Rebellion's Sniper Elite series has proven popular with online spectators, not least because its killcam is capable of generating slow motion footage of chaps being shot in the testicles. With Sniper Elite 3 on the horizon Wired.co.uk caught up with Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion and chairman of The Independent Games Association, to talk YouTube, game design and nut shots.
Wired.co.uk: Tell us about Rebellion's approach to game streaming and broadcasting... JK: We embraced the idea of people playing our games, recording the footage and getting that info out there. We've had huge success. Nazi Zombie Army for example. We had a very modest budget for that project and it was tongue-in-cheek. We had a lot of very successful multiplayer sessions recorded and played by famous Youtube and Twitch commentators, and these things have had upwards of a million views which is brilliant for us. Somebody engaging with a video of our game for 15 minutes is incredibly powerful and quite fun to watch too.
Do you have any statistics on how that translates to sales? We have noticed very definite spikes but the trouble is there are so many people doing videos that it's really hard to -- we don't have a control. We don't have a game we put out there and forbid people to do gameplay videos for to see how that would work.
It's quite difficult to make [a definitive] statement but given we did no other forms of marketing for Nazi Zombie Army at all our massive sales success -- we're upwards of nearly 400,000 units -- in a very short period of time, mostly on Steam so mostly digital sales, would indicate that they have had a very big impact for us.
What's the appeal of Sniper Elite for streamers and YouTubers? A lot of our games are fairly light on narrative. We're not trying to make film games -- it's not heavy narrative. It's usually short and gets to the point, then the next gameplay goes on because the narrative really comes from the players.
They probably don't want too much chat from the game over their voiceovers because they're chatting to each other. What's interesting is looking at the different play styles, which allows us to examine how people play our games for real as well which is always interesting from a gameplay perspective. Did they do the things you expected, when you expected? Or did they do something different?
Tell us about the killcam... In the very first Sniper Elite the killcam was an interesting gameplay feature because it was designed to emphasise the long-distance shooting in the game. We were trying to innovate gameplay [...] We had the bullet travel camera and then an impact. In Sniper Elite V2 we said let's go into even more detail. For many people it was quite shocking detail -- quite grotesque.
We've gone even further in Sniper Elite 3. It's quite uncomfortable to see the killcam but that's deliberate. We are not trying to go for the gore factor. We are trying to emphasise the lethality of a single sniper bullet and trying to create that atmosphere of utter terror that snipers create on the battlefield.
We're trying to make people think. It's obviously an 18 certificate. Our game is not for children. We're trying to make adults think about what a sniper does and what it means to be a sniper. It sounds a bit arty but the game is a slower paced game and a little less like a fairground ride than something like Call of Duty. We're not trying to emulate the machine gun from the hip charging into the enemy and blasting everywhere. We're trying to push people into a different mindset and a place filled with tension and death.
There are some interesting consequences from our killcam. I had one fan write me a letter saying that he and his family are now really good at knowing where each other's organs are so they could tell you exactly where the spleen is and where the kidneys are. It was an interesting educational consequence of having a physiologically accurate killcam. Not one of the consequences we expected.
When you build something like that into the game is it problematic when it's taken out of context on YouTube? I think we expected it because one of the things with the internet that I believe in is that the internet should be free.
It's a place where freedom of speech can blossom and where [I can find out about] people whose opinions I object to and who do things I don't like, and [I can] argue with them. I'll never be a strong believer in censorship.
One of the DLCs in Sniper Elite is Kill Hitler and of course Hitler is anatomically correctly modelled so the first thing certain users want to do is try and shoot Hitler's testicles off. So there are lots of Hitler testicle nut-shot videos. It's funny in one way, it trivialises things in others, but it's what you expect when you allow this type of thing in our games.
Does it trouble us? Sometimes when it's all glorified, but other times no. When somebody stubs their toe there is an element of humanity, of schadenfreude, of there but for the grace of god go I.
One finds it, not entertaining, but amusing in a dark way.
Do you find there's ever a conflict between making something that's enjoyable to watch and making something that's enjoyable to play? I think games are one of the few mediums where you can actually do that. If you think about television and movies, wonderful though they are, there is very little interaction. You watch a movie and it's the same movie for everybody. They may interpret it differently or be watching it in different languages but basically it's the same data stream from beginning to end.
With a game you can watch the same game being played by two different people and it's a different thing. Somebody may be playing Sniper Elite the way we intended it to be played, which is slowly and steadily, creeping around and taking their time to make their shots. Other people may be charging in there -- because they don't really understand what we're trying to do -- and getting the shit kicked out of them regularly and losing a lot.
Both are equally valid ways of playing a game I suppose. One is going to be more successful than the other but both are equally valid. It's quite fun to watch people doing things that you've created in different ways than you expected.
Has being aware of YouTube and Twitch impacted how you make games? We don't specifically design the game with social media or YouTubers in mind. We build the best game we can in the circumstances, in the way we feel it ought to be played. However, multiplayer components are interesting. Obviously four people playing a co-op multiplayer game, which is the Nazi Zombie Army thing, allows them to backchat. It allows people to make fun of each other in the game and have a proper social experience.
While we didn't build the game for the YouTube generation, we built the game with multiplayer co-op in mind and [...] that has proved very useful for us. Going forward some of the new consoles are looking at having a post-to-Facebook kind of functionality, automatically recording the gameplay session to make it easier for people. The hardware manufacturers themselves are embracing the emancipation of media. You don't have to spend £10,000 on a hardware card to record info. It's already there and you can decide if you want to post it or not, so the hardware is changing.
Would you say production value is important to YouTube success or is it more about creating an interesting mechanic or idea? I think if you create compelling content people want to share then yes, absolutely. [Though] you can simplify what's on screen to an extent and I think then it becomes less compelling to watch. We're not a game where pop-up targets will happen regardless. We're a game with proper AI where the AI does different things and your success and failure can be illustrated by a generated killcam. There will be millions of different types of killcam because they're created on the fly. Some of those sequences will be spectacular and some of them may not be as spectacular. I think that lends itself to YouTube and Twitch distribution very well.
So which games do you think work best in terms of social sharing online? I tend to just focus on making the best games we can. The type of games I really like and work well for sharing are co-op multiplayer. Left 4 Dead works very well. We're great fans of Valve. Some of the zombie survival games should work but sometimes the videos are overlong and because the player has their own story in their head about what they're doing, watching a video of somebody walking through the wasteland is a bit boring but it obviously works for them. You kind of need the backchat of people playing the game to add flavour to what's happening.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
