip Hawkins spent a lot of time working with me on this product. The team was great and incredibly talented, our Technical Director Robert Zdybel bent over backwards for the designers. We finished the product from start to finish in under a year. It was touch and go there for a while but the product came together over the last two months. I remember having to plead with the team to stop playing it so we could finish it.
3). Sarge’s Heroes (N64 / PSX):
This game is wonderful to work on because of the dynamic character design and overall strength of the brand. The development teams are probably the hardest working and determined people I have ever worked with. The Technical Director on the N64, Dan Geisler is a God. Bob Smith is the Technical Director on the PSX and he is a Gods’ God. It’s a very good feeling to be working on a product that you know has the potential to be a big hit and you are being supported by strong engineering, strong art direction, and strong marketing.
IGN64: Please tell us the story for Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes.
MM: General Plastro and his evil Tan Army have discovered mysterious Portals. These portals offer passage to an alternate reality, a dimension that holds the secret to ultimate power. General Plastro is currently in possession of the Portals and has sent his soldiers through them to find new weapon technologies which, when brought back to the plastic dimension, can be used to destroy the Green Army.
Fortunately, for the Green Army it has Sgt. Hawk, aka “Sarge,” a one-man wrecking ball, trained and guided by Colonel Grimm to be the leader of the most elite squad in the Green army… The Bravo Company Commandos. The Tan Army is now in possession of the most diabolical weapons ever created and General Plastro has mounted a full-scale attack on the Green Nation. With the capture of his entire squad and Colonel Grimm’s daughter Vikki, Sarge has a one in a million chance to save the Green Nation from the clutches of defeat.
One of the first weapons of mass destruction General Plastro’s forces bring back is a giant magnifying glass. Needless to say, General Plastro loves the smell of burnt plastic in the morning! One of the coolest weapons of Plastro’s army, is the dreaded “V-Bot,” which is a toy robot that comes to life once it is brought back from “Our World” into “Their World.” Any inanimate plastic object that is brought back (using the Portal) from “Our World” into “Their World” becomes animate.
IGN64: What did you learn from your experience of making the first Army men?
MM: First and foremost, Sarge’s Heroes is not a sequel to Army Men 3D it is a line extension from the Army Men brand. Army Men 3D is about plastic army men waging real combat, it is a game of tactics and gritty combat and it does it better than most. Sarge’s Heroes is a much lighter and funnier game, it is a character (Sarge) -based action game with an entertaining and compelling story that evolves from mission to mission.
I was not involved in Army Men 3D (PSX) but I thought the team did a very good job. The three main areas where we wanted to differentiate ourselves from Army Men 3D:
Real world environments:
We wanted to take the game player into our world environments like the kitchen, bathroom, and backyard sandbox. The thought of kitchen counter warfare sounded like an absolute blast and it was something that hasn’t really been done before in an action shooter.
Animations:
Nina Stanley (the game’s Art Director) and I set out at the start of this project to focus on the character animations. Our goal was to create some of the finest animations ever seen in a video game. We wanted to bring Sgt. Hawk to life. All the animations in Sarge’s Heroes are hand drawn and the reason for this was to allow the artists to interpret motion and to exaggerate gesture, in the end the character’s personality comes to life through motion and artistic expression. This cannot be achieved using motion capture.
Plastic soldiers that look plastic:
Another goal that we set out to achieve was to create an effect that would make Plastic Army Men look like plastic. Dan Geisler, the game’s Technical Director, came up with a technique for mathematically approximating the effects of light reflecting on a plastic material surface. He calls it Plastosheen (Plast O Sheen).
IGN64: How many levels and/or missions are in the game? Can you describe some of the missions and the environments they take place in?
MM: There are 14 missions in Sarge’s Heroes, 7 that take place in “Their World” and 7 that take place in “Our World.” We also have 7 multi-player levels, and of course this wouldn’t be an Army Men game without Boot Camp.
When playing in “Their World” the player will experience everything from treacherous mountain terrain to arctic wastelands, forests, towns, and heavily defended enemy army bases. When playing in “Our World” the player will experience giant terrains that take place on the inside and outside of one particular house in Suburbia, USA. The player will experience warfare like never before as he fights the dreaded Tan Army in the backyard garden (complete with giant insects and flowers), the living room, and the kitchen. The designers of Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes have even included a massive bathroom.
IGN64: Could you describe the game engine?
MM: The engine was built by a very talented corp. of engineers, led by industry-vet and Technical Director, Dan Geisler. The engine and its supporting technology was built to fully accommodate the ambitious Sarge’s Heroes design. Some of the challenges were to build an engine that would support very large worlds with a fast frame rate and an incredible viewing distance. Missions like the Living Room and Bathroom well demonstrate this success. Additionally, the engine supports a high-resolution mode with the Expansion Pak. Sarge’s Heroes also shows all characters in a 3rd person perspective in 4-player deathmatch, which is rare.
IGN64: How would you describe the player view and how does the interface work?
MM: The game is primarily played from a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective. The camera does have some dynamic elasticity to it and allows the player to view Sarge from the front. A quick tap of the R-Button, resets the view to directly behind the character. Another view we have comes via the sniper lens. While in this view, the player can survey the land and manually zoom in and out to take out enemy troops from long range. It’s a very effective method for the more patient player.
The interface was truly designed with the action gamer in mind. It is very intuitive and easy to navigate. Here we allow the player to choose items like resolution (w/Exp. Pak), view type (normal or letterbox) as well as configure their controller to their liking. Players should also find the multi-player setup very user-friendly. Many players will get well into game play without ever reviewing the manual.
IGN64: We understand that the game features both two player and four player modes. How do these work from both a game play and graphical standpoint?
MM: Sarge’s Heroes actually supports two, three or four players in a competitive capacity. We have also included a Family Mode that was introduced in the original BattleTanx game. This mode levels the playing field between all players. It removes an oft-found intimidation between parents and kids by presenting them with startup weapons and a more forgiving difficulty level. This has proven successful and has been well received by the customers. From a graphical standpoint, we opted to display all the characters in a 3rd person perspective. While this presents its own challenges, we felt that this was the best way to introduce the various characters and get players to connect with them. Watching the Sarge’s Heroes characters battle it out in the Bathroom or Living Room is a sight to behold. The sense of scale and heavy firepower kick butt!
IGN64: Can you play multiple characters?
MM: You can select from a variety of different characters (Sgt. Hawk, Vikki, and Plastro) to play as in a multi-player game. Since Sarge’s Heroes is a character-based game we spent a lot of focus on the character development, below are the stars of Sarge’s Heroes:
SGT. HAWK:
Sgt. Hawk is Bravo Company’s unquestioned leader. He’s an experienced Army Man who has seen it all – gritty battles over endless sandbox dunes, frozen conflicts across the icy wastes of unshoveled driveways, and the hi-tech warfare of magnifying glasses held aloft by the hands of cruel titans. As a dedicated leader, Sarge is highly respected by his squadron and by Colonel Grimm.
COLONEL GRIMM:
Colonel Grimm is a gruff, tough veteran of the old days when most soldiers were wood or tin. He’s a lifer as were all the men in the Grimm family who made it to Colonel status. The Colonel has suffered numerous tragedies fighting the Tan Menace and from these tragedies, Grimm has become a solemn man who never smiles. Colonel Grimm is the master tactician of the Green Army and Sarge’s mentor.
VIKKI:
Vikki is a beautiful, sexy, independent, hard working young woman whom is one of the top reporters for the Green Army’s newspaper, Green Star News. Raised solely by the Colonel, she has spent her whole life as an army brat traveling to different military bases around the world. Since Colonel Grim was Vikki’s only role model, Vikki followed his every move and grew up to be a very tough, confident, and strong woman.
PLASTRO:
General Plastro is an evil and ruthless man who has no problem slaughtering hundreds of Green Army men with his newly acquired barbaric weapons. He is a highly intelligent war tactician as he leads his Tan Army to victory over the Green Army. Plastro has won the support of several other nations, although they had no choice since he conquered them. Another sign of his genius is discovering the “Alternate World” (Our World) and the Portal devices that can transport him there. From this Alternate World, Plastro has exported powerful weapons that he enjoys using on Green Army Men. The only positive attribute of Plastro is that he has a dry and evil sense of humor.
Sarge’s Squad consists of 5 soldiers that are based on some of the classic Army Men poses (Bazooka, Mortar, Minesweeper, Flame-thrower, and M-60 Machine gunner). As Sarge rescues these squad members over the course of the game, each of their weapons become a permanent fixture in Sarge’s inventory, increasing the firepower that accompanies Sarge at the start of each mission.
BRAVO COMPANY:
RIFF:
Riff is the squad’s Bazooka man and Sarge’s best friend. Riff is every inch a soldier, yet retains the musical chops and coolness of a Blues musician. Riff wails some really cool Bazooka Blues for the enemy’s heavy armor.
HOOVER:
Hoover may be a gawky, geeky-looking beanpole with more ribs showing than a 4th of July barbecue and an Adam’s apple you could hang a helmet liner on, but the squad depends on him nevertheless. His depth of concentration and smooth fluidity of movement made him a natural to either man a minesweeper or run a floor buffer. He chose the minesweeper since the squad didn’t need a janitor.
SHRAP:
Shrap is the Squad’s Mortar Man. He used to pull a lot of shore patrol duty, and became a way cool surfer dude as a result. Later he gave up the big waves for the field artillery.
THICK:
Thick is basically an educated trigger finger attached to a nearly brain dead soldier. His name describes his skull, his neck, and the layer of lead he lays down with his M-60 machine gun, cutting down tan troops like a weed whacker does dandelions. He has the body of an action figure guided by a mind no brighter than a penlight.
SCORCH:
You’ve got to be a little nuts to be made out plastic and still love fire (Scorch is a lotta nuts). Sarge gave him custody of the flame thrower (he was setting fires around camp, anyway) so he could torch tan soldiers until they bubble. He creeps out the rest of the squad by sleeping in a book of matches instead of a sleeping bag.
IGN64: You mentioned the giant magnifying glass weapon in your earlier answer. How many weapons types are there in the game and what are some of their characteristics?
MM: There are 12 different weapons in Sarge’s Heroes:
M-16 Assault Rifle: All-purpose, Sarge’s main weapon.
Bazooka: Great for destroying tanks and helicopters.
Flame Thrower: The most feared weapon of plastic soldiers.
Shotgun: Lays out a circle of buckshot.
M-60 Machine Gun: Heavy machine gun that puts out a tremendous amount of lead.
Sniper Rifle: Everyone’s favorite, allows players to zoom in on enemies.
Grenades: The animation of Sarge pulling the grenade pin with his teeth is awesome.
Grenade Launcher: My personal favorite, the grenade launcher is a trajectory weapon that is incredible fun when used with the precision targeting mode.
Mortar: Player uses a cursor to target the mortar. This is a long-range weapon.
Mine-Sweeper: Not as exciting as a grenade launcher unless of course you’re in a minefield and you don’t have one.
Mines: Great for multi-player.
C-4: This weapon has a time delay and the largest blast radius in the game.
IGN64: You mentioned the RAM Pak earlier. How are you taking advantage of it?
MM: We use the Ram Pak for a high-resolution mode. In this resolution, the player will find that the characters, weapon effects and environments become much sharper. However, the N64 hardware does such nice filtering, so players without this peripheral are still in for a treat.
IGN64: Switching gears, what’s the most overlooked title you’ve ever seen in the game industry and why?
MM: There are many good titles that have been overlooked, but the one that I always think of first is 3DO’s Uprising (PC or PlayStation). Uprising had all the depth and satisfaction a game could ever deliver, with solid graphics and game play, but it didn’t sell in the market. Another game that I enjoyed a lot was Warhawk, one of the first games out on the PlayStation. It was an innovative flight sim/shooter with elegantly simple level designs. Like Uprising, Warhawk deserved to be played more than it was. But the classic overlooked title would have to be Dune II on the PC and Genesis. Some people think that Command and Conquer started the RTS trend, but in fact, Dune II did 90% of what C&C did years before.
IGN64: What usually causes the most lost sleep during a project?
MM: Figure the team spends 16 to 18 hours at the office during the last two or three months of the project (some people don’t go home at all, we had one Director who camped in the building for a month). Everybody is doing the best they can, they are giving 110%, but they are tired and sometimes irritable. They are sacrificing their lives and families for the project. When they finally close their eyes and try to sleep, their brains are wired and moving at 100 mph trying to answer a hundred different unanswered questions all relating to a single question, how to make the game better.
IGN64: What’s the weirdest thing that happened during the making of Army Men?
MM: I came into the office one day and sat down to work and something was wrong. Finally it dawned on me that all my plastic soldiers that decorate my cube were missing. I went to ask a team member if he had seen them and he realized that all his soldiers were missing too. The entire team had their soldiers taken! We then went to investigate and found out that every person in the entire company had their soldiers taken and there were none to be found anywhere (3DO usually has plastic soldiers littered all over the place on the floors, in cubes, etc). A few hours later a ransom note was E-Mailed to everyone in the company, some diabolical fiend was holding them hostage! Needless to say, it was April Fools day and someone pulled off quite a gag. In the end we got our boys back safe and sound and we are planning our revenge.
IGN64: Given carte blanche to build any game you wanted, what would it be?
MM: Sarge’s Heroes with hand to hand combat. Sarge is a very physical guy and it would be a blast to see him tear into those Tan soldiers with an advanced fighting engine running the show.
IGN64: And lastly, who do you respect most in the industry and why?
MM: Certainly from a design stand point Shigeru Miyamoto attains the highest respect from me. His games are pure magic that mesmerizes players of all ages, races, and cultures. His contribution to the video game industry is beyond words. The attention to detail that Mr. Miyamoto delivers to every level shows his passion and dedication.
Another person who awes me is Trip Hawkins. The knowledge that the man possesses is inspiring. Not only does he know game design, product development, marketing, sales, finance, operations, etc. but he will always take the time to sit down and discuss a problem or idea. Trip’s vision is crystal clear and way ahead of its time, if you want to get a sense of where the industry will be 10 years from now all you need to do is listen to Trip.
