Work Text:
After last week's Reading of the Card, everyone is abuzz with who will be in the arena this upcoming Quarter Quell, but so far there's very little speculation about what that arena might be like. However, just as much as the tributes' own efforts contribute to a memorable Games - and what great efforts we can expect from this crop of tributes! - those efforts, and to a surprising extent the narrative of any given Games as a whole, are dictated by the arena those tributes are in. For this weeks' Game Makers, we interview Albinus Greene, the Head Gamemaker for the 50th Annual Hunger Games, to learn more about what goes into the arena design process for such a momentous occasion, what sets apart a Quell year from a normal Games behind the scenes, and a few surprising facts about how the arena impacts gameplay.
Hello, Albinus! It's a pleasure to speak with you today.
Please, the pleasure is all mine. So many people these days are swept up in the pizazz of the Games; it's very reassuring that some still have respect for the craft.
The role of Gamemaker is often centered on keeping the Games fresh, exciting, and innovative. How does arena design factor into that?
A myriad of ways! There's variety in the arena biome, of course (though I have always found it to be a tad overrated; it often feels like young Gamemakers chase novelty for novelty's sake rather than truly exploiting the potential of a given environment), but the way an arena is constructed, from its size to the size and location of cover to subtle landscaping to steer tributes towards specific areas, also has a great deal of influence on how the Games play out.
Take the 72nd Games, for example. We start out with a very combat-driven concept - a Cornucopia filled with only close-range weapons - but the canyon structure of the arena, with its many crevices to hide in and structures that granted higher ground (though often at expense of increased visibility - always a good idea to combine a strategic advantage with an opportunity for tribute interaction!), encouraged a survivalist playstyle. This not only made the combat episodes more impactful when they did occur, but it also lengthened the games considerably, giving the audience a good amount of time to truly watch and bond with the tributes.
There's often speculation of an arena being "biased" towards a tribute (or the tributes of a particular District); how much do concerns like these impact arena design?
Not at all! With the provision of pre-Games training, there's not a great deal of advantage that any tribute could have that isn't pure physical prowess, and while I think it would be interesting to design an arena that leveled this somehow (perhaps for the fourth Quell, as we are all equal before Panem), the arena awarding those who are most talented isn't a matter of favoritism towards a tribute or District.
I most often see this claim bandied about with regards to District Four when an arena is heavily aquatic - as Finnick Odair's was, and Mora Goode's before him - but if you look at statistics, District Four isn't actually most likely to win in a water-based environment; in fact, the arena biome that seems to benefit District Four the most (as a wins ratio relative to other districts) is in fact desert. Hardly geared towards fishermen!
What sets Gamemaking for a Quell arena apart from other Games?
In most ways, very little; while a Quell certainly has more excitement than the other twenty-four games in a cycle, materially the process is very similar, and the timescale for its design is very similar, too (with perhaps a few extra last-minute tweaks).
I will say, with now-President Snow's arena and then mine, there was an effort to carry through the spirit of reflection the Card brings to us. The Twenty-Fifth arena's maze design emphasizes that it is the choices we make, rather than some oddly abstract idea of government thrusting choices upon us, that determine our paths, and with the Fiftieth arena I sought to emphasize that seemingly appealing ideas of freedom and cooperation can, in fact, be quite toxic.
And how do you think this years' prior experience in the Games will impact their gameplay?
It's difficult to say! Certainly, they have more experience with how the Games are run than your typical tribute, and some experience with playing the Games (though, for many of our prospective tributes, that experience is long past). I wonder how our long-term mentors, who've developed a certain sense of a Gamemaker's hand in things, might react to being in the arena again, and how well that skill of interpretation will fare inside its walls.
How much do the Gamemakers know about the Card's constraints prior to it being read?
Very little - if, at least, things work the same now as they did in the old days. What you tell one Gamemaker - even the Head Gamemaker - very quickly becomes known to all the Gamemakers, and from there all of Panem, so to have the Card be in any way a surprise, it must be a surprise to us as well.
However - and this may be a bit of a secret - the Reading is not the first examination of the Card since its writing. The President - or perhaps one of his aides - reviews it three years in advance, at the start of the Games planning cycle, and any constraints that must be planned more than six months in advance - well, five, really, to make sure the arena is complete in time - are passed on discreetly to the design team. For example, when we first began constructing the Second Quarter Quell, my team was directed to increase the extra tribute tunnels - we always have a few spare in case of environmental obstruction as the flora and fauna really settle in - to a full additional complement, which enabled all forty-eight tributes to be sent up without issue. I cannot think of anything concrete that our very exclusive tribute pool would need distinct from a typical arena - though perhaps the Gamemakers were encouraged towards a more combat heavy design - but I am sure, given the make-up of our Victor pool three years ago, there was an alternate Card in case Miss Everdeen did not win, and perhaps we will see some design decisions influenced by that.
[President Snow declined to comment on the truth of Albinus Greene's allegations about the Reading of the Card.]
What do you think this year's arena will be like?
It's quite hard to say! Not least because this arena will have been the work of two separate Head Gamemakers, each with his own distinctive style.
Seneca Crane would have overseen the concept creation of this arena as well as much of its construction, including the initial stages of biome establishment. He was very much a follower of what might be termed the naturalistic school of Game design, with arenas very close to natural environments and much of the Games action driven by the tributes directly, with arena hazards used more as a motivating or redirecting factor. Certainly, this style would make a lot of sense for this Games - the main draw will be the twice-tributes and their interpersonal dramas - but a Quell typically has more… style to it than Crane's arenas.
On the other hand, after Crane's abrupt retirement last year, Plutarch Heavensbee has stepped in as Head Gamemaker, and he could be considered one of the foremost proponents of the dramatic school of Gamemaking. The dramatics tend to focus on the storytelling and attention-grabbing power of the arena itself, rather than its inhabitants; it's often a very successful strategy for audience retention, given how many tributes lack much verve, though this strategy risks your machinations getting a bit too dramatic, as they did in Heavensbee's last Games when his simulated earthquakes broke a water retention system and flooded the arena. I dearly hope he's learned a bit of moderation from that experience.
I suspect, whatever Heavensbee and Crane have manufactured between them, for this to be a very tribute-focused Games; with this list of tributes, how could it not be? While this likely will mean very strong alliances, perhaps in atypical patterns, I strongly suspect there will also be a heavier than usual emphasis on combat rather than survival skills; the arena's climate will likely be quite manageable for the tributes to navigate (though, given these are veterans of the sport, I'm sure there will be a few good tricks!), and cover will be minimal - or tributes will be rushed out of it - to encourage interaction.
And I am sure, whatever the arena's conditions, this will be a truly memorable Games!
There's some speculation among Games Gab readers of a "Everlark sweep", where Haymitch Abernathy is either reaped in place of or volunteers for Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen becomes our victor's victor. Do you have any opinions on the matter?
I pity anyone who has to deal with Abernathy as a tribute. The man is… inventive.