The Grand Theft Auto series has seen many a “me too” sandbox game, the latest being The Godfather, from Electronic Arts. Coming out for the Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox and PC, The Godfather places gamers in the shoes of a would-be Don in the world of the Corleone family. Naturally, this will lead to some intimidating, violent and infinitely shady experiences.
EA is hoping those experiences, though, will be compounded by the world in which the game takes place. From storefronts to traffic to pedestrians just waiting to be extorted, the world of The Godfather has not only to live up to the pressure of being a game based on a classic story, but a world that’s actually fun to play around in.
EA’s Steven Smith, World Designer for the game, answered a few questions about re-creating New Jersey for the purposes of EA’s upcoming sandbox game. Naturally the area has to look different from the other regions in the game, but what else makes the area stand out? A logical question, to be sure, so it’s the one he opened with.
What makes New Jersey unique in the world of The Godfather?
Steven Smith: New Jersey is the only neighborhood in the Godfather world which has a different environmental feel to it. It’s patterned after a traditional small American town, particularly of the type found in the outer regions of Manhattan. Though most of the buildings are made of brick they are lower in height, typically two or three floors. Many of the city blocks are not populated with tenement buildings but instead they are occupied with detached houses usually with corner businesses at the end of such blocks. The most noted feature of New Jersey is the town square park located in the middle of the neighborhood, complete with a band shell structure and community type venues located around it such as a bank and a church.
New Jersey is considered by many to be the “armpit of the Northeast.” Does that show at all in The Godfather version of Jersey?
In the Godfather world New Jersey is a neighborhood that conveys an industrial ambiance. Through no fault of its own that’s the nature of such communities circa 1945 that were located along water way transit points. It’s an outlying residential community located along the waterfront of the Hudson River, and so it’s going to have warehouses, power plants and rail yards.
What type of research went into re-creating 1945-1955 New Jersey?
The starting point for research was to look at aerial photographs of New Jersey along the Hudson River region. Much of the area appears grid like and uniform, so little things such as city parks, angled streets relative to the grid layout, and rail yards in urban areas tend to stand out and identify an area that can represent a symbolic New Jersey town for the Godfather world. These elements along with the locations of the Lincoln and Holland Tunnel toll plazas to the north and south respectively really identified the general location for the New Jersey neighborhood. Other research pertains to looking at the types of buildings which are representative of many of the outlying neighborhoods of Manhattan such as the two story brick storefront and detached housing typologies.
The Straccis are considered the Butchers of Jersey because of their ruthless “business” methods. What type of trouble might you find in Jersey if you snoop around in the wrong areas?
Well for one thing most nearly all the business venues in New Jersey begin as Stracci-owned locations. Thus when the player begins to take over a couple of these venues and gets the attention of the Straccis, the player, if injured, will need to take care when trying to get to a safe house or clinic. The Straccis will be highly visible on many of the jersey streets. Also, snooping around the main rail yard can yield some interesting if not altogether dangerous results.
What’s your favorite area in Jersey and why?
I like the area around the Stracci compound and the rail yard. I find the Stracci compound to be an interesting challenge because the entry to the compound can be approached from three directions and so the player has some choices on an attack approach. The rail yard is a big open area where it might be possible to lose or neutralize a pursuing vehicle, and its one of the approaches to the Stracci compound.