Development of Haze

Originally Haze was a very hardcore thing. In terms of the content, the issues it was dealing with, the gore, the politics; it was a very adult game. Right at the beginning Haze was set in the modern day in Iraq and it was like Bush-bashing, a politically centered thing. It got re-written dozens of times on [Ubisoft's] request and it ended up being this futuristic kind of thing about something totally unrelated.
— Thomas Dudenaughty (pseudonym)

## 2005 - The Next Generation

    Following the commercial failure of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Free Radical saw that pitching TimeSplitters 4 to publishers would not be possible. The move into the next generation resulted in higher production costs, which was making publishers risk-averse and looking for games that will sell millions of copies. Feeling like they had achieved all they wanted with Future Perfect, they began thinking about creating a new IP.

This would end up becoming Haze, an anti-militaristic shooter meant to showcase the horrors of war and stand out from the WWII shooters of its time. In September 2005, Free Radical entered into a publishing deal with Ubisoft, with a planned release date of 19 March 2007. As a result of high development costs, this would be the first project the developer would not have full ownership of, with the rights being co-owned between developer and publisher. This would have also been the first game Free Radical would work with the milestone approval process. In previous projects, payments would be sent at the beginning of each month and the publisher would only look at the game at specific times of development. Now, the publisher would be involved with the day-to-day running of things and the decisions that were made regarding the game’s development, putting creative liberties below the need for approval.

 TimeSplitters 2 (PS2, XB, NGC) - 2002
 Second Sight (PS2, XB, NGC, PC) - 2004
 TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2, XB, NGC) - 2005
 Haze (PS3, X360, PC) - 2007

• *Full amount unknown; does not include payments for PC port or from original publisher Activision.*

•• *Agreed amount was €9 million. GBP sum is calculated using the exchange rate from 30 September 2005.*

The initial idea for the game was a squad-based shooter, where marines using a combat enhancing drug named Nectar would be fighting rebels in South America during 2015. Planned to be 'a war game for adults', it would put the player into a second-to-second experience of war, with each mission taking place chronologically immediately after the previous one ended. The protagonist would face a moral crisis throughout the story and defect to the rebels. An important part of the game would be a revolutionary AI planning system, named *Conspire*, which would be used for selecting what an AI character should do based on a metric/goal system - the developers would give them a world state, a goal state, a set of actions they can perform, and a way to measure their progress, and the planner would pick which actions to perform in order to achieve the goal. While the game aimed to show the brutality of war, Ubisoft requested an age rating of PEGI 16+ (ESRB M).

As the company was moving to the next generation, it was felt that the C-based engine used in the TimeSplitters games had become outdated and would hinder development. The team decided to rewrite the engine in C++ , thinking that it would make it more flexible, scalable and allow for quicker development. However this meant that development on both the engine and the game would have to be done in tandem, limiting the ability to experiment with the game.

Haze May 2005 Concept TrailerThe original design for Mantel was for them to be technologically advanced but without any miniaturization. This meant having to wear heavy battle suits and large backpacks.Haze Late 2005 GameplayWhen the game was signed, it was undecided if the game would be first or third person. Sometime in 2006, it was decided the game would be first person.
## 2006 - Hazy Development

Haze was announced at E3 2006, with gameplay shown to visitors there. It was revealed the game took place twenty five years in the future (2031), with the protagonist being Jake Carpenter, a newly enlisted soldier in the Mantel army. Deployed on his first mission in South America, his goal is to fight a rebel faction named The Promise Hand. However as the story progresses, he would find out things are not as they seem. The demo took place in a jungle level, showing troopers depart from a helicopter and fighting rebels. At some point, they find an unarmed man surrendering, who they shoot mercilessly. The soldiers were later administered a dose of Nectar and the footage cut out. A basic squad system was also shown, with commands issued via the D-pad.

The combat enhancing drug, Nectar, would alert the user to danger, focus on it and highlight opponents. Injections would be controlled by a satellite, meaning various variables would determine how much Nectar they would receive. For example, a player surrounded by enemies would see a stronger highlight around them than if there were a few enemies around.

When the player switched sides and joined the rebels, he would discover that Nectar was a lie - all the abilities it claims to offer were just human senses working at their height in combat. All the drug actually did was hide the reality of war from its user and bring them under the control of Mantel. When deprived of Nectar, a trooper will start seeing hallucinations and hearing various sounds.

Each side of the conflict would be unique, having its own special abilities. Mantel soldiers were tough, with high health, a suit with integrated optics and a melee attack that would send enemies flying. The most elite of them were equipped with grenades that would simulate Nectar Withdrawal on non-Nectar users. Rebels on the other hand, would be masters at scavenging ammunition, healing their wounds and moving quickly across the battlefield. Using a well-placed shot, they could disable a Mantel soldier's Nectar administrator and send him into withdrawal, causing him to fire blindly before collapsing. They could also steal weapons from enemies' hands and hijack their vehicles.

As development progressed, the new engine proved to be more troublesome than beneficial. Issues like low performance and memory fragmentation made working on the game difficult. Regardless, the team had agreed to deliver the game on a certain date and needed to pass its milestones in order to get paid. With no other choice, Free Radical reached out to Ubisoft on August 2006 about delaying the game. Ubisoft would agree, moving the release date to 30 August 2007 and increasing the game's budget from €9 to €11.86 million (€5.75 million paid). However, with the increased funding, would come increased obligations. By this time, the concept that Nectar's abilities were an illusion and would work after defecting had been scrapped. Instead, rebels would get more unique abilities. Additionally, the squad system was removed.

* Haze Milestone Schedule #2
* Detailed Features

The time provided, combined with the additional requests by Ubisoft, did little to help the situation. Having to work on the engine and the game together put Free Radical into a cycle where content would be rushed in for a milestone, then fixed later, affecting the deliverables for the next milestone.

E3 boothHaze E3 2006 TrailerHaze presentation at E3 2006
## 2007 - Shifting Deadlines

It soon became apparent this was ineffective, as the time meant for improving the engine and AI system was used for implementing extra features. After much discussion, on 30 April 2007, Ubisoft would provide another time extension and increase the budget to €13.95 million (€8.41 million paid). Planned for release on 30 November 2007, there would not be new requests for content unless Free Radical agreed they could be added in time. However, if Free Radical failed to meet the new release date, payments would be reduced by €750.000 as well as an additional €100.000 and 1% of royalties for each month it does not release. The game's rating was also changed to PEGI 18+ (ESRB M). If the game failed to release by 15 December 2007, Ubisoft would become the sole owner of the Haze trademark.

Thinking of Free Radical as incompetent, Ubisoft would only approve of the delay if it sent its own producers to manage development. These producers, considered inexperienced in Free Radical's eyes, had the goal of helping them reach their milestones. They had creative control over the project, including the ability to withhold payments. Morale was low at the studio, as they felt like they were working on a game that would fail.

* Haze Milestone Schedule #3

Haze's first appearance of 2007 would be in May at Ubisoft's Ubidays event. The game featured changes from the version shown in 2006. The game now takes place in 2048, with the characters and weapons looking more futuristic and the protagonist now being named Shane Carpenter. For example, the standard Mantel soldier wears black armor with a yellow helmet compared to the more standard military attire previously seen. This sleek and bright design is meant to show off the troopers' arrogance and disregard for camouflage, with the use of yellow beehive designs meant to imply their swarm-like mentality. Nectar is now manually injected by the player, creating the potential for an overdose. The symptoms of Nectar Overdose cause the player to lose control and the character to start firing indiscriminately, seeing everyone in front of him as a black figure. Most importantly, Haze was revealed to be exclusive to the PlayStation 3, at least for a certain amount of time. Ubisoft had been offered funding for marketing by Sony in exchange for PS3 exclusivity. At the same time, there were also discussions about creating a sequel to Haze after the first one was completed.

It would be at E3 2007 where a lot of information about Haze would be revealed, such as gameplay mechanics and plot details. Specifically, it was revealed that the protagonist will defect from Mantel and join the rebels. This was not Free Radical's choice, but Ubisoft's, which wanted to generate large amounts of hype. The game was often compared to the Xbox 360 exclusive *Halo 3*, which was also releasing in 2007. The term "Halo killer" would end up characterizing this game to this day, even if that wasn't the game's intention.

On 1 October 2007, Ubisoft and Free Radical defined how the PlayStation 3 exclusivity would be handled. The PS3 version:

* would release by 30 November 2007 (ideally by 21 November), with a demo released on the PlayStation store between 1 July and 15 November (target date 15 October)
* would have content feature set parity with other versions
* would include PS3 exclusive features: the minimum would be two paid multiplayer assault levels within three months of release
* would come with SIXAXIS features (e.g. "melee blast") and
	+ one SIXAXIS-based minigame on the PlayStation Store at launch
	+ one SIXAXIS-based minigame on the PlayStation Store within 3 months of release
	+ one SIXAXIS-based minigame on the PlayStation Store within 6 months release, if possible

    The Xbox 360 and PC versions would release on 11 March 2008. If they were not released by 31 March, payments would be reduced by €750.000 as well as an additional €100.000 and 1% of royalties for each month they did not release. For all this, the budget was increased to €14.43 million (€11.86 million paid). If the PS3 version was released by 30 November 2007 and the Xbox 360/PC version released by 31 March 2008, Free Radical would receive a €450 thousand bonus.

* Haze Milestone Schedule #4
* DLC Plan and Minigames

While publicly Free Radical said the PS3 offered a lot of potential, internally this decision came with a lot of problems. Ubisoft had not consulted Free Radical about the Sony deal until it was signed and the new engine did not perform well on the console. For example, in order to stabilize the framerate, the game's resolution was 576p upscaled to 720p.

Around this time, an interview with scriptwriter Rob Yescombe mentioned that the story had been changed to be less controversial , showing how it was not just the gameplay that had changed throughout the years.

As the release date neared, it was becoming clear that the game would not release on time, even with paid 16 hour days. On November 20, Ubisoft announced the game would release sometime January-March 2008.

## 2008 - The Studio Killer?

In January, Ubisoft sent some of its employees to Free Radical to assist with the completion of the game. It had become clear that the development has taken too long. Later that month, it was publicly announced the game would move into Ubisoft's 2008-09 fiscal year (April 2008 - March 2009). On 15 February, the final release date of the game would be set: 20 May for the United States and 22 May for Europe, with a demo on the PlayStation Store at 5 May. The plan for PS3 exclusive features remained the same, however the SIXAXIS minigames were scrapped and only the SIXAXIS features implemented in the game itself were kept. Since Free Radical did not release the game by the agreed upon date, the €750.000 payment reduction penalty was enforced. The other penalties were postponed and would occur if the game was not released by 20 May. A d

The Xbox 360 and PC versions were suspended until future notice and all attention was to be placed into the PS3 release. The budget was increased to €14.46 million (€12.3 million paid). No bonus would paid for releasing on time, however there would be a bonus depending on Metascore:

* 76-77%: €250.000
* 78-79%: €500.000
* 80+%: €750.000

* Haze Milestone Schedule #5 and DLC Plan

In late March, the release date was publicly announced and in early April the demo was announced. However, from the release of the demo, players were getting disappointed, finding issues with the graphics and gameplay. Haze would release as scheduled, though its DLC would come a few months later than previously planned.

* Final DLC Plan

It was received poorly both commercially (600.000 copies sold) and critically (55 Metascore). This would be noticed by another publisher, who was told the delays would improve Haze and suspected its resources had been used on it...

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230407133717/https://www.eurogamer.net/free-radical-vs-the-monsters
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130205042716/http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1337739/whatever\_happened\_to\_timesplitters\_4.html
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220626162235/https://www.vg247.com/out-of-time-the-free-radical-story-part-two
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230419194528/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-collapse-of-free-radical-design
5. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20200814014945/http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/free-radical-project/708111p1.html
6. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230206085647/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ubisoft-and-free-radical-launch-new-video-game-franchize-hazetm
7. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20231005031808/https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/11/e3-2006-haze-demo-impressions
8. ↑ https://freeradical.fandom.com/wiki/Haze/Nectar\_Gameplay
9. ↑ >Haze/Asymmetric Conflict
10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230208130758/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/haze-ps3-only-in-07/1100-6171219/
11. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20220627181000/https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/07/12/e3-2007-haze-progress-report
12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160401154200/http://www.gamesradar.com/free-radical-halo-3-is-childs-play/
13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190415202740/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/david-doak-talks-haze-interview?page=2
14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20221205113224/https://www.engadget.com/2014-11-06-the-game-that-killed-free-radical.html
15. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211127210100/https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/07/11/e3-2007-haze-ps3-exclusivity-qa
16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090814103847/http://www.develop-online.net/features/581/Cryteks-new-free-radicals
17. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090613062152/http://www.ripten.com/2008/05/18/free-radical-confirms-final-haze-resolution/
18. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20141110150713/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130398/clearing\_the\_haze\_rob\_yescombe\_on\_.php - see pages 2 and 3
19. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071222143758/http://www.developmag.com/news/28546/Free-Radical-paying-its-staff-overtime
20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150203025049/http://ca.ign.com/articles/2007/11/20/haze-splinter-cell-conviction-delayed
21. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20220121170515/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/haze-delayed-again
22. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20210619123151/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/haze-finally-gets-release-date
23. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20240120083207/https://www.engadget.com/2008-04-15-haze-gets-may-demo-slightly-earlier-release.html
24. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20100825190529/http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/haze
25. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230208063832/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/former-lucasarts-employee-on-why-star-wars-battlefront-iii-failed/1100-6400936/