Insomniac Games' 2014 open-world game Sunset Overdrive encourages players to flip, skid and slide from building to building at breakneck speeds, which presented designers with a unique challenge: how do you design enemies that can keep up, and provoke high-flying combat encounters?
At GDC 2015, Insomniac's Adam Noonchester spoke frankly about how the team started out by applying techniques used in previous Insomniac games such as Resistance 3 and Fuse -- cover and flanking mechanics, swarm tactics, and the like.
But as development went on those techniques, which had worked so well in earlier games, became woefully ineffective. Noonchester described at length how the team rallied to find new solutions to some tough AI and enemy design problems, and shared lessons that other developers can learn from the experience.
It was a good talk, and you can now watch the whole thing for free on the GDC Vault.
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech