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Developer Diary #3 - History, Background and Mythology
Mike Goslin, Vice President of Disney's VR Studio
Ian Black, Writer, Disney's VR Studio
January 18, 2007

The Pirates of the Caribbean world is a place where the real coexists with the unreal and where the conflict between what is primal and what is civilized is raging out of control. To give you a glimpse at how we've captured this in Pirates of the Caribbean Online, it's probably best to share with you the backstory within the game (beyond what you may already know from the film franchise).

First, let's set the stage...

The Caribbean has become the last bastion in the struggle between the "old ways" - the supernatural - and the European order of the New World. Exploration and expansion into the territory has brought regimented and authoritative rule. The great pirates of the Caribbean must battle for their freedom while caught between this encroaching civilization and the mystical power of the Seven Seas.

Our goal at the VR Studio was to create an online world that reflected this authentic lore and the history of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, while adding a handful of new characters, settings, and stories of our own. Using the existing palette of themes and tales from the franchise, we began to construct a storyline for the game. Our first step was to create an original overarching enemy for the game -- one that could extend beyond those from the films, including Davy Jones, Captain Barbossa, and those being introduced in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

What we came up with, after hours of brainstorming and iterating on tons of really incredible concepts, was Jolly Roger -- an undead pirate that players will love to hate. He's a menacing looking creature, with a skull for a face, adorned with piles of grotesque objects like shrunken heads and voodoo masks. His dreadlocks are filled with poisonous snakes, and in place of a typical hand, he instead has trio of weapons -- part sword, part gun, and part dagger (not something that you'd ever want to shake).

The game's storyline begins when players learn of Jolly Roger's longstanding personal grudge with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow. The grudge stems from an ill-fated poker match between Jolly Roger, Amo Dorsi (a follower of the mystic Tia Dalma), and Jack Sparrow. Jolly Roger conspires with Amo Dorsi to lure Jack into the poker match, and steal from him his most precious possessions. Unfortunately for Jolly Roger, the game goes horribly wrong, Jack ends up winning and Jolly Roger shoots Amo Dorsi as a result of his betrayal. Before Amo Dorsi dies, he places a powerful curse on Jolly Roger which leaves him as half-man, half-beast. He remains in a vampire-like, undead state, where he must feed on souls of the living for all eternity!

Players encounter Jolly Roger within the first 15 minutes of the game. He threatens your life but, you're ultimately spared -- only under the condition that you spread word of his power and deliver a message to Jack Sparrow, "Jolly Roger is coming for revenge!"

In the game, players must band together to defeat this evil foe and accumulate extraordinary powers, skills, and weapons to accomplish the task. This is where the mystic Tia Dalma comes into play, as she guides players through the process of earning and using voodoo… a key element in your ongoing struggle against Jolly Roger and other enemies found in the Pirates world.

Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming diary in which we'll share more details about the use of voodoo skills and weapons within the game...

Developer Diary #2 - Game Characters and Character Generation
Bruce Woodside, Animation Director, Disney's VR Studio;
David Chiapperino, Animation Technical Director, Disney's VR Studio
January 18, 2007

As Directors of the animation team at Disney's VR Studio, a lot of the functionality in Pirates of the Caribbean Online rests with us - beginning first and foremost with the avatars. The way we see it, avatars are a huge part of what can make or break an MMO. For a game like Pirates to be successful, players really have to be in it for the long run and to get this long-term commitment from players, our job is to provide them with characters they can grow with, and form an attachment to.

In developing the character generation system for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, we set out to give players as many character customization options as possible, so they can determine how their characters ultimately look and act. Players have tons of customizable features to create one-of-a-kind characters, which gives the game a level of richness and variety that really stands out among other MMOs. You can choose from ten different body types -- five male, five female, and then body proportions -- from skinny to plump to muscular or pear-shaped. All of the faces are completely lifelike as well, including complex animated expressions like smiles and lip curls. You can have wrinkled skin, a broken nose, and long beard if you're a salty sea dog --- but if you're a female buccaneer, you may prefer more symmetrical features and a smoother complexion that's kinder on the eyes. Both of these scenarios are completely possible in the game, with each character having a completely unique look and feel than the next.

In addition to the diverse set of physical features you can choose from, there are thousands of potential clothing combinations. You've got boots, pants, coats, shirts, and then you've got variations on each of those garments – open-necked shirts, v-neck shirts, etc -- not to mention colors and textures. There are also variations based on gender, and further customizations for character body proportions.

One of the most unique elements of the character system is the player's ability to convert into a skeleton or a cursed pirate in order to engage in player versus player action. You're basically temporarily transformed into an undead state and what's really exciting about this is that you retain the physical characteristics of your living character. So, for example, your exposed undead skeleton's skull is really the same shape as your character's head.

As part of the animation team, we're in charge of literally everything that moves within the game - from the powerful Kraken all the way down to small insects. If the wind bends a blade of grass or a character engages in swordplay with an enemy, it's the animation department's job to make the action as convincing and true-to-life as possible.

The way everything moves in an MMO is crucial, so we have to think about the functions that characters perform and come up with physical forms that serve those functions. For example, if a character goes from idle mode to walking forward, you want a smooth transition, not a jerky, abrupt movement. The programmers are responsible for sewing the animation files together and for getting the cycle of movement to look realistic and consistent. We accomplish this through "staging," -- when the programmers bring individual files up on-screen and then we look them over to make sure everything looks accurate and the camera is angled correctly. If a character has to spring traps, wade through streams, board a ship, wield a sword, or hold a conversation, we have to map out the movements for each those actions.

In addition to all the character customization and animation, a lot of the game's personality is conveyed through the cinematography. Some games avoid this, because it can be expensive and time consuming but we believe it really engages the audience, so we've provided a lot of cinematic moments and filmed cut scenes. Great cut scenes are important because -- they really sweep you up into the emotion of the game, provide story background and advance the action.

These clips also help tell the story as it evolves, and introduce the characters from the movies, as well as new characters introduced for the first time in the game. We've basically taken the storyline and characters from the movies and merged them with unique characters and environments created by the VR Team. Even though players can't take on the roles of movie characters, they'll be able to learn sword fighting techniques from Will Turner, and other useful tricks from Jack Sparrow and others from the films.

Making an MMO is a complex task that requires you to balance a grand vision with a lot of attention to detail. It's absolutely a team project. It's impossible to create an MMO of this scope and quality without immensely creative minds behind it. Every art director, every programmer is responsible for helping make this game what it is and we are incredibly fortunate to be working with such a talented group. We're extremely pleased with the character generation system that the team has developed and are looking forward to watching players get creative with the game.

Developer Diary #1 - The Virtual Reality Studio
Mike Goslin, Vice President of Disney's VR Studio
December 5, 2006

After more than two years fully immersed in all things pirates, and not really seeing a whole lot of the sun, it's an exciting feeling to know that the game launch is on the horizon. Our team has put in countless hours and dozens of red-eyed, head-down, caffeinated nights, cranking out an incredibly deep and compelling online world. We're really just eager for MMO players and fans of the movies to finally experience Pirates of the Caribbean Online and see all of the work we've put in.

I'm sure some of you are thinking right now that this is an improbable project: an MMO based on a pirate movie, and from Disney of all places. It's definitely been a challenge, but through it all we've remained focused on making the best game we possibly can. I should start at the beginning...

It started over 10 years ago, in 1996 when I got the chance to work for Walt Disney Imagineering - the creative concept team behind Disney's theme parks. At Imagineering I worked with a seasoned, talented group, from whom I'd learn a lot over the next decade. Our group was called the Virtual Reality Studio, and our mission was to design and build virtual reality attractions for the Disney theme parks.

Over the next several years, we forged a new kind of experience that combined the physical thrill of a theme park ride with the cutting-edge graphics of a video/computer game. Our goal was to transport Guests to another world, to give them the sense of being enveloped in a fantasy universe. We developed a head-mounted display (HMD) device that delivered the sensation of total 3D immersion to audiences. Motion bases and huge multi-screen theaters surrounded them with 360 degrees of infinity optics for a pretty unforgettable experience.

In 1998, Disney built a state-of-the-art entertainment center called DisneyQuest near Disney World in Orlando. DisneyQuest is a 5-story, 100,000 square foot building that features several of our virtual reality attractions, including "Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride", a four-person journey through Aladdin's world. Guests put on custom designed HMDs and straddle motorcycle-like vehicles on a fast-paced race to find the Genie of the Lamp.

Three years later we released "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Buccaneer Gold", an attraction based on the original theme park ride. Guests man a pirate ship and set sail in a virtual sea filled with enemy ships, sea monsters, and treasure. The ride ends in an epic cannon battle against Jolly Roger's ghost ship and flying skeleton crew. People absolutely loved it, and the ride won a Thea Award for best new theme park attraction in 2001.

The great buzz around our pirate attraction got us thinking about how to offer the same type of thrill to Guests at home. It was about this time that graphical MMOs were beginning to emerge, and we felt the online medium was a great new way to deliver the kind of experiences we'd been building for the theme parks. In 2000, we pitched the concept for Disney's Toontown Online as part of an online theme park which would feature several MMOs, including Pirates of the Caribbean Online. This was before the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but we knew from our experience that the franchise was popular and that the environment would translate incredibly well into a game.

Toontown proved to be a success, and was heralded as a big milestone for Disney and the VR Studio. Not only was it Disney's first MMO - it was also the first premium MMO designed for kids and families. Toontown was our introduction to the intense, time-bending, black-hole-like process that is MMO creation. Most of our attractions were designed to be five-minute experiences, so it was quite an adjustment to build a game requiring hundreds of hours of gameplay.

After the success of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003, Disney's now-CEO, Bob Iger, approached us and asked if we wanted to move forward with a Pirates MMO. We, of course, jumped at the opportunity. Based on our experience, we knew how broad the appeal of a pirate MMO could be. Men and women, boys and girls - everyone loved the idea of being a buccaneer.

Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean Online have a lot in common, but they're very different games. For one thing, Pirates is much more ambitious in design, scope, and attitude. It's based on the movie property, so we teamed up with the movie studio to weave characters, stories, creatures, and themes from the films into the game. We share everything from art assets to character storylines, and generally consult with them on all aspects of development. At the same time, we're focused on building a world that can stand on its own with new stories, characters, and environments so fans of the movies can come into the game and live their own adventure.

So how's the game development going, you ask? Good, if you like exciting and fast-paced work with a group of passionate designers, bad, if you like to get a lot of sleep.

As the nights and weeks wear on, we'll try our best to keep you updated on all the grisly details of game development with diary entries from other members of the team, including:

- Bruce "sword fighting is my specialty" Woodside, Animation Director
- Felipe "did you ask for a larger ship?" Lara, Art Director
- Joe "you want this to launch when?" Shochet, Creative Director and Lead Game Designer
- Daniel "pirate speak is my specialty" Aasheim, Producer
- Matt "I've never found a server outage I couldn't fix" McKenna, Live Team Leader