May 25, 2007

Ratatouille a la Console – Heavy Iron Studios’s Lyle Hall on the Forthcoming Wii, PS3, 360, Handheld, and Current-Gen Editions
by Louis Bedigian 

“What you see in the film you get to play and experience in the game.” 

This June, Disney and Pixar will release the highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s rubber-burning hit, Cars – a little movie by the name of Ratatouille. Actually, it’s the stars of the film who are small. The movie itself is expected to be a smash. 

Ratatouille will infiltrate the video game world around the time it begins to dominate theaters. Next-gen, current-gen, handheld, cell phone – you name it and Ratatouille is on it. 

“[We] really want you to get a sense for what it’s like to be the rat of the human world,” said Lyle Hall, VP & General Manager at Heavy Iron Studios. “That does not mean that Remy is a teeny guy. But certainly next to a normal-sized person it’s a very scary thing.” 

Ratatouille on Xbox 360. 

Mr. Hall described some of the dangers Remy, the film’s furry star, will encounter in the kitchen. “Fire, boiling water, knives…” And in other locations? “In the courtyard there are dogs or other creatures or animals, natural hazards or human cars. In the marketplace there are people throwing food, which could be very dangerous. It’s something that you see in the film and is something we wanted to make sure was in the game. What you see in the film you get to play and experience in the game.” 

Regarding the size difference between Remy and the human characters, Mr. Hall commented, “You’re a good-sized character, but the world [is huge]. That’s one of the great things about the next-gen technology of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We’ve been able to create characters that are even taller than the size of the screen. What’s cool about the world we’ve been able to build is that there are also different vertical levels. So you may be crawling across a table in the marketplace while one of the guys is chopping up his food to sell to somebody. But later you’ll be running across the floor by his feet, so you can imagine how tall he is.” 

Ratatouille on Wii. 

Ratatouille (the game) takes you through the experience of the movie, but also build on it? Similar to the Cars game last year? 

Lyle Hall: Well actually what Cars did, I think the narrative takes place after the film. 

Yes, that’s correct. 

LH: In Ratatouille it’s more about what happened in the film. The gameplay is between what happens at the beginning of the film and at the end of the film. We like to say that when you see the film, what the director and writer wanted you to see, how they wanted you to see the world through Remy’s eyes, this is a chance for you to play that experience. There’s actually a whole marketplace world in the game that didn’t make it into the film. It was supposed to be in there but didn’t make it. We get to see things as the film develops that may support the game, things that may not be able to be communicated in the film but could be used in the game. But because they had done such tremendous research for it, we were able to take that and [use it for the game]. 

You said there’s a marketplace world? 

LH: Yes, it’s a French market. 

How does it appear in the game? What is its purpose? 

LH: It’s based on what the market would have looked like if it had occurred in the film. It’s based on the art direction and atmosphere of the film. 

Why you’re there in the context of our game is… Remy is trying to follow his personal dream of becoming a French chef, but also wants to support his family in the rat colony. He has his home life and his community versus his dream. That’s one of the things the movie is about, and we wanted to make sure that theme is transcended in the game. It’s a video game and you get to run through some pretty crazy environments, but that’s supported by the notion that you’re this scared, little rat in a big, scary [human] world.  

Another look at the 360 edition.  

Most Pixar games feature a story that’s separate from the film. Is that true for Ratatouille as well? 

LH: The script is original in the sense that it doesn’t take from the film. But we certainly look at the film when we do our writing for dialogue. It goes through a pretty thorough editing process with the team at Pixar. They make sure that the script is authentic [and that the characters] are true to how they are in the film. Because they’re communicating things that are specific to the game and not about the film, there is a tremendous amount of original content that we’ve written about the game mission, what it is you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. When you need information or have to complete task, those are things that aren’t in the film that are original for the game as well. That’s supported by having the original actors from the film and wanting to get them in the game. 

How would you describe the game to players wanting to know what to expect the first time they play Ratatouille? Will it be a familiar experience to gamers? 

LH: Absolutely. We know that it’s something that’s going to appeal to the core audience. Sure, they’re animated and they have a primary target of kids. And we wanted something that they [the kids] could play really easily. At the same time we wanted parents and brothers and sisters to be comfortable with the kids playing it but also be something that they might be interested in playing with them. We’ve got some multi-player content on the console [versions] – fun things that you would see in the film. 

What is the primary objective? Do you have to collect something or reach a certain goal? 

LH: It’s a combination of different things. We have all of Remy’s natural abilities. There is certainly some cooking in the game because that is a critical part of what the film is about, and what Remy’s relationship with Linguini is about. At the same time we wanted to make sure you, again, get the sense of what it’s like to be a rat in a dangerous world. We also wanted you to have the feeling that you’re accomplishing something. 

In terms of the missions themselves, it depends on the location and what we decided was fun to do in the different worlds. The courtyard is the exterior to the restaurant and is a different kind of world. There are a lot of people and a lot of activities like a real restaurant. 

Missions range from getting things for your colony and your family to feed them to making progress through the world. Sometimes you have to use your rat skills to make things happen – to open certain things, to make your way through the kitchen safely. That’s what platform games are about – navigation and knowing how to get from a series of setups that are challenging.  

Rata Wii. 

Tell us about the combat element. 

LH: We wanted to stay true to the characters. You know, there’s not a lot of that [fighting] in the film, and yet that’s something we know players like to do. They like to blow stuff up. That’s one of the other things that’s great about working with people at Pixar. They understand that we want to make a really fun game and they understand that the audience wants something that didn’t occur in the film. We try to create a believable character. One of my favorite things in the game is the addition of the chili pepper. You can use that as sort of a weapon to blow things up. We don’t have Remy picking anything up as a weapon to hurt anyone. We do have some cool next-gen AI technology where we’ve got swarms of bugs. So the combat isn’t necessarily what the game is about, but it is something to defend yourself, and is something to keep enemies away from you using [a tail-whip move]. 

How does the food element work? 

LH: The food works in different ways depending on which platform the game is on. The location of the restaurant is a key environment in the film and a key environment in all the games. One of my favorite things in the PS2, Wii, Xbox, and GameCube games is… When we were looking at the film two years ago, one of the things we learned about was Remy’s fascination with gourmet food. There was the notion that he might have moments where he kind of loses his sense of self and kind of daydreams. We used that notion to create these cool dream worlds that are missions you unlock. They’re really cool platform stages. There’s a cheese world, a kitchen sink, [and others] for those game platforms. 

There is also a cool cooking game on the next-gen platforms [PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360] using Linguini as you see in the film. He and Remy cook together in a way that’s fun and that I think the kids will enjoy. 

Are the dream-like worlds hidden? 

LH: You have to find them in the game. It’s not something where you have to beat the game so far to play them. Once you locate them and have played them, you can play them anytime you want to. 

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions should provide the best visual punch. 

How is the game separated – by missions or stages? 

LH: The game is separated by worlds and there are six of them. It’s an open-ended game. You have to open certain worlds to make progress, but one of the cool things about the way we structured the game is that you can go back and play through [new parts of] previous worlds. It’s kind of like a movie. You don’t wander from scene to scene, you go back to certain places. 

Each world has any number of missions needed to complete the world. But the missions don’t have to be completed in a linear order. 

What are the differences between the DS and PSP versions of the game, and the current-gen and next-gen versions? 

LH: We wanted each game to [have a unique interface] for each [differing] platform. We also chose different developers that were specialists at doing games for a specific platform. 

For the PSP and DS, we created a game that’s very fun to pick up and play. It’s something that you can play for a while, make some progress [and exit], which is different from the consoles which are much bigger in scale. On the DS we really wanted to take advantage of the stylus and microphone. There’s also a cooking game where you’re using the stylus to cut and chop and use the microphone to blow and cool things down. The machine really lends itself to the interactions of the film. 

On the consoles, specifically on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we’re taking advantage of all that extra horsepower. The high-def graphics, real-time physics (where things are scattered around a level], a very cool fur shader – that’s one of the cool things about the movie, seeing the way [Pixar] handles fur. It’s pretty amazing. That’s one of the things next-gen technology allows us to do, similar things where we’re actually using shaders to create fur. 

The Wii version has some very specific controls where you flick the remote. We also have five mini-games, like Remy Luge where he’s riding on his back. 

A lot of Wii games use the remote or nunchuck to control the camera. How will Ratatouille’s camera system work on Wii? 

LH: We use the nunchuck to control the character because that’s the most natural of the interfaces. We use the Wii remote to move the camera around. You hold down two buttons and move the remote to change the camera. It’s a 3D platform experience – it’s so seamless to use the Wii remote [and nunchuck combo]. 

More Rata Wii. 

You previously worked on Gex: Enter the Gecko. What was that experience like? 

LH: Back in 1992 I was working for Virgin Games. This company Crystal Dynamics was starting, and I knew someone at Sega who was a producer there, and his wife was one of the founders of Crystal Dynamics and they were looking to hire another producer. They hired me and wanted me to do a game – a great 3D platformer. They said I could do anything besides driving and shooting and flying and shooting because we [Crystal Dynamics] had those covered. My dream was to try to beat Mario. If you’re going to do something great you might as well reach for the best. We tried to build something that we thought was at least as good as, hopefully better than, things that we thought were important to gamers. I started on it in ’93 and it came out in 1995. It was a pretty small team. We all worked really hard to build this game for a machine that wasn’t [built] for platform games. We’re really proud of the game.  

Thanks Lyle, that’s all the questions I have. It’s been great speaking to you.