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Wolfenstein: Youngblood's devs say creating a realiable AI companion was "really, really hard"

Don't get in my way, damnit!
by rawmeatcowboy
18 June 2019
GN Version 5.0

The Wolfenstein series is not one where you enjoy co-op gameplay, but that's changing with Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Even if you're going in solo, you'll still have a computer-controlled partner at your side. In an interview with USGamer, Jerk Gustafsson of MachineGames discusses the challenge of creating a co-op computer companion that doesn't get in your way.

It's been really, really hard. But it's something that we... We knew it was gonna be tough, of course, but we decided to do it. We just had to do it, because we also want to tell this story. We want to have this. And that's part of what I said, we really need to rethink the approach to storytelling as well, with two players.

Since it's this relationship between the sisters throughout the story, talking to each other and the banter they have, and the communication they have, and that sisterly bond they build throughout the story is so important. So, obviously, we just had to have an AI companion if you play solo, because you need to have your sister there with you when you play. But the idea from the very beginning was to try to mirror the experience as good as possible between solo and co-op. So whatever you can do as a player, the AI companion can do the same thing. We do, of course, a lot of things behind this. How you switch weapons as an AI companion, that's controlled by certain requirements, depending on which enemy you face and what weapons they use on the player. But there are also some ways you can customize your AI companion and you can choose which pep signal you do.

Basically in the beginning, we just set out to do some emotes, like regular emotes. But I also wanted to add some gameplay functionality to that. And that's a big part of the core loop now. So the sisters encourage each other through these pep signals, and that gives you a boost of health or armor, whatever it may be, and you give it to yourself and your sister during combat. And that is also something the AI companion can do as well.

[Link]