By: Antti Summala Aug 04, 2007

Aki Raula, the Design Director of Recoil Games gave a talk today about Next-gen Game Design at Assembly Summer 2007. Recoil may be a new company, but its founding members have very impressive resumes: Raula himself has worked on titles such as the Max Payne series, Medal of Honor: European Assault, and Army of Two just to name a few.

He said he doesn't like to work on sequels or for the same company for too long, but his roaming free spirit has now found a home in Recoil Games. While Aki's talk wasn't specifically about Recoil's maiden title Earth No More, he conceded that the ideas and creative influences he discussed are important in the development of Earth No More.

Raula first pointed out that there is no universal definition for next-gen games. Next-gen is as much about innovation (he gave the Nintendo Wii and DS, Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade as examples) as it is about increasing hardware capabilities, and Recoil's innovation is Cinegames.

Aki Raula - Design Director of Recoil Games.

Recoil Games' key innovation for their future titles.

Raula has looked at great movies and decoded the formula that makes them tick - for example, protagonists are from different backgrounds and have to reconcile with that fact while "shit flies all over the place" (the plot puts them in perilous situations). Look for emotional human drama and a large cast of interesting characters when Earth No More comes out. Movies like Aliens and Day After Tomorrow will have a creative influence on the game, as will TV hit Lost.

But enough about Cinegames - what gameplay design trends can we expect? Gameplay in next-gen games, and presumably Earth No More, won't be identical for everyone, says Raula. Procedurally generated content (a la Diablo II, the definitive pioneer - although some in the audience started grumbling about NetHack) adds replay value, and a smart scripting and balancing system (such as Left 4 Dead's "Director") helps adjust the game's difficulty level to better suit each individual player.

We've heard such claims before, but let's see if Recoil Games can raise the bar. After all, they're outsourcing the Unreal 3 engine in order to really "nail the core gameplay" early on.

According to Raula, traditional game genres will change and converge to better suit the game concept and each individual platform. He gives EndWar as an example - a real-time strategy game where the camera follows the player's units, reminiscent of a third-person action shooter, so that the player can't see behind the next hill (for more realistic gameplay experience).

Also, the player calls new units onto the battlefield like substitute players in Madden. This style of gameplay suits the Xbox 360's gamepad controller much better than a mouse and keyboard driven interface, which the PC platform still has exclusive access to.

Aki Raula is confident that five years from now, every game will be online in some way. "Multi-player and single-player hybrids like Left 4 Dead will grow," he says, and clarifies that he's talking about games where people can experience the story either by themselves or playing online with other people. This is great news for fans of co-operative multiplayer games (like me)!

Although he says he is not a hardcore gamer and his global ranking in Super Stardust HD "sucks", Raula is a statistics freak who loves getting his score on the big board. Stats, updates, co-op and MMO - not necessarily MMORPG - will soon hook every game online, he concludes.

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