Some years ago we started our 'Report In!' interview series to tell you a bit more about what it's like to develop games at Bohemia Interactive. With the newest Creator DLC (Expeditionary Forces) about to be released, we felt it would be a good time to question some of the third-party developers from the Tiny Gecko Studios team. This special 'Report In!' gives you a more personal perspective and a more detailed look at the way they go about their work.
INTRODUCTION
Tell the people a little about yourself. Who are you, and what do you do?
Hello everyone! I’m Alessandro, I’m 34 years old, Italian, and I’m the mastermind behind Tiny Gecko Studios and the Expeditionary Forces DLC! I share the same story as many other full time Arma 3 developers, having started out as a modder over a decade ago before going pro (shout out to the Community Upgrade Project team!). Since 2018 I’ve been working full time on Arma 3, I have contributed to several Creator DLCs and in 2022 I decided to try my luck and do my own thing.
What is your favorite BI game or Arma mission?
My first memory of playing Arma was probably a demo of Armed Assault on a laptop that was clearly inadequate for the task, so that wasn’t a big success. A few years later I upgraded and started playing Arma 2 Free (it was still a thing back then) and I ended up on a server playing Chernarus Domination, and fell immediately in love with it.
I loved the unique concept of a cooperative game over a huge terrain with dozens of other players, each one doing their own thing (some crewing a tank, some flying a helicopter, others just jumping into battle with an M16), also the fact that you were playing against AIs meant it could be a bit more laid back rather than having the constant pressure of trying to outsmart real players on an opposing team.
Can you give us some random facts about yourself?
I’m a powerlifter in the -83kg division, even though my total is nothing spectacular. At my last competition I totalled 515kg (1135lb for you Americans), squatting 170kg, benching 115kg and deadlifting 230kg (507lb). You can probably tell which one is my favorite. I’m planning to compete again in March next year if time allows.
DEPLOYING FORCES
How did the Expeditionary Forces project start? And how/when did you start forming your team?
The inception started in January 2022, but actual work on the project started later in mid-2022. Work with the Western Sahara Creator DLC was drawing down and I had nothing else lined up as a freelancer back then, so I said why not try and make something for myself for once and see how it goes.
Forming the team was probably the biggest challenge. I knew I could deliver most of the DLC by myself, but I would need some extra people to handle small bits that I couldn't do myself. Character artists especially proved to be the biggest challenge. Finding people who still want to work on this game that are reliable and can deliver solid work on time are very rare these days. It’s likely that in the future I'll have to start looking elsewhere because the talent pool for Arma 3 is drying up.
What made you choose this CDLC's particular theme?
I always thought the US Marines were cool, and the way they normally deploy around the world ends up being very similar to how many people play Arma, especially in milsim groups.
On more practical terms, a lot of Arma terrains are islands but the game never dives into how all the military personnel and assets get there, they kinda just “get there.” I thought that there was a clear gap in assets and I happened to know how to fill it.
This is the third Creator DLC that takes place in Arma 3's "futura" 2035 setting. How much connection is there to the existing Armaverse narrative and world?
I wanted the plot of the mini-campaign to fit into the main storyline (specifically The East Wind campaign) without being too invasive or changing the existing lore. I had to find an area of the Altis terrain that was underused and fit my story in there.
Unlike the main storyline, my mini-campaign is not very “character-driven” and serves more as a conduit to showcase the new assets and a glimpse of what would be the traditional mission for a Marine expeditionary unit in the event it got deployed into combat.
How has your project benefited from being a Creator DLC?
The easiest answer would be direct engine support from Bohemia Interactive. There were some annoying bugs from the base game we wouldn’t have been able to fix ourselves, and we also had a few engine and scripting changes made just for us that would otherwise have made certain assets impossible to do right.
I also think we got a lot of valuable feedback from the Closed Beta. Unfortunately we couldn’t address everything in time for release for a number of reasons, but I think we got some good ideas and suggestions. I don’t think we would’ve received the same interest had we released as a mod.
Finally, being a commercial product means that the time and money spent working on this is justified by the return we’re going to get after launch. I love developing content for Arma but it would be impossible to justify the effort required for a project like this otherwise.
PREPARE FOR LANDING
What was the primary focus of this Creator DLC?
So, the original pitch featured the vehicle assets exclusively (the AAV-9 Mack, the Combat Boat, the Amphibious Warfare Ship /LPD and the LCC-1 Landing Craft). There was no plan for anything else beyond that and a mini-campaign to showcase the content. The focus was exclusively on bridging the player from their base at sea to the land.
While that remained the core of the CDLC, as time went by, I realized I wanted some more assets to replace certain models from the base game, so that’s how the new MJTF faction started taking shape as its own thing.
I’m writing this one week before launch, but I think that in the end I managed to fulfill the vision I had in mind from the start and I'm really proud of what we as a team achieved. I hope the community will be just as happy as I am!
How did you go about selecting the assets (gear, weapons, vehicles, turrets) in your package?
When it comes down to the core assets mentioned in the previous question, the decision was rather easy. We needed a big static ship that the players could use as an offshore base of sorts, and it needed to be able to launch amphibious assets and helicopters, so that meant a flight deck and a well deck were necessary, therefore the LPD.
Once that was set I needed assets to bridge the gap between the ship and the shore. They had to be fast because asking the player to sit in a virtual box for maybe 15 or 20 minutes is not exactly a fun experience. The canceled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle ticked all the boxes, it had this crazy system that allowed it to sail at high speed in water, had an adequate armament, and was a perfect fit for the aesthetic of the “Futura” setting.
The third item on the list was the Combat Boat because I figured that it would give more value for players who don’t like US Marines, but still want to play with fast multi-purpose boats. The design is very common these days and used by many navies. Some have their own locally designed clones (like China and Russia), so it made for a perfect asset that players could adapt to other factions too.
Finally, the LCC-1 Landing Craft was the most difficult pick. We needed an asset to ferry normal vehicles like tanks and trucks from ship to shore. A hovercraft would’ve been nice, but the engine didn’t allow that, so I turned to a different design. I liked the fact that the design had this system of switching between shallow draft and catamaran depending on speed requirements, and so that became the fourth pick that constituted the original pitch.
The Marines faction followed the design process that in my mind drove BI to create the NATO faction, so I looked at what Special Forces / Rangers were using back then and imagined that trickling down into standard procurement for the entire branch. I took inspiration from Force Recon pictures for some design choices and for others I went with what I felt would be more unique.
The Titan NLOS missile was originally developed for another asset that I sadly had to cancel for a number of reasons, but it ended up being a nice multitool I could fit on several other assets. I wanted it to be usable by the AI so that meant no crazy convoluted guidance systems, so I settled on the existing setup.
The Hunter MRAP variants came to be during the development of the campaign. I thought it would be nice to have a light “glass cannon” type of asset that could also interface with the Titan NLOS guidance system, and took advantage of the work I was already doing to insert a new type of short range anti-air unit. Seeing what the other 2035 DLCs were doing with drones and how they’re used in Warlords, I thought it would’ve been an interesting idea to give players a counter.
Finally, we can launch the Titan NLOS from land and sea, wouldn’t it be nice to have something to fire it from the air too? There comes the AH-99J Python. But wait, wouldn’t it be nice if it did something even more unique, like shooting anti-radiation missiles? After all, no helicopter has missiles like that. There comes the AGM-122 Sidearm.
What decisions or influences helped you develop your singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios?
There are many things that ended up influencing the mission design as a whole. The general theme of the DLC of course plays a big role as mentioned earlier.
Even though these days the doctrine for the US Marines in the real world is changing to adapt to a very different mission, the vision I had for the DLC is still the same as it was through the Cold War and early 2000s: land on enemy shores and create a bridgehead for the rest of the force.
(Warning, spoilers ahead!) In more practical terms the idea was to let the player do things they normally don’t do in the main campaign, such as hiking up and down the hills trying to scout for objectives, then you get to crew an armored vehicle, then you get to fight in the middle of Kavala.
In general, I wanted to make the player feel like they are part of a big military operation. Maybe you’re fighting in the streets of Kavala and in a moment of quiet you still hear friendlies two intersections down fighting house to house while the autocannon on an AAV-9 goes off, or you’re pushing inland and see friendly helicopters and jets fly over your head.
I can say that in a way I wanted it to be more cinematic rather than making the player feel like they are fighting the entirety of the Altis Armed Forces all by themselves.
The very idea of Combined Arms is what makes Arma the game I love, and I wanted to share that with the player.
What criteria do you use to determine when something is considered complete?
I have a spreadsheet where I note down everything I'm doing: all the models, artwork, missions, things left to be done, possible bugs, etc.
For 3D models it’s easier. I have a checklist for all the technical and visual requirements and go through it bit by bit, while for missions it’s much more difficult because sometimes what we experience during testing / design is very different from what other people experience in their own playthroughs.
It may be that we play the same section of a mission 20 times and everything works as expected, then when we reach closed beta / QA a player does something we didn’t expect and the mission enters a softlock state so they can’t progress further. Or maybe the AI does what it’s supposed to do 20 times in a row and then on someone else’s playthrough they decide to do something silly like flying their helicopter into a tree or into the side of a mountain.
In a way I think that when the mission is in a state where it can be played all the way through as intended, there’s no easy way of softlocking it and all the dialogues are there then it’s complete.
ESTABLISHING BEACHHEAD
What would you say has been the most challenging thing about developing Expeditionary Forces?
I’d say without a doubt finding freelancers to cover the gaps in certain aspects that I couldn't do myself for one reason or another.
The biggest example for this are the character artists. Currently there are probably seven different character artists credited in the CDLC, however it’s not because we needed that many assets, but rather because we’d start working with someone and after a while they drop out for one reason or another, so the work that could’ve been done by a single person working consistently over time had to be taken over by someone else.
Unfortunately, given the scope of a project like this, hiring someone to work full-time is unfeasible. Aside from the costs there just isn’t enough content to warrant that, and freelancers need to stay busy so they switch projects very often, or see this as a side job from their full-time occupation, so you are placed on low priority and work that could be done in one day gets done in two weeks.
If we didn’t have to deal with this I think we could’ve easily delivered the CDLC six months earlier.
If there was a chance to do more Arma content in the future, I think a different approach would be required to make everything go smoothly and get to the finish line on time.
Were there any lessons learned from work you have done on other CDLC projects?
Yes! You need to plan very carefully ahead of time for each asset, go over the specifications of what you’re working on, gather as much information as you can and list all the things you want the asset to do, whether it’s complex animations, or a certain quirk with how it operates.
When you’re working with extremely limited resources you can’t afford to waste time by going through an asset only to realize halfway through that what you are doing is wrong and you need to start over or make significant design changes.
I will also add, given all the exotic vehicles and assets we have, you need to be able to prototype fast. If you’re unsure whether something is doable or not, make a basic prototype and try to figure out if your idea works. If it does then great, if it doesn’t then you won’t have wasted too much time or dug yourself into a hole with a complex model that you can’t get to work right.
If there's only one thing you could point out that you are the proudest of, what is it and why?
If I say “the CDLC as a whole,” it still technically counts as only one thing, so I’m going with that. Getting a project like this all the way to the finish line is an immense accomplishment to me and there’s only a handful of people in the community who can make the same claim. I’m really thankful for BI and all the contributors to this project who trusted me and helped me realize my vision.
The non-cheesy answer would probably be the AAV-9 Mack. When I was a kid there was a program on Discovery Channel called Future Weapons, which featured what at the time were crazy experimental weapons and gadgets and in no small part contributed to my obsession with militaria. One such item that was featured happened to be the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle the AAV-9 is based on. It was really fun working on it and seeing it come to life.
What type of experience do you hope players will get from playing this CDLC?
I hope it will bring some more interest in the 2035 “Futura” setting. I myself was a bit skeptical at first ,but I think part of the problem comes from the amount of content offered in the base game compared with previous titles. Other people simply like content that is grounded in reality, and that’s fine too. The alternate timeline setting offers a lot of creative opportunities you normally don’t get with current / real world settings. I hope I'll have a chance to expand further into this in the future.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
As I mentioned earlier, in my spare time I like to do powerlifting and occasionally compete. I don’t know if loading steel bars on your back counts as relaxing, but it’s certainly a great release valve. When I'm in the gym I can just turn my brain off and live in the moment. I probably started too late to become a world champion, but I still have fun and that’s all that matters.
Fun fact: there’s a powerlifting easter egg in the CDLC.
What would be your top tip for other developers out there?
You need to be able to self-produce as much of the CDLC as possible. If you have ideas for a CDLC, think about how much you’d be able to deliver on your own and how much would require you to rely on freelancers or external contributors.
These bottlenecks are extremely important to figure out and addressing them should be your top priority.
The matter of costs factors in of course. Having to rely on freelancers means you’re paying out of pocket for work made by others, but the more important aspect is that if you need something done but no one can do it your project is dead in the water.
I’ll throw in a freebie as well: the success or failure of your project ultimately rests entirely on your shoulders. 99% of freelancers don’t care past whatever task it is that they’re paid to do. The only person that is in charge of bringing everything together is you.
BONUS: Do you have a favorite fictional type of “Marine” (I.E. Space Marine, Colonial Marine, etc.)?
Well, the Doom Marine of course!
Arma 3 Creator DLC: Expeditionary Forces can be wishlisted now on Steam and will be released November 26!
