Questions for Radical Entertainment
February 28th, 2010
Ages ago, I was asked to write a series of questions for an interview with Radical Entertainment for Pixel Hunt (yeah, yeah, I know) which unfortunately never eventuated. This was part of a cover feature scrapped at the last minute because of unresponsive PR people, hence the awkward promise of an interview on the front cover.
Radical Entertainment are the developers behind Prototype, the open world PS3/360 adventure released last year. In case you need a reminder, here’s a trailer:
I’m a huge fan of their sleeper hit Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and at the same time was very cynical towards the mindless violence and brutality which seemed to frontline Prototype. The opportunity fell into my lap and as you can imagine, I was pretty ecstatic. Talking directly to the developers, sharing commentaries and analysis is frankly a dream for me. So rather than settle for the standard template which’d allow the developers to act as pseudo PR folk, spruiking their wares (“Tell me about this patented mechanic..”, “How will this patented mechanic make your game better than similarly derrivative titles?”, “Will you be taking it to ‘the next level’“?), I wrote a list of questions which I felt would benefit the readers as much as possible.
You can find the questions below, for your perusal. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get some answers.
On the Prototype universe/Trans-media Franchising
Video games and comic books have had a rather fruitful history together. Prototype‘s protagonist Alex Mercer and his story seems like something taken right out of a comic book. In fact much like Dead Space, Prototype has its own comic book series in production. What do you think of the merging of these two mediums, and how do you think Prototype will continue to expand this relationship?
On the comic book, the first issue is already available, does this make Prototype a video game adaption? How do you guys handle both of these properties?
With both the comic and video game, in a sense it seems like you’re creating a universe, rather than say a conventional game property. Do you think the Prototype universe will continue once the game is released?
Downloadable content is all the rage these days, are the team interested in exploring this option and do you think it’s likely Prototype will feature any?
On Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment has produced several successful open-world titles in recent years such as The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Scarface: The World is Yours, how does the team go about finding new ground to cover in the open-world genre?
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed Hulk:UD, I was pleasantly surprised to see how similar the two titles are, particularly in terms of ability sets. This is by no means a negative criticism, Hulk was fantastic, but how do you balance new and borrowed gameplay mechanics?
On the game itself
What I personally enjoyed about Hulk:UD was how the game empowered the player, you felt like you were this green wrecking ball of destruction. Prototype carries the same bad-ass mantra. How do you give the player such a strong sense of empowerment and how will Prototype elevate this feeling from Hulk?
Prototype is the first Radical Entertainment title made exclusively for the next-gen systems. What sort of features are we going to see in Prototype that couldn’t have been done on previous systems?
Interactivity and destruction is a trade mark quality of your titles, how much of Prototype‘s world will be destructible?
In the recent story trailer, executive producer Tim Bennison said that the “web of intrigue” narrative system, where players obtain past memories through taking the form of NPCs, plays well to the strengths of interactivity in games. Can you elaborate on this?
In the same trailer, I noticed that the game had this sudden injection of colour, particularly green and red. The original trailers had a very limited colour palette, mostly greys, was this change a conscious design choice or hadn’t we just seen those parts of the game yet?
Violence
Prototype is obviously a very violent, mature-themed title, as developers of adult games are you ever concerned about the implications of markets that haven’t yet adopted an R18+ classification, such as Australia?
On an online podcast, several reporters were airing their concerns about the way Prototype depicts violence and how the people showcasing the game were proud of the glorification of violence. Several of the reporters found it rather distasteful, how do you walk a fine line between cool/disgusting or tasteful/distasteful violence?
Etc.
Prototype has been compared to inFamous (PS3) by Sucker Punch. Coincidentally they’re two open-world, comic-book-inspired titles with parkour elements being released in extremely close proximity. The comparison obviously isn’t fair for either company, but what do you make of their efforts?
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Do I make a good interviewer folks? >_<
Exploring Jamaican Game Culture (Interview)
November 1st, 2008
Continuing on from the last set of mini-interviews, I would like to turn our attention now to Jamaica. This time I have recruited Kirk from the Infidel Gamer blog to discuss the state of play over in Jamaica. We talk about a number of topics such as games that appeal directly to Jamaican people, how Jamaican culture is represented through games as well as the local arcade. I hope you enjoy.
Daniel: First off, I should probably start by asking; what do you think sets the Jamaican style of gaming apart from other countries?
Kirk: Firstly thank you for interview opportunity Daniel. From my observation and experience I think that the Jamaican style of gaming is different from other countries because Jamaicans are social gamers who enjoy playing not only at home but in a group with friends.
Daniel: Where do you think this comes from? Do Jamaicans usually do things together in a particularly social manner, together in each other’s company (hence games are a natural extension of that)?
Kirk: I would say most definitely. Now that I think about it Jamaicans really are social people who enjoy going out and interacting with each other. Video games highlight that trait as although many households now have access to the latest games, nothing beats going out and playing with friends.
UK Gaming Survey
October 29th, 2008
As part of my research into culture and games I knew that I’d need some help. There is no way that I can provide a legitimate case for the matter if I don’t provide more perspectives than just my own. Especially when dealing with something like culture. As such I’ve been calling upon the help of others to help substantiate this investigation (I make it sound so serious >_<). So to kick things off I want to take things slowly and explore the subtle nuances dividing the UK from other western countries. I’d like to thank Damon from the Consolation Prize blog and UK game marketer Bruce Everiss for their time in helping me along.
The point of this article is to warm you into the idea of differences among seemingly similar cultures. It’s an introduction of sorts thanks to the insightful responses which should act as a starting point for further analysis. I put a lot of thought into the questions, so I hope you get a lot out of it. ^_^
Welcome to Daniel Primed, my self-titled games analysis blog and the online supplement to Adventures in Games Analysis.
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