Building Single Player for Titanfall 2
We knew from the beginning of development on Titanfall 2 that we wanted to do a single player campaign. Our team has a rich history of creating great single player campaigns and as we reflected on what we wanted to do with it, there was a desire to bring back feelings we had playing games in the past that had a strong sense of mystery, discovery, and wonder. We knew that doing a typical shooter with the gameplay mechanics we built in Titanfall just wouldn’t work. In fact, we tried a prototype of that and it wasn’t fun at all. We wanted to do something new.
We started by letting our designers go off and explore new ideas and create ‘action blocks’. These were focused prototypes that showed off a particular gameplay element or theme in the Titanfall universe. Designers were set loose to go off and create whatever they could think of. The only direction was that it revolved around the theme of the relationship between a Pilot and their Titan. Each week they would regroup to show and play what they made to the team. They did this for months and created over 100 action blocks that expressed many different ideas around traversal, puzzle solving, combat, and more. From there we narrowed down the best ideas and refined them into the single player missions you will be playing this October. It was incredibly hard but a welcome challenge.
In the single player campaign, you will be doing a variety of things across different missions but there is one constant that we worked very hard to get right and that is the story and relationship between Titan BT-7274 and Rifleman 3rd Class Jack Cooper.
BT-7274 is unlike any Titan seen before in the Titanfall universe. He is the first Titan built by the Militia; a resistance group fighting the oppressive IMC to provide freedom and safety to the Frontier. Since the first Titanfall they have become more organized, have more resources and wanted to create their own Titan to battle the IMC. BT is adaptable and smart enough to learn and respond to new situations. He is capable of using any Titan loadout and embodies the Militia’s culture of teamwork, craftsmanship, and looking out for each other. We had to adopt this theme internally as well to make BT work. It took many people across the studio and different disciplines coming together from art, animation, story, design, and you’ll see that BT moves, acts, and talks in ways players will have never seen a Titan do before.
Jack Cooper is a 3rd Class Rifleman with the Militia. He’s a grunt with aspirations of becoming a Pilot and he’s caught the eye of a Master-level Pilot, Captain Tai Lastimosa. Lastimosa sees potential in Jack and takes him under his wing, training him secretly to avoid the red tape during their time of war against the IMC. Jack is showing a lot of potential but he’s still got a long way to go before he’s ready for Pilot Certification.
When an investigation of a research facility on the IMC controlled planet of Typhon goes wrong, Jack and BT are thrown off course and behind enemy lines. With Lastimosa killed in action, there is no other option but for the two to link up and work together to finish the mission BT and Lastimosa started, whether Jack is ready for it or not.
Together you will explore the mysterious planet of Typhon and discover the IMC’s intentions. The more they work together, the stronger the link between Pilot and Titan becomes. We drew lots of inspiration from buddy cop movies and other genres that explored the relationship between man and machine such as Terminator 2 and even earlier works like The Black Stallion. In the end we are very proud of the story and relationship that we’re telling in Titanfall 2 and feel that as players get to know BT through the game they will develop their own bond with him as well. We know we did.
We can’t wait to hear what fans think when Titanfall 2 is released on October 28th.