Spec Ops lead designer: Balance it all on the story

In a new feature interview, Yager Developments' Cory Davis discusses how story drove the design of Spec Ops: The Line -- including its squad tactics, surprisingly. "I think the thing that enticed me the most about it is the way that it can become a storytelling device," says Davis, discussing the military shooter's squad mechanics. In the feature, Davis is very up front about how the team envisions the game as a modern retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness -- the same novel which gave rise to the film Apocalypse Now. Publisher "2K allowed us to really focus test what we had done, and come back and try and hit a lot harder on the story," says Davis. How does that play into the squad mechanics? It does "as far as the way that the squad is constantly speaking with each other, and then giving commands to them. and hearing their reactions and things like that; that's really interesting to me," says Davis. That doesn't mean there's not tension between building a compelling narrative and a compelling tactical shooter at the same time, though. "But I know that there are people that are really into those tactical shooters, and this was sort of an evolution that we went on, as a developer, as well. Trying to find out where our target was, and that just wasn't something that was something that we could do and still tell the story in a way that we wanted to tell it," he says. The full feature, in which he discusses the creative choices the Berlin, Germany-based team made for the game in depth, is live now on Gamasutra.