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Black Kat’s producer reveals how Pirates came to life
By Michael Lafferty

She is the champion of the seas, as cunning with sword and cannon as she is beautiful. Her name is Katarina de Leon, but to most of the islands of the cyberworld in which she lives, she is known as Black Kat.

Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat has all the traits of a swashbuckling, high seas adventure. It has been released on several platforms ­ the PS2 and Xbox (for reviews, please see http://ps2.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r17607.htm , or http://xbox.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r17607.htm ) ­ by Westwood Studios/EA Games.

To recap the plot of the game Kat is the daughter of Governor Marcus de Leon. It is revealed upon her father’s death that her mother was a pirate queen. Well, Katarina, also has been indulging in the pirate trade. But now she is on a mission ­ discover her mother’s hidden fortune, and complete some quests along the way ­ and perhaps avenge her father’s death.

The game is rife with boss monsters, ship battles on the seas as well islands to explore and puzzles to solve.

Loren Bryant, producer of Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox took time to talk with GameZone about the title.
 
Question: When you create a game like Pirates, is there an actual planning phase wherein it is decided the balance between sea battles and Black Kat's land adventures? How does a game like this come together considering the variety of experiences it provides.
 
Loren: "Yes, there is a planning phase for every game, be it computer or console, that is created. Pirates was a little different though ­ it went through several changes during development. Originally it was a PC game, but once we really began developing the story side, we realized it would be more appropriate on console. After we made that decision, we also had to decide how much time would be spent on land vs. the boat. That also went through several iterations before we ended up with the final result."

Q: From personal experience, some of the ocean scenes ­ with Wind Dancer sailing toward a setting sun - were incredibly lifelike. The ocean ripples were remarkable, the skies were amazing ­ it looked like it was real? It needs to be asked, without giving away too many secrets how was such realism created? And who gets the credit for it?
 
Loren: "Thankfully, this generation of console hardware is able to really let the development team create expansive and detailed environments. Technical credit for the terrain, skies and sea goes to Kenny Mitchell, who, when he is not working on detailed CG environments at work, spends his spare time working on detailed CG environments."
 
Q: This game featured just the right mix of camp and serious palaver between characters. Did it just happen that way, or was the game intentionally written to provide this aspect? Was there a movie or book that provided the role model for the game?
 
Loren: "Yes. As said, during the development process we put a great deal of emphasis on the characters and story. We really wanted them to drive the game, rather than it just being about Pirate legend and lore. As development went on, it became apparent that fantasy elements work really well in the Pirate setting, so we continued to add more over-the-top monsters, terrain, etc.
 
"As for our inspirations, there wasn't one specific book or movie that influenced the entire development team. Rather, it was a collection of all types of Pirate information, from the fantastical legends to real-life accounts."

Q: Who came up with the idea of putting Kane into the game (and covering that bit of hilarity with a cheat code)? And out of curiosity, why are cheat codes created in the first place?
 
Loren: "This is Westwood! We had to have Kane in there somehow!

"Honestly, cheat codes are almost required in a console title ­ it is just a tradition. They are usually included at the tail end of a project when the artists and designers are winding down on critical tasks for the game and they just want to have a little fun."
 
Q: The majority of puzzles were combat related (a few were figuring out the order of the teleporters), and yet each boss monster presented a challenge of sort. This may be giving away something, though not the right thing, but the only way to control Kat after being cursed was to turn the controller upside down. How much effort goes into creating bosses that are individually challenging? Is there a special team of designers or programmers that diagrams how each boss should function and what it takes to beat them?
 
Loren: "We had brainstorming sessions with all of the designers and others from the team where we talked about each of the bosses. We made sure that they were all unique and had a trick to beating them. Bosses are always a challenge to develop. They are the payoff for the level and the climax of the game so the player is expecting a real battle and, hopefully, gets a great reward."
 
Q: The cutscenes were very well done. How much time is involved in creating scenes like these?
 
Loren: "Westwood is known for its high production values, both for the game and the in-game cutscenes, and Pirates is no different. We put a great deal of effort into ensuring that the cutscenes looked great and helped to tell a really compelling story. We had a fairly compressed time frame in which to get our cut scenes done though. We started the sound recording in June of 2001 and had them done in November of the same year. "
 
Q: What was the most enjoyable part of creating this program?
 
Loren: "I know many people on the team would say the "research" (a trip to the Florida Keys), but for me it was seeing all the development team's efforts culminate in stunning sea battles with multiple ships."
 
Q: Pirates has been released for different platforms? Once the base concept is in place, how hard is it to render it to the different platforms?
 
Loren: "Yes, Pirates has been released for Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. It really wasn't too difficult to work on two systems simultaneously. They each have very different rendering pipelines, but they are both very powerful. It is when the capabilities of the systems are different problems arise - separate sets of art on each of the different platforms for example."
 
Q: Are there more adventures featuring Kat in the offing? Will she set sail again in future adventures?
 
Loren: "It is certainly possible that Kat will have more adventures in the future, but we currently don't have anything planned."