As there’s a quiet lull in the festivities between Christmas and New Year we took a moment to ask the game’s producer, Ivan Venturi, to talk us through some of the finer aspects of RIOT – Civil Unrest.

At first glance Riot – Civil Unrest looks like a traditional RTS game but you describe it as real-time riot simulator. How would you define the difference between the two genres? RIOT is a new sub-genre and it is difficult to define it in a couple of categories. Initially, Leonard’s idea was that it should be solely a riot simulation - crowd vs police. As the development of the game evolved, so too did the strategic and tactical elements of the game. The end result is a complex mix - real riots are not a clear sequence of facts and actions. They are chaotic, confused, disordered, with no sensation of understanding what it is happening. So, recreating such an extremely chaotic situation would be great if we just wanted to create a scientific simulator; but less enjoyable as an entertaining and challenging videogame. We decided, that even in in LAWLESS difficulty, you can experience the confusion and disorder. However, to follow the videogame paradigm, we tuned down the pure simulation element. We understand that, in a videogame, players expect immediate feedback for their actions. In easier modes, the game will seem more responsive to the player as we have reduced the lag of the crowd AI but on the game’s the hard difficulty you can expect a more simulation experience. Take a look to the first trailer Leonard did years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=2jWYCXneCn8 At about 50 seconds in you will see police and rioters running against each other as two medieval armies. This is absolutely unrealistic, BUT in a videogame, it is exactly you’d expect to do. So, in TOO EASY mode, we allow players to fight as an army, even if you’re controlling the rebels. It is IMPOSSIBLE to see this type of behaviour in a real-life riot. When playing the game as the protesters I notice that there’s a real sense of the mood ebbing and flowing as the crowd reacts to the police’s actions. Can you explain how the psyche of the crowd works? You feel the sensation of being in a situation that changes continuously and not only for your direct actions. The crowd is a fluid mass of people which moves and changes with its own mechanics. Every person, every AI, is moved by physical status, but more of all by an emotional and psychological status (anger, fear, calm, cold power you have when you know at 100% that you’re fighting for your rights without wounding the other people’s rights, shock for viewing violence, angriness for being attacked without reasons etc. ). The best way to succeed, if the level allows to it, is to keep calm and be peaceful. If you have to use tactics to create human barriers and sing choirs to increase everybody’s courage levels, so be it. Moreover, if you use violence for no reason, you will pay a heavy price – on subsequent levels you will find the opponent faction really angry and armoured. So, if you play as rebels, often it is better to use your head, not your weapons, keep calm and “fight” without fighting. Can you explain the subtle differences in the different police squads? What are the best ways to use the tactical, assault and ballistic teams? Tactical units are the most powerful in terms of resistance and also for pushing the crowd. Testudo formation is the best way to push crowd with energy but without using violence. Assault units are quick and if you have to attack, they are probably the best units to use. Ballistic units are always an important part of your strategy to clear an area but it depends on the level you are playing. In some scenarios, they carry smoke grenade launchers while in others they have live ammo. Use them sparingly as once deployed the hostility can escalate rapidly.

Next version update

Ivan wanted to let you know that he and the team are working on the next update as promised. They are currently testing the build and expect to post it live no later than Saturday 30, December.

[ 2017-12-28 14:22:42 CET ] [ Original post ]