Introducing The Pacific Theatre of War!
When we began developing Victory at Sea we knew it would be essential to create vast theatres of war to explore. Our first challenge was the Pacific. Balancing the scale was tricky early on, players needed to be able to explore without sailing endless empty oceans.
We needed to create a living breathing world for the players to inhabit. Initially we created a terrain map in Unity3D. The next step was to populate it.
WWII historical Accuracy Over Gameplay
We had already started researching historical details to help bring the Pacific to life, this was always a fine balance between slavish historical accuracy and making a game that people can enjoy. We were told by Crytek’s Karl Hilton that the first time a battleship is sunk that in reality survived the war, historical accuracy becomes a little less… accurate. This helped us remember that while we wanted people to feel they were in WW2 we were making a game first and foremost.
When developing the pacific we realised we did need to look at this point in history in more detail than we normally looked for. We’ve seen all the WW2 films, and for all the Das Boots and World at War Documentaries we had watched over the years it became apparent that there were some fundamentally important things we’d need to research that they don’t tend to cover in that much detail. This led us to have to research all the ports that were in the Pacific area, who controlled them pre WW2, and who had control of each port circa 1939/41.
Looking purely from the point of view of ports control you begin to realise how much the Japanese managed to capture in such a short space of time as they swept through so many ports, with allied forces completely caught unawares.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked the Japanese went from victory to victory and changed the balance of power in the Pacific. British ports had fallen under Japanese control and the battle to retake the Pacific looked almost impossible.
This is the point in which the player begins in the Pacific.
Creating a Real Time Strategy that felt right
Once balanced the ports were established, the next step was to link the ports with trade, patrol and harass routes, as you can imagine this was quite a task. We wanted to create subtle layers to Victory at Sea giving it a rich history without hitting you in the face with obvious nods. For example, if you venture to Broome, Western Australia expect to see increased aircraft activity. While it was a small pearling port it was also a significant aircraft refuelling base for the Allied forces. As you can see from the rough Pacific plan below there was a lot to get right!
The other major factor for the Pacific is the look, we had to shape, texture and populate lots of island chains. Each needed trees, buildings, textures as well as lights to illuminate them at night. Weather conditions are all specific to each region, the Pacific is generally brighter and hotter while the Atlantic’s weather is more changeable with snow towards the north. Taking all the historical and creative elements and blending them together has produced a Pacific to be proud of, there is nothing quite like watching the sun set just off the Hawaiian Islands as you go to war.
There will be 3 campaigns available to download. The Pacific campaign is a huge battle of attrition seeing allied fleets taking the Pacific back island by island. The Atlantic war is more convoy based, supplies must reach the British isles and they must be protected at all cost ready for the final attack on fortress Europe. The 3rd Campaign, set in the Mediterranean sees the Allies being attacked on all sides by Axis forces, the British must defend the few ports they control at all cost with Malta completely surrounded and levelled by relentless bombardment.
Victory At Sea’s Pacific, Atlantic and Med campaigns launch on Desktop platforms Summer 2014 with a mobile version being released in the Autumn.
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