Cross-media content is the wave of the future, and John Antal shows what’s possible when you think beyond just one medium. He is a retired colonel who spent 30 years in the U.S. Army. He is also the chief of staff and military and historical director at Gearbox Software, the maker of the “Brothers in Arms” video games being published by UbiSoft. The latest edition is “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,” which Antal turned into both a historical novel and history book all at the same time he was helping create the game. I caught up with him while he was smoking a cigar at the recent UbiSoft video game showcase in San Francisco. The game and books debut in August.
JA: VB: Tell me about your work on the Brothers in Arms video game.
JA: [Gearbox Software has] been working on “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,” since 2005. I started earliest because I do the research. I go to the battlefield. Talk to the veterans. To create the game, we’ve really done our homework. I talked to probably 200 veterans and have thousands of great interviews from some of the other historians I’ve worked with. Our goal is to bring dramatic, interactive historical fiction to our audience. Everything in the game is real: the battles, the ground, the weapons.
VB: You served in the military yourself. What’s your background?
JA: Thirty years in the U.S. Army. Graduated from the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). Airborne Ranger. Served in combat units as a tank officer for 26 years. Served all over the world. Commanded from platoon to regiment. In my last job, I was the G3 (operations officer) of the III Armored Corps and so had about 65,000 guys I was responsible for. I’ve been in South Korea on the DMZ when we had tough times there. Been to Bosnia, Kuwait, and places like that. I did not fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I retired in 2003. But it looks like I may go to Afghanistan to give out games to the troops in September. That’s going to be fun. I still do a lot of interaction with the U.S. Army.
VB: What’s the core plot of Brothers in Arms?
JA: It’s a ten-day period during the life of a squad in World War II. When you fight in Brothers in Arms, you learn what that squad does. You don’t jump around and see all of World War II in one game. This is just Operation Market Garden. It’s Sept. 17, 1944 to Sept. 27, 1944.
VB: That battle was very dynamic, with paratroopers, tank combat, and lots of action. It seems like an ideal setting for a game.
JA: Yes. We started the first game with the 101st Airborne. Patton and his tanks were conquering so much ground that every paratrooper mission got canceled. It looked like the war would be over soon. But there was the big barrier on the Rhine. The allies tried to take it in a weak area in Holland. That was bad territory. It was flat, marshy, and the bridges interdict movement. If you have the bridges, you can drive. This operation launches airborne troops to seize the bridges. During this fight, all of the bridges are supposed to be taken the first day. But when someone is shooting at you, it takes a long time. Our story is about this squad. We wrote a novel, a history book and a game all about this episode. Read the rest of this entry »
