The Making of Amped 2

Chris Gunnarson of Snow Park Tech and Brenner Adams from Microsoft AMPED II offer insight about one of the most anticipated Xbox video games of this year!

Interview with Chris Gunnarson of Snow Park Tech

Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Chris Gunnarson. I have a company called Snow Park Technologies which contracts and consults with resorts, events, and productions on snow-related projects - mostly park, pipe, and course design and construction.

Why did Xbox choose you as their dude?
The Amped team at Microsoft did a lot of research to find out what snowboarders and video game enthususiasts look for in a snowboard game. One thing that scored really high was having legitimate courses, levels, and real mountains assimilated into the game. Microsoft heard about what I was doing with Snow Park Tech and asked if I would get involved.

What is your involvement with Amped 2?
Our involvement has been on the layout and building of each level in the game. Some are called fantasy levels where we just start from scratch and create a virtual mountain, and others are actual resorts or pieces of resorts that we re-create and then modify. The goal ultimately, is for the game to be fun to play - not necessarily exactly like that resorts park. For instance, the Snow Summit levels in the first Amped were built very close to the actual design of the park, but we had to modify it from reality or you would over shoot some jumps by a hundred feet. We originally built the rails to true-life scale and then went and played them and they were tiny, so we had to build them extra big to be fun. My end of it is really easy and fun, the game developers are the gnarly ones. Those guys are just insane when it comes to graphics and physics and lighting...the list goes on.

How hyped are you on Amped 2?
I'm super hyped! I love working on Amped and now Amped 2 because there're unlimited creative freedoms that could never happen in the projects I normally work on. And, it's a lot easier to sit next to some technical computer whiz and create a park than it is to actually build one. It never rains on one of the courses we build in the game!

How sick is this game gonna be?
This game is going to be amazing. I was stoked on how Amped came out, but to see how much the graphics and game play have improved for Amped 2 is going to blow people away!