Get inside the head of Heavy Rain director David Cage, and read up on everything from the idiot cup to Speedy Gonzales.
If you've followed interviews with French developer Quantic Dream over the past few years, chances are you've heard some of co-CEO David Cage's greatest hits: making games for a mature audience, exploring new forms of interacting with a controller, telling bendable stories without relying on cars and guns, etc. It's certainly interesting stuff, but for this week's Heavy Rain cover story, I wanted to pose our questions from a few different angles, starting today with a look at Cage's personal history and the origins of the company.
1UP: How did you get your start in the game industry?
David Cage: I was initially a professional music composer, [working] for various record companies before starting to work on video games. Then I wrote the soundtrack of different games on Sega Genesis, SNES, and PC. As I was also a gamer, it was quite an easy step for me. As I was working with developers on different projects, I started to understand the roles and processes, and I made a couple of good friends in the industry.
I quickly had it in mind to create the game I was dreaming of playing, a game where the player would be free in a huge and living realtime 3D city, where there would be a story and the possibility to drive vehicles, to fight, and use weapons. This is how I wrote Omikron, my first title, entirely at night and on weekends, not having a clue about what the technology could really achieve at the time or what development constraints were.
I ended up with a 200 page game design that I showed to a couple of friends. They were all impressed by the weight of the game design -- I still like to make them heavy... -- and by the fact that the game was totally impossible to make. I managed to convince them to leave their jobs to work on a prototype. We started from scratch and worked really hard for six months in one of my sound studios -- totally soundproof with no windows! We signed the game with Eidos the last week before I [would have run] out of money. From the six people who started the company with me, three are currently at Quantic.
1UP: What's something you think most people don't know about Quantic Dream?
DC: Mmm...like a trivia type of question? OK, here are a [few] tidbits:
- The very first name of Quantic Dream was "Extreme Studio." It sounded so bad that we had to do something about it. This is how I came up with Quantic Dream, referring to quantum physics, which seemed to me a mix of science and unexplained magic.
- Before we signed Omikron with Eidos, we started developing a prototype on PlayStation 1. We presented it to a certain major publisher at the time who was very interested -- we had a city in realtime 3D running on PS1 in 1995. We did not sign the game with them because their CEO told us that PlayStation 1 would be dead in six months and that they would rather develop on PC. We were stupid enough to listen to him and work on a PC prototype that became Omikron. The CEO left the company a little bit later -- and this publisher left the industry... A good example of visionary people in the game industry. With more foresight, we maybe could have delivered the very first open world city in realtime 3D on PS1 years before GTA3.
- I wrote the soundtrack of many games, including Speedy Gonzales for Sega on Mega Drive -- Mexican music with an FM synthesizer. I had two weeks to discover the hardware and the tools and to compose the soundtrack...an interesting moment in my career. But hey, we have all done things we are not proud of.
1UP: Your most recent games have taken place in the United States. Is there a particular reason you've chosen to set games there?
DC: I guess [because I've] worked on thrillers, which [come from] an American cinema genre, the natural setting was the US. France is a fantastic country for food, history, nature, culture and art, but I guess it is easier to write about another culture you feel familiar with but that is not yours.
For Heavy Rain, we spent time in an east coast city for three weeks with cameras, and it was a real shock to see the poverty, the ghettos, the abandoned factories, and the sense of danger that the social disparity creates. When you live in Europe, the US is most of the time depicted as the country of success, power, money, heroes saving the world, and sexy girls. Discovering the social side of America that you rarely see in movies was something absolutely scary. I came [across a particular city coincidentally], not really knowing what I was looking for, but I found the exact background I needed to tell my story, and I must say it really fed the writing of Heavy Rain.
1UP: Any desire to make a game set in France?
DC: I don't have any specific desire to write a game set in France. I guess most American people would see it as a nice postcard with the Eiffel Tower, the Camembert, the French bread, and Amelie Poulain on a soundtrack with an accordion. I don't have enough distance with my country to be able to tell something interesting about it...for the moment.
1UP: Do you have any unusual traditions at the office for whenever you hit particular milestones or anything along those lines?
DC: Well, yes we have a couple. A funny one is called "la coupe du boulet" -- the idiot cup. It is a real trophy we put on the table of the person who made the stupidest thing of the day in the development. A couple of people often had it on their table.
1UP: Has there been anything big in your career that almost happened, but then changed at the last second?
DC: Oh yeah, we were close to dying a couple of times...but finally survived. We also were about to raise more money in 2000, but at the last minute one of the investors decided games were a risky business and we only raised half -- which was still a significant amount of money that allowed us to develop the company.
We were also close to signing with a certain publisher a couple of times...but didn't in the end. They changed their mind on Indigo half an hour before we were supposed to sign the contract. After three months of intense negotiations, we told them we changed ours on Heavy Rain half an hour before too...[so] I guess we are on par [smiles].
1UP: Have you ever worked on a game that got cancelled partway through development?
DC: No. Given the level of personal involvement the team and I put in our games, it would have been a real drama. I think it is difficult for people outside the industry to understand how developers can be so emotionally attached to their game. For most of us, it is not just a job, but a part of our lives that can be killed any time for reasons that are not always related to the quality of the game itself.
1UP: Do you know how to create origami?
DC: Absolutely not. It makes them even more fascinating to me [smiles].
As someone who has only recently come to possess a PlayStation 3, I have paid almost no attention to Heavy Rain. Creating anticipation in myself for a game for which I do not have the hardware generally holds little appeal. So it was with an open mind and very few expectations that I found myself with the opportunity to experience the first hands-on demonstration of the title back in April.
I was completely unprepared for what I was going to witness. Quantic Dream's long-running project is one of the most intriguing and exciting prospects I have seen in years. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to see and play a brief scene of the game as well as sit down with lead designer David Cage to gain further insight on the project.
And now it is my honor to tell you all about it. Hit the jump to find out what I've been positively dying to say for over a month now.
Heavy Rain (PlayStation 3)
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony
To be released: TBA
Heavy Rain is truly unique. It feels similar in some ways to the adventure games of old and bears more than a passing similarity to Quantic Dream's previous game, Indigo Prophecy. When I asked David Cage what Heavy Rain was attempting to be, he referred to it as "an emotional journey."
"Story is the core essence of the experience that we're trying to create where in most games the story is just the kind of layer that puts the levels together," he clarified. "Once you decide that story is the core engine of your games, well, it makes you make decisions as to how to play the story. You need to build characters, you need to create difficult situations, you need to create moral choices for the player that won't be black and white that will be really difficult to answer. We want players to ask themselves, 'What would I do if it were happening to me?' and the answer [to not be] obvious."
Our gameplay demo revolved around Norman Jayder, a 29-year-old FBI profiler. He has a nasty drug addiction that he has kept secret for years and is trying to rid himself of. His investigation into the Origami Killer has led him to Mad Jack, a fence for stolen cars who is believed to have sold a vehicle found at the most recent crime scene to the serial murderer.
Norman is the first to be revealed of the four primary characters in Heavy Rain. We have been told that information on the other characters will be released one at a time as we get closer to the game's launch.
The demonstration began with Norman exiting his car and walking through the auto wrecking yard. From the very first moment, the visuals are jaw-droppingly good. Norman's animations are highly fluid with crisp and detailed textures. Realistic rain pelts the character and the ground, giving an odd beauty to what is a grimy and inhospitable environment. It is truly a feast for the eyes.
As Norman walked, we were shown the game's "thought system." At any time, a player can see topics that are currently on their character's mind and listen to what those thoughts are. These appear in the form of 3D animated boxes that float around the character containing a keyword and the specific button the player can press to hear more. The game's dialogue trees function in this same way.
What's interesting about this mechanic is that it is designed to represent the character's emotional state as well as what they are thinking about. In the example we were shown, the prompts moved lazily around Norman because he was calm. When confused or anxious, the prompts may move quickly or erratically. They may blur or become otherwise difficult to select. This could result in a player inadvertently saying something that they might not have meant to say, just as people often do in real life.
"In most games, you go through very basic emotions," Cage commented to me later. "You go through frustration, excitement, competition... these are the kinds of emotions you feel playing most games. There are a couple of exceptions. But when you look at movies or literature or theater, you get a wider range of emotions. Even art in general. You can feel sad looking at a painting or you can laugh watching a theater or you can feel empathy for a character or you can feel pity. In games we have failed to trigger these emotions so far. We've really stayed with very primary emotions."
The potential for creating a unique experience using a system like this is considerable. Conceptually, it goes beyond the standard idea of a dialogue tree by helping the player identify more closely with how the character feels, further immersing them in their personal story.
Moving forward, our hosts walked Norman into a garage, where we were first introduced to Mad Jack. The man is a huge, terrifying individual who physically would make 50 Cent look like Will Smith. After an exchange of unpleasantries between the agent and the fence, Mad Jack leaves, allowing Norman to search the garage for evidence that the car had been here. To do this, Norman equips a special tool called an Added Reality Interface (ARI).
The ARI is a prototype investigative tool consisting of a pair of glasses and a glove containing delicate sensors. Wearing the glasses allows Norman to see things such as faded footprints or trace amounts of chemicals and blood that would be invisible to the eye. Touching these bits of potential evidence with the glove will analyze them and display information in the lenses of the glasses (represented to the player via HUD).
After examining a few objects in the environment, Norman focuses his attention on a set of footprints and a trail of blood, which suggest that someone was dragged into an acid bath. Investigating the bath turns up a human skull and the sound of a pistol being cocked as Mad Jack places a gun to the back of Norman's head. Realizing that he's been found out, the killer has decided to dispose of the troublesome Fed and begins walking him to the back of the garage.
As Norman is being led at gunpoint, a button prompt appears and the G-man feigns tripping on a board in order to grab a wrench from the floor. Swinging upward, Norman knocks the gun from Mad Jack's hand and a brawl ensues. This action sequence takes the form of a quick-time event but differs from most games, which use the mechanic in a couple of fundamental ways.
While QTEs are usually designed in such a way that the player must successfully complete the sequence perfectly to progress, Heavy Rain does not necessarily require absolute precision. Failure to execute the correct action won't end a sequence, but instead results in a different animation, further personalizing the experience. There is still risk, however, as failing too frequently or at the wrong time could bring a character's life to a premature end.
In addition to the possibilities opened up by a more liberal view of success and failure, action sequences also have multiple options available to the player. More than one possible action prompt will sometimes be available with differing results. These can be as simple as button presses or could involve specific motions of the analog sticks and even motion controls.
I asked David Cage why this style was used. "Because the idea is a very interesting one," he replied. "It's about the fact that what matters in an action sequence is not where you go but it's the timing and the move that you do. Can you do the right thing in the right timing? What quick-time events do is interesting and it's consistent with this type of action. It's how we do it that is important. It's the implementation."
The implementation is quite interesting, indeed. QTEs are often used to generate a sense of risk or tension but the straightfowardness of the standard success/failure conditions essentially boils down to the same experience every time you encounter the format. The use of the mechanic in Heavy Rain is significantly more intense because the sequences wind up feeling more realistic, more open to possibility. Death could still come at any moment, but the uncertainty engendered by this play style keeps you more on your toes while seeming infinitely more fair at the same time.
The fight moves all around the garage, across the top of a car and ends with Mad Jack crashing into a pile of barrels along a wall. The tables turned, Norman pulls his own firearm and begins interrogating the prone murderer. Dialogue prompts begin to move with keywords representing various techniques the agent can choose to convince Mad Jack to tell him what he knows about the Origami Killer.
Options range from offering to ignore other transgressions to threatening the thug's life. The conversational choices feel very organic and flow into one another well. The resulting experience is very different depending on the tactics used. For example, the demonstrator took us through a series of several prompts that eventually ended the conversation in success. When I had the opportunity to try it for myself, I took the more aggressive route of wasting no time in idle chit-chat and just fired a round over the bad guy's shoulder to show I meant business.
As Norman is preparing to cuff Mad Jack and take him away, his vision begins to blur. He's suffering from withdrawal of the drug to which he is addicted. In order to maintain focus, prompt after prompt appears on the screen, commanding that multiple buttons be held down. Triggers, face buttons and d-pad are all used and the number of buttons quickly grows to encompass most of the controller. The difficult -- though I'm told, possible -- maneuver reflects panic in the character exceptionally well, as failing either to hit the next correct button of the sequence in time or accidentally releasing one of the prior buttons causes Norman to collapse on the ground and fall unconscious, the screen fading to black.
When the lights come back on, Norman is inside his car with his hands cuffed to the steering wheel. The car is being carried to the crusher in a crane by Mad Jack. Prompts appear offering options to attempt escape. Moving the Sixaxis upward makes Norman tug on the cuffs.
Eventually, the agent attempts to open the glovebox with his foot, accidentally turning the radio on before succeeding and revealing the spare pistol stored within. Another kick and the gun is on the dash and sliding across the car to Norman's waiting hand. Now armed, he twists his arm and shoots the cuffs to break them and begins to climb out the open driver's side window as the car is dropped in the crusher.
In the presentation of this scene, Norman manages to get out of the car. This was not the case when I played through. In the interests of both time and a desire to see a different conclusion, we allowed Norman to become ground up with the splintering shards of his vehicle in my hands-on play. The result was a visceral, gruesome sight as he disappeared feet-first into the grinding gears of the crusher.
Were I playing the final release of Heavy Rain, that would have been the end of Norman Jayder. The remainder of the story would take place without his involvement or perspective on events. This encounter takes place around the midpoint of the game and, prior to this point, characters are not placed in a position where consequences may be fatal.
"What we want to do is build the characters, build your relationship with them, create empathy and get you to a stage where you really care about them," Cage explains. "The idea is to have a real emotional impact. I mean, you will be really scared of losing them. If you lose them, you will be really sad but the story will move on."
The presentation continued for a bit beyond where I was able to play, as Norman escapes the car. A look at the cabin of the still-moving crane finds it to be empty, and Mad Jack nearly gets the jump on the beleaguered agent. Another brief scuffle follows, with Mad Jack ultimately crushed beneath the treads of his crane with a satisfying crunch, ending the scene.
I can honestly say that I've never before seen anything quite like Heavy Rain. The title was still yet to reach the alpha stage of testing as of when I had the chance to play it, and it clearly had a few bugs (I was told, in fact, that creation of the entire scene occurred only within the three weeks leading up to the preview event). The potential is staggering, however, with a clear emphasis on getting inside the heads of the four protagonists and fully immersing the player in their stories.
As I mentioned in the introduction to this post, I really had very little idea what this game was going to be like. And, at this point, that may still largely be the case, as this is only a small sliver with a lot more information and demonstrations likely to come. The techniques being implemented by Quantic Dream are presenting a lot of new ideas and opportunities to take us closer to characters than ever before, and this is clearly a PlayStation 3 exclusive that everyone should be paying close attention to as development progresses.
GamespotHeavy Rain Demo Impressions - New Nightclub Scene
Developer Quantic Dream only recently started sharing more juicy details about its highly anticipated thriller, Heavy Rain. At Sony's PlayStation Gamer Day, we were introduced to one of the story's four main characters, Norman Jayden, as writer and director David Cage walked us through a scene titled, "Mad Jack." Today, behind closed doors at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Cage once again showed us the same scene with Mad Jack, but this time, the demo ended with Jayden as the one who ends up beneath the heavy crane. For more details on that scenario, please read our hands-on here. What we were looking forward to the most was to see Madison Paige in action--and we definitely saw much more than we were expected. Because Heavy Rain is primarily based on its storytelling, readers should be aware that the following explains the entire sequence of events; be advised that these can be considered spoilers.
The hypnotic Madison was the star of last year's E3 tech demo, which was created to give us an idea about the gameplay, but the story of the taxidermist had nothing to do with the game itself. Before going further, Cage gave us a bit of backstory on Madison, and we learned that she suffers from severe insomnia and can only sleep at motels for some reason. She's also a journalist and a photographer with an urge to help the authorities regarding the case of the origami killer. As usual, Cage narrated the presentation and his colleague Guillaume de Fondaumiere controlled the character. It's easy to be taken by Madison's slender figure and attractive features. Her short-cropped hair suits the shape of her face, and with her big brown eyes and flawless skin, it's clear that she was modeled on a very beautiful woman. This scene was titled, "Madison at the Blue Lagoon" and took place at a happening night club, with crazy lights and loud techno music.
We watched as Madison entered the club, dressed in a bright, short-sleeved button-down shirt and a black skirt, weaving her way carefully through the throng of clubbers (and couples making out) so that she could get to the bar on the other side. Cage noted that this area is supposed to contrast the Mad Jack scene, which was dismal and desolate. The goal here was to find Paco Mendes, the owner of the club, and interrogate him because he apparently has information that is critical to the case. After learning that Paco was sitting in a VIP area with no interest in talking to her, Madison walked around the club trying to think of a way to get his attention. The screen split at this point to show that Paco had his eyes on a blond girl who was dancing on a raised platform. We saw him whisper something to his guard, who then obediently went over to fetch the girl. This was when Madison came up with an idea.
Madison walked over to the platform, and we saw the option to dance appear. By pressing L1, you can bring up her thoughts, which gives you a clue as to how you should proceed. After hitting the X button, she got up on the podium to dance. This started a sequence, which seemed like a rhythm game, where a series of buttons would appear and you had be accurate with your timing. Our demonstrator missed a step and had to do the dance routine again. After successfully showing what kind of moves she had, it was clear that Paco still had no interest in her. Madison realized that she needed to be sexier, and she was steered to the women's restroom to make it happen. While standing in front of the mirror, there were five options that appeared over various parts of her body. Here, we were given the chance to manually apply mascara and lipstick to Madison, and because makeup was not enough, she tore off a portion of her skirt to show more leg. Long legs and cleavage is what this creepy club owner likes, so she unbuttoned her shirt a bit and tousled her hair until she had that "wild" look going.
Once she was satisfied with her transformation, she strutted back to the glowing platform and began her seductive dance again--which Paco definitely noticed. The Blond girl got the boot, and Madison swooped in on Paco. She obviously knew how to play the game because as soon as Paco tried to make a move, she asked that he take her somewhere more private. He led her to his lounge upstairs, which was decorated with white leather couches, tiger-print lamps, and a giant fish tank. We should note that the music playing in the background was like something taken from a really bad porno, with a woman moaning constantly as though she were the vocals. Before entering the room, Madison double checked the gun in her purse and went over a few thoughts in her head. As soon as she entered, he snagged her purse, tossed it on a chair, and led her to the couch. He clearly had only one thing on his mind, and that was for Madison to please him in more ways than one. Options will appear and swirl around your head each time you are faced with a decision. In this case, she hesitated, telling him that this was a misunderstanding. That was not an answer he wanted to hear, so he pulled a gun on her. We saw that there was a lamp behind her, which seemed to be her only weapon within range, but she needed a way to get to it without making it obvious. In order to distract him, we watched as Madison undressed, one article of clothing at a time. Standing in her underwear, she danced seductively for him, bending over and giving him the best view possible. He was obviously very pleased, but before he knew it, she quickly grabbed the lamp and whacked him hard on the head. When he woke up, he was strapped to a chair with duct tape, and now Madison was the one with the gun in her hand.
Paco didn't seem too worried at first because he didn't think Madison had the guts to pull the trigger. Using the Sixaxis controls, Madison slapped him across the face repeatedly. When a guard came knocking on the door the see if everything was OK, Madison kept her gun tightly pressed to his forehead and performed a When Harry Met Sally pie scene to convince the goon that everything was most definitely fine. Stunned, Paco sat there with his mouth wide open, and Madison shocked him again by grabbing his testicles, asking about the name of a guy who rented an apartment from him. We weren't sure how long this scene could be extended, but when he finally gave her what she needed, she walked out nonchalantly and headed down the stairs.
The demo ended abruptly here because the game crashed unexpectedly (it happens), but what we saw was enough to get a good feel for this particular scene. By now, it's obvious that the focus of the game is not necessarily the gameplay but how the story unfolds and how you interact with everything and everyone around you. This scene didn't have the kind of quick-time events as the Mad Jack scene had, but whenever you approached someone or were faced with a decision, you had several choices you could make. Icons would appear onscreen if there was a motion you could perform, such as applying makeup, so that you felt like you were controlling this character every step of the way.
There are two more characters that haven't been unveiled yet, and we were told that one would be disclosed at Cologne and the final member of the cast at the Tokyo Game Show. We look forward to seeing what the others can contribute to the story because we were told that Norman and Madison are supposed to cross paths. Unfortunately, we didn't get to make it that far, so we'll have to wait to see what happens next. The game is only 75 percent completed, and Cage said that there are still several areas that will be touched up by the time it is released. Heavy Rain is currently scheduled to come out in early 2010.
On the side discussion, I hope both platforms bring the best of the best, it's just better for the consumer.![]()
Meh, got bored.... did a quick chop
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I think the teaser poster would look good as the final box art... more like a movie, it would certainly be different!
Robin