Posted by Jereme Puik

Game Plasma had a chat with Senior Artist, Glenn Gamble from Terminal Reality, to discuss Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

Can you give us a brief background of how the Ghostbusters game came into existence? 

Glenn: Pretty much what did was, we were shopping our engine and demo around a few years ago and it was one that was toned into the heavy physics of our engine, with lots of destructible environments.  Well, basically the guy at Vivendi saw it and he’s like “Dude, we got the game for you, Ghostbusters” and we’re like “OK!” Who wouldn’t turn down Ghostbusters? We then realized we had this property that had to appeal to not only fans of games or fans of the movies but fans of the cartoon, toys and comics and realized the big task we had undertaken. But, we never let that stop us. We’ve always been plotting for it, pushing for it as hard as we can, giving it a chance and doing the best we can. Every time we get on the message boards, we can’t comment on ‘em, but we’re there lurking in silence, in the shadows like a ghost. It’s great because we used that to motivate ourselves and there’s nothing greater then to hear this kind of stuff about how everyone is so excited about the game, so excited about the property. We just put it all together and we just motivate ourselves to do the best we can.

 

 

What kind of steps have you taken to make sure the gameplay is strong throughout the game and keeps the player engaged through the game? 

Glenn: Well, we have a really engaging storyline to moot. It’s written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis who are the guys who gave us Ghostbusters to begin with. So, the story is really engaging and I think people are going to want to play through it a couple of times every so often just as much as you want to put in the movies every so often. As far as it goes, you play the Rookie; you’re the every man looking in. It’s your first day on the job; they kind of grab you off the street, like what they do with Winston in the first film. So there you are you are engaged in the storyline. It really makes you feel like you’re a Ghostbuster. I guarantee you if I grab this guy playing the game right now, don’t know his name, don’t know who he is and ask him “Do you feel like a Ghostbuster?” and he’ll probably say yes. In fact I haven’t had anybody not say yes when I did that, because I want to see what people are feeling. I’m working on the game; I’m not some random pr person type of thing. You know, I want to make sure we’re doing a good job. When people buy the game, they want to feel like they’re the next Ghostbuter. We want to give them the next big Ghostbuster experience and that’s been our goal from the very beginning.

 

Is there any sort of multiplayer in the game that you can comment on? 

Glenn: I can’t comment about much. I can say, yes we have multiplayer, yes it’s very cool, yes it’s very distinctly Ghostbusters and no I can’t tell you much more then that.

 

 

Are there any variations between the Xbox 360 versions to the Playstation 3 versions? 

Glenn: It’s mainly control. If you notice we got both of them running side by side (PS3/360) and are pretty much identical. They both run up to 1080p and the PC version will go even higher then that. Basically with the ps3, we take use of the sixaxis to help you wrangle ghosts. But, other then that their the exact same thing, so, if you have all the consoles it’s a matter of what control scheme you want that is best suited for you.

 

Will we be able to drive the Ecto-1? 

Glenn: Unfortunately no, but at the same time how many games have you played in which the driving mechanic is just badly shoehorned in? The Ecto-1 is treated as a character though; it’s not something that’s just sitting out there in the background for you to look at. It does get involved in the gameplay, you do use it in the level just before our demo and is driving with you in Times Square and you can actually use it to help you wrangle ghosts and catch ghosts. 

 

How much of a treat is it to be working with the original Ghostbusters:  Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd who brought the Ghostbusters to life? 

Glenn: It’s awesome. I grew up watching Ghostbusters, I’m a product of the 80s, I played with the toys, and you know, I’ve watched the cartoon and it’s like a dream come true for me. I know that sounds like a total bs line, but it’s true. Dan Aykroyd has been with us since the beginning playing the game and giving us input, the text’s been approved by him and it’s absolutely phenomenal to have him involved with his project. 

Is it tough to keep the game in consistency with the movies?  

Glenn: No absolutely not, they wrote the script, they approve everything. One of the mason collider which is one of your new pieces of equipment in the game, they said they wanted something dangerous with it. When I designed it, it had this plasma ball in the back and they said hey it looks cool but you know what, it just looks too fragile, can we do something dangerous with it. One of our concept guys came up with the idea of jumper cables so we got these huge jumper cables on the back bypassing the proton pack, because that’s safe, let me tell you. You got this Jacob’s latter that sparks and sputters when you’re using it burning the characters hair, stuff like that. Something that’s pretty dangerous. 

I noticed that the Proton-Pack is pretty detailed and takes away any use of HUD on the screen.  What can you tell me about that?

Glenn: Yea, I know it’s tossed around everyday “Oh, we’re trying to give you the ultimate cinematic experience” type thing. But, we’re really doing it. You know, name the last action game where the hero gets shot and his health bar went down. They wanted to update the pack, make it new and different. Putting in the HUD information just doesn’t make sense, you’re staring at the pack the whole game. Let’s put all the information back there. The little red lines with the heat also mirror it on the back of the pack in case you can’t see the side. 

The Proton-Pack is intrepidly detailed, how did that come to be?

Glenn: I’m actually the guy who built the proton-pack. I had full access to the Sony prop archives. We have a great Ghostbusters prop room in Dallas and they let me come up to the studio and try it on and run around and act like an idiot with it on. We started with the one to on and then you have to make concessions once you’re in the game. We decided we wanted the lights to spin faster as it heated up; well the lights weren’t readable and were really small in the movie. So we made them a bit bigger. It was like the design of the game helped design the proton pack. We’re really true but at the same time, all the changes are spent within the process of the game. So, it’s not just change for change sake. It’s there to actually help the gameplay. 

Will there be a demo before game’s releases? 

Glenn: Yes, we’re going to release a demo that we just announced for this convention and be released pretty much around the release of the game. Probably a little bit before hand which is mid-June coinciding with the release of the movies (Blu-Ray), 25th anniversary, so you could watch the 1 and 2 and then finish up the story in the game.

 

Are there any plans in the making for downloadable content? 

Glenn: Anything is possible at this point, there is nothing in talks as of yet and we’re just working on trying to get the game out the door.