From the Halls of Oratory to the Realm of Video Games

X-COM. Just bringing up the name brings to mind nostalgic dreams and rage-filled nightmares in the minds of many gamers. X-COM is a series that I only recently got into this past year but fell in love with immediately. Back in December I wrote an article about the upcoming X-COM 2 and how I am eagerly awaiting its release. X-COM 2 promises to be an amazing game that will put an interesting spin on the classic X-COM formula. You may be surprised to learn that one of Oratory’s own is a gameplay programmer that worked on this soon-to-be hit. That person is Joe Weinhoffer, an Oratory alumni who graduated in 2007 and is the brother of current senior Michael Weinhoffer. Joe is currently a gameplay programmer at Firaxis and worked on X-COM 2. I was unable to interview Joe face-to-face but I was able to interview him digitally.

• How did you feel the first time you stepped through the front door to Oratory?
  • Well, the first time in seventh grade, I was probably shocked at how tall all of the seniors were. The first time I was allowed to go through the front door as a senior, Mr. Klarmann nearly gave me a detention because I wasn’t wearing my tie yet, so I was pretty mortified.
• How would you describe your experiences at Oratory?
  • My time at Oratory was great. The teachers gave me a great background for college, and helped me realize and expand my interests and talents. I had a great time participating in various activities, and met some of my best friends while in school.
• What is your fondest memory of Oratory?
  • I have many, but getting third place in the New Jersey Mock Trial competition my senior year is definitely a highlight!
• What life lessons did you learn from your time at Oratory?
  • After wearing a jacket and tie nearly every day for six years, I have never been uncomfortable dressing up! I also learned how to manage my time, develop a good work ethic, and keep my faith incorporated into my life.
• Do you think that your time at Oratory shaped your decision to become a gameplay programmer?
  • I actually didn’t know that I wanted to be a programmer when I first started at Oratory! I was interested in computer science, but also really loved math and chemistry. I took classes in both throughout high school, and ended up deciding to major in Comp Sci in college once I realized that my true passion was in video games. All of the classes at Oratory definitely helped to shape that decision, and continue to make me a well-rounded individual!
• What desire or interest made you want to work as a gameplay programmer?
  • I dreamed about making games from the first moment I turned on Super Mario 64 after receiving a Nintendo 64 for Christmas when I was little, and often used to joke that I would be a game developer when I grew up. Video games have always been one of my passions, so it was very easy to decide to pursue a career in the games industry once I had the technical background to do so.
• Where did you go to college?
  • The University of Pennsylvania, where I studied Computer Science. I also got my Master’s degree from Penn in Computer Graphics and Game Programming.
• How did you get hired at Firaxis?
  • I applied to a job posting on their website and went through the normal interview process. Nothing special! I was already living in Maryland, so it was convenient for interviewing that they were located within driving distance. I still consider myself very lucky that they had an opening right when I was looking for a game development job!
• What is it like to work at Firaxis and as a gameplay programmer?
  • It’s great! The X-COM 2 team is only around 75 people, compared to other game studios where hundreds of employees might be working on a single title. The smaller team size has let me interact with all of the different disciplines involved in making a game, from concept artists to animators to designers and programmers. Everyone works very hard and is extremely dedicated to the project. We want to make the best and most fun games possible, so if something in the game isn’t fun for us as the developers, we’ll change it! And while many people assume game development consists of just sitting around playing games all day (and of course there is some of that for testing and balancing), it is also a lot of work. The entire team put in the time it took in order to make X-COM 2 as polished as possible.
• Now onto the game series that has been a cult classic since its debut in 1994, X-COM – more recently the upcoming X-COM 2. How long have you been working on X-COM 2?
  • I have been on the project for about a year now.
• What have you worked on during your time as a member of the team that worked on X-COM 2?
  • I spent most of my time working on the strategy layer of the game. I worked very closely with the design team to come up with various features for the strategy layer, and then I wrote the code to put them into the game! Specifically, I implemented the various Avenger facilities, the staffing system, UFOs, Resistance Rumors, and the training system for the Psi Operative class, along with many other smaller tasks and fixing bugs.
• How familiar with the X-COM series were you before you worked on the game?
  • Not very! I had only played X-COM: Enemy Unknown for a few hours in preparation for my interviews at Firaxis. But I made sure to go back and play through that entire game once I knew I would be working on X-COM 2.
• How does X-COM 2 deviate from the regular X-COM formula?
  • X-COM 2 sticks pretty closely to the past characteristics of the X-COM franchise, namely being a turn-based strategy game with both tactical combat missions and an overarching strategic layer, tied together with the narrative theme of soldiers fighting aliens. The big twist in X-COM 2 is that we assume the player lost the game in Enemy Unknown, so now the aliens have control of Earth and X-COM is a resistance operation attempting to take back the planet.
• How has the base management and strategic map mode changed in X-COM 2?
  • The entire strategy layer is much more dynamic than in previous games, frequently presenting the player with compelling choices. For example, instead of just passing time until the next mission on the Geoscape, the player will choose a specific location where they want to scan. Each of these locations on the map provides a benefit to X-COM, such as investigating a rumor to gain intelligence, recruiting a new Engineer, or making contact with another region to expand X-COM’s influence. The base management is also much more active, since the player needs to balance their engineering resources between providing benefits in existing rooms (like increasing power or item production speed) and constructing new facilities.
• How has the guerilla style of X-COM 2 changed gameplay during tactical missions?
  • Most missions now begin with a “Concealment” phase where the soldiers are undetectable by the enemy (unless you get too close), so you can sneak up on the aliens and launch a surprise ambush. The aliens are a lot stronger in X-COM 2 and have some pretty devastating abilities, so being able to get the jump on them at the start of a battle helps to tip the scales in X-COM’s favor.
• What new additions to soldier customization have been added in X-COM 2?
  • We really loved the ability to customize soldiers in Enemy Unknown; it provided the player with a lot of emotional attachment to their units, and of course it’s incredibly fun to be able to send your friends and family out to do battle with aliens (and hopefully survive). We really wanted to expand that system for X-COM 2 to give even more options for customization, so we added a ton of new hats, props, colors, armor patterns, and even accented voices to represent different nationalities. If you want to make an Australian Ranger with an eye patch and cigar, go right ahead!
• How has the AI improved in order to maintain or even advance the level of difficulty X-COM players have known?
  • X-COM games are known for being very difficult, and that trend continues with X-COM 2. We put a lot of work into making sure that the aliens use their most powerful abilities at the best moments, and will use interesting tactics like running away to join another group of enemies if they are outnumbered. The AI is even smart enough to use the soldiers’ abilities against the player if a unit gets mind controlled… And oh man, does that hurt!
• How does the story for X-COM 2 grip the player into its world and character? How engaging are the cast of characters the players will meet in the campaign?
  • Even though the game is set 20 years in the future, X-COM 2 still takes place on Earth, so all of the various countries and regions in the game are very recognizable. The aliens have set up the “ADVENT Administration” to control all of the humans on the planet, so X-COM’s main goal in the story is to expose ADVENT’s lies and uncover their true, sinister purpose. One of the favorite characters from Enemy Unknown, Central Officer Bradford, returns in X-COM 2 after surviving the first war, but now he’s a grizzled veteran who has been on the run for many years. It’s great to have him return to X-COM as a familiar face, while also seeing how he has changed in the time between the two games.
• The multiplayer in X-COM: Enemy Unknown allowed players to play 1 v. 1 battles and allowed them to create teams with both aliens and humans. Is there a multiplayer mode in X-COM 2 and if there is, how has this mode been expanded? If there is no multiplayer in X-COM 2 can you explain why that feature was removed?
  • There is a multiplayer mode in X-COM 2, and it is very similar to the mode in Enemy Unknown. It still allows players to battle with teams of both alien and human units, but it also uses our new procedural map generation system so every battle will be slightly different. We have held a few tournaments in the studio, but I’ve never done very well.
• Concern that gaming companies are ripping out parts of their games and selling them to gamers has become a large part of the gaming scene today. How will DLC be handled post launch for X-COM 2?
  • We’re trying to be very open with our fans and players about our DLC plans post-launch, and have already announced our release schedule. All of our DLC is extra; we fit everything into the base version of the game that we possibly could! We want to make sure that all of our DLC provides a lot of value, whether that is through additional customization options for the soldiers, powerful new weapons, or modified gameplay mechanics that cause the player to rethink how they approach certain situations.
• What do you think both X-COM veterans and gamers just getting into the X-COM series will think of the game?
  • Well, I certainly hope they love it! I expect most gamers will find X-COM 2 to be a thrilling strategy game with challenging tactical battles, great emotional attachment, a compelling narrative, and endless replayability.
• I just have one final question for you. Can you give advice for the student readers back at Oratory on how they can succeed in finding out what to do in life and getting hired at their dream job?
  • Pursue your passions! Whatever it is that you love to do, keep doing it, and work hard to learn as much as you can and become better at it. There are so many great avenues for learning available to you, so take advantage of all of them! Even if you don’t have a plan for your entire career or dream job, explore your interests as much as possible. Whether that is a broad subject, like math or history or sports or movies, or something very specific, keep digging deeper until you find the interest that really clicks with you, then run with it! And don’t worry if that process takes time, even through high school and college; as long as you are happy with what you are working towards, you will find a way to turn that passion into a career.

After conducting this interview it seems to me that X-COM 2 is set to be one of the best games of 2016 and will be a hit among gamers. Joe and the rest of the team that worked on X-COM 2 put all of their effort into making a game that players will love and for that they should be commended. It’s amazing how Joe went from going to school at Oratory to working at Firaxis, one of the biggest strategy video game developers in the market, and it really shows the education and preparation that students at Oratory receive for their future careers and lives. X-COM 2 will be released on February 5th for the PC.