A Gateway to a Wider Realm
Little boys love to play soldier. Trip Hawkins understood this universal tenet in 1995 when the 3DO Co. boss dreamed up “Army Men,” a game franchise that has become his company’s marquee title.
As with any successful franchise--from “Tomb Raider” to “Quake”--there are pitfalls amid the profits. Such is the case with the “Army Men” titles, which have sold more than 6 million copies. Nevertheless, critics began pelting Hawkins’ Redwood City, Calif., company with comments about “Army Men” games acquiring a warmed-over, tired feel.
To revitalize the games, Hawkins in 1998 devised Vikki G., a sharp, spunky combat-ready reporter who becomes the love interest of Sarge, the hero of “Army Men.” Fans loved her, and Hawkins decided to create a game centered on Vikki, one that would draw in women and men, boys and girls. The result is “Portal Runner,” 3DO’s first game with an “E” rating, a designation that indicates the game is suitable for everyone, much like a “G” rating for films. Until now, all 3DO games were for teens or older.
Creating a game that is fun for the whole family is tricky business, explained Michael Mendheim, a 14-year veteran of the game industry and 3DO’s senior creative director. That’s why most games go the path of least resistance, targeting niche audiences. The goal for “Portal Runner,” Mendheim said, was to be accessible to kids, yet challenging enough for hard-core players--and to appeal to testosterone-soaked males without turning off discerning females.
Q: Did you set out to make an E-rated game? Why?
What we really wanted to do was deliver a game that literally anybody can buy. We knew we needed to expand our market base and deliver a game that younger and older kids could enjoy, one where women could also have fun. We wanted to make a game anyone could play in the same tradition as “Mario” games. So we started with a story that would touch on universal themes. The story is similar in a lot of ways to “The Wizard of Oz” and other fairy tales. We also decided to keep the humor like [the movie] “Shrek,” not watered-down so it can appeal to adults but suitable for anybody in the family at any age. This can be a cultural thing. In America, we’re all more accepting of violence than sexual themes. In Europe, it’s kind of the opposite. Sexual themes are not a problem there, but violence is. It’s a balancing act.
Q: Where did Vikki come from?
We had a lot of women involved in the creation of Vikki. It wasn’t just a bunch of men. A lot of games have women that are sexy, Amazon-ish. A lot of women look at that and yawn. We wanted to create a good, strong female character. Essentially, when we were creating Vikki, we looked at women like Cher, like Madonna. One of the things we noticed is that they do a lot of costume changes. So with “Portal Runner,” every time you go to a different world, Vikki changes her costume. We also looked at classic Disney female characters, such as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast.” There are a number of sequences in our game where we wanted to try to capture some of the fantasy of “Sleeping Beauty.” When Vikki saves the world and she’s the heroine, there’s a scene where she kisses Sarge. We staged the kiss similar to those in classic fairy tales.
Q: What’s Vikki’s draw?
Her hair. It’s bright green. When we create characters, we try to look for a hook because so many characters are spawned in the marketplace. You need a hook to separate yourself. With Sarge, we gave him a big chin, so big in fact that you do a double-take. But you remember it. With Vikki, we didn’t want to give her a big chin or nose. So it was the hair, bright-green hair to match her eyes. That was it. That was enough.
Q: How did you try to interest little kids?
Trip came up with a brilliant idea. It’s a play mode that Trip termed “Dream Mode” where the character can’t be killed. She’s invulnerable to enemies. We’ve found that young children don’t like getting hit, and they don’t like dying. We also have Leo the Lion. What’s cool about the lion is that it gets upset when people try to hurt Vikki. We’re trying to create an emotional bond, to get the player to care about Vikki and about the lion. We try to get kids to protect the lion because they love it. There’s a dark scene where the lion is trapped in a toy train that rolls into an Easy-Bake Oven. Meanwhile, Vikki’s trapped in a dungeon and can’t get out. It’s stories like this that hopefully wrap you up so much that you want to finish the game just to find out how everything turns out.
Q: What’s in it for adults?
Adults connect with the humor. For children, the humor is way over their heads, but they don’t care because they’re into the characters and the story. The humor isn’t geared to kids; it’s geared to adults. A lot of the graphics are magical, and they pull kids in; but they’re also very surreal. Kids like it because it has bright colors and everything looks happy. But adults see a very surreal environment. We have one level that’s a chess board level where the pieces move independently. The black and white patterns are platforms that come up. You have to jump across the platforms. The look is like Dali meets Disney. One of our directors, John Salera, also built in this addictive component where you collect gems. If you collect 100% of the gems, we reward you by unlocking secret things. It’s extremely addictive.
Q: How do you keep hard-core gamers interested?
We have secrets, hidden areas and Easter eggs that only 10% of our players will find. For the people who actually take the time, we reward them. We also have a hard-core gamer setting that tortures the player. It’s very difficult. Vikki’s bow and arrows are not as accurate, and there are more places to unlock. The enemies are a lot tougher. So, more surprises, more enemies, more secrets. Hopefully, a hard-core gamer should have a great time playing as well.
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Alex Pham covers the video game industry. She can be reached at alex.pham@latimes.com.
