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The First Hours of Command & Conquer Generals


	The Sage engine's editor is so intuitive and powerful that the team plans to release it before the game ships.

By early February 2002, all the hard work building the game's infrastructure begins to pay off. For the first time, the team is able to start executing on the results of months of brainstorming. Best of all, the editor created by Ahlquist is turning out to be a huge aid to the designers. What started as a simple editor with terrain textures and graphic squiggles has evolved into a full 3D editor the designers can use in real time. The team, so impressed with the tool, is now thinking of releasing it to the fan community before the game ships.

Before the designers start working on their missions in the editor, they spend weeks thinking about them and writing up a plot, as if the mission were a three-act play. "We're thinking of scenarios like Behind Enemy Lines for one of the missions," explains Skaggs. "For instance, when a plane is shot down, the pilot might escape on the battlefield. But he won't be an expendable unit this time." Instead, once the pilot parachutes out, he may be able to climb into one of his side's vehicles and raise its veteran ranking. "If he manages to stay alive, he could be a very strong asset." The ideas are limitless, but there are also many concepts that don't pass muster. The unit list on the wall is constantly updated, but there is also a "wall of shame" for rejected units and missions.

An early cut-scene

Watch a short video clip of an in-development cut-scene from the game. This scene uses real video footage, CGI, and matte paintings to create a realistic look. WM - 56K \| Cable \| T1 RM - 56K \| Cable \| T1

With regard to the missions, they will play out inside of the game engine and through the customary C&C cutscenes. While almost every other computer and video game has abandoned the idea of live-action sequences, the team behind Generals fully intends to hire actors to depict the major roles. "For however much it costs us for a day of Kari Wuhrer's time, we get personality for free," says Skaggs, referring to the actress who played Tanya in Red Alert 2.

One important way to bring personality to the game is through sound design, such as the memorable one-liners from C&C games of the past. For this game, the team is spending a significant amount of time making sure the audio matches the impressive 3D visuals. In early February, sound designers David Fries and Mical Pedrina traveled to San Mateo, California, to visit Jacques M. Littlefield, the owner of a tank museum that's home to nearly 100 tanks. "The best recording of a turret noise would be the Sherman tank," he tells the sound designers. "It operates off a hydraulic pump, so when you push the switch to move the turret, it sounds a bit like a lightsaber." Littlefield's tanks were used as source material for the sound effects in Saving Private Ryan. This April, the team will return to his complex to record sounds for Generals.

Tank Museum Trip

By mid-February, all the pieces of the game begin to fall into place--the design starts to solidify and the new game engine proves to be a stable and rich new platform for an RTS game. Nevertheless, in the back of everyone's mind is the looming release date later this year. Whenever anyone logs onto the company's intranet Web site, a large red counter appears with the title "Countdown to Alpha." While the alpha date isn't scheduled until July, everyone on the team is well aware that crunch mode has already begun.