Get Meds was designed to be a tutorial for our Hiding Spots mechanic. It was necessary to contrive a situation where the player was guaranteed to lose any disguise so that we could demonstrate the use of Hiding Spots. A Gestapo officer is triggered to enter the scene from a nearby doorway when the player takes the champagne bottle and has the property that his presence will strip away the player's disguise. Yeah, it's cheating... but sometimes you have to corral the player - especially in order to facilitate tutorials, story progression, and for the player to demonstrate understanding of game mechanics.

The challenge of this mission was to provide multiple ways to reach the vantage point where Sean will take his shot, and to provide multiple escape routes. I worked closely with the Art and Worldbuilding teams to make sure that both primary and secondary routes existed and that they were lit in a manner that would be consistent with the way we use color and light to guide the player in other missions.

This mission exhibited a common issue found when placing objectives in an open world environment - it was possible for the player to disturb the scene from a distance before events, triggers, and streaming had been properly set up for the "meat" of the mission. In other words, we needed to set up discrete "go to mission area" and "perform mission" segments. Thru creative use of cinematics and proper control of streaming I was able to prevent even the most determined QA tester from being able to create a mess of this scenario.

This mission has a twofold purpose - repeat the "setting explosives" tutorial from the Fuel Depot mission (the first mission of the game) and tutorialize the Ambient Freeplay / Contraband Rewards / Shops systems. A sample Shop is opened up, then players are given three Ambient Freeplay targets to destroy and are rewarded with Contraband that they can spend at the Shop when they return. You'll note how these systems are interrelated; I contributed extensively to their parallel development and tutorialization

I'll admit, this is one of my favorites. The mission has Sean arriving to find an open street war between Resistance members and SS officers. A constant stream of AI on both sides keeps the heat going as the player must complete two objectives : take out snipers that prevent the Resistance from charging the courtyard and finally kill the target, a SS Officer known as "the Wolf". Reinforcements arrive in vehicles, cover is placed methodically throughout the area, and mounted/sandbagged MG turrets provide for greater challenge than prior missions.

DoubleTap Sniper requires the player to protect Dr. Kwong while he meets in public with a Resistance spy. Two rooftop snipers and three ground attackers keep the heat on as Kwong makes his escape. The key to this mission was balancing the amount of damage that Kwong can take before he dies, which required me to become very familiar with the combat system and the manner in which AI deal damage to other AI. I learned several tricks along the way to keep damage consistent and compatible with player expectations.

This mission is a rooftop / zipline race to bug a series of radio boxes before the storm passes, as denoted by an onscreen timer. I had a great time setting up the course which focuses on maintaining momentum throughout. After an initial climb the remainder of the course is downhill. Players ride ziplines, leap across the gaps between city blocks, bust thru stacks of crates, and finally confront a cluster of Nazis. I created set pieces like the crates and exploding barrels to add intensity to the race and feel that I acheived my goal.

I've heard a lot of positive feedback from this mission, it's another favorite of mine. Setting up this "Prison Break" scenario was a lot of fun since it's one of the last freeplay missions and needed to be appropriately challenging. With multiple routes in and out, layers of rooftop snipers, a courtyard policed by Flamethrower Nazis, and mounted guns to cover the front entrance this is one hot spot in Paris. Players can utilize most all their skills - explosives / sabotage, stealth, clambering, gunplay, and driving. Protect missions can be a tough sell, but I think this one comes out on top.

I had an incredible experience working on The Saboteur and grew considerably in my technical, problem solving, leadership, and creative skills. This was my first experience with open world / streaming games and now I feel that I have an understanding of the unique issues involved in the production of both level-based and open world games.