Here's a long interview of David Cage.
http://www.gamekult.com/articles/A0000078875
It's in french so here's a translation I made (it's not perfect, be indulgent ^^)
-Heavy Rain has officially been delayed until early 2010 in France.For what reason? How advanced is the production at Quantic Dream?
It was Sonys decision to delay the game. They thought it wasnt necessary for our game to compete agains 4 or 5 big titles, sequels of sequels. They feared that the game would not stand a chance because its a new IP. We appreciated this decision.
As for the development, weve been in the alpha stage since the end of may, were on our way for the beta stage, meaning the game is put together. Thats quite a crucial phase, the one where we polish things, where its not much about fixing little bugs but more about tuning gameplay up and accordingly reworking on artisitic direction. Thats a very important moment because thats where the quality of the game is built.
-Is a game like Heavy rain fundamentally harder to sell than another ? Except for the fact that its a new IP, how do you intend to talk about the uniqueness of such a game?
Well, before that, we had to find an editor. Selling Fahrenheit was a real nightmare, it was extremely difficult we were talking about emotion, narration, when everybody was just talking about GTA and FPS. When it was released, it became an international critical succes, especially in countries like England where french games hadnt reached this level since Myst. And so, selling Heavy Rain became much easier. Finally, people could understand what interactive narration was editors had evolved.
-But what about players ?
Is gamescom, for instance, a good way to promote a game like yours (noise, crowd
)? Are traditional communication tools for video games, from conventions to playable demo, suitable for narrative titles?
No and thats a big frustration to go to events like that. Those are very hard moments for me to endure, I was even depressed during Fahrenheits time : I went to E3 with my game, and I wandered through the showfloor wondering : what am I doing here? I thought that it was not a place for my work not badmouthing about other peoples work, its just that we dont do the same thing anymore.
Now, its really hard with Heavy Rain, its a constant frustration to show juste pieces of the game because everything is part of a story. But there, Im gonna throw a sample of a scene in your face. You dont know who you are or what youre doing but its all right, just go and play. And what should I say about the noise? You cant hear whats going on, thats not just possible! Besides, thats an experience that relies on emotion : theres no gun, no car, you dont jump, theres no foes to kill, no puzzles to solve, no inventory. So all this grammar that weve been dragging for 20 years, we dont follow it in Heavy Rain.
Here, every scene is different : some people have seen the Mad Jack scene and have deduced from it : okay, thats just an investigation game, you fight a little and its the same thing for the other 70 scenes. But no, thats the only scene that is structured like this! Then we showed Madison, and again : its a game like this. Every scene is different, we tell a story, and it doesnt go in circles like in video games. It unfolds. There are good journalists who understand that, others dont
Its hard to make everybody get that.
-Judging from your words, it seems obvious that theres a contention between you and the video games press
Did some personal attacks hurt you in the past?
(Losing his temper)
Its not that Im hurt but it pisses me off! Its okay when someone that Ive met and who has played the game says that he doesnt like it. Hes got the right to do so cause hes doing his job. But when someone Ive never met and who has never played the game criticizes screenschots, takes three news from an american site, adds three jokes and claims that its now their article, I cant stand it. Its like shooting yourself in the foot and this has to stop! Being a journalist is a real job, and those people are discreditting everybody. Developpers first, but also the rest of french press. How can you then make the difference between a guy who does his job, who goes to conventions, and those who do nothing and stay home?
When I read on the net that Heavy Rain is just a succession of QTEs, Im like
where the hell did you get that? Have you seen the game, have you talked to me, have you played it? And then the rumour spreads and theres nothing behind it. Give the game a chance! Come, play it and read only what people who know their shit, write. When youre making a game that is so unconventional, you even more hinge upon the fact that journalists do their job the right way. Anyway, everything will be resolved when the game is released.
-A few months before the release date, have you found a way to correctly convey your message to the public? How do you sell a game like this?
There are two parts in my job : the first is to make the game known to everybody and its done, in USA and in Europe. The other consists in saying this is what the game is. That part will only start when journalists get their testing copies. You can talk about it for 3 hours but it will never be better than making your own opinion by playing it.
-Rumours say that Sony is planning to make the news around the release of the game by organising some kind of event like a movie premiere, with actors and so on. Any details on that?
Were working on the launching of the game, we already have many ideas. Actor Ethan Mars has come to Cologne. People were surprised to see a 3D clone, a character. Hes made a fantastic job, he put himself into the project for a year and a half. He knows the script as well as I do, he even hurt himself during motion-capture and broke his voice during recording sessions. We want players to meet Ethan Mars in the game and then meet the actor.
-Getting back to the game: despite trailers, its still hard to figure out how the story unfolds. 4 playable characters are known; is it possible to play the whole game with just one of them? Do they live at the same time, are they connected by the same plot? Will their actions have an influence on the other characters storyline?
The 4 characters are intertwined, you play with them by turns. Their fate tells a part of the story thats something that already exists in movies. I had already started something like this in Fahrenheit, and I had been told that it would never work. But we discovered that people cared about all the characters equally, like in movies. And so I wanted to capitalize on this in Heavy Rain, and give each character a piece of the story.
-But will they still be a real hero in the game, a main character ?
In terms of volume, they are all handled the same way.
But I think that the story revolves a lot around Ethan. His story is in the middle of everything but I think players will enjoy switching from one character to another. Sceneries are not reused, as well as very few characters, each new scene is a new situation, a new gameplay. Scenes are quite short and fast, like in a movie.
-Can you explain more about the scenes that I quote you may never be seen in the game, or characters who can die without ending the game?
The organization is quite complex and we tried to make it open. I didnt want to put a big sign in front of players eyes and tell them to choose like in a certain games.
In the Shelby scene for instance, if you play it once, youre gonna do something and youre gonna get a logical result. But if you play it again and do something else, youll get a completely different unfolding. The thing is that when you make the choice, nobody tells you if its right or wrong.
-
but it will have an influence on the following scene ?
There are two kinds of consequences : the ones that are inside the scene, that dont go beyond it but change its nature ; thats the case for Shelby; and then the ones that can go further and that youre gonna drag until the end of the game and that can be very significant. For example, a character can die but there are scenes you wouldnt have seen if he was still alive. So the characters death is not necessarily a punishment, thats the story that the player has chosen.
-Will there be a game over during the game, before the last scene?
Theres no game over in the game. In a narrative experience, thats an unnatural and illogical thing. What is a game over? Its a moment where the game designer tells you that you didnt play the way he wanted and asks you to retry. When I play, I only play for half an hour in the evening and I dont want to be in front of an unbeatable boss. I want to enjoy the time I have to play, all the time. Thats the difference between the achievement, which is what all current games are, and the journey, which goes from point A to point B and where Im the one who decides which path Ill take. My experience changes but I cannot stop or go back.
-How many endings are planned for the full game ?
There are not only several endings, there are several paths that lead to several endings. Thinking all straight and linear is not the right thing to do. It is the decisions that the player takes that will lead to logical conclusions.
-This might be a little detail but what about the save system ? How will it work? Will it be possible to cheat nonetheless and go back?
The system is invisible. But you can get round it by playing with save slots. But the system urges you to do things the way they are supposed to :
all the actions have consequences, you wont die because youve failed to press a button, we dont want to rip the player off. The right thing to do is to stay honest with our choices in the game and then tell our own story. But if you dont wanna do that and go back, technically, youll be able to.
-Concerning the famous QTEs : at E3, there was this scene where Madison goes to a nightclub bathroom and puts make-up. You had to turn the stick to put lipstick or mascara. How necessary and immersive was it to make the player do such common things?
We try to make everything interactive and not necessarily to add challenge. Its not about saying ah, youve failed the lipstick, do it again!. Like I said, were on a journey, not in the achievement. Do you need skills to put lipstick? Of course not. But is it better than a simple cutscene ? I think so. Theres this feeling of immersion that appears, and in the end, you dont wonder why youre asked to do things you cannot miss anymore. I
n the game, you can go to pee : its useless, this has no consequences, but its part of the things you can do. Its just part of the immersion in the experience. It may be boring when youre just watching it but not if youre living it.
-Dont you regret that the game will be released before the PS3 motion controler shown at E3 ? Do you think it could have been useful in Heavy Rain?
The game is already motion based, even if its limited to the analogic stick. So the adaptation to the motion control is quite simple. About that, I think its a interesting and functional technology but Id like to see something else than just casual gaming and family entertainment. We are working with Sony on the possibility of a compatible version of the game. Its in the air so why not?
-In the same spirit, will there be some DLC ? Are you thinking about what could come after the game is released?
The important thing is that, when you launch a game, it must be complete. Releasing a game without its endings and sell them later is out of the question. But we are thinking about using design elements that we couldnt include and make - why not - extra episodes to let players spend more time with the characters they liked. Prequels, sequels about them are interesting, and not only money wise. Ive written Heavy Rain 3 times to choose the scenes that have been kept so a lot of work has not been used. I think it would be interesting to share it with the players.
-To conclude about the difficulties to sell Heavy Rain, how will you decide if the game is a success or not? You seem to be very sensitive to the grades that the video game press gives.
First, when the game is released, I must be satisfied and convinced that Ive done my best. Then, theres the metacritic, an accumulation of grades which frees you from the bad reviews given by the guy who only likes FPS. And its an indication of the kind of games Im in. F
or the Nomad Soul, I was between 75 and 80%. Fahrenheit was between 83 and 87%. Its true that the goal for Heavy Rain is to go beyond 90%. The bar is high, especially for games that are not unanimously supported. And the third criterion is, of course, sales. If you sell 100.000, it means that youve missed the point, that you couldnt make the right game. Or, that the market didnt want that. But thats part of the challenge cause you can try to convince players that it is what they actually want. A famous sentence says that if people had been asked what they wanted, they would havec asked a faster horse - never a car.
-And what if the game didnt work at all, was bashed by critics and players, would you still persist in that way ? Even if that would mean making games that are against the markets will?
Heavy Rain is an important game for this industry - its an original title, targetted for a mature audience. Honestly, we made it in the best conditions : we had the best partner, the best platform, we had time and money. If the game fails, its gonna be very hard for me to say that its not my fault. And theres a lot of people who scrupulously watch us in this industry : if we fail, it will influence them and dissuade them from following the same path.
-But personnaly ?
I dont know how to make video games anymore, I dont want to do this anymore. If the market tells me we dont want that, Ill tell myself that, after all, this is just a toy market. And I dont wanna make toys.
-This might be saying too much, but does that mean that Heavy Rain could be your last game?
Im not gonna be excessive and claim that its the end of my career. But honestly, this will have an influence. After that, I will look for the things that didnt work but
if the message is David Cage, you completely miss the point, your story is not good and were not interested, then Ill tell myself that I shouldnt do this anymore. Ill never be able to go back to action games where you shoot people - Im not there for money, or to brag, Im here because Im passionate. I like to explore new things and if I cant do this anymore, then Ill do something else. Ill be very sad because Im absolutely not a movie-frustrated man who made do with video games. Thats a media that I love and Im here because I wanted to. If I unfortunately had to leave it, Id be extremely sad, but if theres a divergence between what you want to do and what can be done
then you have to clear things up
)
da weiss ich gleich wie es bei mir zuhause aussehen wird
