Star Wars: Battlefront designer on the ‘daunting’ challenge of Star Wars combat

Designing any game, such as a first-person shooter, flight combat, or vehicular assault game, is a tough job. It calls for a gentle and calculative hand, which has to carefully nurture a fragile ecosystem of design elements that can break the entire experience at the slightest tweak.

Now, imagine taking all three of those ecosystems, cramming them into one game, and expecting the hybrid experience to hold together.

That’s what Niklas Fegraeus, design director on Star Wars Battlefront, is responsible for doing. Last week, I had a special private play session with the title. During the event, I got a chance to sit down with Fegraeus and discuss his history with DICE, his philosophy on play design, and managing such a huge and complex game.

Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation.

GamesBeat: So, how’s it going?

Niklas Fegraeus: It’s going well. We managed to get it really stable and pretty fun; I’d say. People seem to be liking it, and I am on cloud number nine so far. I’m just nervous for the launch and what people might say.

GamesBeat: How long has Star Wars Battlefront been in development?

Fegraeus: It’s been like, um, a little over two years. I don’t remember exactly when the contracts were signed and finding teams. I think it was two, two and a half years.

GamesBeat: You were with the project since the beginning right?

Fegraeus: Yeah, yeah!

GamesBeat: What were you working on before?

Fegraeus: Oh, I’ve been at DICE since 2004.

GamesBeat: Ah! OK.

Fegraeus: Yeah, I was originally hired as an animator back then … but then, very quickly, like within a year, I switched to design.

I worked as a weapons designer, gameplay designer … and over the years I finally started working as a features designer. I got my first project (as a feature designer) with the Vietnam expansion pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. After that, I did the expansion pack for Battlefield 3 and 4. And then, Star Wars came!

Above: “Fighting for Vader sucks! His stupid laser sword and his asthma … oh … oh, no … . He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”

Image Credit: DICE

GamesBeat: Did you come into this industry … wanting to become a designer?

Fegraeus: No. No, I had always wanted to be an artist. Ever since I was a kid, I drew a lot. I made paintings. I made movies out of stop-motion animation. Then, while I was at university … I went to art school … but I’ve always been a gamer.

Maybe in some ways too much. I’ve always been super committed. I sometimes say that I play every game out there and … [laughs] if that’s not factually true, then, it is very close to the truth.

I play all genres of games and just enjoy it so much. So, it was basically me, being an animator, and whining about game features not being good enough. [Laughs] Or, something like that. And eventually, they told me to just shut up and have a go at it.

GamesBeat: What do you think you prefer more? Animating or designing?

Fegraeus: No, I really found my place in design because it allows me to use art and use design. I’ve actually done some programming as well, and I was in an orchestra once. … I played music.

So, I have these connections with all of these areas of what makes a game. You know, all the way from art to code. And as a designer, I get to combine them … to work within all those aspects and create an experience out of them. It’s like the best thing in the world for me.

GamesBeat: Right! Would you say gameplay design is a lot like musical composition?

Fegraeus: Yeah. I’m actually not native. My first language isn’t English. So, I don’t know if I have the right definition of ‘composition,’ but it sounds right because we are compositing all sorts of things together into one experience.