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[Blue Lou]

I've tried to tidy this up because it was a bit of a mess on the reddit board. As Ghostbusters is flavour of the month, there's probably a lot of interest in this.

I think I've got the names right, but the opening comment was removed. There's a guy called John (Melchior?) and Drew (Haworth?) from Terminal Reality answering questions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4t5mof/ama_with_the_developers_of_2009s_ghostbusters_the/

Update:This is the article mentioned in the answers, it probably deserves its own thread: https://www.playboy.com/articles/ghostbusters-the-video-game-untold-stories

1. I remember hearing from Dan Aykroyd that the game could have potentially have lead into a third movie.  I recall several franchises (new Ghostbusters in different cities) being made after the first game ended, how would that have lead into GB3 or a new game?

John: Dan and Harold wanted to be sure the game "could" fit and feel like it moved into a third movie. The reality is that they had their own writers working on a script, they talked to us, but were driven by others.

2. How much involvement did Harold and Dan have in the making of the story?  I understand that the story wasn't directly involved with just them, so, what parts did they come up with?

John: I set the time period and framework, Drew and his team set the locations they thought would make for great gameplay, we had some writers create treatments out of that. Then Dan and Harold took those notes and worked with Drew and team to construct the story. Obviously, Sony and Mark Caplan was approving it as it went.

3. Was it true that some elements of Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent was put into the game?

John: No.

4. Why were Sony so reluctant to make this game, let alone a GB3?

John: Sony was on board for us to make the game, they loved the concept from the start. i think finding the right partner and team was the thing they were slow on. As far as GB3, we really have no idea, but they used the game to help show that the license was relevant to a new generation

5. Was there any story DLC planned for the video game **(this one I would really like answered)**?  What was the plan?  I wanted DLC so much .

John: There was planned DLC at Vivendi, I do not think Atari took that content or planned to execute it. Sadly. We had plans to introduce famous actors at GB for mission. Comedic actors from todays movies.

6. I remember seeing the Temple of Gozer in the game at some point, was that going to be a multiplayer map or was it going to be in the story?

John: Drew can Answer that one..lol

Drew: Temple of Gozer was a really cool level pitched by Lead Game Designer Steven Cluff that didn't make it into production. Both Zuul & Vinz Clortho made appearances.

7. Why didn't Bill finish his lines?  Some story was cut due to him bailing, what story elements were scrapped overall?

John: Bill had a small window for us due to his hectic schedule, also he works at a creative pace, looking at the line, saying it a few times and seeing how it fit into the scene. We simply ran out of time. Drew and I sat down and shifted and moved things so that the others can fill the void.


Drew: I'll say that Bill made the lines he DID record WAY funnier than what we had on the page. We cut the mostly completed Thanksgiving Day Parade sequence partially because of missing lines, partially due to gameplay not quite being there, and partially to not having the time to polish it sufficiently.

8. As a programmer and software engineer who knows a lot about game development, what technical difficulties did you experience in the game and how did you manage to overcome those issues?

John: Drew has better visibility into that, but PROTON BEAM!

Drew: I'm neither, but one of our senior programmers, Fletcher Dunn had the proton stream working really well right out of the gate. Our Infernal Engine was really good at destruction already, so that burden fell mostly to the environmental artists. We wrote the script so that we wouldn't (mostly) have too many Ghostbusters overloading the screen at one time. Nathan Peugh headed up AI and did some really great work there. Really, Terminal Reality was very solid on tech issues.

9. What was the plan for a sequel to the game?  Why didn't it happen?

John: We had a couple pitches for the sequel, even one recently where we had funding fall through, but Once Vivendi sold the game to Atari, that was all on them, we (I) had not way to pitch a sequel.

10. The CGI cutscenes were frigging amazing!  Almost like an animated movie!  Why weren't more of those made?

John: We did the ones that the story required, we had to finish them by a certain time in order to get them approved by all the stakeholders in time.


Drew: Yes, in addition to our in-house animation team, who did a TON of fantastic work (especially for such a small group) our key cinematics were outsourced to Renkewitz, and some to Rainmaker, who both did a stellar job.

11. Is Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn essentially Dana Barrett (if Sigourney came back would Ilyssa be Dana)?  If you replace Illyssa with Dana is that why Dana always kept having ghosts coming after her (is Dana a descendant of Ivo Shandor)?  It seems that way to me.  Was it definitely true Sigourney wanted to be back when she heard that Bill was back?

John:  We never approached her to do the game, we always wanted to move on. That was such a part of the original 2, that we wanted not to dictate an end or continuation to that story in a game. It was easier to have a new interest. As far as your comment about Shandor, I can't really say...


Drew: Dr. Selwyn isn't a stand-in for Dana Barrett, though she does fill the role of romantic interest for Venkman. Aside from her Shandorian heritage, Ilyssa's experience with the Gozerian actually helps the Ghostbusters solve the mystery of the Mandala. We wanted her to be a lot more than just a victim!

12. Why no Rick Moranis?  (nice nod in the firehouse though).

John: He was retired. We approached him many times, even Dan and Harold called him. We told us he was retired, but if he ever was going to do something like this, it would be for this game. We respected that and moved on. Drew and I talked about having him involved almost weekly.


Drew: I know, that's a heartbreaker. No Rick, but Louis is referred to multiple times throughout the story, as if he's only offscreen, and not MIA.

13. Finally, why no multiplayer on the PC?  I'd be playing the game constantly if it had multiplayer on PC.  Any chance that multiplayer could be added as an update?

John: There is nobody around to do the work..lol. We'd love that.

14. Ugh, another one I know, but does anyone on the team know how those proton pack sounds were done?  They're cool as hell.



John: The proton pack sounds were created in foley. Sound Designer Brian Fieser recorded an actual replica prop proton pack & jumpsuit for the Ghostbuster's movement. They layered that with recordings of a backpack filled with random junk. He knows at least an RC car was in there...

The pack overheat was some glass tubes, metal clangs, processed latches, & steam hisses.

The pack charging was some RC car servos layered with various sweeteners tuned to whatever you're charging at the time.

The proton stream variations & turbo/slam were mostly created using various software synths
For the slime & slime blower, he & Kyle Richards, our Audio Director, recorded yogurt & plungers in various bowls, over cans of whipped cream being sprayed.

We wanted to feature a completely organic UI, with no HUD elements. We tried putting it all on the pack. As the original proton packs are pretty solid and inert, effects artist Glenn Gamble (it was his replica pack the sound dept. recorded for foley) lead the drive to articulate the hell out of that thing. So even though we had to resort to using SOME HUD elements in the end, that's where all the fantastic pack animations, displays, and effects come from.

Who was the most fun to work with?

John: Dan and Harold Equally, Dan was so helpful and supportive, he was the guy that we leaned on every day. Harold is a master of comedy and the "set up" (Animal House, Stripes, etc). So, both were involved far more than any other license game. Bill was great, but his schedule was tough and he is, well Bill. There are some great stories about that, which we can share!

Are you planning to create any new games in the future?

John: Thanks! The game developer, Terminal Reality, closed its doors a few years ago. So while individual team members (many of whom are still making games) may be involved in Ghostbusters games, it's unlikely that we'll be making any more as a group.

We had a great (my opinion) pitch and design for a second GB game, but it sadly didn't come to be.


Drew: Sony holds the rights, they are looking for opportunities to license the GB license for great games. The creative team behind this game and most likely the original talent will not be making another game.

I'll still never forget getting the December 2007 Game Informer  drag to resize or shift-drag to move magazine with the Ghostbusters logo plastered on the front. That instantly became one of my most anticipated games of all time.

John: The road to getting that cover needs it own article. lol.. Drew and team are the ones that executed the magic, this question is all his.

[...]when we told marketing we just wanted the Log (Pete Wanat and I). They looked at us like we killed their dog.

What were the inspiration(s) behind the level design? You guys did a great job at keeping everything fresh & varied at all times. Never an unimaginative moment and nothing ever looked the same.

John: The Level inspirations came from all over the team, largely from the Designers & Concept Artists (you can see a very tiny sample of Grant Gosler's overall work on Playboy.com currently), but everybody was welcome to submit ideas.

We wanted to either wrap up, expand, or tell new stories in at least a few locations familiar from the films. That gave us a good starting point for Hotel Sedgwick, New York Public Library, & the Firehouse, of course.

One rule was that all levels had to be set in NYC, since that's a key component of Ghostbusters. So we looked at how could we take some really interesting looks at familiar landmarks? That's why we fight Stay Puft in Times Square, exorcise a mass possession in the Natural History Museum, find (and lose) a hidden island in the Hudson River, and have a cemetery erupt from Central Park. The Thanksgiving Day Parade level got cut (I hear it's in the new movie!), and we had another VERY cool one on Wall Street that didn't make it. Maybe some day.

To go really big and strange & let our environmental & effects artists stretch, we created the anything-goes Ghostworld parallel dimension-alternatives for a lot of those places.

Is there any truth to the rumour that this game is based on a script that existed for a third movie?

John: No, this story was original.


Drew: No truth to that one! Our script for the game is entirely original--with, of course, heavy nods to the films.

What are the chances of getting rights untangled for an HD super dooper remaster, cut scenes reinstated, and DLC? Dan can plug his vodka if he needs to.

John: Drew, I and the others want a HD version badly. If we had the funding we would approach Sony in a second.

My question is with all the controversy surrounding Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray how hard was writing the script? Since Ackroyd was heavily involved in the writing of the first two films, did he contribute to the game script as well?

John: Dan and Harold both were deeply involved with us in writing the game script and story. We had ourselves writing, support writers to finish out the 600 -800 lines, but there were there the entire time.

I can't or won't really comment about relationships and how they played out over the game dev (3 Years). But I know they were both proud of the game and on the same page about it

How did the original actors feel about having a new guy on the team in the form of a player?

John: They got the mechanics behind it. For me (and I think Drew) we had a lot of debate about this. It was about 4 months of debate. I was coming off Simpsons Hit and Run (so to speak) and I really didn't want to ruin any chemistry by having the player interrupting or sticking out in any scene. These are comedy legends that has great chemistry, we wanted to keep that. The best way to do that was to have you NOT play as one of them and not play as a character that has weight. The character is observing the scene the same way the player is, you are there, they know it, but the movie (game) is going on around you.


Drew: You wouldn't believe how many heated rounds we (the devs, not the original cast) went about whether you should be able to play as a Ghostbuster or not. And if not, should you play an original character, with its own personality?
At the end it became obvious that anyone playing--aside from Dan, Harold, Bill, or Ernie--was coming to the game as a Ghostbusters fan, not a Ghostbuster himself.

So becoming a Ghostbuster was the fantasy experience we wanted to provide: you get to be among them, listen to them, learn from them, help them and have them acknowledge your efforts, without interfering with the dynamics that make the Ghostbusters so appealing in the first place. The Originals agreed!
So thanks! Your recognition of that validates the approach we chose.

What was your favourite sequence to work in or play through?

John: For me it was always the Museum. The Civil War battle.


Drew: I loved working on the Library & Twisted Stacks with designer Jason Alexander. We went through it SO many times to get the timing just right & making the scares & jokes land. He probably doesn't remember it as fondly!
I think the tech & art that went into making the Book Golems work was astounding, even if they didn't get a TON of screen time.

I also couldn't get enough of the Slime Tether mechanic. Emilia Schatz pioneered that, I believe, and Glenn Gamble really ran with it. So much fun in the Central Park Cemetery!

Did you guys ever consider during development of this game that many people were raising their expectations for this to be the nonofficial "Ghostbusters 3"?

John: We wanted this to be GB3, Dan and Harold considered this game to be the third film and mention it in the making of video. However, there was no way Sony Pictures was going to allow for that. They needed to not have that tied to a game, which I get. We pushed hard, but we get it. We had a BADASS logo for it tho..lol

Who did you scan to be the rookie?
Matt Paprocki (Playboy journalist): Concept artist Grant Gosler told me: "The Rookie? We used several Rookies. The original stand-in was one of our designers. Like you'll see some shots where it's this mustached guy. I think he works at Naughty Dog now. But the rookie is actually a guy from Vivendi or Sony by the name of Ryan French. The two security guards are the beginning, they're character artists. The Sedgewick Hotel guy is our CEO John Keefe. They kept French because he's an innocuous looking dude. Yeah, anyone could be him. We went through a few designs, and we didn't change it for bad reasons, but because he was a neutral dude and a funny guy as a producer. It worked perfect.


Drew:  Additionally, the two guys in the Times Square elevator cinematic are Mark Caplan & Keith Hargrove from Sony.

what was it like to work with all the original Ghostbusters in the production of this game? Were they as cool as one would hope or were there perhaps some difficulties in working with them?

John: They rocked. Some of them were a bit difficult due to schedule or just approach, those are well documented, but they were there for us every time we needed them. Weekly calls, daily answers to strange questions from Drew. Harold and Dan were in it for the long haul, the rest did every thing asked of them in getting this game as authentic as possible. In the end, we did it, we did the impossible, we get them all to work together again after 20 years.

What changed from the activision version of the game to the Atari version, I.E. things that were cut like the parade balloon level and not being able to see gas/ghost trails in the pke meter

John: The main difference was the "pause" the dev team not knowing its future and that momentum was lost, would have made our scores even higher if vivendi kept going

Drew: John is right, of course; momentum definitely flagged. There was a lot of pressure during that time, but it did afford a short period for polishing that the game desperately needed.

Would you guys ever do a 3rd person action game based on the new movie? Could work since there is now like proton pistols and shotguns to go along with the proton back, could even have like a multiplayer versus mode where 4 people are ghostbusters and 4 people are ghosts, could be fun

John: They cut marketing, MP budget and probably more.

Drew: I haven't seen the new movie yet (soon!) but imagine it creates plenty of opportunities and intriguing directions we could take a game.

If you guys had a "season pass" for a ghostbusters game would you call it the "season of evil pass"? [

John: There is a new movie out and it has a game.

Drew: Sure. Or maybe 'Vigo Worldwide Live Tour'

who did the score for the game (besides the reused/unused score from the GB'84)?

John: The score was by our Audio Director, Kyle Richards, and Chris Rickwood.

I have always wondered what the story is (assuming there is one) behind Bill Murray's performance in this game. Reading through some of your other answers on here I can glean that he was very busy and had a rough schedule. However, from what I remember, and it's been about 6 years since I played through the entire game, but his performances ranged from 'sort of engaged' to 'completely checked out'.

I remember even playing the game at times he would speak and it would be like he was reading a line from an entirely different script than everyone else with how varied his tone and energy levels were. Like anyone who's watched his movies over the years I love Bill Murray, but this has always stuck out in my mind as a big 'what happened?'
So please, what happened?

Drew: Well, even with the best actors (and he's certainly up there) a performance can run the gamut, especially considering the length of a session, the lack of acting partners, & that the material itself can swing really abruptly: 'This is a love scene, now you're falling off a building, now you're fighting ghosts--no, not scary ghosts, funny ghosts,' and so on. Most of the time you get multiple takes and then a pickup session later on to help even things out and cover any needs that have arisen in production since the original session. We weren't able to get those in this case. This is covered really well in Matt's article.

We also went through every Venkman line recorded, including studio ad-libs, and split those up in any way possible to maximize the Venkman material we could draw from.

For instance, from the scripted line 'Hey, over here. A little help? Yo, Ray? Egon? A little help?' we managed to split 'Hey', 'Over here.' Then 'Yo.', 'Ray?', 'Egon?', and 'A little help?' to use throughout the rest of the game. Sometimes you just have to get resourceful. This helped, but those split lines sometimes didn't match the tonality of a particular scenario.

 

[Markitron]

I loved that game, it was a bit rough around the edges but they really nailed core gameplay mechanics. Felt very satisfying to catch ghosts.

 

[clockpunk]

Cannot believe I missed this - absolutely loved the game, really captured the essence of being a Ghostbuster - made me feel like I did when I was five with all the toys. Thanks for posting/sharing, though I would have loved to ask a question or three. :-/

 

[Aaron]

It's always odd to me when people dump on this game. I loved everything but the very end.

 

[Splatt]

Sounds like the game was caught in a lot of red tape and that it's lucky it came out as good as it did.

 

[bryanee]

I really love the game and I've been meaning to play it again. Fuck those flying gargoyle's though.

They really nailed the look, tone and atmosphere of Ghostbusters in this game.

 

[Card Boy]

The game was basically Ghostbusters 3 from a story perspective which is great. I just didn't like the concept of the silent Rookie though.

 

[Correctomundo]

Loved this game. Been meaning to replay it for a while now. I really dig foley work, so maybe now that I know what the sounds are, it'll motivate me to listen deeper.

 

[Frozenprince]

To me this is the real third movie.

Great game.

 

[Blues1990]

For me, this game is the closest thing we're going to get to an actual Ghostbusters 3. I did like that Ernie Hudson had a bigger part in this game, as I can't remember for the life of me for what he did in the previous two movies.

It's interesting that they made the Rookie character to be rather unimportant & made it a rather hilarious gag forthat character being Egon's guinea pig, as most video games make the player-controlled character to be the center of the universe.

 

[NYR]

Loved this game, was the first game that made me realize there was a difference in consoles. Bought it on 360 since the PS3 version didn't have the wall burn feature when blasting it with a proton blast.

 

[elfinke]

It's always odd to me when people dump on this game. I loved everything but the very end.

Yep, I enjoyed it immensely.

That was a great AMA, thanks for taking the time to format it in a readable way. Fucking reddit.

 

[clockpunk]

I still wish they had released more multiplayer maps - one based on the firehouse would have been fantastic. Here's hoping for backwards compatibility on XBox One - it was one of he few games I voted for.

I really like how the IDW comic series builds in the events of the games as canon, and features the Rookie as well, occasionally,

 

[PBalfredo]

It's always odd to me when people dump on this game. I loved everything but the very end.

I worked on the game as a QA tester at TR and when it came out I remember checking out the GAF OT to see what people thought about it, but it was just wall-to-wall complaining about the PS3 version. Any thoughts on the game itself seemed to be drowned out.

 

[Lettuce]

Such an underrated game, i loved every minute of it, was just so fun catching the ghosts and slamming them into the traps!. Would loved to have had a sequel to this game but sadly that looks like that will never happen!!

Still pee'd of to this day that 2 of the multiplayer achievements were bugged....that was the only thing stopping my getting a 1000 achievement points on this game!!

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Loved this game, was the first game that made me realize there was a difference in consoles. Bought it on 360 since the PS3 version didn't have the wall burn feature when blasting it with a proton blast.

Lucky you, it was PS3 exclusive in Europe for months so I had to buy that version. Near the end, the game erased my save.
Such a shit game.

 

[LelouchZero]

What an awesome AMA! This game was fantastic!

 

[alr1ght]

This game is always super cheap on PC (<$10). If you haven't bought it already, do so.

 

[bryanee]

Lucky you, it was PS3 exclusive in Europe for months so I had to buy that version. Near the end, the game erased my save.
Such a shit game.

The 360 version was region free. I imported the US version when it came out.

 

[lightskintwin]

I played this a couple of months ago and it was enjoyable as a Ghostbusters fan playing with the gang back together and fighting against iconic ghosts and monsters, however let's keep it real... It's a very average third person shooter.

Should've been a create a character customization too.

 

[7DollarHagane]

I always wanted to try the Wii/ps2 versions as well because they are quite different.

Which of those is better? I think the PSP is a direct port of the Wii version..


And has anyone played the ds version?

 

[Dec]

This game is always super cheap on PC (<$10). If you haven't bought it already, do so.

Apparently I got Lead and Gold and this game for 9.99 in the 2010 Steam Summer Sale...

That's really cheap considering it was still pretty new.

Never finished this game, installed it last week to try again though.

 

[BulletBees]

Great stuff! I loved this game so much when it came out.

 

[Oh God Why]

They were a good developer that when given the chance to shine could make a great game. Unfortunately, they got burned on their last two games.

A bargain bin Kinect game

and shitty tv game that was developed in less then a year