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Fahrenheight Feature Feature
00/12/0000
Can this episodic title mark a new shift in gaming, we chat with the developers of Fahrenheight on the PC.
French developers are viewed with a little suspicion. They are either totally innovative, which in turn could be to the detriment of understanding the game and itâs concept (yes, they are very cerebral) or they create adventure games having a fabulous storyline and looking very polished but are really devoid of any real game passion and challenge. Quantic Dream offers both originality and superb graphics, whilst being innovative and having a pedigree in having created Nomad Soul for Eidos. Their next title, Fahrenheit, has been almost two years in the making. Derek dela Fuente spoke with David Cage, founder and CEO of Quantic Dream, who also happens to be the director for Fahrenheit.
âAfter Nomad Soul we wanted to continue our thinking about how games could get the visual and narrative richness of movies without losing their interactivity. We wanted to create something really simple to use, but with real depth in the game play. This is how I had the idea of Fahrenheit. Everybody knows what a television series is. Creating a game using this format sounded natural. I had no problem with the failures of the few episodic tries that happened before from other developers: most of them just wanted to take a normal game and sell it level per level. Fahrenheit is totally different: it is really a game thought, written and produced like a TV series.â
For Fahrenheit, Quantic Dreamâs 40-strong project team introduced new techniques for integrating motion captured animation within the real time 3D environment, and created a new style of interface for managing interactivity and a new conceptual framework for interactive storytelling.
Now before you start saying, âthose crazy crafty Frenchâ, understand that the team want to create something new. Each episode is a game by itself and you can start with any of them, but if you really want to enjoy the experience, it is better to play them all (like a real TV series). David didnât believe the concept is too clever, in fact he thought it very simple and hoped that it could even define a new genre!
Ok, before we delve a little deeper letâs get into the story which is like many you would have read before although in a very condensed form. Lucas Kane goes in a diner one night in New York. In a state of trance, he takes a knife, goes in the toilets and stabs the first person he meets. Making this a ritual murder - he has unexplained visions. After the murder, he becomes himself again but his life has completely changed. He is now a murderer. He will have to escape the police and try to understand what happened that night... Carla Valenti is the second hero of Fahrenheit. She is a cop in charge of the case. She will quickly discover that there is maybe more to this murder than is apparent to the eye... Characters are extremely important in Fahrenheit.
The inspiration for the game has come from many directions which David expounded on for the story has many strands and changes direction constantly. âWe were inspired by David Fincher movies, like Seven or Fight Club, Dark City, and some David Lynch movies (and of course, Twin Peaks). I could also name XFiles, Millennium, The Fugitive or The Prisoner. Sometimes we were just inspired by the style or the directing; sometimes we reused some narrative mechanics and added interactivity to it. For example, in one of the first scenes of âFahrenheitâ we use the same trick as used by Brian De Palma in âSnake Eyesâ, having flashbacks from the same scene, but through the eyes of the different witnesses. It was a lot of fun to write and gave us the feeling of working on something really different.â
Now to get you in the mood and see how professional these guys are look at the screens and also understand that the team is unique in being one of the very few to have their own Motion Capture studio. Fahrenheit tries to create virtual actors and Motion Capture is the most obvious and easiest way from a production point of view to get high quality in a limited time. This is the first production to be completed using Quantic Dreamâs in-house MCAM-equipped Vicon 8 system and breaks new ground in many ways. Vicon 8, to those who are less technically inclined, is the most advanced optical motion capture system available and allows actors to move freely, unrestricted by wires, awkward suits or large body markers. The system can capture multiple actors simultaneously, and with the recently introduced million-pixel resolution MCams, motion data is recorded at near perfect accuracy. Vicon 8 is the same professional motion capture solution that has been used in the production of leading games and feature film projects including Gladiator, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and many more!
Now you may have noticed this is an unsigned game but after the E3 we are nigh on certain an announcement will be made but David gave his slant on things. âWe generally get excellent feedback from publishers. They tend to be extremely cold to anything that is new, but all main publishers were thinking about episodic games for a while but just did not know how to do it. I guess Fahrenheit shows an interesting way for this type of content. 12 episodes are planned and the release schedule will be decided with the publisher. We should be able to announce the name very soon!â
The balance in Fahrenheit is exactly the same as in real TV series. You can interact with your environment, talk to people, there are also some puzzles and action sequences. Quantic is trying to give players a new type of experience by blurring the frontiers between genres. Setting the game in 2005 gives a good balance between what is happening now with a little license to invent and although New York is the focus it is a balance of the old and mystical side of the city and a good deal of detailed research has gone into it.
It is difficult to talk about Fahrenheit with standard video game rules but each new episode will include about 12 new locations, plus previous ones (places that are permanent). Fahrenheit features a unique camera system making original use of real time 3D.
Although puzzles based adventures have got an old fashioned tag to them this does not worry David. âTelling stories is one of the oldest human activities. It started in grottos and I believe we will continue with computers. Real Time 3D is a perfect tool to tell stories. Some previous adventure games went in a direction with no possible future with giant inventories and keys to open doors. We should get back to basics, a good story and real interactivity, and people will discover that these games can draw a new audience to video games.â
Fahrenheit is full of dead ends and the characters have lots of depth and background. The intention is to use them a lot to tell parallel stories. Some of them will be linked to the main plot; others will just be red herrings. Each episode of Fahrenheit will end with a cliff-hanger. A character will be left in a tricky position at the end of the sequence so you ask, what will happen in the next episode? The bottom line is to surprise players with some unexpected situations...
When you talk of French games you tend to fear they are deep, cerebral and somewhat confusing but David would have none on that. âFahrenheit is not especially cerebral. It could easily become a prime time show on any American TV channel. We try to find the right balance of story, action and dialogue to keep the experience as immersive and addictive as possible. On the scenario, we have developed some very specific writing techniques for Fahrenheit. Just writing a good story is not enough, we need to write a good interactive story, which is sometimes really difficult in the way you create it. One of these techniques is called âbending storiesâ. We write a story that constitutes our rubber band, and we let the player play with it to make it longer or change its form. Allowing the player to incarnate several characters also opens a wide range of new possibilities in matters of interactivity. It especially allows the actions performed by one character to affect the actions another character will have to do. It also changes the relationship the player has with the game: he does not only incarnate one character anymore, but he is in control of the whole story.â
Loads of menus and clutter to wade through on the interface I hear you say. No, although it will be different on PC and consoles. The general policy is to have an âeasy way to do complex thingsâ. On both platforms, the interface will be totally transparent for the user. No menus, sub-menus, icons, life gauges, etc. Just the game onscreen. The game will be speech based and will be localised in five languages.
The hope is that Fahrenheit will draw in gamers by its graphic quality and the originality of its game play mechanics, but also that people who are not used to playing games will also enjoy it. Fahrenheit tries to be compelling for everybody, whether youâve played games before or not.
So did the team learn anything important from Nomad Soul? âFahrenheit uses a completely new programming environment called ICE. We learnt a lot from Nomad Soul in the matter of interactive storytelling, camera management and game play. On a personal point of view, I wanted to continue the experience of change. Weâve spent a lot of time developing our own technology. We try to remain at the cutting edge in matters of technology, although I think that this will be less important for players in the future.â And summing up - the creation of a great game? âWell, Hitchcock answered that there were three main things to make a good movie: a good story, a good story and a good story. With games, I would make a different answer: a good story, a good interface and a good interactivity.â
