Joystiq interview: Treyarch's Jeremy Luyties on James Bond

How final is what we saw, graphics wise?

It's still got a bit to go, it's still a work in progress. It's definitely moved along, but we'll be going through optimization tweaks, texture changes, things with sight and vision. There's definitely a lot more to tweak to get more out of it, but you can already see the texture and depth in the carpet, the shining of the wood panels, the bump-mapping with the lights, and so on.

You've said that you're taking roughly 50% from each movie, but you're also playing with the continuity of the films quite a bit. For instance, the shootout in the spa. Are you stretching the plot at all?

"First and foremost, this is a game."

Yeah, we had a really great collaboration working with the movie guys, and we really sat down and looked at what we thought would be the best. Look ... it's a game. First and foremost, this is a game. It's about a movie, but people are going to play because they want to play a game. They want to have fun.

The producers of the movie gave us a lot of freedom in picking and choosing the types of spaces we wanted to play in, and the types of gameplay mechanics we wanted to push forward with. For instance, there's no mini poker game in the Casino Royale levels of the game, there are other areas of the we decided to focus on instead of something like that.

Was there anything the producers didn't want you to do with Quantum of Solace?

Sure, there's actually a James Bond bible. It's this worksheet of things like, "James Bond bad guys don't do this ..." and "James Bond wouldn't do this ..." A funny anecdote to this is that in one of our early levels, we had a bum in it. The bum would sort of bump into Bond and fall to the ground and say something like "Get away from me!" The producers told us, "James Bond doesn't live in a world where there are bums." So we had to work around that. There are definitely rules to follow, but they were very forgiving with us. They definitely understand that this is a game, and that people want to have fun.

Is this due to come out day-and-date with the movie?

That's something we're very excited about. This is the first time we'll ever be able to come out directly with the movie. Obviously, that's a lot of pressure for us, but also it's really exciting. If we can maintain the integrity of the franchise by putting out a game that's respected, that could put it into the position of one of the most powerful movie/video game situations.

The gold standard for movie video games is still GoldenEye, and that wasn't because it looked like the film, but because of the gameplay. Do you guys feel pressure to live up to that?

Well, there's two ways to look at it. One way is to see it as pressure, and the other way is to look at it like... what other video game could you ever work on that people have been playing for more than 10 years, and use that to learn from? I think it's a huge advantage.

"We're very influenced by GoldenEye, and we're also very thankful that a game like that came out."

Is the pressure there? Sure. That's cool. I mean, we're very influenced by GoldenEye, and we're also very thankful that a game like that came out that we can learn from. You'll see a lot of little homages in the game, like when you bring up the map, you'll see your hand come up, almost like the watch in GoldenEye. There are a lot of little hidden things like that in the game. They're like little messages from us as a developer, saying "Thank you guys for creating such a great game. Here's our respectful take on that experience." What a huge opportunity.

The Bourne series of films are really the only movies closest to the Bond series, and they recently released a game as well. Did you have a chance to look at that?

Of course. We would always do our due diligence in looking at everything else that's out there, because it's important as a development team that we're exposed to all of the different techniques and gameplay mechanics that people are trying, including storytelling techniques. When we originally sat down and came up with our full design, we weren't exposed, nor did we have any idea what the Bourne game would be. We basically knew they were coming out with a game, and we knew we had to work on our game, which was also representing a long-standing series of well-loved films.

What interface are you using for in-game elements for Bond? It looked like he was pulling out a cell phone.

That's basically his cell phone. What happens is, you hit the Back button and it brings up your cell phone. Like, when I did the lock hack (in the demo they showed us), he's connecting his cell phone to the lock. We don't really have gadgets, they just aren't in the new Bond. What will happen is that when you're in stealth situations, it will give you a resource to open up and check out maps to see if there's someone around the corner.

We've tried to satisfy the guys who like to power through levels, the ones who like to stealth, and the ones who like to do a mix of the two. The cell phone does that by allowing you to pick up secret information in some levels, to find out about a hidden weapon, and so on.

We noticed during the demo level that as Bond was progressively injured more and more, the famous gun barrel opening shot from the films was beginning to appear around him. Is that similar to the Gears of War red screen when you're injured?

Yes, it's a re-gen system. We thought what better icon to use than to simulate the blood/gun barrel for a re-gen system. When that comes up, you instantly know what game you're playing. With that and with many other sequences in the game, it was important to us to create something that you'd recognize as James Bond if you were walking past a game store window.

Activison "shared" the James Bond license with EA for a short period of time, and now they are the sole license holders. Was it always the plan to make the first Bond game in conjunction with this movie?

No, the plan was always for it to come out with the film, and to match up with the content of the film. We started working on this about a year ago, so it matched up perfectly.

You're going to record lines with Daniel Craig soon. Will he have any say over what Bond says, or is it rigidly scripted?

Sure, I mean just like anyone on our development team, even though we have different disciplines, we're all designers. Just as much as Daniel Craig is doing voiceovers, he's a part of helping make this game great, just like everybody else. So yes, of course, please. Anything he says, we'd take that down the pipeline.

You guys know what happens in the next film, will you still be able to enjoy the movie when it comes out, or do you want to tell everyone what happens?

Well, I'm a fan, and I want to watch it when it gets done, just like you guys want to play games when they're finished. I'll lose a little bit in the movie, because I'm not getting in there to get the full experience ... but I'm also very good at forgetting stuff. So hopefully I'll be able to focus on something that will take my mind off of it, then I'll be able to go see it and experience it like it's something new.