GoldenEye: Rogue Agent Designer Diary #1

No Bond. No Rules. No Mercy.

By Patrick Gilmore, executive producer, and Chris Plummer, senior producer

The Story: A twist for the Bond franchise

Executive producer Patrick Gilmore takes you behind the scenes of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent's development. Click "stream" for a larger window.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent's story is a journey through the dark side of the Bond universe--a world never before seen in the games. This is the first time players get to be the bad guy in the Bond universe and can encounter villains from basically every decade of infamous Bond films.

Your story in the game begins with you playing the role of an aspiring MI6 agent who is cast out of Her Majesty's secret service due to excessively brutal tactics. As the story unfolds, you become the rogue agent known as GoldenEye. He's one of the only new characters in the entire story, because almost everyone else in the game will be familiar to fans of the Bond legacy. He is inspired in many ways by Alec Trevelyan, the MI6 agent gone bad from the film GoldenEye.

As it turns out, earlier in your career you had a close encounter with Dr. Julius No that cost you an eye. When your MI6 career ends, you accept a job with Auric Goldfinger, who is at war with Dr. No for control of the underworld. Goldfinger offers you a shot at revenge against Dr. No and, more importantly, grants you a sinister bit of implanted technology that becomes your namesake, much like Jaws' metal teeth. It's an upgradable synthetic eye procured by none other than Francisco Scaramanga, the man with the golden gun.

Goldfinger has a secret weapon called the O.M.E.N., and your job is to keep it safe from Dr. No. As the story unfolds, you rise through the ranks of Goldfinger's organization in a quest for vengeance against Dr. No. Along the way, you receive upgrades to your GoldenEye courtesy of Scaramanga. You'll also meet other famous villains and henchmen, and you'll even get to know Pussy Galore quite well.

Goldfinger and Dr. No were chosen as the key villains in Rogue Agent for multiple reasons. They're two of our team's personal favorite Bond villains, they possess very unique personalities (great for crafting a compelling story), and they literally are two of the most popular villains of all time. The game is not retro in style, although we are definitely tapping into the legendary characters and locations that Bond fans are familiar with and just haven't had an opportunity to experience yet in a game.

The Team

Knowing the type and quality of game we needed to deliver, we assembled an all-star team from around the world to achieve the most authentic-looking and authentic-feeling Bond universe to date. The most notable contribution to the game's look was made by Academy Award-winning production designer Sir Ken Adam, who is long regarded as the original architect of the 007 films' visual style. In GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, you will revisit such memorable Adam's sets as the spectacular volcano lair from You Only Live Twice, Goldfinger's Fort Knox, and the towering shuttle-launch base featured in Moonraker. Adam also lends his timeless vision to new locations that were designed exclusively for the game. These imaginative sets include Goldfinger's The Midas Casino on the Las Vegas strip and the reimagined Auric Enterprises, the mountain stronghold and home to the gold-obsessed supervillain.

Contributing to the preproduction process of the game, Kym Barrett, a Hollywood costume designer best known for her work on The Matrix trilogy, is bringing her unique vision to the underworld of the James Bond universe. She blended stylized elements with classic design that has given GoldenEye: Rogue Agent's villains a look all of their own.

Another power player that we joined forces with is Rene Morel, the man responsible for the incredible models of the Final Fantasy films. He helped us create incredible models of some of the key players of the game, including Dr. No, Goldfinger, Xenia Onatopp, Oddjob, Pussy Galore, and, of course, GoldenEye himself. From these models, we were able to translate these characters into the game with an incredible feeling of realism, while preserving the authenticity of the James Bond world.

Reprising their film roles, Christopher Lee (as Francisco Scaramanga) and Judi Dench (as M) lend both their voice talents and likenesses to the game. All of the famous Bond villains in the game are portrayed with authentic likenesses. And finally, but certainly not the least, we have world-renowned DJ Paul Oakenfold, who is composing an original score and creating the game's overarching musical personality by handcrafting killer beats for every mission. We're really excited with the way the musical direction has turned out. Oakenfold's punchy musicscape feels like he's spinning in your living room--based on your actions in the game--which is very cool indeed.

Become the Ultimate Villain: Unleash Your Weapon

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is all about becoming the ultimate villain. You are no longer constrained by the rules and regulations of MI6, and as a villain, you're not out to save the world; you're out to rule it. We want you to enjoy what it feels like to be a villain and to experience a more illicit style of gameplay. As GoldenEye, you fight your way through the underworld using a wide range of what would be called brutal tactics, such as taking human shields, clearing out groups of enemies with rocket launchers and grenades, and taking advantage of death traps found in every level. The more you play like a villain, the more style points you get.

The GoldenEye itself is a sinister bit of experimental technology that is both a vital tool and a powerful weapon. The GoldenEye implant is jacked into your neural pathways and adrenal glands, providing optimal situational awareness to players via automated targeting and navigational feedback. It's a part of you. Most importantly, it can be upgraded with powerful electromagnetic enhancements. The GoldenEye has both passive and activated features. The passive features include targeting, navigation, communications, and biometric scan information technologies. Basically, anything that can help your situational awareness is cooked into the eye's passive functions. The activated features consume rechargeable power and come in the form of upgrades supplied by Scaramanga. A few of the activated features include the electromagnetic shield, which uses magnetic polarity to deflect incoming projectiles, and the MRI vision, which lets you see enemies through obstacles.

The Game

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent will include about 20 levels spread throughout eight campaign missions. There are 15 multiplayer maps and loads of game types.

Going into development knowing the expectations would be sky-high, we focused solidly on multiplayer before any other part of the game. We wanted to bring back that competitive social interaction that you only get when a group of people are gathered around the same television. Headset communications are great, but nothing beats live interaction with the guy sitting right next to you. Nothing compares to having a crowd of cheering fans and dissenters gather around a socially charged competition. The maps in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent are made to facilitate this goal. They're easy to learn, fun to play, great to watch, and entirely addictive.

The primary multiplayer modes include duels, showdowns, team showdowns, and war games, which are objective-based team games. Each of these modes has several game types within it. Some are familiar, and some are totally unique to GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. We're supporting two-way and four-way split-screen and up to eight players online via Xbox Live and PS2 Online.

You will play through multiplayer maps, including some of the most famous dual sets from Bond films--such as the top of the Golden Gate Bridge from A View to a Kill, the Pyramids of Giza from The Spy Who Loved Me, and the satellite uplink from the end of GoldenEye. There are many more multiplayer maps, both familiar and unique.

Although multiplayer is a huge part of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, the single-player missions in the game are unstoppable. We take you through such locations as Fort Knox, Auric Enterprises, Hong Kong, The Midas Casino, Hoover Dam, and The Octopus, which is an undersea black market.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is the first and only game that gives you the chance to become the ultimate villain in the Bond underworld by battling legendary criminal minds throughout infamous locations. We are giving you the chance to experience the dark side of the Bond universe through the eyes of a villain. With intense E.V.I.L. artificial intelligence, dual-wielding independent weapons, multiplayer madness, online gameplay, impressive authenticity, and a world-class production team, we have no doubt that this game will deliver.