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Interview with Character Art Director Rodrigue Pralier

I had a chance to sit down with some of the lead artists on the Army of Two team from EA Montreal.  In my chat with Character Art Director Roderique Pralier, he talks about the new look enemies that we can expect to see in The 40^th Day, as well some of the changes made to the main characters Salem and Rios. 

Ron:  Hi Rodrigue, being the character Art Director for Army of Two: The 40^th Day, can you tell us a little bit about the characters in the game. 

Rodrigue: In Army of Two: The 40^th Day, we've added a lot more characters compared to the original.  You'll see about 65-70 different types of characters as you battle through the chaos in Shanghai, as compared with the original game where we had approximately 30 different types of characters. 

Ron: One thing on a lot of folks' minds is what type of enemies they'll be facing in this game.  Can you tell us what Salem and Rios are going to be up against?

Rodrigue: One of the big things we wanted to improve in the [The 40^th Day] was the enemies.  In the first one we had 3 categories: The grunts, the elites, and the heavies, but most of the people felt that the difference between the characters wasn't obvious enough.  So we really tried to put a lot of work in the silhouette of the new characters, making all of them very very different. 



For example, this guy is one of the enemies from The 40^th Day Initiative; he's  a Heavy.  We decided to have every single Heavy with his one distinct weapon, and as you can see, we fitted this guy with a grenade launcher.



We also have this one who is the Gatling guy, and again you can see we really worked on the shoulder pads, the armor, and the guns are slightly bigger which make them more powerful.  We did a lot of work on the attitudes of the characters to give them more personality and added a lot of small details just to make them more real. 


Ron: One thing that people have noticed in one of the recent screenshots is  a small child.  Is there anything you can tell us about him and his role?

Rodrigue: Chin will appear in the game in one of the morality moments, but I won't spill anything on it yet, you'll have to wait to play the game to see what his role is!



 


Ron:  So a discussion about characters can't go on any further without talking about our favorite PMC's, Salem and Rios.  Will we see any changes to the appearance of these two? 

Rodrigue: Definitely, one thing that we changed a lot since the first game is the main characters.  For example, Salem and Rios never removed their masks when you were playing with them, so a lot of people felt that they were just robots without a lot of personality.  So now we have a new feature when you are not in combat mode or not fighting, they remove their masks and you get to see their faces as they interact with each other. 





 

Ron: From the video and screenshots that we've seen so far, some people have commented on a notable size difference between the two characters, was that something that you wanted to focus on?

Roderique: In the first game, all the characters were using the same skeleton so they all had the same size.  With Salem, we had to use a small trick; when they were both standing we would have him crouched over a bit so that he looked smaller, when in fact he was the same size as Rios...but now each character has their own skeleton and you can definitely see that the difference between Salem and Rios is huge.  Rios is a big huge guy, and while Salem is still tall, compared to Rios he almost looks small. 





Ron: Will the timeline from the original Army of Two have an effect on the characters' appearance at all?

Rodrigue: Yes definitely.  In the first game Rios was super cut, but since the game takes place a few years after the original both of them naturally got older.  They also own their own company now, which means they don't have as much time to train.  So with Rios, we went with almost a Stallone type look where he's still huge, he's still dangerous, and he's still super badass.  So while he may not be as cut, when you look at him you will still not want to mess with him. 

Ron:  During this time, have Salem and Rios gotten any more tattoos? 

Rodrigue:  Hahaha... we've learned that a lot of people are big fans of the tattoos.  One popular tattoo was the dragon tattoo on Salem's right arm.  When I started out, I was trying out a few different things and decided to draw a dragon.  It was supposed to be temporary at first, but it turned out everyone liked it so we kept it!  In the first game, the characters had sleeves so all you could really see of the tattoo was on the forearm, but now that you can see the shoulders and everything I spread the tattoo across the whole arm and it's a lot more prominent now.  On his other arm he's got some flames and dice, which I felt really played into his action-loving attitude.  For Rios, he has Mexican origins but we didn't really have a lot of time in the original game to develop the characters backgrounds.  Through the tattoos, you kind of get the sense where each character is coming from.  On Rios' arm he has a tattoo saying ‘Vaya Con Dios'  and on his other arm, he still has a military tattoo since he and Salem both met in the Army. 

Ron: Thank you very much for your time Rodrigue, we all look forward to playing The 40th Day and checking out all of the new characters!