{"id":166794,"date":"2019-10-09T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/featured\/-1806467\/"},"modified":"2019-10-09T00:00:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:00:17","slug":"the-thrill-of-the-hunt-illfonic-on-predator-hunting-grounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/09\/the-thrill-of-the-hunt-illfonic-on-predator-hunting-grounds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thrill of the Hunt: Illfonic on \u2018Predator: Hunting Grounds\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Illfonic\u2019s Friday the 13th<\/em> is one of the biggest asymmetrical multiplayer games out there. Not only does it do a great job of representing its genre, but it also pays homage to a class<\/a>ic horror franchise. Illfonic is following the success of Friday the 13th<\/em> with a similar game based on the equally class<\/a>ic Predator<\/em> franchise. Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/em> promises to take the genre forward with its new and exciting gameplay elements.<\/p>\n

During New York Comic Con, I had the chance to interview Illfonic CEO Charles Brungardt and CCO Jared Gerritzen. During our chat, I learned what Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/em> is all about, the differences between it and Friday the 13th<\/em>, and how it pays tribute to the original 1987 film. I also learned about some of the new elements Illfonic is introducing to the franchise and the type of experience players can expect.<\/p>\n

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For those who don\u2019t know, what can you tell me about Predator: Hunting Grounds?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Brungardt<\/strong>: Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/em> is a 4v1 asymmetrical multiplayer shooter. You can play as one of four fireteam members. As the fireteam, you complete missions. Your goal is to make it to the helicopter and leave the area. You can also play as the Predator. As the Predator, you\u2019re hunting the fireteam. It\u2019s a nice mix up of the cat and mouse game — the hunter and the hunted — but then it can flip with the fireteam hunting the Predator.<\/p>\n

Jared Gerritzen<\/strong>: We based a lot of Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/em> off of the \u201887 film. We\u2019re all huge fans of it. After Friday the 13th<\/em> we thought about what our next game could be and Predator<\/em> was a no-brainer. When we pitched it to Sony, they were all for it. We\u2019re proud of what we\u2019re doing with such a small team.<\/p>\n

What were the challenges in making Predator: Hunting Grounds feel different from Friday the 13th?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Brungardt<\/strong>: Number one, the obvious thing is taking a first-person shooter and mashing it up with more of a third-person action style game. We always knew getting the two of those to play well together was going to be our biggest challenge. But both Jared and I have extensive backgrounds in first-person shooters. Friday the 13th<\/em> was all third-person. It was more of a hide-and-seek game. The mechanics were very clear cut. There are different playstyles between the two (Jason and counselors) but it wasn\u2019t as drastic as in Hunting Grounds<\/em>. We knew we were going to walk in and make two different games. We believed in it but we didn\u2019t know how it would mash-up. The team playtested every day and worked on refining it and we feel it came together. It wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: In Friday the 13th<\/em>, if a bad Jason was playing, the counselors didn\u2019t have that much difficulty winning (or even much of a game). Now if a bad Predator shows up, you\u2019re still able to play against AI. With AI it becomes a co-op game if there\u2019s no Predator. That was a big thing and that was a big addition. There have been a few asymmetrical games that have come out but we\u2019re actually putting AI combatants into ours. So there\u2019s a lot of different ebbs and flows. Each game (in Hunting Grounds<\/em>) does not come out the same way. It\u2019s actually been fun to do but massively difficult for sure.<\/p>\n

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What can you tell me about working with Fox? What was that collaboration like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: We have been working closely with Fox on the canon of it all; on where Predator: Hunting Grounds<\/em> fits within the Predator<\/em> universe and timelines. It was great. They opened up a lot to us. There are things we got to see that the public hasn\u2019t. They\u2019ve been super open to us adding to the canon of the Predator<\/em> universe. The back and forth of how that goes, it was a lot of cool nods to the previous films. We\u2019re taking our inspiration from the \u201887 film but then also having new things that we\u2019re bringing to the universe as well. There\u2019s going to be a lot for the fans to enjoy when this comes out.<\/p>\n

Can you talk about the new elements you\u2019re introducing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brungardt<\/strong>: Right now we\u2019re showing the Illfonic Predator (at NYCC). It\u2019s our version of that Predator. It\u2019s not something we\u2019re ready to talk about yet but it\u2019s something for the fans to dig into.<\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: It was cool working with the IP holders and showing them our crazy ideas. We wanted to bring more weapons into the world. More customization, more interesting elements. We didn\u2019t want people to think we had cookie-cutter Predators. We wanted players to go in and customize their own specific Predator. That\u2019s the exciting part. We have a lot of cool elements that we\u2019ll be adding to the game.<\/p>\n

What can you tell me about the weapons the humans and the Predators use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: The humans use real-world weaponry; your standard fare of military weapons. They\u2019re customizable. You\u2019ll unlock new ones as you play. The Predator will have a lot of his canon weapons and some original stuff. It\u2019s been a major pain balancing those two worlds. We had to figure out how to not make a guy with space weapons completely OP against the fireteam. As Charles said, we do daily playtests and we do things like have the fireteam carry as much heavy weaponry as they did in \u201887. Like, Jesse Ventura had a minigun and an SMG, so we wanted to have bigger weapons. The fireteam is as badass as the \u201887 guys were. It\u2019s not like in Predators<\/em> where they\u2019re parachuting down and they only have one gun. These guys are soup to nuts ready to take on the Predator.<\/p>\n

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Are the weapons era-appropriate for 1987?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: This game takes place around the year 2025. The weapons are contemporary. You\u2019ve got satellite intel and a lot of different things you would have now. If the fireteam from \u201887 as a group kept going until now, what would that group be like? That\u2019s what inspired us.<\/p>\n

Brungardt<\/strong>: We\u2019re only showing off a limited set in this demo. There\u2019s a lot more to come.<\/p>\n

Can you kill the Predator?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brungardt<\/strong>: That was another challenge. The difference between this and Friday the 13th<\/em> is that it was so hard to kill Jason. In this, if a Predator jumps in and he\u2019s not strategically trying to separate the fireteam then he\u2019s going to go down relatively quickly. The Predator has extra perks that make him harder to kill than a fireteam member. But if you have someone who isn\u2019t great, who is just trying to get quick action, they\u2019re going to go down pretty fast. That\u2019s what also makes the game fun. There are penalties. We wanted you to feel strong and badass but not invincible.<\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: The Predator needed to be \u201csquishy.\u201d That\u2019s a big thing. There are times where, as the Predator, you try to take down a guy and then the entire team turns on you and you just have to run. Last week we were playing and accidentally redid a scene from the \u201887 film. [As the Predator] I blew a guy up and then the entire fireteam came and just started whittling the woods away as I ran away. It was straight out of the movie. Those things that happen naturally are super exciting for us as fans of that film. It\u2019s just super cool.<\/p>\n

So if a Predator is good he can take out an entire team even if they\u2019re all well-armed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerritzen<\/strong>: The Predator is the universe\u2019s deadliest hunter. A hunter does not jump into the middle of the fray and try to attack four guys. He waits for the fireteam to spread out and so he can then pick them off one by one. In Friday the 13th<\/em>, Jason was slow and lumbering. All he could do was attack. There was a lot of interesting gameplay that came out of that. But the Predator has so many tools at his disposal. He has cloaking abilities and heat vision. Players can use VOIP to listen to the other players. It\u2019s going to be a fun thing.<\/p>\n