Had a pretty sweet lunch with Quantic Dream's co-CEO last week at GDC:
http://www.examiner.com/x-13269-Gam...Guillaume-De-Fondaumiere-on-Heavy-Rain-Part-1
As a tradition at GDC, Sony's PlayStation Blog Lounge affords media and guests the chance to check out some of the company's current and upcoming titles. It also makes for a great centralized location for visiting developers to chat with press. Notable VIPs who visited the lounge last week include God of War III director Stig Amussen and Heavy Rain writer/director David Cage. Joining Cage was fellow Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume De Foudaumiere, who was happy to spend half an hour with Examiner over to answer questions about Heavy Rain.
Heavy Rain has done pretty well for itself in these first few weeks, and now you and David Cage are here at GDC. What has the vibe been like at Quantic Dream?
We've been really excited. We were told initially that the reviews were going to be polarizing, where some people would 'get it' and some people would not. We recently collected all the reviews worldwide from major websites, which amounted to 375 reviews and it's great! The average score is 91% worldwide. What is interesting is that each country is showing universal acclaim. And now two weeks after launch, we're seeing reviews on blogs and feedback from the players are equally positive. We're enjoying strong word of mouth.
I assume you've checked out some of the YouTube videos people have made in homage to Heavy Rain?
(laughs) This is all fantastic. We've seen many reedits, home videos, and cartoons. It's exciting for us that people are taking about Heavy Rain, the Origami Killer and the origami itself and making something in dedication or an homage to the game.
Have any filmmakers given you and your team feedback on the game?
Like any creator/director like David Cage, he has been inspired by all kinds of things. These include his own personal experiences as well as movies and books. He's inspired by films like Seven and Silence of the Lambs.
When it comes to film directors commenting on Heavy Rain, we haven't met David Fincher yet, but we met Terry Gilliam two weeks ago. We did a premiere of the game in Paris and he was sent the game ahead of time. It appears he was blown away by the experience and said "Can I meet those guys?". So Sony got him to the premiere. Mathieu Kassovitz, who did The Crimson Rivers, who also acted in Steven Spielberg's Munich enjoyed the game immensely.
I would say their reaction is that Heavy Rain has opened up new horizons for them. The possibility to create a cinematic experience or an interactive film opens their eyes to the medium. As film professionals, they are attracted to games for bringing cinematic influences and for influencing other mediums. In the past these filmmakers have expressed frustration in the limited narrative scope of past games. In Heavy Rain, they see something that is close to what they do, but at the same time is very different.
It's interesting that the game's element of decision making have varying degrees of results. One chapter can feel like it is really on a fixed path while another chapter can have minor things that end up effecting the ending of the game.
Heavy Rain is a game of different levels and degrees of actions and consequences. Some actions have minor consequences on the whole story but they do change the way you see your character and the way you as a player understand the character's part. Other actions will change the story a few scenes down the line. Other actions will have dramatic consequences on the story.
I don't think that two or three playthroughs will allow the player to see all the branching. Sometimes some mundane action that you think wouldn't have a consequence creates a ripple effect. What we find interesting is when gamers talk to each other after they finish the game
When the game reached the beta stage, it must have been a challenge in taking a step back, pretend you are a consumer, and check to see if what you had would work.
Great point. It was a great challenge for David, me, and many of the people who worked on the game to take the emotional step back and analyze what we were doing. Heavy Rain is a big puzzle, and it's only at the very end when you put everything together that you actually see the point. It's this emotional rise.
When the game reached the beta stage, we knew we wanted feedback from players with fresh eyes on the experience. We brought in 40 people into the studio and set them up with the game and analyzed what their reactions were. We actually changed a number of areas in the game based on this. That was a defining moment for the game.
We cut certain scenes to improve Heavy Rain's pacing. Editing to a film director is quite natural. He or she trims the film down to make it the best possible experience and that's what we did. It's something I believe is seldom done in a video game. You start the production, build 30 or so levels, and nothing can stop those 30 levels from being completed. If levels are cut, it's just to make deadlines, not because the developer wants to improve the pacing.
We have a different thought process because we were working on an emotional experience. It's an experience where pacing is of the utmost importance. You absolutely need to externalize when you work three and a half years on a game. You know the story too well. We didn't know for instance if players would reach different endings on their first respective playthroughs, and we wanted to make sure they didn't get the same endings, so those playtests were important for us. Seeing the reactions of the people and ultimately seeing that it was working was very rewarding.
One of the game's criticism is its use of actors who are not from the U.S., but are meant to sound American. Is this something Quantic Dream plans to do in future games or will there be more of an attempt to fine tune the accents?
We've heard the criticisms, yes. Oddly enough, some of those criticisms are at actors who are actually American. I mean, what's an American accent? Is it East Coast, is it West Coast, is it Midwest? We asked our actors to adapt what we in Europe call a Mid-Atlantic accent, which is somewhere between a Londoner and a New York accent to a certain degree.
To a great extent, the acting side of Heavy Rain was really an experiment. We were really developing the technology while creating the game. We spent a lot of time with the actors and needed them to be very 'present' when on stage. It was easy for us to work with local actors and some actually included Americans living in England. We listened to the feedback and we won't be doing that with future titles. We are going to be casting people in the U.S. in the future.
What are Quantic Dream's plans in working with Sony in the future?
We've been talking about it. We've enjoyed a fantastic relationship with Sony, We feel very fortunate that such a big publisher, let alone a console manufacturer has given us this opportunity to express our vision without compromise. We pulled off the game with a AAA budget. It's been a great relationship and we hope to look forward to other great things with Sony in the future.
Check back later this week when we post the second half our interview with Guillaume.