The one thing that I really got from this is that these developers are huge fans of the franchise. There is a big (not licensed) Optimus Prime Statue at the studio entrance. It used to make sounds but that drove the receptionist crazy, so now he only lights up.
Here is what I learnt while on the tour and speaking to the creators and designers:
The model used for Drift in the game (seen in trailers and cutscenes) is based on his Age of Extinction look rather than his Last Knight look because the more reference to movement available the better, and the only media they have access to for The Last Knight right now is trailers (which Drift doesn't appear in). Hasbro does send them reference material if needed and the reference Hasbro sent to them for Drift was shots of the Prime 1 Studios statue.
The Sharkticon design was in house and not based on any previous design. They needed a grunt type character for the story and while the Sharkticons fit the bill narratively, their G1 designs, which is echoed in their Generations toy, didn’t fit with the overall aesthetic of the game. So they created their own “Generations Sharkticon” which would be more of an update, “classics” style, like many figures were before the recent turn of the Generations toys being much closer to their G1 counterparts.
From a writing perspective, Cuz Parry, the writer of this game (and the writer of the entire Skate series), finds this similar to writing a comic book since it doesn’t end. You just build on the story and create new stories with this same or evolving roster. There is a beginning and then a middle, middle, middle, middle…
The only licensing in the game is with Hasbro for their characters. While the alt-modes look very close to their movie alt-modes, none of the vehicles are licensed. All the designers have to do to bypass copyright is change the angle of the headlights and the shape of the grill. Those happen to be the distinguishing features trademarked on a car’s look.
As you all know I am fond of lists, and here are two tidbits regarding lists and Transfomers:
1. Hasbro sent a list to the team of specific characters they would be fine with them using. And that list included Trenchmouth.
2. Hasbro also has a list of 7 pillar Transformers characters that they try to keep visible in their marketing and licensing (like DC’s three marketing pillars being Superman, Batman and the Joker). While they didn’t remember the specifics, they said it was the obvious G1 ones like Megatron, Optimus, Bumblebee and Starscream, but they did remember being surprised by the inclusion of Hound.
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Trenchmouth Gallery
The hardest move to design ever was the box move for Mirage. It is not the design that was hard (it's just a box), it was the timing. The box must first appear fully around Mirage for him to then disappear and it must then reappear fully and fade away for Mirage to reappear. That’s a lot of animation to handle and a long time for the game to stop and for the opponent to either move away or no longer be in control. Plus, you are giving someone the ability to no longer be seen, which might be too big of an advantage in a fast paced game like this. So there too, it’s about the timing. How long can the player be truly invisible? Cuz, the writer, jokingly said that if the box didn’t work they could just have his special be that he parachutes down.
Most G1 designs in the game are based on Hasbro designed toys. Lead character developer, Adam Cooper said that sadly, Ratchet does not have any good Hasbro designed toys out there and thus his design is instead a hybrid of the Takara Masterpiece and the DeNA design from Transformers: Legends.
These are all the tidbits I have for now. More will come when we are at the discretion to share and in upcoming interviews. And about the city itself, Vancouver, if there is one thing I wasn't prepared for, it's for how sarcastic it was.
Joking aside, it was an amazing trip and Seibertron.com would like to thank Hasbro, Kabam Studio and their partners at Rogers & Cowan for organizing this exciting event.
