Interviews// Starhawk

Starhawk is a big game for the PS3. Like its precursor Warhawk, it's aimed attracting the kind of online loyalty and therefore valuable community that Halo has achieved for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

I sat down with Josh Sutpfin of LightBox Interactive, Lead Game Designer for Starhawk to find out how the 2012 release is progressing.

SPOnG: Is Starhawk a spiritual sequel to Warhawk?

Josh Sutpfin: Yes it’s a spiritual sequel to Warhawk and it adds two key features above and beyond the kind of features we had in Warhawk, which is the single player campaign and the ‘Build and Battle’ functionality.


SPOnG: So with a single player campaign, the game must actually have kind of back story, unlike Warhawk. Could you explain what that is?

Josh Sutpfin: The game is set on a planet called Dust, which is out on the frontier of settled space. There’s a substance in the game known as Rift Energy. This element is the most valuable thing in the galaxy, and humans have been mining Rift Energy, kind of like a gold rush.

On Dust there is this town called White Sands that is a boom town for Rift Energy mining. The problem is that while valuable, Rift Energy is also a very dangerous substance. When you come into physical contact with it, it mutates you into a really savage creature called ‘The Outcast’. These are the enemies the player will encounter the most in the single player campaign.

The conflict between the ‘Rifters’ i.e. the miners of Rift Energy and the Outcasts is essentially that on the human side the Rifters value Rift Energy as a resource, on the Outcasts side they value Rift Energy as a sacred thing.

They treat it as a gift; it’s something that has turned them into a kind of ‘post human’. These two warring factions are the core conflict.

The game’s hero, Emmet Graves, he’s half way in between. (When) he and his brother were mining a claim 10 years ago there was an accident. Both touched by Rift Energy, Emmet’s brother is transformed into an Outcast, but Emmet did not.

He is, however, tainted by it. You can see it in his eyes and veins in his arms. That’s made him an outcast in human society, even though he wasn’t transformed fully. As a result he has been travelling around as a roving mercenary. His home town is under attack by his brother, who is now an Outcast outlaw who is terrorising Emmet’s home town. So Emmet returns to fight his brother and save the day.


SPOnG: How extensive is the single player component of the game? Is it more of a preparation for the multiplayer aspect of the game, or is it much more of a stand-alone element?

Josh Sutpfin: The single player does act as a partner to the multiplayer in some ways and as a stand- alone in other ways. The important thing that we wanted when we brought a single player campaign into the game was to make sure that it wasn’t just a bolted on side feature.

It needed to be a proper story in a proper world, competitive with other best in class shooter’s single player campaigns. However we did design the single-player campaign within those parameters to kind of introduce the player to all of the different elements and features in the multiplayer game, as a means to prepare the player for that mode of play.

So the single player campaign is structured to introduce the weapons, the vehicles and especially the Build and Battle system stuff in various missions throughout the campaign.


SPOnG: Are there any elements of the game that are unique to the single player that don’t exist in the multiplayer and vice versa?

Josh Sutpfin: Weapons and vehicles and Build and Battle structures are the same across the board. Whatever the player has access to in the single player, they will have access to in the multiplayer. The only thing that is different, is that in single-player you’re fighting against different classes of enemies than in multiplayer as you're combating human opponents in that mode of play.


SPOnG: You’ve mentioned the Build and Battle system a few times now; clearly it’s a key mechanic of Starhawk. Could you expand on what it is?

Josh Sutpfin: Yes sure, the Build and Battle system allows players to throw down structures. These (could) be bunkers, walls, sniper towers, vehicle garages, auto turrets - you've got a whole range of structures that can be called down on anywhere on the battlefield at any time.

So, you can use those to defend an area or attack an area and to equip yourself and your team. The Build and Battle system works the same way in both single and multiplayer mode. This makes the combat arena very free and very open.

Rift Energy is used as the currency that you spend for building the battle structures. You gain Rift Energy when you kill enemies, when you complete objectives and in multiplayer you gain it when you’re in your base near your extractor. This is a structure that does the mining of Rift Energy.