During the creation of games, the ambitions of the authors can turn into huge problems for the project. Some ideas are abandoned due to technical difficulties, while others are trying to implement at any cost. Few people know that one short scene in the cult horror Dead space incredibly delayed the development process and jeopardized the very exit of the game.
Dead space released 12 years ago. Since then, the franchise has managed to die, and its developers – to disperse wherever due to the closure of the studio by the publishing house Electronic arts. But it is the first part that is still considered a classic of modern horror. She was scary, but bewitching. Frightening but interesting. So typical, but at the same time surprising even the little things. She was the way she saw her Glen Scofield – CEO of the deceased Visceral gamesas well as producer and chief developer Dead space.
Training
Idea Dead space originated in Scofield just three years before the release of the game. In 2005 Glen and the team took the devkit first Xbox and created only three rooms in which everything was spinning and glowing. This was necessary to understand how horror might look.
This prototype helped a lot in the future. Studio engineers, having received the finished material, immediately understood what exactly they wanted Scofield. It allowed EA Redwood Shoresthen renamed to Visceral gamesdevelop your own engine.
“My main goal was to create the worst game in the world. Nobody wants to make the third most terrible game in the world. And I also wanted her to be exactly the way I see her. I made a lot of games the way others wanted. Here, my desire was to show myself. I think, as a result, it’s noticeable that a game of manual dressing turned out ”, – recalls Glen Scofield.
As inspiration Glen Scofield chose Resident evil. Just in 2005, the fourth part was released, which was destined to become the franchise’s best-selling game. Scofield so impressed with the horror from Capcomthat his team simply announced: “You have to make Resident Evil in space”. Nobody needed to explain anything else.
We talk about how one of the greatest video games in history was created.
Resident evil 4 impressed with the atmosphere. This is a game in which it is scary to look around the corner, but at the same time I really want to look there. Scofield was attracted by this tension, a sense of fear bordering on interest. He tested it when playing in RE, Silent hill and watching various sci-fi horror films. For instance, “Through the horizon“.
There is some strange irony of fate in that “Through the horizon“Influenced one of the scariest games in history. Picture Paul Thomas Anderson, the beginning of the film adaptation Resident evil, was defeated by critics and failed at the box office. But it was she who influenced Dead spaceprobably like no other tape:
“The film succeeded in the narrative that takes place in the background. For example, one of the characters is in the cockpit. A flash of light illuminates the scene – the walls behind it are covered in blood. It looks abnormal, you understand – something terrible happened here. But the character has no idea about this. And I wanted to transfer this to the game. We wanted the player to experience episodes of relaxation, but … not very often. “
Perhaps the most important aspect Dead space became a sound. Scofield admits that for him the sound design is prioritized higher than other developers. Often the sound comes down at the last moment, when there is already not enough time, or game memory, or neither one nor the other. Scofield he immediately noted that sound and soundtrack are what you need to work on in the first place. Therefore, the game managed to win several prestigious awards (BAFTA, Dice and others) for sound design.
As it turned out, the scariest sound Dead space many of us hear almost every day. The game’s sound engineer Don Veka believes that there is nothing worse than a train racing through the subway. He described in all his colors what he felt in the metro to the director of the studio, and the very next day he was in the subway with all the necessary equipment. So Dead space got one of the scariest sound effects.
Dead Space Development Rules
In developing Dead space staff EA Redwood Shores guided by a small set of rules. But to follow them was difficult, because they were not easy:
- The game should not have a user interface;
- The character must be silent;
- There must be a “dismemberment”;
- All key points should be interactive;
- The most important point – all aspects of the game should be more or less innovative.
Innovation is what is required Scofield from all employees. The appearance of the protagonist? This is something you have not seen before. Standard melee attack? It’s also something simple, but unusual – the hero tramples everything that is possible with anger. Even the shooting – and that one was borrowed, but at the same time rethought by the developers. The mechanics were taken from Resident evil 4but Scofield understood that stopping at Dead space – not an option. Therefore, the character does not shoot as if in a dash, but moves, albeit slowly because of the need to aim.
The developers saw one of the most interesting ideas not in space, but … under water. Imagining what a game might look like without an interface, one of the studio staff recalled scuba diving. Divers have some indicators on their backs, which served as the main basis for creating Isaac’s health strip. One of the studio employees realized that when the next monster devours a hero, his indicators still glow with an inspiring green. Then he made the HP strip red, and then faded. But the system of dismembering opponents (and Isaac himself) turned out to be the key. She influenced the design of weapons and opponents. What is the point of inventing monsters if they cannot cut off the claw with a space cutter?
You might not have noticed, but in Dead space no cutscenes. All game moments are interactive. You walk around the time of audio and video scientists, fight opponents, even if they just grabbed you and are going to eat. However, the desire to make the game fully interactive almost made the developers abandon their own rules.
the main problem
For a whole month, the studio was engaged in only one task. The development stalled, and about twenty employees tried to realize the scene in which Isaac grabs the “Tentacle Tentacle”. The episode was supposed to be a short, bright and scary flash. And according to the original idea of the developers, if the hero came across a tentacle – he was dying. However, Isaac simply would not have survived to this point if he had not tried to give battle to any threat. So the developers realized that they should give players the opportunity to shoot back.
The problem was not only in the animation of the tentacles and captured Isaac. The monster had to calculate the position of the character, grab it by the ankle, hit the ground and start pulling. Scofield shared responsibilities between the teams. Some worked on animation, others on tracking, others on sound, etc. Having handed out assignments, Scofield left for a few days to discover on arrival that nothing was working.
“I arrived and nothing works. At the same time, everything that was needed was ready. The guys did everything right and well. They tell me: “Glen, we did what you asked, but it’s some kind of crap” And I look and understand that yes, it is. After several weeks of making various mistakes, we realized that there must be some other way. And then I realize that the trouble was not in the team, but in the way I set the task, ” – tells Scofield.
Decision
Scofield decided that it was necessary to divide the process of capturing Isaac’s tentacle into stages. He called it “layered management.” As the game designer himself admitted, there is probably a professional name for what he came up with, but it was precisely the “layered” designation that stuck among his employees.
How to understand that something is not working for you? You need to start small and solve one problem after another. So the team started with the process of animating the capture from any point where the player could be right before the very start of the confrontation between Isaac and the tentacle. Then the developers added animation of the hero’s rise and his hit on the ground. And so on and so forth.
At some point, the studio realized: from the prone position, in which Isaac found himself, they could not “hook” the finished shooting animation. And then it was decided to develop new shooting mechanics and animation for any weapon that could be in the hands of the player at that moment. All for 40 seconds – this is how long the scene with the tentacle lasted.
“I remember that people came up to me and asked if I was sure that we needed to do this. We cut out two other moments for the tentacle. I can’t say what exactly we cut, because … Yes, I do not care. The pulling tentacle was very, very cool. ” Glen concludes.
Lesson
We all experience a feeling of immense pride when we overcome the obstacles that have arisen and achieve our goals. Scofield and team Visceral were no exception. The “pulling tentacle” noticeably slowed down the development and even made the team doubt some of the decisions made. However, the process of solving the problem, searching for answers to the questions that arose and the fact of implementation of what was conceived allowed the developers to understand that they can do whatever they want. During the month that they dealt with the tentacle, they gained experience and gained the necessary self-confidence. As a result, they made the game faster, put it in print two weeks before the deadline, and even saved money.
After a few months Scofield with the team sat in the hall where the Oscar game takes place – award Dice. Presenter called Dead space winner, and Glen felt that he had passed the test. Now he can do whatever he really wants. And … he left. He founded his own studio, finished a series of rebootable now Modern warfare the third part, collected several more awards and regretfully watched how without it EA made the cosmos alive, then to kill completely.
“I still write scary stories. I really liked developing Dead Space and I hope that one day I will do something similar again. ” – is talking Glen Scofieldwho is now creating some kind of single player game in the universe Pubg.
