News > Interview with creative director of Just Cause
September 19, 2006
Content taken from Firing Squad:
New open world action games continue to tweak and expand on the formula first created by the Grand Theft Auto titles. The latest game to be released in this genre is Just Cause, due for release next week for the PC, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360 from publisher Eidos and developer Avalanche Studios. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with Avalanche's co-founder and creative director Christofer Sundberg to find out more about Just Cause.
FiringSquad: First, how did the idea for Just Cause come about?
Christofer Sundberg: The idea for Just Cause in particular grew from a bunch of different concepts that we’ve worked on. Just Cause and Rico Rodriquez were born in a bar over a bottle of Havana Club during a late night here in Stockholm during the winter of 2003. As Linus Blomberg (co-founder and Technical Director of Avalanche Studios) had been designing this totally unique landscape engine, we wanted to create something action-packed with a LOT of vehicles. The rum shots kicked in and the game was instantly set in the Caribbean. All in all the idea of Just Cause was to create a game where players could be free to dive from a plane down to a car without stopping and still continue to shoot the crap out of enemies and blow stuff up. As we’re all big fans of story driven games, we brought in two great writers and the world of San Esperito and Rico Rodriguez started to take shape…
FiringSquad: We have seen open world action games before. How will Just Cause differ from the crowd?
Christofer Sundberg: Just Cause offers a few new features, improves some stuff seen in other games and creates a new experience. There has been a few open world action games, but what we’ve felt is that they have all been limited in some way. We have the power to create a huge game world, so why not open it up from the start for players to explore? Combine that with a strong storyline that players can experience in between exploring, a vast range of vehicles, tons of guns, crazy stunts, cool characters and voila! You have Just Cause!
FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the main storyline for the game?
Christofer Sundberg: The story takes place on the islands of San Esperito and focuses on a regime threatening the world with weapons of mass destruction and drugs. You play Rico Rodriquez, agent and expert in regime change. San Esperito is in the hands of a corrupt dictator, Salvador Mendoza who is holding the people hostage and has kidnapped the guerilla leader José Caramicas. The Agency sends Rico to San Esperito with the mission to overthrow the regime, using any means possible. The game opens with Rico skydiving down to the island and the revolution begins.
FiringSquad: How large is the world that people can explore in Just Cause and what kind of environments can we expect?
Christofer Sundberg: The world is 32x32 km (250 000 acres) and includes all kinds of environments you’d find in a tropical paradise. San Esperito has got beautiful beaches, jungles, mountains (and the famous El Volcan bordello), cities, towns, villages, key locations, mansions, casinos and the list could go on forever.
FiringSquad: How much interactivity is in the environments of the game?
Christofer Sundberg: As stunts plays an important part of Just Cause, there’s quite a lot of interactivity with the environments. The environments can help you solve a mission completely differently from another player or even what kind of reaction you get from the AI.
FiringSquad: What are the missions like in the game?
Christofer Sundberg: There are two major types of missions; story missions and side missions. We have 21 story missions where players can see the revolution take shape and finally explode in one great finale! We also have 300 side missions that players can play between the story missions and get all kinds of cool awards and gain rank in the different factions you can play for.
FiringSquad: What sort of weapons and items will Just Cause have?
Christofer Sundberg: We got pretty much everything you need to start and carry out a revolution. You’ll find everything from your bare fists to heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. You will also find mounted weapons on different vehicles.
FiringSquad: What other gameplay aspects will make Just Cause unique?
Christofer Sundberg: The stunts, parachute and grappling hook (I guess they are sort of linked to each other) will play an important role in Just Cause. They will help players solve missions in really crazy creative ways and really see the different dimensions of gameplay in the game.
FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the graphical features in the game?
Christofer Sundberg: The game is powered by the Avalanche Engine, developed internally at Avalanche. The engine is a unique piece of technology that enables us to have extremely detailed environments. The game graphics features include soft-shadows, dynamic light, parallax mapping and much more.
FiringSquad: Are there any plans to release new free content for the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game?
Christofer Sundberg: At this point there are no plans for additional content, except for themes for the X360.
FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Just Cause?
Christofer Sundberg: We hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we have enjoyed developing it.
