06.01 2010

Zipper Profile: Steve Harris

posted by Chris Roper, June 1, 2010 4:26 pm

Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way).

For this week’s update we meet up with Steve Harris, UI Manager here at Zipper. Steve’s work lets you know how much health you have left, shows you where nearby enemy combatants are and tells you how many rounds are left in your current magazine. Oh, and gives you the ability to start playing in the first place.


Job Title: UI Manager
Years at Zipper: 4.5 years
Years in the Industry: 4.5 in gaming specifically. 15 in user interface.
Favorite Zipper Game: MAG
Favorite Non-Zipper Game: Way old now but the game that first really got me into online play, clans, community and obsessive playing was Bungie’s Myth II SoulBlighter. It definitely has my best all-time favorite moments though the game itself is now very old school.
Motto: You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet (UI is an iterative process and often requires making a mess before you get to what you want).

What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day?
I manage the production process of the user interface from conceptual design to implementation. I also do a fair amount of the implementation. A typical day is checking in on tasks with my team and keeping the line of game designers and software engineers (who frequently line up outside my door) at bay with design updates or code for implementation. We are often faced with building an entire screen around a trivial amount of information, such as a simple true/false (Boolean) statement, and getting the aesthetics, usability and overall game design figured out can be a tedious process. UI encompasses art, design and code in the same team so it’s definitely the oddball discipline.

How did you get into the industry?
I worked previously with the original lead designer for MAG. The work we were doing at the time was very applicable to game UI implementation.

What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past?
A ton of software prototype work for various companies from desktop applications to cell phone interfaces. I’ve also done exhibit work for theme parks and museums.

What’s your proudest moment?
Professionally, shipping MAG. I was on the team from my first day so seeing it through years later was a great accomplishment. Personally, it would have to be starting my family.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?
Get some friends (with a mic) and play MAG! I play every week with a small group and am still having a blast. A good group of friends with voice chat makes all the difference in the world with a game like MAG.

Don’t forget to submit your questions to Steve for this week’s Zipline podcast by clicking this link!

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05.28 2010

Zipline Podcast, Episode 6

posted by Chris Roper, May 28, 2010 6:40 pm

The work week is over (for everyone not crunching away on E3 demos), but we don’t want to send you into the weekend without something to listen to. Hence, we bring you the latest episode of Zipline! Senior Designer CJ Heine joins us this week to talk both MAG and SOCOM 4, and even give some insight into the development of past Zipper titles (like SOCOM II). It’s fun for the whole family!

Zipline Podcast, Episode 6
34.4MB | 37m:32s
Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes

You can comment on this show by clicking this link.

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05.25 2010

MAG v1.06 Coming in June

posted by Jeremy Dunham, May 25, 2010 10:00 am

Though we’re still several weeks away from its release, we thought it prudent to give everyone a head’s up on what we’re working towards for our next MAG patch – and it’s a big one!

Slated for sometime next month, MAG v1.06 will add a number of requested new features to the game that should please fans regardless of their play style. Not only have we made it much harder to accidentally kill fellow teammates, for example, we’ve also expanded the Medical Kit’s functionality to give users total control over who they heal (allies or themselves), while updating the experience system that surrounds it. Other new goodies include improved vehicle handling and physics, new gun ports for APCs, weapon efficiency adjustments, credit cost changes, and updated medal and ribbon requirements.

Another nice addition is that we’re also giving users who are currently without access to PlayStation Stores the ability to get all previously-available DLC immediately in-game.

We’ve listed a number of planned fixes on our index below, but this by no means the complete list of changes coming with v1.06 next month. We’ll have additional details on the full list of updates in the coming weeks in addition to the awaited news regarding our next bit of DLC (which is our biggest yet!). In the meantime, enjoy what we have for you so far and stay tuned for more specifics as we get closer to the patch’s release.

Change is coming...

MAG Patch v1.06
Available June 2010 | Size: TBD

Gameplay

  • Player knife attacks no longer deal damage to members of own PMC.
  • Headshot damage bonuses no longer apply to friendly fire.
  • Changed rewards for the resuscitation of an incapacitated ally to 5XP for partial health revive, and 10XP for full heath revive.
  • Added functionality to Medical Kit so that players can now heal themselves with L1 in addition to using R1 to heal or revive a teammate.
  • All vehicle handling has been improved and been given more realistic physics.
  • Added three gun ports to APCs of all factions.
  • Slowed down the rate of fire for the APC’s primary gun, but increased bullet damage.
  • Primary APC gun can now damage enemy APCs.

Weapons

  • Adjusted damage for the AM50, Rollins LRRS, and AGVK sniper rifles vs. vehicles and emplaced turrets.
  • Increased rate of fire for all pistols (Raven’s F57, SVER’s IZ-443, and Valor’s M9).
  • Improved close-range effectiveness and decreased long-range effectiveness for all Pistols, Machine Pistols, SMGs and Shotguns.
  • Made all LMG foregrips less effective at stabilizing fire.
  • Made improved stability skills less effective at stabilizing fire for machine guns.
  • Credit cost for Pistols has been changed to 0c from 100c.
  • Credit cost for Machine Pistols has been changed to 200c from 300c.
  • Credit cost for SMGs has been changed to 300c from 400c.
  • Credit cost for Shotguns has been changed to 400c from 600c.
  • Credit cost for Improved Rocket Launchers has been changed to 800c from 1000c.
  • Credit cost for Smoke Grenades has been changed to 200c from 300c.
  • Credit cost for Poison Gas Grenades has been changed to 500c from 600c.
  • Credit cost for Explosives Detector has been changed to 300c from 600c.

Interface

  • Adjusted requirements for most Medal Awards.
  • Added progress bars to all Medal Awards.
  • Changed vehicle icon visibility on the map to reflect its current status of visibility instead of its previous map state of “always seen.”
  • Repaired display problem in the “Community” tab’s “Player Search” screen that improperly presented names with multiple non-alphabet characters.
  • Statistics for “Enemy Vehicles Destroyed Assists” and “Enemy Turrets Destroyed Assists” are now correctly listed in proper category “Objectives.”

Graphics

  • Fixed display problem with player’s left hand placement when using foregrip and bipod on the Raven Apex 100 light machine gun.
  • Fixed issue that prevented repaired roadblocks from “shining” to indicate that they can be interacted with.

Technical

  • Previously-released downloadable content (Fast Attack Gear Pack, Trooper Gear Pack, Raven’s Spyder Body Apparel, SVER’s Hazard Body Apparel, and Valor’s Bulldog Body Apparel) is now accessible to all users without PlayStation Store access.
  • Patched problem that prevented users to save loadout with DLC weapons following a “Respec” action.
  • Repaired issue that caused renamed PSN IDs to be incorrectly identified as its previous name when logging in.

Server

  • Updated patching system to allow for faster download speeds when retrieving in-game updates.

Want to talk about it? You can comment on this post by clicking this link.

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05.24 2010

Zipper Profile: CJ Heine

posted by Chris Roper, May 24, 2010 3:07 pm

Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way).

This week we meet up with CJ Heine, senior designer here at Zipper. CJ started in the QA department and worked his way up to his current senior designer position, so it shouldn’t be long before he’s heading up the CIA and while simultaneously juggling hosting duties on Survivor.

CJ is, as always, thinking about LEGOs in this photo.

Job Title: Senior Designer
Years at Zipper: 8.5
Years in the Industry: 8.5
Favorite Zipper Game: SOCOM II
Favorite Non-Zipper Game: Even though I’ve probably spent more time with World of Warcraft than anything else, I’ve got to say it was Contra (on the original NES).
Motto: Get out of your head.

What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day?
I’m currently assisting the SOCOM 4 team, working on several missions of the single player campaign. Most of my days start with syncing the latest data and build before I move right into mission iteration. Mission iteration usually consists of fixing and tweaking combat encounters, adjusting VO calls, and tuning objectives until the mission plays more like it should when it’s released. The other half of this iteration comes after the fixes are made, when I run it in-game to test it out and make sure it worked as intended, without breaking anything. Now just picture this series of events cycling over the next several hours, and you’ve got my typical day.

This isn’t supposed to sound monotonous. It’s considerably more relaxing than my day-to-day on MAG, and I appreciate “the break”.

How did you get into the industry?
I got a call from a relative, telling me they “knew a guy that worked on games, and that the company needed to hire some testers”. I really had no idea at the time what I was getting into, but I loved playing games, and working on games seemed like a dream job. After a few calls, I went in to Zipper for a quick interview and they offered me a QA position working on SOCOM. (I’m not sure if the interview and approval process was normally supposed to be that fast, or if it was because I was interviewing on the morning of September 11, 2001, and everyone was too stunned to notice.)

QA involved testing and bugging the game, which is pretty standard, but at the time, Zipper was still a small company, and QA was constantly approached for feedback, opinions and usability-related questions. Having that level of communication and interaction with the rest of the team was really important because it made me visible and dependable. Eventually I was moved into a design position to start work on SOCOM II, and I’ve been working as a designer at Zipper since then.

Huge thanks to David Sears (Creative Director at the time) for seeing something in me and getting me started with design.

What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past?
I’ve worked on SOCOM, SOCOM II, SOCOM 3, SOCOM: Combined Assault, Fireteam Bravo, Fireteam Bravo 2, MAG and now SOCOM 4.

What’s your proudest moment?
Getting married to my wife and then moving to the West Coast a few days later, homeless and jobless, and somehow making it all work. Also, I’d be a terrible person if I didn’t mention the birth of our daughter, but really, that’s more of a surreal moment than a proud moment.

One of my proudest gaming-related moments happened right after we released the original SOCOM. I was in the checkout line at a Best Buy, and right behind me was a young boy with SOCOM in his hands (probably too young to be playing it, but I certainly wasn’t going to stop him), telling his mom all about how great it was, with the headset, the online play and the realism. Hearing someone get that excited about a game that we’d created was a great feeling.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?
I’d consider myself to be a SOCOM II elitist, but from what I’ve seen so far, SOCOM 4 has the most potential to be something amazing.

Don’t forget to submit questions to CJ for this week’s Zipline podcast by clicking this link!

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05.21 2010

Zipline Podcast, Episode 5

posted by Chris Roper, May 21, 2010 3:33 pm

While we’re still working on making its release a weekly national holiday (in every nation), you can still sink your teeth into the latest episode of Zipline right now. We’re joined this week by Ed Byrne, Creative Director here at Zipper and a man who knows much about many things. That is to say that this week’s show is filled with SOCOM talk and new MAG tidbits. Have a listen!

Zipline Podcast, Episode 5
40.0MB | 43m:35s
Subscribe to Zipline on iTunes

You can comment on this show by clicking this link.

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