In a bid to make the next Call of Duty game more realistic, Sledgehammer Games reached out to real life military experts.
Speaking to The Guardian, Michael Condrey, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, revealed that the development team did their homework before taking the plunge into making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the latest title in the Call of Duty franchise.
“Three years ago, right after we finished Modern Warfare 3, we started thinking about how to change Call of Duty,” Condrey said.
“We brought in a lot of outside help – military advisers, futurologists – we got together with a scenario planner from the department of defense, who is active in the Pentagon.”
As it turns out, the Pentagon adviser ruled out a conflict with current big nations Russia and China, and even an extremist Islamic state, but instead suggested that a private military company could end up escalating a situation in the event of business going sour.
Hence, Sledgehammer came up with the concept of Atlas, the largest military contractor in the fictional Advanced Warfare world, wanting to take over the United States.
Condrey also notes that Sledgehammer’s contacts helped them reach out to a wider network, which aided their research into making the game more grounded in reality.
“Often, we are able to extend our network through existing relationships within the Call of Duty franchise,” Condrey said.
“For example, we worked with Mark Bohl, writer of Hurt Locker, and were put in contact with his retired Navy Seal Team 6 adviser through shared contacts.”
After tapping this wealth of military knowledge, and making sure that all weapons and tech could be linked to a current “R&D or a prototype,” Sledgehammer were able to make the game more “grounded and believable.”
Finally, Condrey knew that Sledgehammer has to craft a convincing narrative in order to connect with its fans and audience, and says that they are taking hints from television series in the United States.
“Right now, we’re all talking about this third golden age of television in the US – that inspires us,” said Condrey.
“Games have long way to go to deliver on the emotional narratives we see in, say, Game of Thrones.
“We have to learn lessons there, we have to learn about emotional attachment to characters, provocative situations, loss.
“We need to make those a big part of video games.”
