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Post-Fahrenheit: A Game of Love and Vision - Exclusive Thoughts of David Cage Feature
Chris Leyton
21/11/2005
David Cage shares his thoughts on one of the most imaginative videogames in recent years exclusively to TVG...
Fahrenheit was a much delayed game listed with a number of publishers before its eventual release last month though Atari. Full of creative and inventive ideas the wait was well worth the few hiccups. TotalVideoGames spoke with David Cage, CEO and founder of Quantic Dream, who is also the writer/director of Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit to get a fuller insight, a little history, into a game that Atari will continue to fully support until after Xmas. Fahrenheit has been universally acclaimed and was our game of the month for September at TVG.
Fahrenheit appeared to be a long time in the making with TVGâs first look at the title way back in 2002. Back then âepisodic contentâ was mentioned however naturally that hasnât quite taken off yet, so were you happy with the end result and were there any other features/content cut out that you intended to include?
Fahrenheit has been a long time in the selling rather than in the making. The game took about two years in production, which is quite reasonable for a title of this ambition on three platforms.
"In my mind, the only interesting way to create real episodic content would be to create a product on the model of TV series where the core engine of the experience will be an on going story and characters"
Fahrenheit was initially thought as a TV series distributed on line as episodic content. After long discussions with Vivendi, we finally decided to step back mainly because we thought the market was not ready at the time for this type of model. I think that we took the right decision.
However, now that Fahrenheit has been released, we see a lot of publishers who remember we were pioneers in exploring this new format getting back to us. The market seems now more prepared to this kind of product, especially with the hope to see on line content delivery on next gen consoles. The business model and the production model are extremely interesting and there is an incredible potential for the first product that will do it right.
Personally, I absolutely donât believe in the idea of selling a traditional game level per level and call it episodic. If people donât like the first level, they wonât buy the next, and it they really like it, they will want to buy the full game immediately.
In my mind, the only interesting way to create real episodic content would be to create a product on the model of TV series where the core engine of the experience will be an on going story and characters. People will want to see the next episode because they will want to know what will happen next, how their favourite characters will evolve. I believe in weekly deliveries of short episodes for an attractive price. A weekly delivery will allow to have a real addiction, a strong feeling of an online event with people waiting to download their episode the same way they wait for their favourite TV series.
I am absolutely convinced that this type of model will appear in the coming years, and Quantic Dream intends to play a role in this new model.
Back to your question, yes, I am quite happy with the end result of Fahrenheit. I do not mean that the game is perfect in any way, but just that it is close to what I had in mind.
To me, the most interesting aspect of the game is the fact that after a couple of scenes, players really care for the characters and want to know what will happen to them. I am also very proud of the emotional power of many scenes in the game. This was my biggest surprise to see how intense certain scenes could be, sometimes close to the emotions usually found in movies.
Although a game can always be improved, I think that it was ready to be released. I needed to hear what people thought about it to get the necessary step back and analyse what we did.
An original concept in a tough genre must be hard to push however Fahrenheit performed well in first week sales across Europe and then quickly dropped off; were you happy with its performance across Europe and the US?
Before signing with Atari, absolutely everybody in this industry thought that:
1) Adventure games were definitely dead and that interactive storytelling was an interesting subject for students, but that it would never make a game sell.
2) creating a game where you donât kill anyone and make hardcore gamers like it was just a dream.
3) Making an adventure game on console was a joke and the concept would never be approved by Sony anyway.
4) Territories like UK and Germany would never buy an adventure game. A âcerebralâ game cannot work in the US where all people want are guns, cars and nipples.
5) Innovation cannot sell. People want more shooters, but certainly nothing too different.
With the release of Fahrenheit, we proved all these points to be wrong.
The game was in the top three of all selling charts on all three platforms the week of its release and up to four weeks after in some territories. It was sold out on Xbox the first week-end in most countries, at the big surprise of all the people who thought that Xbox owners would just continue to buy NFL. In the US, the game was in the top ten selling games at Wall Mart and it has been listed in the best selling games in many chain stores.
I think that Atari has been a little bit surprised and would have put more copies on the shelves and maybe more dollars in Marketing if they had known.
But most of all, Fahrenheit starts to have a very positive aura, thanks to all the passionate gamers who spread the word, and also to all the great press we had from all territories. We strongly believe that there is a market for this type of products that has the potential not only to be a niche, but really to become a new major genre.
People like EA try to find ways of blending cinema and interactivity in a new way, creating complex emotions and tell a story in an interactive experience, some of the things we have experimented in depth in Fahrenheit. The fact that the number one publisher starts to think about the same ideas that we defend for nine years is for us a very positive signal.
So to answer your question, I am more than satisfied with the results of Fahrenheit at all levels.
Fahrenheit featured a cliff-hanger ending are there any plans to return to the storyline; would next-gen technology provide the scope to fully realise such aspects as episodic content and do you still see significance in this?
Definitely. We are currently actively working on this idea, but not with Fahrenheit.
"I think that Atari has been a little bit surprised and would have put more copies on the shelves and maybe more dollars in Marketing if they had known."
Fahrenheit featured style in abundance and came across as a fresh, new experience; how hard is it to not cash in on popular genres and maintain the importance on original concepts?
I cannot say it is hard, just because I cannot imagine another way for me of working. I work in this industry because my only passion is to try to pioneer new possibilities on this wonderful media. Working on a âpopular genreâ is an idea that never crossed my mind, just because I would not even know how to do it.
What is really hard is to convince people around you to have some courage. Publishers in general donât like new ideas just because they have difficult to make sales forecast on something totally new and because it is hard to convince their marketing department to agree on a product that is too different. It is sometimes also difficult to convince the development team to trust you enough and to work long days on something they still have difficulties to see. If you go to your team and say you are going to make a FPS, everybody knows what you are talking about. But if you tell them that they are going to spend two years of their lives to create an interactive drama, a new form of storytelling that does not exist yet but that will certainly be great; they may have some interrogation at some pointâ¦
After ten years in this industry, I realise that I have some difficulties to work on a project without everyone saying âit is not possible, it will never work, you cannot do itâ. I realise how dangerous it can be, but the more people doubt about an idea, the more I want to make it. It means that there is really something to discover here. I was lucky so far because I always found publishers and developers to trust me enough. I also always delivered the games I promised, which I hope will allow me to continue to have ambitions for my projects.
The use of Mo-Cap animation and high-quality presentation was a stunning feature of the game; was this a time-consuming task and do you believe it important for a gameâs development not to slip too far or is it best to take your time and ensure the original concept is fully accomplished?
In my mind, it was impossible to make a game like Fahrenheit without Motion Capture. The concept of virtual actors able to express emotions plus the kind of realism we were looking for made the use of Motion Capture an absolute necessity. In fact, I absolutely wanted to master internally this technology; this is why we bought our own MoCap system. It allowed us to have an insane amount of animations (12 hours captured on fifty actors through more than three months of recording sessions) and to do things that you usually never have the time to try (ice skating, basketball capturing the players and the ball, cabled stunts ala matrix and other choreographed stunts, etc.).
I think it is important for a gameâs development to stick to its schedule, especially when it is an original game. You absolutely need to have a framework in place that will be your guide through the development. Although we work on original concepts, we are not a lab doing R&D, but a company that has to deliver a product. I absolutely hate the kind of iterative processes where you donât really know what you do, you just try different things. First, it is a difficult business model, and secondly, it is often very exhausting for the team.
I try to do all my thinking work during the pre-production, so I have a very clear plan for the team when the production starts. This is the time where there should be no grey area anymore, just because it is difficult to leave open questions behind you when you have a team of 80 waiting for workâ¦
I try to keep some space in the production to try one thing or another, and I also leave time for discoveries during the development, but I always make sure that it wonât be distracting for the team and that no work will be wasted in the process.
Fahrenheit featured a surprising amount of freedom when it came to players actions despite featuring a cleverly woven storyline; what does it take to strike a balance between linear storytelling and player freedom?
This balance has been a very difficult decision to make. A lot of games prefer to have open large environments with limited interactions, where the choice of Fahrenheit was to offer limited environments with a lot of interactions. In Lucasâ bathroom that should be no more than four square meters, we managed to offer about twelve different actions.
I really wanted to immerse the player in the narrative space rather than in the 3D space. I thought that the player would not care about being limited to his apartment in a scene if the narrative space was so great and exciting that he would have no time to breath. And in fact, this is exactly what happened.
I was scared that people would not like the fact that you cannot leave Lucasâ apartment to go and explore New York, or that you could not choose where your character will go in the next scene, but I was convinced that what we would loose in matter of freedom, we would gain it in matter of pacing and immersion.
Much of Fahrenheit played out like an old-school adventure title; where do you see the future of this genre and do you see Quantic Dreams continuing with this despite its relative lack of popularity amongst the current market?
Fahrenheit was a strange mixture of a brutal rupture with some of the most well established video game conventions and of some more traditional elements. Some of them really had an interest in the global vision of Fahrenheit (like for example the âTrack&Fieldâ interface used to drag the dead body perfectly represented the idea of an effort for the player), others were much more some kind of âhomageâ to the tradition of adventure gaming (like for example the very traditional little puzzle game at Takeoâs shop).
I want to continue to explore new possibilities regarding interface, always with the idea of making it more than just a remote control, an important element of physical immersion for the player. I will definitely continue to look for new solutions in our next titles.
"We always ask the player to react and not to think, so it was a real pleasure to ask him to think first."
For us Fahrenheit featured a handful of striking moments such as the decision to rescue the kid falling in the lake or the dawning that the player shouldnât react to visions during the questioning by Carla in Lucasâs office â“ what were some of your personal favourite scenes both to create and play?
The two scenes you mentioned have some history. The kid falling in the lake was one of the first scenes I designed for Fahrenheit. I was looking for ideas where the player would have to make choices that are not obvious, not black or white. Something that the player would seriously ask himself âwhat would I do if I was in his shoes?â. In fact, I was looking for âmoral choicesâ, choices that would require the playerâs personal involvement. Having to choose to take the risk to be caught or to let a kid die was for me the ideal example.
Not reacting to the vision during the questioning has been a very difficult decision to make. I remember I fought with some people who thought it was a horrible idea to ask the player not to react. To be honest, I loved the idea. We always ask the player to react and not to think, so it was a real pleasure to ask him to think first. Most players probably tried to react to the vision at first, until they realise that it has a negative result. The player has to understand that these visions cannot hurt him and that he should fail to react on purpose. To me, this scene is a direct link to the final scene of the original Prince of Persia, where the player had to understand that by fighting against his double, he would only kill himself.
In this scene of Fahrenheit, not interacting also means interacting, which was a very appealing idea to me.
There are many scenes I really like in Fahrenheit. One of them is the first scene with Tyler in his apartment. When I wrote this scene, I realised that all the player would have to do would be to stand up, take a shower, get dressed, take a cup of coffee and go to work. I saw so many movies building the main characters in a scene like that in a very subtle way; I really had to know if I would be able to make it work in a game. It is one of my favourite scenes, and I know a lot of gamers really appreciated it too, because it is very emotional, we have the feeling of really sharing the life of Tyler and his intimacy with his girlfriend.
The scene where Lucas is at the hotel is also one I really like. Telling simultaneously three stories happening in real time in three windows was a real challenge both technical and narrative. I think there is a real notion of emergency in this scene. The fact that each character would have an impact on other characters in the other windows was also very interesting.
I also really like the scene between Lucas and Tiffany in Lucasâ apartment. We can really feel the tension between the two characters. Some of the love scenes, especially the one between Lucas and Carla near the end work quite well in matter of emotion.
There are other situations where there is something emotionally very strong happening, like the dialogue between Markus and Lucas after the storm and many others. In fact, I like all the scenes where emotion is really tangible.
"I was against the idea of changing the title of the game for the US territory."
Why was Fahrenheit changed to Indigo Prophecy for the US market; do you think such difference can impede a gameâs global success?
I was against the idea of changing the title of the game for the US territory. I had the experience on my previous game âOmikronâ that was renamed âNomad Soulâ in Europe for obscure reasons. I knew that it would make everybodyâs life more difficult for no reason. I wish I had the possibility to choose the title, but âIndigo Prophecyâ has been decided by someone at the marketing department.
I donât think it had any real impact on the sales, but I know how much additional work it represented for us to change all mentions to the title in the game depending on the territoryâ¦
"We also work on a new concept in the spirit of Omikron called Karma. It wonât be a direct sequel but it will take place in a huge city in a close future. I donât think that David Bowie will be backâ¦"
Perhaps you could share a few details on your next project, believed to be a sequel to Omnikron (will David Bowie be back)?
I cannot really reveal what we are working on at the moment as it is still in discussion with different publishers. I can say that we will continue to develop and improve the âInteractive Dramaâ format used by Fahrenheit, not to make cheap sequels but rather to take it to the next stage. We also work on a new concept in the spirit of Omikron called Karma. It wonât be a direct sequel but it will take place in a huge city in a close future. I donât think that David Bowie will be back, but we will continue to work with talents from other industries regarding music, and maybe acting, writing or directing. When I look at what people like Bowie or Badalamenti bring to us, it gives me the will to continue to explore the possibilities of this kind of collaboration. I think their talent was truly unique and significantly contributed to make the games unique too.
Regarding our next games, we will continue to try to innovate and find new ways of interacting. We currently massively invest in our next gen technology to make sure we will arrive early in the console cycle with a very competitive technology. My idea is to try not only to develop next gen technologies, but also next gen concepts. My goal is to surprise players and never be where they expected meâ¦
I would like to thank TVG for their support. The very positive article that you published has been read and appreciated by many gamers. It contributed to create the buzz around the game. This is why I took the time to answer extensively to your questions, to thank you in a concrete way for your support.
TVG would like to thank David Cage for taking the time to answer our questions at length. Fahrenheit is a game that dares to be different and as such deserves to be recognised; thankfully Cage and the team have also created a startling videogame experience in the process. If youâve yet to check out the game we urge you to head to the nearest shop now and pick up a copy, we can guarantee youâve never played anything quite like itâ¦
