The Nuts & Bolts of Nuts & Bolts
Details on Banjo’s physics development process not for the faint of heart
Scouring the internet for all the latest scoops on Nuts & Bolts? Well, unless you’re a very particular person, you won’t find it here. As simple as the game’s physics seems, the work behind them is in fact far more involved and headache-inducing than your puny little mind is probably capable of comprehending. Thankfully some Banjo team members (Paul Mountain, Scott Sims, and Robert Masella) have nixed most of the jargon when explaining the physics tech in their latest development diaries.
While Nuts & Bolts indeed runs on development staple Havok, it’s surprising just how much iteration was required to make vehicle components work individually, against each other, and within the game world. Specific part properties required by the game engine remain invisible to the player, while its general purpose is rooted in reality where possible. “The instant recognisability of the components allowed us to incorporate some of the relevant characteristics of the vehicles into each of them. This made the game friendlier to play, instead of burdening the player with numerous graphs and charts,” says PaulScottRob. While this line of though didn’t exactly work for the more colourful weapons and gadgets, each component was designed to provide “a reasonable approximation of what it should be”, hence the term “cartoon-physics” rearing its head.
This was the next step in development: making the vehicles feel physically at home in the Banjo world. “Before these changes, we found that vehicles built with, for example, uneven weight or power distribution would tend to topple or spin far too easily,” the team continues. “This level of realism was often more frustrating than fun, so a good deal of testing and adjusting took place before we were finally satisfied with the way that vehicles played.” Anyone who tried to transport multiple stacked crates in the recent demo should be thankful for that hard work.
Contrasting to these fairly logical developments, one thing you wouldn’t expect to be related to the game’s physics is sound. “The flexibility of the physics system and vehicle construction necessitated advancements in our sound effects software,” the three recall. “We soon realised it was no longer enough to use the traditional approach of playing a specific sound for a specific object when it collided with something.” Much work was done to develop a system to generate sound based off an object’s physical properties, instead of accounting for thousands of different combinations with a sound byte each. “This meant that, for example, a heavy metal object falling onto mud would generate its own unique sound. The system also looked at the motion of objects and could detect situations such as dragging, rolling, or toppling.” Innovations such as dynamic music seem meek in comparison.
If all that made you a might drowsy, remember that the, erm, nuts and bolts of the game isn’t required knowledge for enjoyment. “We hope that when you’re playing it, the feeling comes across that it was made by people who love playing games for people who love playing games,” the team finishes. Not long till that feeling either.
Somehow related news
- Nuts & Bolts and BK XBLA’s European release date ()
- Nuts & Bolts and Banjo-Kazooie XBLA out now ()
- Nuts & Bolts and Viva Piñata on your NXE dashboard ()
- Two worlds and in-jokes galore await in the Nuts & Bolts Demo ()
- Beat the Banjo team at their own game ()
4 Comments
Fascinating stuff. I’m really enjoying these developer diaries - I hope they’ve got a few more lined up for after the game’s release.
I’m sure Rare get the message now that everyone wants a traditional platformer. But it’s been reiterated time and time again that Rare didn’t *want* to make a traditional platformer - they wanted to do this.
If their heart isn’t in a project, how will the finished game turn out? Probably not so good.
Comment by Rinx — 08.Nov.08 @ 1:26 am
well billy they wanted to try something new, ever thought of that? plus the days of banjo’s original platforming style(it’s not traditional since traditional would be like super mario bros. not mario 64’s style..) are over as you can’t see many of those anymore. A change in style is needed to be more interesting. besides do you know this would in fact be better if the same?
Comment by saicambanjo — 08.Nov.08 @ 5:55 am I wouldn’t discount the possibility of another Banjo game at some point in the future that’s more in line with the original platformers. Nuts and Bolts is just the *current* take on the Banjo series.
Who’s to say they won’t come back with another weird take on the platforming genre that doesn’t involve vehicles, what, 4 years down the line?
Don’t worry guys!;)
Comment by Rinx — 09.Nov.08 @ 11:09 pm
well if it was SUCH a hassle to make, they should have just went with traditional platforming like most of us wanted…
Comment by billy — 07.Nov.08 @ 4:51 pm