Jason Blundell (Producer, Warhammer 40,000)

We pinned down the enthusiastic Mr Blundell at Nokia’s N-Gage showcase. It wasn’t easy. Even after a whirlwind European tour and precious little sleep he was still jumping around enthusiastically when describing his new game. Our journalistic instincts led us to two possible conclusions, either they’re putting something special in the coffee or there’s a really special N-Gage game coming together here…

Jason: Warhammer Glory in Death, is published by THQ Wireless and developed by Razorback. I’m incredibly passionate about getting hold of the IP, having been tabletop gamer in past. I always knew that it would transfer really well to video games, but strangely hadn’t been done well before. However, Dawn of War set a bar in my mind for how the world could be realised, so when the opportunity arose, I jumped all over it.

We’ve essentially taken 15 years of Games Workshop statistics, designs and characters and used an Advance Wars game style to play to the strengths of our device. The N-Gage is all about quick pick up and play; you’re on bus, you’re on the train, you’re on the toilet. When you’re starting off you don’t need to know why something’s happening, just want to know that I’ve got this soldier who can move X squares, maybe later you’ll want to discover why.

Because we’re building on the Games Workshop statistics, the balancing of all the races has been done for us, we just have to communicate that. We want to make it familiar to the fans, to make sure that you feel that what you get is what you expect from a particular unit.

When you get an IP that is this good, this rich it can be possible to rest on your laurels, I don’t want to mention any names but….

Exactly [Jason raises an eyebrow]. Anyway, we wanted to really take it forward with Games Workshop. The first thing was to invest in the storyline and I think you’re going to get a buzz out of this [at this point Jason jumps up and does a drawing on a previously unseen whiteboard – see screenshots for picture].

There are 4 races with 4 storylines (each of which has 4 clan sets so you can play as UltraMarines or Blood Angels for instance). There are 15 missions in each storyline which you play through and see from the point of view of the main character in that race. However each storyline is happening on same world in the same timeframe and at certain parts the stories overlap and interact, Tarantino style, so you only truly understand what has happened when you play them all.

Yes, it’s really central to the single player game. We wanted to get this right so we employed a writer called Andrew Walsh who has done lots of previous movie and game scripts.

We’ve also spent a lot of time on the visuals. Obviously we’ve taken a lot from the games workshop universe but we’ve also added our own twist on it, the talking heads animations in the cut-scenes have been done by Mike McMahone (of ABC Warriors, Judge Dread fame).

Absolutely. What I get annoyed about as a player is that when I finish the story mode I don’t want to just leave the game on shelf. With such a great IP we wanted to get content in there and longevity.

There are 60 unique units throughout with their own attack/death animations and you can customise many of these with medi-packs, bolters etc.

There’s a real variety in terms of size of maps too, to allow for different plays (4 different landscapes: volcanic, industrial, jungle and desert) and even a map randomiser, oh and you can upload maps to the arena.

Also, when you battle, you design your forces based on tokens, so say you get 100 token to spend on forces, this means that armies could be different each time. Ands you can save different army setups, so that if I know I’m playing you and you like to tank-rush, then I can make sure I select my setup with plenty of rockets.

You can play 2-player Bluetooth, hot seat (where you play your turn and then swap controller to opponent) or via the N-gage arena.

Sure there are elements that are similar to Advance Wars, but it’s by no means identical. You have a similar top down tactical view and then go into more detail for fight but our scenes will be much more engaging with a tracking camera, particle effects and use of the scenery. So if there’s a building nearby when you select a battle in the tactical mode you’ll see it in more detail on the battle scene.

We’re just coming up to Alpha so it’s a little early to be too proud, but I think the thing I’m most happy about so far is the translation of the different feels of the armies into the game. If you’re playing as space marines you feel more inclined to take a more tactical approach when you stand back and bring vehicles in, but if you’re controlling Orcs you’ll want to get into hand-2-hand. I was worried if we could translate that balancing into the game and already that’s very evident. Back that up with the great stories and units and it’s all very exciting.