Vectorman/Development

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One of the earliest concept artworks for what would eventually become VectorMan.^[1]

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As one of the Mega Drive most technically-impressive Western-designed video games, the development of Vectorman was one of BlueSky Software's greatest achievements on Sega's 16-bit platform.

Development

After witnessing the 1989 demo Megademo by the demoscene group RSI - one of many demos featuring "vector balls", in which plain spherical sprites are animated to give the appearance of three-dimensional depth - BlueSky Software programmer Karl Robillard was inspired to get the same rendering technology running on Sega's then relatively-new Genesis hardware. Robillard soon programmed his own "vector balls" engine (eventually named VAT - Vectorman Animation Tool), and along with fellow programmer Rich Karpp was able to create an impressive Genesis implementation of the technology, all running at a surprisingly smooth framerate. Some early animations were created in a 1993 proof of concept build, which according to Marty Davis, was technically impressive but difficult to integrate with actual gameplay.

“	Originally Karl and some of the others had devised a system to do actual 3D on the Sega Genesis, and they started with an animation of some 3D balls. This was actual 3D computing — on a Genesis. I saw the demo in Karl’s office back in ’93. They quickly realized there wasn’t much to be done with the original 3D ball tech because you couldn’t get it to run in a gameplay situation.”, adding “This was all before the ‘Ballz’ game came out. That game sorta proved the unworkability of the concept. Karl gave me a tool that was easy to use, and it allowed us to design the animations to blend into each other very smoothly by creating a nice action matrix on the game implementation side. When you see animations in the game you’re really watching lots of bits of interconnected animations cutting from one to another as the character detects floors, walls, and takes player input. The VAT system allowed these linkages to look very smooth in a way that’s impossible with full-body sprites.	„
— Marty Davis^[1]

BlueSky's art director, Dana Christianson, overheard some of the team discussing possibilities for using the technology for different gameplay mechanics, and soon called for a meeting with BlueSky designers Mark Lorenzen and Jason Weesner. The latter formally proposed turning the popular demo into a video game, and management approved. The team was soon joined by artist and designer Mark Lorenzen, who along with Karpp convinced BlueSky's already-impressed management to show one of their early demos to Sega of America. Sega was just as impressed, and greenlit Vectorman for proper development. At the time, Nintendo's upcoming Donkey Kong Country was being heavily marketed, with its pre-rendered graphics taking center stage; particularly, the advertisements stated that such technology and animation were impossible on the Mega Drive. Sega of America saw Vectorman as one of their best opportunities to counter Donkey Kong Country's hype with an impressive technology of their own.

A page from Mark Lorenzen's development sketchbook.

Electronic musician Jon Holland was soon brought onboard, and he, Lorezen, Karpp, and Weesner spent the next few weeks formulating ideas for what would eventually become Vectorman. Between listening to music, watching anime, and playing imported Japanese games for inspiration, these creative meetings were where much of the gameplay was conceptualized: a side-scrolling run-and-gun with elements of action platformers. However, the game's style had still yet to be finalized. According to Weesner, "Mark, Rich, and I wanted something edgy, contemporary, and geared towards a hipper audience than previous BlueSky games." Vectorman's protagonist began as a simple cartoon-like character named Shakespeare, boasting large eyes and a big nose, although this design was quickly rejected for being "too cute". Still, Lorenzen was beginning to become acquainted with delivering human expressiveness through the game's unique sphere-rendering technology (particularly in terms of shading individual spheres to better convey depth and realism), and ended up filling up two development sketchbooks with concept artwork and preliminary sketches.

Vectorman was designed around advanced graphical effects from the very beginning, and much of the game's development reflected the team's attempt to fully use its unique technology to the fullest. Enemies and bosses were created with sphere-based designs, and stage layouts were conceptualized which would further showcase the team's programming skill. Lorenzen worked with fellow BlueSky artist Rick Schmitz, who provided a few key concept sketches for the protagonist's expressions and would end up finalizing the character's design as the titular VectorMan. Another artist, Ellis Goodson, also did further concept artwork for the character. Marty Davis served VectorMan's animator, and as the developer who directly developed elements like ball spacing and animation speeds, refined most of the character's animations through Karl Robillard's VAT. Per Goodson, “the 3D aspects of Vectorman got everyone excited. That illusion of depth was what was going to get reaction from the players.”

In early January 1995, Marty Davis created a rough journal of the game's stage IDs, enemy names, a development timeline, and directions to other team members. Davis describes development then as being four weeks behind schedule, with an estimated four months until the game was to be shipped. That expected ship date of around May would be pushed back almost half a year to October. It was during this time that Vectorman as we know it today began to come into shape, with a substantial amount of the game's design and development finalized. Much of the developers attributed their sheer passion as one of the driving forces behind seeing its development cycle through - and delivering a fun, innovative game that could serve as a "benchmark" for the console's performance. Davis says "the super-sophisticated tech allowed this — running at 60 fps, super-responsive character control with graphics that matched. It was the gameplay that was always the focus in developing the game. People mention Donkey Kong Country as the benchmark, but I remember Gunstar being a much bigger benchmark than DKC. There were plenty of situations where we dropped cool graphics in favor of performance."

Story

“	I intentionally stayed out of the process. I went into a meeting room one day and Jason Weesner was going on and on about a storyline which was based off of “The Running Man”, with the whole TV show aspect. On the spur of the moment I asked a friend of mine, Patrick Brogan, to write up some new storyline ideas. I think it was overnight, or, at most, over a weekend. Patrick came up with 8-to-10 new ideas. Rich picked the one he liked and we went with it.	„
— Dana Christianson^[1]

Richard Karpp states that "during initial discussions of the story, we wanted a main theme for the game to be that passive entertainment, like television, was inferior to interactive entertainment. This didn’t really make its way into the final game, except for the fact that you destroy a lot of TVs to get powerups."^[1]

Artwork

Music

“	One of my personal highlights was being able to briefly work with Jon Holland who was our music composer. We spent hours listening to Kraftwerk, Orbital, Prodigy, and Goa mixes to come up with the soundtrack. Jon composed all of the game’s electronic music and it’s still one of the most unique aspects of the game.	„
— Jason Weesner^[1]

Development material

Development diary written by animator Marty Davis.
Earlier sketchbook produced by designer Mark Lorenzen.
Later sketchbook produced by designer Mark Lorenzen.
Tech demo created for the game's pitch.^[1]
A 1995 email from Shinobu Toyoda to Jerry Markota concerning Sega of Japan's reception to seeing Vectorman.^[1]