When SPOnG was given the chance to get a hands-on playtest of super-sandbox blockbuster
Mercenaries 2, we found an action title that is looking every bit as fun and manic as the original. Senior Producer Jonathan Zamkoff was happy to chat to me about his career and the difficulties that arose from creating a first generation game on the latest platforms. Having worked from the Dreamcast era and quickly rising to the top of the tree with Pandemic, Zamkoff appears very relaxed and passionate when talking about his latest project; that and he also appears to like Quentin Tarantino, which makes him cool in my book.
SPOnG: First, could you introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us how you got into the video games industry? What was it about games that made you want to be a part of its development?
Jonathan Zamkoff: I was in Los Angeles working at Mattel toys in their sound design studio when I heard that people actually got paid to make video games (smiles). One of the guys in the studio played soccer with some guys from Treyarch - at that time known for some Interplay games and high quality Dreamcast ports - and I started coming out to the field and kicking the ball around with those guys. I discovered my future boss needed some help back in the sweeper position and, as I was a decent soccer player back in the day, I provided him with a much-needed line of defence. From there we got to talking, I got an Assistant Producer (AP) position on the
Spider-Man PS1 to DC port, and the rest of it has been a total blur.
SPOnG: The setting of
Mercenaries 2 is interesting. What was the inspiration for the story and the locations?
Jonathan Zamkoff: On
Mercs we like to do a ‘ripped from the headlines’ fiction, mixed with a summer blockbuster movie feel so the idea of an oil crisis in the very lush and sexy backdrop of a Venezuelan coup just fit. The setting has been an awesome springboard for our Tarantino-meets-Bruckheimer brand of humour and action.
SPOnG: In your presentation you likened
Mercenaries 2 to a Summer blockbuster action movie. You felt compelled to make this point several times. It seemed that you were trying to deny any idea that the game glorifies violence and war. How do you feel about the links the mass media are drawing regarding violence and video games?
Jonathan Zamkoff: I take it on a case-by-case basis. In games where there is no humour, where blood spouts from a headshot then, yeah, there is a glorification of violence for violence sake. In a game like
Mercs where you are penalized for killing civilians, where we don’t show blood, where over-the-top humour always takes centre stage, then we are glorifying action and ol’-fashioned fun, not violence.
SPOnG: When playing the game, I noticed that ‘Summer Blockbuster’ feel really came through, especially with the Hollywood action movie-style music that was used. How did you approach creating the soundtrack for
Mercenaries 2?
Jonathan Zamkoff: We hired Chris Tilton, a very talented composer based in LA - he was also our composer on
Mercs 1. Whilst we gave him the direction that we wanted a cinematic, orchestral feel while also bringing to life the percussion and guitar feel of Latin American music, we gave him a lot of freedom to compose the music he felt in his heart. Once the music was written Chris, along with our lead audio designer went up to Seattle, Washington, for several days and recorded the Seattle symphony orchestra. The resulting product was excellent and we are really happy with the in-game music.
