Far Cry 2
About the game
- Company: Gameloft / Ubisoft License
- Genre: Top Down Action
- Release Date: October 2008
- Size at release: 628 Kb
- Distinctions: Pocket Gamer: 4.5 out of 5.
Gold Award
About my work
Did you know that the founders of “Ubisoft” and “Gameloft” are brothers? This is how we got the opportunity to
make the mobile version of “Far Cry 2”, one of the most expected PC games of 2008. There was only one catch…
the game had to be completed in 3 months in order to release with the main title in October!
There was no time to experiment or fool around, so we decided to reskin another game ( “Ghost Recon, Advanced
War”) and try to make it as close as possible to “Far Cry 2”. All we had from Ubi was a 17-page story outline
that I studied until I could sing it line by line.
Despite the tight deadline, we didn’t spare any effort to make our little replica worthy of the “Far Cry” name
tag. While the PC version implemented an innovative “dynamic fire propagation system” we did the same with our
tilemap system. The main title had a complex player reputation system and our mobile replicated the same
through a little bit of trickery.
Originally I planned to have a world HUB to connect the levels, play them in different order and interact with
NPC’s who reacted to your actions. But when production started we stuck to a traditional linear structure to
save time. With 2 weeks left for the deadline, I did the irresponsible thing to do, started the HUB
implementation (as it was mainly scripting on my side). While it involved a lot of overtime, the game was
completed in time and offered unprecedented depth in an action mobile title.
Excellent and action-packed shooter that betrays the genre ever-so-slightly by making you think about the consequences of your actions on the people around you - Pocket Gamer
Use a java emulator to play the jar file
What I learned
- How to design and plan the production of a title under heavy time restrictions.
- How to design levels for a “shoot-and-run” action title.
- How to cut corners and focus on what’s important.
What I'm proud of
- Successfully porting a huge sandbox PC game into a tiny mobile experience.
- Keeping the flavor of the original by adapting all the signature features.
- Going the extra mile to implement a world HUB with plenty of content.
+ Play as one of 4 mercenaries.
+ Leveraging the covering mechanics from “Ghost Recon”.
+ Buy new weapons and accept missions in the world hub.
+ The flamethrower is the most fun & spectacular weapon.
+ Back in that era, every location was composed of tiny reusable tiles …and took no little effort to put together!
+ Once I had the draft of a level I added notes for the devs so they could implement additional features or tweaks to the game engine.
Special thanks: Alexandre Besenval, Andrew Bado, Ben Berntsen, Maxim Sucharski, Patrick Downs, Sanders Keel, Travis Estrada.
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