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Continued from the next article: two or three things with Marlon Brando and David Bowie (on)

Phil Campbell is one of the creative directors of the film adaptation game “The Godfather” produced by EA in 2006. Among his not-so-famous game development experience are Marlon Brando and David Bow Some details of the Iranian cooperation experience are little known.

While working for the British publisher Eidos Interactive, Phil Campbell designed levels for the “Tomb Raider” series at Core Design Studio, but he prefers to go to another Eidos-owned studio with David Cage. Working together, then he really went.

Best and worst design

“I’m in the same room as David Cage? For some people, working with Cage is unbearable.”

“Oh.”

I just raised a tricky question, and Phil Campbell was rare for a moment. But it’s really difficult to answer: “What is your best idea in your career?” It’s like knocking on the door of the Natural History Museum and searching for the best-preserved dinosaur bones-Campbell has too many ideas.

I could almost hear Campbell’s quick glance through those thoughts in his brain, and then he stopped. “Do you know a game called (Fear Effect) ?” He asked, “I still remember clearly on the phone Talk to the game makers here and tell them that the health of the character should be like a fear effect like all other systems. “

This is not the best idea in Campbell’s career, and he will continue to look for it.

“I provided a lot of ideas in the early stages of the development of Tomb Raider, including all the card design skills I can think of. For example, when designing the ball, I thought: ‘Why is it limited to using a ball? Why not Design a ceiling that allows players to dodge balls falling from the sky in a strange chess game similar to chess? ‘I always challenge the established rules. “

“Fear Effect” is an action adventure game released by Eidos in 2000. The gameplay is similar to “Resident Evil”

Campbell suddenly said, “If it’s the worst design decision of my career, I can tell you for sure what it is.”

Campbell played an important role in the design of another Quantic Dream game, The Phantom KillerUse, but this time he did not insist on the game completion, because Quantic Dream took a full 3 years to find the publisher, the game was finally released in 2005. “We can’t sell that damn game!”

It wasn’t until the game was released that Campbell realized that some of the content he designed for the game was terrible.

Campbell will never forget “Godfather” senior designer Mike Olson (Mike Olsen) It’s rated. “He was particularly frustrated telling me:‘ I played this game, it ’s too bad, I ’m completely stuck. ’I do n’t understand why Mike is so angry.”

Campbell quickly found the reason. Mike was always stuck in one place: there were huge flying bugs all around, the player had to stand still and couldn’t do anything. “This is a design that I think is clever. The purpose is to let the player know that he is crazy. What he hit with this power does not really exist.”

“But you know Olson is a hardcore player, hardcore.” Campbell emphasized, “For a hardcore player like Mike, there is only one thing you can’t do in the game … that’s nothing. Do it. “

Campbell has learned his lesson. “I realized at the time that designing games couldn’t be too clever.”

“Illusion Killer”, also known as “Fahrenheit”

After a while, Campbell talked to me again about the movie “The Iron Face of Selflessness” (The Untouchables) -he had proposed to Paramount Make a game called “The Selfless”. “I’m very depressed. Whenever I write a script, I always tell the heroThe journey, the story of the poor getting rich, or the bad guy turning to evil … I want to do something different, just like in Scarface. “

Oh, by the way, Campbell made a “Scarface” mobile game.

“You are Al Pacino in the game, already at the highest position. I like this narrative. I want to be Brando, you know, I want to be Robert Deny who plays Al Capone Luo, hit someone with a baseball bat in “Selfless Iron”.

According to Campbell’s idea, “Iron Man” will allow players to do whatever they want to play as anti-hero characters. He told me that he was really proud of implementing this idea in Quantic Dream games and finally remembered what the best design of his career was.

“In my opinion, the best design work I have completed also appeared in” Illusion Killer “. I was responsible for designing the dinner scene at the beginning of” Illusion Killer “, which is the earliest demo for external demos. I think it is like A perfect little game. “

Remember the beginning of Illusion Killer? The player murdered a man in the toilet. Since the game uses a split screen perspective, you will see a policeman in the restaurant and going to the toilet. The police stand up and walk towards the crime scene, you have to run away …

The gameplay of this game is very subversive, some people will not adapt, some people will feel great

The narrative angle of the game suddenly reverses and you become a detective heading to the crime scene. Of course, as a player, you already know what happened, and even know where the killer threw the killing weapon. “If the player acts as a police officer and behaves like a police officer at the crime scene, it’s too bad.” Campbell said, “” Once you stop doing the right thing, immersion will be destroyed. ” strong>

So, God’s perspective is appropriate at this time. In other words, it’s a James Bond moment. “Bond should always be Bond. Once he tripped on a rope or slipped off the roof, Bond’s magic disappeared.

The demo of “Illusion Killer” has magic. It has rhythm and tension, which attract players to immerse them, and there is also a change of perspective. “That Demo summarizes everything I want to express.”

Ups and downs

Cambell was the chief creative officer of Quantic Dream (Chief Creative Officer) , who managed a small office in San Francisco and conceived a chapter Style story, the prototype of “Illusion Killer”. But he left long before the game was released, because in 2001, “EA offered a contract that I couldn’t refuse …”

For many years since then, Campbell has continued to work with Cage, helping the Quantic Dream team during the development of Rainstorm and Super Twins.

“I’ll do some adaptations,” Campbell explained. “Usually, David would send me a bunch of French, translated by a student into English, asking me to write a dialogue for all the characters. This kind of The effect of the collaboration in “Rainstorm” is great: although some performances are very bad, good actors really impress people. “

“In” Super Twins … “He paused for a while, most likely because the game’s word of mouth was not good. “Super Twins is an experimental game by David Cage. It’s beautiful and has great characters, but neither of us at the time realized that the game couldn’t give the player any sense of urgency. You won’t die.” “Rainstorm” found a subtle balance , you may lose the main character, there are story branches everywhere. “

Super Twins, 2013

Campbell obviously doesn’t mind Cage’s overbearing working style, and the two have established a strong cooperative relationship. “I think I’m one of the few people who can work with David for many years, but lost contact with him during the development of Detroit: Humans.”

At EA, Campbell participated in the production of several “007” series games, such as “007: Bath Fire Agent” (2001) And “007: Who and the Battle” (2003) , But “The Godfather” was his most important work during his time at EA.

“Anyway,” The Godfather “is always my child. The development cycle has reached a long 4 years, and I loop the theme music at work-I never want to hear it again. But I created In a game world, I love every building, every mission, and even every word, it was an incredible experience. “

The EA’s “007” games are generally rated

4 years of continuous development work has also exhausted Campbell, causing him to make a decision that affects his career. “I made a stupid mistake, and that was to tell EA that I wouldn’t do” Godfather 2 “anymore.” He said, “I can’t do it. I can’t face” Godfather “anymore.”

Cambell asks EA to transfer him back to the “007” game groupteam. “So, I went back to that team and stayed for almost two weeks, and then they sold the authorized IP to Activision … I worked for EA for 6 years, but suddenly lost my job. That was the most difficult time in my life. . “

Leave

“Sometimes luck is like this.”

Imagine a scene where Campbell sits alone, surrounded by his ideas. Campbell wrote his thoughts on the walls, desks, papers, and whiteboards, but the room was silent, like a museum of ideas, and he could only sit bored among them.

That was Campbell ’s last year at Zynga and his last year in the gaming industry.

Since leaving EA, Campbell has suffered several setbacks. During his time as a consultant, he proposed to EA the development of a “Virtual Me” (Virtual Me) project. “My idea is that we can integrate all EA’s avatar systems company-wide.” According to this idea, players can use an avatar in EA’s games such as “FIFA” and “Battlefield”. “It’s like the embodiment of all the character appearances and common qualities you have. This is a good idea, but you know, EA is a very large company …”

EA spent 6 months developing the project and piloting it in Poland, “but it didn’t produce the expected results.”

With the rise of augmented and virtual reality, Campbell and Irish animation master Greg Maguire who has participated in the production of special effects such as “Harry Potter” and “Avatar” (Greg Maguire) co-founded a company called Inlifesize and conceived many ideas.

The main areas of Inlifesize focus are mobile games and AR games.

Inlifesize had planned to develop a “health separation compartment” product. “Imagine the time machine Tadis in Doctor Who, it’s like Tadis for health services.” Users will be surrounded by their own medical data.

Cambell also proposed to the American filmmaker Sam Remy to make a “splay class” (Evil Dead) game, and A beautiful interactive art book has been created for this purpose: each page is partially cropped, and they are like windows to the next page, which are switched when the page is turned. “We haven’t been able to really advance this project in our own way,” Campbell said, “but we finally launched a parkour game.”

Inlifesize has high expectations for the iOS game (Fairy Magic) . This game will use mobile GPS and camera to Cover magical creatures in the real world. Sounds familiar? “It’s totally a Pokemon Go without Pokémon and payment points.” The advent of “Pokemon Magic” was 3 years earlier than “Pokemon Go”, but it didn’t catch on. “Too early … in the end we can only make about $ 2 a day.”

It is even more painful that in 2011, “Elven Magic” had the opportunity to become a “power and game” in the game industry, and obtained the IP authorization of “Power Tour”, because Inlifesize obtained the Northern Ireland screen company (Northern Ireland Screen) investment, and it is the latter who introduced “Game of Thrones” to Northern Ireland … but Campbell is more inclined than the Dragon Use elf characters, as this helps the game get family-friendly age ratings.

“We rejected Game of Thrones, and this is probably the most serious mistake we have ever made.”

But Inlifesize hopes to have the opportunity to collaborate with Doctor Who. “We were all big fans of Doctor Who and had proposed an AR game based on Doctor Who.” Campbell recalled, “We spent about 8 months shaping the level and making the Demo, but in the end they were Inform them that they don’t think the idea works. ‘Does anyone play on the bus?’ They ask. “

“Magic” Promo Video

Inlifesize closed because many ideas failed to materialize. Encouraged by his wife, Campbell found a job in Zynga. At Zynga, Campbell was offered the opportunity to collaborate with brands such as The Walking Dead, Ghostbusters, Justice League, and Batman, to propose ideas for cooperation, and also won the Rock Star of the Year Design Award in 2015. “The first year of work experience was great, but the other two years …”

At the time, Zynga was in a declining period. Three CEOs were replaced in three years, and the number of employees was decreasing. Campbell’s colleagues disappeared one by one. “For some time I even occupied Zynga alone because they fired too many people.”

At that time, Campbell took out his Sanford marker to graffiti on the walls, glass and desktop of the office-Zynga liked it. “Zynga will bring everyone who visits the company to take a look here. The creativity shown by graffiti always impresses them.”

But Campbell ’s approach to work has begun to conflict with Zynga. Management requires employees to adopt a more structured approach and manages people very carefully. “I’m a difficult person to manage.” “In the last year, I was completely marginalized by the company.” In 2016, Campbell felt fed up and decided to leave.

People you have never heard of

Cambell talked to me for a long time. During the conversation, a thought kept coming to my mind: “Why have I never heard of you in the past, Phil Campbell?” He played a lot of games, met many celebrities, and lived for a few days. I can’t finish the night, but why never heard of him?

But I think it may be determined by the nature of success. We won’t remember the runner-up, because history only celebrates the winner. “Sin City” has not become a popular game, and the word of mouth of “The Godfather” game is far worse than that of movies. It can only be said that Campbell worked hard to innovate during the development of The Godfather, showing his new ideas, ambitions and guts through games. In contrast, “The Godfather 2” without Campbell’s development is a bit empty and lacks soul.

Campbell has wonderful ideas, unlimited energy, and it may be a loss to stay away from the game industry, unless he can shine in a place more suitable for himself.

new direction

“This is a terrible thing, passion-you can’t get rid of it.”

“That will kill me!” Campbell said.

“I ran around in the classroom, jumped onto the table for demonstration, and often shouted and drew pictures on the wall. For an old man like me, it ’s dangerous to lift my arm above my head But I just can’t help it. “

Today, Campbell is a teacher. He teaches at Berkeley City College in San Francisco or Cogwell College in San Jose 4 days a week. He inspires the next generation and he enjoys the job. “If I started teaching 10 years ago, that would be even better.”

Students like him too.

At Berkeley City College, Campbell ’s class has the highest “retention rate” among students. “I am so old, but I have to meet 150 new students every semester.”

Why? This may be because Campbell always grades students very generously. “I can notI’ve always been a bad policeman, in fact it has ruined my career. “In addition, he also likes to send student comics , it seems that he can’t finish sending them-after all, he has collected 25,000 comics at home.

Maybe for another reason: Having ideas is not as easy as people think. Everyone can have an idea, but what do you do with it? Swallow it? What value is there if ideas cannot be realized? “In the days when I made the game, many people thought that I was like a huge waterfall, but the faucet was rusted. Many people have ideas in their heads, but they will never surface. I hope students will dig out their ideas Come out. “

Over the years, Campbell has developed ways to help students discover ideas.

Cambell’s Game Design Course

Body Storm

“In essence, physical storm is to use your body for brainstorming. You play a role and then try to imitate his movements-walking around, communicating, performing-this can help you solve Question, can come in handy when designing levels. “

Campbell learned physical storms from Sean Cooper’s (Sean Cooper) , who often speaks swear words. “When I joined Core Design, it was a very casual thing in the UK.” He smiled. “Cooper particularly likes swearing, everyone hates him, but he will angrily demonstrate the role of each character Such as turning a chair over, hiding behind a table, or crawling on the ground, etc. “

“That’s the best example of a physical storm I’ve ever seenExample. Cooper is an incredible guy, it’s like a legacy from the earliest games. “

Hidden narrative

“I often use hidden narratives when developing Tomb Raider, because I need to quickly design a large number of levels in a short time, so I have to avoid where I suddenly get stuck.”

“The so-called implicit narrative refers to the content that is designed for you using a classic medium-it can be a song, a poem, a book, etc.-using their classic structure (such as levels) Set the beginning, middle, and end of a narrative, then put the character into the scene, and repeatedly polish until the trace of the hidden narrative disappears. “

“I used” Alice in Wonderland “as the basis for Laura Crawford’s level in Egypt. She attended a tea party before the end of the level, but I replaced the” Alice in Wonderland “with the Egyptian gods. “Wonderland”, and that gave me more ideas. Or, Alice went through a rabbit hole, so I let Laura sneak in … “

“I also thought about my back garden when designing the levels. You can use anything that might inspire you, because the worst thing is to stop.”

“Tomb Raider: The Golden Edition” is the first expansion pack of “Tomb Raider”. Campbell mainly designed the checkpoints for expansion packs.

Fuzzy memory

This is Campbell’s favorite creative training technique, and it’s easy to operate.

One time, Campbell completely forgot before a speechAfter he wanted to speak about it. He had just left the hotel and was going to the airport, but a meeting organizer saw him and said, “Oh, Phil, the venue is over there. If you have time …”

Phil interrupted him: “What?”

“You are a keynote speaker.”

“So, I went to the scene and quickly played the slideshow, but I had no idea what to say, and the room was full of people.”

“I played a few slides at random and chatted with the audience. I was not very clear at the time, I talked about what I need to talk about today, and then I got ‘fuzzy memory’. Yes, I suddenly Thinking of fuzzy memory, I went along this line, and the audience applauded, completely spontaneously. I don’t think I deserve that kind of treatment! But the atmosphere in the room was so warm. “

What exactly does fuzzy memory mean? If you can’t completely remember the plot of one movie and confuse it with another movie, this is fuzzy memory. By stitching them together, you can create new content. You may have this experience when you go to sleep. So, you can deliberately obscure memories and forget something.

“Don’t check Wikipedia often. If you can make your mind a little more vague and establish a connection between dreams and reality, let it be. It doesn’t matter whether the things in your mind are real or not. It’s content, it’s an idea. “

《007: Who is Fighting with the War》, 2004

We are back to the topic of education.

“Someone uses the word” catalyst “to describe me, and I’m satisfied. I like to integrate ideas and share them.”

Cambell excels in stimulating the imagination of students. He will throw his own ideas and let othersParticipate in discussions. In Campbell’s class, students rarely sit in their seats-he tries to get them up and away from textbooks, playing, sharing, and collaborating.

Cambell enjoys teaching this job. Although he is no longer directly involved in game development, in a sense, he may even have a greater impact on the entire industry. “I hope to leave a legacy. My salary is small, and fortunately my wife has a real job. I will probably continue to teach until I give up, and I like to pass on knowledge.”

beautiful morning

“This is a real test for me, like an exam-try not to forget anything.”

In the gaming industry, Campbell had hoped that every game he helped develop would be as profitable as Tomb Raider. “It once filled me with dreams about this industry, but not all games can be sold. I cherish the encounter with Brando and Powell, which will make life richer.”

Cambell told me, He regrets that he didn’t take a photo with Brando, but the situation did not allow him to do that, and Brando would not sign him, but he will never forget to share with Brando and Bao Time spent by Yi et al. “Every time I remember my past, I feel too lucky.

Campbell has never really stayed away from architecture, which is why he designed 200 landmark buildings for the virtual New York game of The Godfather … Today, he still plays The Godfather with his students and finds unexpected pleasure. “The most fun part is not doing tasks, but playing nonsense in the center of town. We did not write it into the design document, but it was really interesting. This is what I want to find in the game.”

Cambell’s sketches for” The Godfather “

He occasionally does architectural design. “I’m still a consultant, and once participated in the Titanic Museum project in Belfast, but just for fun, my wife is a real architect.”

Not long ago, Campbell and his wife collaborated on a very “personalized” project. “After all these years, we finally built a new house. I am standing here now and looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. The scenery in the morning is too beautiful.”

More specifically, Campbell is standing in the roof garden overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge at the moment. There is a 6-story bookshelf next to the stairs. Downstairs, an apartment is stuffed with “My wife doesn’t want to put in the house “Everything”, including all his game supplies, they also hung the house on Airbnb for rent … “We have just started. It’s a bit like a pop culture museum.”

Looking out from Campbell’s roof garden

This house is really good …

“It’s like a retirement home.” Campbell said, and then he wentChanged her mind, “It sounds terrible.”

Campbell pondered for a moment, and said with a smile, “This is a house for someone who is not so famous.”

This article was compiled from: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-09-brando-and-bowie-the-amazing- stories-of-man-youve-never-heard-about

Original title: “The amazing stories of a man you’ve never heard of”

author: Robert Purchese, Senior Staff Writer

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