Ex-COD Dev Says “You Can Only Do So Much” With Such A Big Series
David Vonderhaar made a name for himself with the Call of Duty franchise, having worked on the series at Black Ops studio Treyarch for nearly 20 years before calling it quits and starting his own studio. In a new interview with GI.biz, Vonderhaar reflected on his time working on the juggernaut FPS series and spoke about what it was like working on an enormous franchise and the creative limitations that came with that.
“You can’t demolish the things that people like about it. You can only do so much different within something that big. I want the whole game to be different, not just a little bit of this and a little bit of that, this game mode or that mode, right?” he said.
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Also in the interview, Vonderhaar said when a franchise gets “too big” and when “so much money” is at stake, things tend to get “complicated.”
For his part, Vonderhaar said the best times he had making games during his career came from creating elements within a larger experience. He didn’t name Call of Duty outright, but said those were the times “when I was alive and the team were alive, that’s when you got the innovation.”
In these moments, people stayed late, and not because they were told to, but because they wanted to due to their passion, Vonderhaar said.
At his new studio, BulletFarm, Vonderhaar is hoping to capture some of this. “That’s how you should make games. That’s the fun part. Can you make a whole game that way? We’re going to find out,” he said.
Vonderhaar also revealed that he contemplated retiring after leaving Activision and the Call of Duty franchise to drive around the country in his RV. He said nearly two decades of working on one of the biggest franchises in gaming would have made for a good career. But Vonderhaar said he felt a call to start something new so he could flex his creative muscles beyond what he was allowed to do within the confines of Call of Duty.
“When you get to be 18 years of making a game that’s franchised in that way, that goes on that long, what you can do to that game gets harder and harder to do, because it’s so big and popular for a reason,” he said.
Vonderhaar’s new studio is making a “AAA” game set in an original universe that features co-op in some capacity. He said he’s intentionally being coy about the game’s specifics because the team will spend the next year prototyping, and a lot could change in the creative process. “It’s a co-op first-person shooter, and it’s not going to be about killing a lot of people all the time. It’s more nuanced than that. It’s more personal than that. It’s more innovative than that,” he said.
Chinese gaming giant NetEase is backing BulletFarm financially. Chris Cowell, another former Call of Duty developer, followed Vonderhaar to BulletFarm and is the studio’s creative director.
“Starting this new studio has given me a chance to step out of my comfort zone and try my hand at making something entirely new and different. This is a departure from the games I’ve worked on, but one that showcases my passion for rich characters, precise mechanics, more intimate storytelling, and plenty of action,” Vonderhaar said.
BulletFarm has numerous open positions listed on its careers page, most of which start at six-figure salaries. It’s still early days for the game, however, and there is no word on platforms or a release date.
As for the Call of Duty series, 2024 will reportedly see the release of a new Black Ops game set, at least partially, during the Gulf War.
Marvel Rivals Is An Overwatch-Like 6v6 Shooter For PC, And Testing Starts Soon
You’ll be able to throw down as Earth’s mightiest heroes, and villains, in a free-to-play team-based competitive shooter coming soon. Marvel Rivals, from developer NetEase, will start rolling out in the form of an alpha test in May, with further tests coming in the lead-up to launch.
Marvel Rivals features a roster of more than a dozen playable characters from famous comic book teams like the Avengers, X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The alpha test will feature an array of heroes and villains to play, including Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Magik. The debut trailer showed lots of other characters, like Dr. Strange and Luna Snow, making use of their powers–like Strange opening up portals for his teammates. It all looks very similar to Blizzard’s Overwatch, albeit in third-person and with a roster of classic comic characters.
In true comic-book fashion, you can use dynamic “Team-Up Skills” to combine the powers of two heroes into a devastating attack. Rocket Raccoon can be seen riding on Groot’s back while firing, and Hulk can provide some gamma energy to give Iron Man’s repulsor blast some extra oomph. Matches in Marvel Rivals will be third-person, 6v6 battles with destructible environments like Asgard and Tokyo 2099.
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The story revolves around Doctor Doom as the primary antagonist, as he’s teamed up with his own 2099 counterpart to force universes to collide in an anomaly called the Timestream Entanglement. That premise nicely tees up tons of heroes and villains to clash. To that end, Marvel Rivals is preparing to have loads of post-launch updates, adding new characters and maps at a regular pace.
Marvel Rivals is being developed by NetEase, and the announcement notes that the team includes veterans from the Call of Duty and Battlefield series. So far there is no word of console versions, which may simply be due to the PC version entering alpha testing.
“We are overjoyed to bring Marvel Rivals to players around the world,” said producer Stephen Wu in the announcement. “We have always loved Marvel’s universe and its characters, and we are so excited to develop this game. This is the game we want to make, and we feel very lucky to be the team who made all of this come true.”
Pepper Grinder Exclusive Gameplay Shows Off The Many Ways To Grind
Pepper Grinder is built around having an enormous drill that you can use to burrow through soft ground, but as a new video shows, it gets a lot of mileage out of that central concept. In an exclusive gameplay walkthrough from Devolver, you can see Pepper skimming along the water, hitting grappling nodes, and more.
The walkthrough covers three varied stages in Pepper Grinder: a beach with volcanic activity, a spooky poisonous world, and a frosty tundra. Each one has its own specialized stage elements, like magma that cools and becomes soft soil to dig through when it hits the water, or cannons that shoot you from location to location or crack through heavy ice blocks. Your drill can even be used to spin up a rocket, which comes in handy for obvious reasons.
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You can also see Pepper grabbing collectibles, like gems and Skull Coins. As the commentary points out, the gems are littered throughout the stage and meant to be collected, but some of them are traps made to lure you into dangerous situations. Skull Coins, meanwhile, are special collectibles that only have to be grabbed once, but they’re in especially tricky or hidden spots.
Pepper Grinder is the debut from Ahr Ech Games and is being published by Devolver. A demo is now available on Steam and Switch, and it’s Deck Verified so you can swim through the soil on the go. It’s coming to PC and Switch on March 28.
