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Developer Diary: Part 2 of Danny Belanger on Location & Setting in Shanghai

The second part of Danny Belanger's developer diary has arrived! More insight into what went into choosing Shanghai as the location for Army of Two: The 40th Day is provided, and more specifically how big of an impact choosing Shanghai has had on storytelling. We pick up right where we left off, so if you missed the first part make sure you check it out!

Caption: A typical side street in Shanghai.

Additionally, long before we ever traveled to Shanghai it was decided which locations we wanted to have in The 40th Day and the approximate flow of them. We made these decisions knowing that we wanted to make sure there would be a lot of variety, so locations like the zoo and hospital were decided very early in our design. Early on we were worried that there wouldn't be enough variety in level design, so considered an additional location outside of Shanghai, but ultimately this idea was abandoned. Too much repetition, or not enough variety, simply isn't an issue when the player is traveling between a zoo, hospital, collapsed building, Chinese temple, and other interesting locations. The decision to stay within Shanghai was also smart from a purely practical standpoint. Creating an entirely new location requires much more effort from the prospective of our artists and designers because they would be unable to use any of the existing art that they created for Shanghai.

Caption: A house along the Zhu Jia Jiao creek near Shanghai.

Setting the entire game in one location also solved many other design problems that were present in the original Army of Two. When creating Army of Two we learned very quickly that it is very difficult to have a sense of continuity when there are drastic changes in location and time frame. In the original not only were the locations set all over the world, but there was also up to eight years of time lag between maps. It is extremely difficult, and takes a lot of work, to explain this in-game in a way that will ensure that the story also remains coherent and interesting because we are faced with the task of explaining these changes and linking them together. Ultimately we used high resolution cinematic to explain all of this in Army of Two, but even after we put a lot of time and effort into linking the story together players didn't necessarily follow it.

Caption: A variety of different types of turtles for sale at an open-air market for all things alive.

As a result, we decided to set The 40^th Day in one large sequential event. This would solve all of the problems that we faced in Army of Two, making it much easier to provide a sense of continuity that wouldn't feel awkward. It also made it much easier to introduce new characters without having to go to great lengths in order to explain their circumstances. We've moved from creating maps to creating chapters in one coherent story that is ultimately much more rewarding for the player.

Hopefully this has given you some insight into what we're doing at EA Montreal to make Army of Two: The 40th Day an amazing game!

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