Community Summit 07
The Invitation
In early November 2007, I received an email from Aaron “Apoc” Kaufman inviting me to the next Kane’s Wrath Community Summit, which was scheduled for 6 December 2007.
“Well, it’s that time again, and I’d like to extend the honour of inviting you to the upcoming Kane’s Wrath Community Summit here at our EALA studio on 5th and 7th December. You’ve been doing amazing things at C&C Saga and it’s time to repay you for your efforts and let you head back to France with a first exclusive look at Kane’s Wrath. I couldn’t be more excited to invite you back again! We’ll have a hell of a time!”
The trip is organised by EA Los Angeles and funded for me by EA France. I’d like to thank the whole C&C team in Los Angeles, EA France, Aaron Kaufman, Peter Larsen and Grégory Queste for making it possible for Saga to attend a second Community Summit (following the C&C3 one in December 2006).
My journey involved several stages: a TGV journey to Paris, followed by an American Airlines flight from Paris to New York, and finally from New York to Los Angeles. The journey is as long and tiring as ever. As well as the numerous security and customs checks, there were also delays caused by snow in the north-east of the US (a four-hour delay in New York). All in all, the journey from Paris took some 15 hours.
Wednesday evening: Due to the delay on the New York–Los Angeles flight, I arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey at 9.20 pm instead of 6 pm, so unfortunately I missed the first meal of the Community Summit: this seems to be a recurring theme, as it had already happened last year on my first trip. Despite this, I met up with the other guests in the hotel lobby. We chatted for a long time, then I went to bed so I’d be fresh for the one-day event.
Thursday 6 December – Day One (?):
As always, the night seems to drag on forever, because as well as wanting to get to grips with the game as quickly as possible, the nine-hour time difference means that the 8 am meeting still feels like 5 pm in my mind, and I’m not used to having an afternoon nap.
8.00 am (at last!), I head down to the hotel lobby with my flatmate David (from England) and we chat with the other members whilst waiting for Apoc (Aaron Kaufman), who arrives at 9.00 am. We take taxis to EALA, where we have breakfast. Breakfasts at EALA still feel just as much like lunch or a luxury fast-food meal.
At 9.30 am, we walk through a black curtain that divides the canteen in two; on the other side, computers and Xbox 360s await us. But before we could try out the game, we attended a 1½-hour presentation given by Jim Vessella (producer), Samuel Bass (Lead Designer) and Keith Schieffel (Head of Online for Xbox 360).
Jim Vessella reminded us of the game team’s objectives for Kane’s Wrath:
- 1/ to expand the universe and gameplay possibilities of CnC3 with six sub-factions,
- 2/ to create a narrative bridge between Tiberian Sun and Tiberium Wars,
- 3/ to add a single-player mode: Conquest Mode,
- 4/ to meet the community’s expectations by adding features requested on the forums.
The story of Kane’s Wrath is divided into three parts: 2035 and Kane’s return, 2047 and the Third Tiberium War, and finally, after TW, with access to the Alien Tower.
Conquest Mode is an additional single-player campaign that will be available to all factions and sub-factions. It unfolds in a non-linear manner, much like the game Risk, across the globe. Although we weren’t able to play this mode during the Summit, I can still tell you that there will apparently be two missions in France (Brittany? and Paris?). The aim of this mode is to offer a story whilst giving the player a great deal of freedom. This game mode is linked to an option that allows you to customise your army.
Jim goes on to give a brief overview of a few units from each faction.
Samuel Bass then explains the ambitions behind the storyline:
- a post-TS story,
- expanding the Canons,
- a bridge between TS and TW,
- a sequel to TW, as the Nod ending was deemed too abstract by fans.
When we look at the details a little more closely, this results in videos featuring: a mix of TS assets (those that were still usable to the required standard) and TW assets, a more dynamic storyline, and the appearance of Anton Slavik, Gabriela Boudreau and Eric Cortez in photographs.
The story also aims to answer certain questions: How does Kane return to power? What becomes of CABAL? The reunification of Nod? Kilian’s role? How did Nod manipulate the GDI? The role of the Tacitus? etc...
We then watched a few of the game’s videos, corresponding to the intro sequences for five missions in Act 1 and three in Act 2.
Keith then showed us the new radial interface for the Xbox 360.
We round off the morning with a test of the skirmish mode on PC and Xbox 360. They make it clear that the game isn’t yet fully balanced, particularly with regard to the epic units.
From 2 pm to 5 pm, we took part in a combined 1v1/2v2 multiplayer tournament. I won my first 1v1 match without too much trouble, but then lost my 2v2 match after my partner (who was new to CnC3) was eliminated within a few minutes. Whilst waiting for the tournament to finish, we were able to carry on playing multiplayer and skirmish matches.
At 5.00 pm, we headed to the studio’s main building to tour the CnC TV studio with David Silverman and Raj Joshi. They explained how they came up with the idea for the programme, how they designed the set, and then Raj took photos of us one by one at the Battlecast PrimeTime table.
The Community Summit ends with a round-table discussion, the signing of NDA (non-disclosure) agreements and filling in questionnaires relating to the CNC TV programme.
Apoc then gave each of us, in addition to our Logitech G15 keyboards which we’d been using all day, a copy of the CnC Saga pack (which Apoc would have signed by members of the Kane’s Wrath team for me the following day) and a Kane figurine.
We then all set off together by bus to the Staples Centre (a major sports venue in Los Angeles) to watch the NHL match between the Los Angeles Kings and the Buffalo Sabres from a VIP box. There, I discovered how a sports match in the United States becomes a real spectacle. During one of the many stoppages in play, we could see a trailer for Kane’s Wrath – which Apoc had sent to the organisers – on the main screen, and 30 copies of CnC3 for PC and Xbox 360 were given away to the crowd.
The match ends (Los Angeles win 8–2), we take a group photo and Apoc gives each of us a replica of Kane’s ring. We then headed back to the hotel.
A few of us met up in the CnCNZ representative’s room to eat, drink and chat for most of the night.
Friday 7 December – A second day at EALA:
On Friday, Apoc came to pick us (David and me) up from the hotel to drive us to EALA in his ‘Apoc’s Mobile’. There we joined the last four German guests to play Kane’s Wrath in skirmish and multiplayer modes from 9 am to 5 pm, with hardly any breaks. Several members of the Kane’s Wrath balancing team took turns answering our questions and noting down our comments and bug reports.
At 5 pm, I spent half an hour showing Apoc and Peter Larsen Saga’s creations, including the Battlecast PrimeTime section (you’ll soon find out why), the airsoft section, which Apoc really liked, the RPG section, the ‘mahoudeaux’ map, Nathalie’s clan website – which impressed Apoc – and loads of other things. They both said that Saga is unique and special :D Finally, Apoc had a laugh when he saw the thread on the forum about the new FPS.
At 7 pm, the six of us set off with Peter Larsen to eat at an Irish pub in Santa Monica, then finished the evening in a bar near the hotel. Peter mentioned to us the scale of the resources EA wanted to invest in the CnC franchise and pointed out that EALA doesn’t just make RTS games, so we could expect some nice surprises, even though ‘Renegade 2’ is well and truly a thing of the past. That’s why we weren’t able to go up to the 4th floor this year, and 2008 is set to be full of news…
The return journey went without too many hitches (just a few hours’ delay in Chicago)…
This short but intense stay at EALA was truly fascinating and has strengthened my belief that I’m going to really enjoy ‘Kane’s Wrath’. Thank you to everyone who contributes to Saga and keeps the site alive; thank you to EAFR, EALA, Aaron, Jim, Peter… During this trip, the EALA team also reiterated their commitment to improving game balance and doing so more quickly (it took too long, in their view as well as ours, for CnC3), to continuing to support their games in the future, and to improving their multiplayer services. Furthermore, during a discussion, Mike Verdu mentioned the team’s hope that, in future, PC RTS games would be compatible with their console versions in multiplayer mode.
