Meeting Report Post Mortem of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory June 2005 Ever wanted to know what’s behind Wonka’s magical Chocolate Waterfall? The real answer is about 1800 man-hours. Project Manager, Matt Corso discussed the ups and downs of creating the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory game. Based off the movie starring Johnny Depp and Directed by Tim Burton, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a wonderfully paced platform game. Charlie is the star of this game as he travels through the chocolate factory visiting each of the wonderful rooms discovering new sights and new candies. With the help of Oompa-Loompas, Charlie completes objectives and puzzles to not only gain the use of exciting candy powers but help rescue each of the four bratty kids: Augustus, Violet, Veruca, and Mike. · Development of the game began before the movie went into production which caused problems as the game came closer to completion. · The game went through multiple certification approvals. Including Tim Burton’s people and the Dahl estate. · Charlie could not be killed and couldn’t kill anyone. The team had to work within the limits set by the licensees. · Kids and gamers love to collect things. A side quest to find collectible objects was included. · The Oompa-Loompas were incorporated as a major game play element. The player “herds” them to complete objectives. · Trap doors were included to work within the limits of making certain levels look like the movie sets. · The development time was tight and the game had to be started over from scratch at one point. · With everything that went wrong, with hard work and determination, the team managed to complete the game on time. IMAGES ABOUT MATT CORSO at HIGH VOLTAGE SOFTWARE Matt Corso is forever driven by a lifelong passion to create quality videogames. He began his career working as a 2D/3D artist, and has since gone to great lengths to ensure that every title he works on is the very best it can be. After working as the lead artist on the Hunter: The Reckoning series for the Xbox, Matt moved on to lead a team of developers to create several real-time game demos. He was eventually promoted to the role of company Art Director, before ending up as the Project Manager for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game. As Charlie nears completion and new projects appear on the horizon Matt will constantly focus on improving his art, design, and management skills, as well as continuing to do his part to help strengthen High Voltage Software as a leading game developer. Published Titles: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (PS2, Xbox, GC - Project Manager), Hunter: The Reckoning Redeemer (Xbox - Lead Artist), Hunter: The Reckoning (Xbox - Lead Artist), All Star Baseball 2001 (N64 - Lead Artist), Paperboy 64 (N64, CG - Artist), Chicago Bulls Bumpers (United Center, CG - Artist), NBA Inside Drive 2000 (N64, CG - Artist) ABOUT OUR SPONSORS Thanks to both our sponsors for helping support our local IGDA chapter! THE ILLINIOIS INSTITUTE OF ART at CHICAGO and THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF ART at SCHAUMBURG – CAREER SERVICES Are you looking for trained staff? Looking for people with a high level of commitment to the industry? Want someone that has a degree in Game Art & Design and the skills that go along with that? Look no further. Contact your Career Services Representative at The Illinois Institute of Art at Chicago and The Illinois Institute of Art at Schaumburg to assist you in filling full-time and internship positions in the following areas: Level Designers ~ Environment Modelers ~ Character Modelers ~ Animators ~ Cinematic Artists ~ User Interface Artists ~ Web Designers ~ Game Designers To reach Career Services please contact: Vanessa Lopez, Schaumburg Campus: 847-598-6855 or e-mail vlopez@aii.edu or Tiffani Sorber, Downtown Campus: 312-777-8563, email tsorber@aii.edu. DAVE & BUSTER’S All of us at Dave & Buster’s are looking forward to having you here for your June meeting. We think you’ll really like our great space, chef-crafted buffets, world-class billiards and shuffleboard tables, and 200+ video games and simulators. We’ve got room for up to 2,000, so the next time you or your organization is looking for a great place for a holiday party, happy hour, or just-for-fun get together, call us at 312.821.8607. Because we’re pretty fond of game developers (heck, you practically make it possible for us to exist!), we’ll give you a discount on the event when you mention IGDA. For questions, comments or suggestions about the Chicago chapter of the IGDA, please contact Carrie Gale.