Producer Bet Mattes of Ubi Montreal for PoP 2008 talks about the successes and fails he saw from PoP 2008Prince of Persia Afterthoughts
Producer Ben Mattes looks back on the shipped game and talks about downloadable expansions.
by Erik Brudvig
December 22, 2008 - Looking back and reflecting on work done is the key to future success. Now that Prince of Persia has shipped to stores and is in the hands of gamers everywhere, Ubisoft Montreal has taken a step back to reflect on the final product in an interview with IGN. Producer Ben Mattes answered frank questions that ranged in topic from risks taken, 20/20 hindsight, and plans for future downloadable content and continuing the franchise.
IGN: When you look back at the development process for Prince of Persia, do you do so with a smile? Is there anything you would have changed about the approach taken to reboot this franchise?
Ben Mattes: I consider Prince of Persia to be a success and look back at the last three years very fondly. We set out to do some very specific things with Prince of Persia, and while the decisions we took are not universally loved, there are enough very positive comments out there (reviews, forum posts, etc) to make me feel proud of what we accomplished.
Of course, in retrospect, there are things I would change. Anyone who says otherwise about their game is lying to himself or herself. No one ever gets to put everything into a game they want and this is, of course, true of PoP. There are features we wanted to develop, parts of the story we wanted to tell that didn't make it into the final product for a variety of reasons.
One of our ambitions from the first day with this game was to create the 'Art Game That Sells'. We knew we had in PoP some core game systems (acrobatics and combat) and a universe/theme that was strong enough to give us the luxury to take some risks and explore some unique ideas and themes. The theme of love and loss was one we wanted to explore, but in a unique way – not just as a story but also through gameplay; a game where the penalty for failure is not artificially enforced by an arbitrary mechanic but rather self imposed by the player; a radical departure in the artistic direction with a much more 'storybook' feel. All of these, in my mind, were success stories for us and generally well appreciated.[
Given the benefit of 20/20 hindsight (I'll elaborate more on this below) I guess the one thing I would do differently is to have devoted more time to creating alternate systems/difficulty modes for the hardcore set.
I can see why you'd want to make a difficulty set for higher-skilled players. But, I seem to be missing lots of jumps over and over, which Elika's saving stops me from reloading 100 times. Also, having to do long passes over and over after Elika saves me, is okay with me -- and there's more of those, as you get further along b/c there's less and less solid pieces of ground; a lot of them are curved, ramps, object is on a slanted, etc etc.
IGN: Is there any aspect of Prince of Persia that you thought would be a sure hit with gamers that didn't get the attention you think it deserved? Likewise, is there anything you felt was a design gamble that people really took to?
Mattes: The design gamble one is easy -- Elika. We were constantly doubting ourselves during development as to whether or not Elika was a strong enough feature. We knew she was pretty to look at, but that was never enough. In the end, though, I've read many kind words about Elika that really reinforces that we made the right decision in including her in the game and giving her such a prominent role.
I'm also surprised (in a very good way) to read all of the positive comments regarding our On Demand Dialogue system – the ability of the player to dig deeper into the story by initiating dialogue with Elika throughout the game. After E3 there was some backlash within the community regarding our choice of voice actor for the Prince (Nolan North) as well as the type of character we were developing for the Prince (again -- I'll get deeper into this below). Generally speaking, though, the people who played with the ODD system seem to have developed a stronger appreciation for the story and the characters and I couldn't have asked for more out of this mechanic -- it did exactly what it was designed to do.
I think the voice-acting, dialogue, and interaction b/t Prince and Elika, so far that I've experienced, has been excellent.
I like how *I* have to initiate most of the dialogue -- and there's tons of it, when you do, too. Just like with Bioshock and finding the tapes -- you want to hear the tapes and get more story, hit the key to initiate them. I'm sure if I am replaying the game and trying to speed through the game and I don't wanna put up w/ the dialogue, well -- I don't have to. I can just play through the game. Nothing forced on me. That's great. And if I want to initiate the dialogue, I can just hit the appropriate key when it's telling me I can and -- there you go.
In terms of us taking a shot and missing, I guess I would have to go a little higher level here and speak about risks in general.
For years we've all been reading complaints about sequels and companies churning out carbon copies of proven formulas without focusing on innovation or taking risks. Fans, developers and critics alike seemed ravenous for new ideas -- new IPs; major innovations -- advances in this art-tertainment (I'm trying to coin a new term here 
) form we all love.
We tried to really embrace this challenge on PoP. We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general (and we weren't alone. EA took some major risks this year with new IP and innovations - Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, for example).
What surprises me is how little these high level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward. Perhaps I'm an idealist, but I think perhaps I was expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back for our attempts to do something new.
Whether this means we didn't totally succeed in our risk taking or whether our industry in fact has a stronger appetite for the familiar then it wants to admit remains to be seen. Honestly I hope it is the former.
You know, it's a shame that franchises new interesting IP's like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space; and sequels that completely tried a lot of new things such as Prince of Persia 2008 -- just didn't sell that well. Of course, EA had it coming on the PC versions of those games for including malware DRM, but you'd expect the console versions of those games to sell A LOT better than they actually did. It's a shame -- and you wonder why sometimes they decide to keep pumping out the same sports game year after year w/ little improvements and tweaks, yet people still buy those ASAP.
IGN: Several people I've spoken to found they could relate better to Elika than the Prince due to his gruff persona. Was this an intentional design move or a result of differences in personality and culture?
Mattes: The Prince was not actually designed to be gruff, just to start that way. I've given the example before, but we were really aiming for the Han Solo type evolution of character. When you first meet him, you think he is a jerk. As the story progresses, you see some good in him that allows you to understand his attitude for what it is -- a defense mechanism. By the end, his tough exterior has more or less melted away and his inherent goodness is what shines through.
In many ways, Elika was an easier character to develop in terms of personality. Her values were very clear from the start of the game (to herself, to the prince and to the player) and there was less evolution needed. The Prince, on the other hand, has to evolve from thinking only of his own selfish values to embracing those of another. He changes a lot more.
The interesting thing to me is some people really took to him -- they really felt this evolution and growth (searching through the official Ubi POP forums, the gamefaq forums or the IGN boards will show numerous threads on this) whereas others feel he started a jerk and ended a jerk and felt little evolution occurred.
I chalk this up to the randomness of the 'barks' in the game as well as the ODD system. If a player was unlucky enough to hear the Prince shout out his lovely 'ugh! Could you lose some weight' line too many times, that might stick with them as a component of his personality. Even though he stops saying those things as the game progresses and his relationship evolves with Elika, they might be so strongly embedded in the player's mind as who the Prince is that the fact that he has stopped being a smart-ass (or as much of one) is hardly perceived at all.
In addition, if a player isn't digging into the ODD system then there are whole chunks of the Prince's evolution that they are missing out on. We knew this would happen and accepted it figuring that people who didn't bother with the ODD likely didn't care too much about character evolution and story anyways.
In the end, though, I think there are some design lessons we'll need to take away from this for future games. I'll admit that I did not expect the personality of the Prince to be so controversial. I don't remember there being nearly as much frustration over the lack of an accent in Warrior Within or The Two Thrones.
Anytime that little icon light for ODD goes off, I'm just hitting away at that key until it won't flash anymore. Yes, I can definitely see what he's saying about The Prince's evolution, if you keep plugging away at their ODD System. As you get further and further along, him and Elika really do open up more and more to each other -- and you can see why they are the way they are.
I can see why some people will never notice the Prince's evolution, if they ain't hitting the key to initiate the dialogue b/t them two characters.
IGN: What's the plan for the future? Will we be seeing any downloadable content to expand the Prince of Persia world?
Mattes: We will have DLC for PoP that will feature new content such as a new area, new enemies, a new power and new fight moves.
This is not at all a chunk of the game that was supposed to ship but that we didn't finish in time – this is a significant DLC team that has taken all of the lessons they learned during the development of POP and all of the feedback we've read on boards and in reviews and are creating something really special.
I think there is a huge opportunity with the DLC to expand on the universe we've started to create with this game -- to dig deeper into the personality of the Prince and Elika and their relationship. Additionally with the DLC, we have the luxury of creating content that takes some of the negative feedback the game received into consideration. I, for one, can't wait to play it.
Mattes: If I said yes, that would be equivalent to announcing a sequel and, of course, I'm not in any position to do such a thing. Let's wait and see how this one does first.
That said -- the art style seems to be almost universally applauded and appreciated by fans and critics alike, so hopefully someday we'll see more of it.
Personally, I can't wait for PoP 2008 DLC to appear on the PC and for the next PoP game.
