Every announcement of a new Call of Duty game stirs up the internet. In that respect, the reveal of Call of Duty: Ghosts was business as usual, except for what generated the most buzz: a German Shepherd with a camera….
A dog? Yes, a dog. The team at Infinity Ward was looking for a way to create more emotional bonding between the player and the characters in the game. In previous CoD’s we played as several different soldiers through a large storyline, which proved to be a bit confusing for some gamers. This time, Infinity Ward decided to focus on a very small squad consisting of two brothers, which, the development team hopes, will add more emotional impact to Ghosts than random squads. And who better to join these siblings in their battles than a war-hungry dog named Riley?
According to Infinity Ward’s executive producer, Mark Rubin, Ghosts’ canine companion and its emotional connection to the player was not always planned. “After Modern Warfare 3 we sat around the table to talk about what we wanted to do for future projects. Everybody agreed the Modern Warfare trilogy was done and we wouldn’t want to make a MW4. But we wanted to preserve the near-future setting, and with that as a starting point, we began brainstorming. What we needed to create was a world that would feel familiar, but would also bring in a lot of new elements. This took quite a while and it’s certainly not like we just started on the first Monday morning after MW3 and decided to make Ghosts.”
“And during one of these sessions - where all kinds of ideas were collected from special notice boards we scattered all over the office - someone wondered what would happen if a dog appeared in Ghosts. This idea was well-received and we quickly decided the dog would be part of the squad. But at that moment, that was it. We had no bigger plans for the dog.
Until we invited one of the specially trained Navy Seals and his dog to tell us about their symbiosis, the training, the special gear, etc. This was a game-changer for us; the role we had in mind for the dog multiplied by ten, just because of this meeting. And besides the interesting role of the Seal and his dog, we saw numerous gameplay possibilities,” says Rubin.
“A few different species are being used by the Navy Seals [in the real world]. Besides the German Shepherds, they also use Belgian Shepherds, but ultimately we chose to work with the German ones. So we’ve got some bad-ass Navy Seals visiting us with their lethal dogs, shouting German commands all the time. Pretty weird stuff. And when these dogs come in, they are these really lovable creatures you can pet and cuddle with. But as soon as the exercise begins, they turn into really bad-ass Navy Seal dogs…
And off course, bad-ass dogs have bad-ass names like Ruger, Rico, and Turbo. Turbo was my all time favorite. And the bond between dog and trainer was extraordinary. One of the guys told us he would take a bullet for his dog without hesitation. And a fun fact: after a short tour of duty, the dogs are released [from service] and become the home dogs for the Seals. Just imagine being a burglar!”
According to Rubin, nobody at Infinity Ward anticipated the CoD community’s reaction to the canine unit’s inclusion. “We were really overwhelmed by what happened in the hours after we revealed the dog. Memes were all over the place and, of course, there was a really funny Twitter account [set up] for Riley within minutes. The funny thing was that all that attention also had an impact on the development team. Everything we had in mind for the storyline of the dog now became so much more relevant.
We just had to take a short break to reconsider everything we had planned for Riley and not be distracted by all the sudden attention for one of our game elements. Luckily the story was already solid and we decided not to change anything, but it did get us thinking. Because it was not only surprising to see how big the impact of the game is, but also how this impact can influence the development of your game.”
IGN Benelux’ Jesse is our resident Viking and therefore loves every game that involves killing. Even when it’s with a gun and a dog.
Source : ign[dot]com
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