POLISHING GOLDENEYE
MARK EDMONDS ON DEVELOPING A FIRST-CLASS FPS
For Mark Edmonds, his first contribution to the development of Goldeneye was sat alone in a room in the Stamper mansion, filleting joints. “I didn’t really know what I was working on,” explains Mark, understandably. “I was asked to investigate creating filleted joints for an animated 3D character system; basically, a smooth skin over joints, like an elbow, rather than just having a solid block for an upper and lower arm. I had no idea it was connected to James Bond but I must have passed the test because I got moved over to the stable block and onto the team proper. It was great just to be working on my first videogame!”
Programmer Mark joined project leader Martin Hollis and artist Karl Hilton and the trio got to work on early builds of Goldeneye. Initially, the game was heavily influenced by Sega’s Virtua Cop with Bond following a predetermined route through levels. “We were using this amazing new invention called the analogue stick to aim a crosshair,” grins Mark. “But then we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to play a game like Doom with actual 3D graphics? That would be a new experience!’ And we knew the Nintendo 64 was capable of rendering 3D graphics from any orientation or direction.”
The team decided to take Bond
‘off the rails’, though knowing exactly what the N64 was capable of required a good deal of faith. Its development system used high-end Silicon Graphics machines, a pleasure to work with, if prone to overheating, whilst the specifications of Nintendo’s forthcoming console were yet to be finalised. “I vaguely remember being disappointed seeing the tech demos running on the first development consoles,” admits Mark. “But once our own artists got going onto the project, they managed to make the graphics look good!”
Mark beavered away on the Goldeneye engine, taking art created in such packages as Alias and Gamegen and rendering them in game. He helped develop the system which handled the motion captured animations, pioneering in their day, and worked on the enemy AI, so your foes could at least attempt to outwit your agent before crumpling in agony when you shot them in the groin. Yet despite all these innovative features, the team really wasn’t sure anyone else would be impressed.
“It was amazing to travel to the E3 show in 1997 but I don’t remember much reaction to the game there,” says Mark. “It probably wasn’t the right environment for people to get into it. It was only afterwards when the reviews started coming that I realised people actually did like it.”
“We Were using this amazing new invention called the ‘analogue stick’” Mark Edmonds