I read a lot of bad adventure books, Douglas Peterson, James Rollins, Andy McDermott. One thing they have in common is that they fucking hate quonset huts. Whenever things start going badly, they love to have quonset huts get smashed, blown up, or ripped apart. Before I started reading trashy adventure novels, I didn't even know what a quonset hut was, but the hate of these authors for this prefab structure enlightened me. They just hate them so very. very much.
So, when I started making a game about destroying a paramilitary group, I knew I needed a quonset hut to smash up. Making that reminded me of the old Command & Conquer games. That influenced how I decided to lay out bases on the map and it gave The Company an official color. Almost all the buildings and enemies have a bit of the player-faction blue that gets used in any RTS. It makes them easier to see and reaffirms that you, the giant lizard, are a villain and can have fun with being one.
If you can’t tell, I use the design method laid out in the seminal book “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.”
If you’re going to smash buildings, you need a quonset hut. If you have clustered quonset huts, you need a private military to guard it. If you have a private military, they need faction colors. If someone has faction colors, there needs to be a good side and a bad side. If you’re the bad side, it’s your job to cause problems and generally wreck up the place.
It’s a mix between that, and the henchmen for Doctor Evil. When I thought of a goofy paramilitary group, my mind went straight to silver suits and hard hats. You can read more about why here.
That's it. I know this isn't as long as the other articles, but I think it’s funny in hindsight that the whole faction, their builds, their colors, their compound layouts, all stemmed from the humble and hate-able quonset hut.
Check out the Steam page for Nuclear Lizard Island Rampage so you can smash up your very own quonset hut on release.
