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Reservoir Dogs Q&A Feature

Jon Wilcox

26/06/2006

Mr. Mauve sits down and discusses, at length, the plans behind this adaptation...

Making his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs helped to set a new standard for independent filmmaking upon its release in 1992 and establish Quentin Tarantino as a stylish auteur, mixing heavy pop-culture references, strong dialogue, macabre humour and a haphazard approach to continuity.

Over thirteen years since its cinematic release Reservoir Dogs has garnished critical acclaim and become a cult-classic amongst movie fans, praise that Eidos hopes will translate to the forthcoming videogame adaptation for the Playstation2, Xbox and PC.

Currently in development at Blitz Studios' "Volatile Games" label, how the team hopes to capture the limitations enforced by the film will ultimately decide whether this is one movie adaptation too far; cutting dialogue and a handful of locations were elements featured in the film, but aspects that do not necessarily translate to entertaining gameplay.

Hoping to fill in areas left unanswered by the film (though thankfully leaving the heist to the player's imagination), TVG took the opportunity to speak with Nick Adams, Design Manager at Volatile Games, who managed to change our unfavourable first impressions on the title.

Reservoir Dogs isn't a movie that immediately lends itself as a videogame; can you explain why it was felt that one could be developed and how that planning process began?

I think it was the fact that there was no one immediately obvious way of adapting the movie into a game which definitely worked to our advantage which forced us to be a little more creative with our approach to the design. The movie is set mainly in one location and revolves mostly around the interaction between the characters. At first glance this seems very limiting, but delve a little deeper and you can see a lot of great elements - six different stories, strong themes, iconic imagery and of course a memorable seventies soundtrack.

When we set out to make the game, we were acutely aware of the film's cult status and being fans of the movie ourselves wanted to ensure that we treated the source material with the respect it deserves - it was for this reason that we chose not to show the heist because we felt it would be impossible to do it justice. Another issue we faced was the fact that public perception of games based on movie licenses isn't great and with expectations likely to be low it was going to be even more important to deliver a gameplay experience that was worthy of the film it was based on and didn't just ride on its coat-tails.

"We had a meeting with Tarantino's agent... As we understand it, he isn't into games."

What input, if any, have the movie's production company and Quentin Tarantino had during production of the game? How open have they been in discussing the approach to the adaptation?

The production company, Lions Gate, was involved throughout development. They were very helpful during the process and understood that there had to be a degree of flexibility when adapting the license into a game. We had a meeting with Tarantino's agent but he decided not to get involved. As we understand it, he isn't into games.

The movie is a cult-classic from the 1990s in much the same vein as The Warriors was in the 1970s. Does Rockstar's adaptation of that film strengthen Volatile and Eidos' belief that an adaptation of Reservoir Dogs was the right thing to do? Like The Warriors game, how does Reservoir Dogs expand on the events portrayed in the movie?

The Warriors was acclaimed for expanding upon its universe whilst managing to stay true to the tone of the film and this is very much the approach we have taken with Reservoir Dogs. This is particularly evident in terms of the player's likely emotional response to the game which very much echoes the film - it's very easy to go from being in full control of a situation to a sudden state of panic where you start shooting the place up.

We've also employed some subtler techniques that are in keeping with the movie - we've made large use of steadycam techniques in our in-game cuts, all of our music is diagetic (comes from a specific source within the scene such as a radio), and we've ensured that each of the character's distinct personalities are conveyed through their spoken dialogue. We've also adopted a similarly non-linear approach to the story whereby the missions are played out in a non-chronological order.

In terms of expanding on the movie, we've embellished the story rather than added to it. We've not changed the structure of the movie narrative; we've simply filled in some of the elements that were hinted at in the film that were going to be essential to facilitate gameplay. For example, when Eddie instructs Pink and White to ditch the cars, we never actually see where they went because it's largely irrelevant to the movie. However in the game, because the focus is on following each character's specific story it becomes much more important.

It goes without saying that the Reservoir Dogs movie has a number of graphic scenes (the infamous earlobe cutting sequence being just one). How much pressure has there been to deliver a game that reflects the violent atmosphere of the movie, without going too overboard? How does such a scene fit into the gameplay or is it shown through cut scenes?

There wasn't any external pressure to be violent within the game as such but you can't really make a game based on Reservoir Dogs without it. What we have tried to do though is make the player think a little more about the consequences of their actions. Most games present violence as fairly inconsequential but in Reservoir Dogs, we wanted to make the player feel bad about what they were doing and then give them the option to not do it. We've tried to take the moral theme that's clearly present in the movie and put that in the hands of the player.

In terms of the more graphic violence, each of the characters does have what we call a 'signature move' which is a particularly gruesome crowd control technique - inspired by Mr White's 'bank manager' speech when he's explaining to Orange what you do when the manager won't open the safe. As with the ear scene though, we've not specifically shown the actual acts, and instead have the camera panning up at the last second. This is arguably a more powerful technique as it relies on the player's imagination and also stays faithful to the movie in terms of its directorial style.

"We've tried to take the moral theme that's clearly present in the movie and put that in the hands of the player."

Gameplay is split into two distinct areas, action and driving. With such a breakdown it does seem that the game is offering a fairly generic experience to players. Aside from having the movie's narrative and soundtrack, how does Reservoir Dogs differ from any other title of that ten-a-penny ilk?

I think the fundamental aspect that makes it different to all other shooters on the market is the fact that you can complete the game without actually killing anyone.

One of the core themes of the movie was the difference in criminal philosophies adhered to by the various characters - Pink and White were staunch professionals whilst Blonde was clearly a psychotic madman. We've given the player the opportunity to choose their own philosophy and play out the game according to their own morality. You can take a very violent approach if you so wish, but crucially you can also choose not to - we felt this was key, not to impose either morality or style of approach but to allow the player to decide.

In terms of gameplay the player has two approaches: the traditional shooting-driven 'psycho' approach which most gamers will be familiar with, and what we are calling the 'professional' approach - a new range of moves that allow the player to make use of the threat of violence rather than the act of violence itself.

You've already announced that many of the songs featured in the movie have been licensed for the game, do they feature in their entirety or have been remixed as part of an overall soundtrack? How have they been worked into the structure of the game?

The entire soundtrack features throughout the game plus a number of additional tracks that echo the vibe of K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies. The tracks can be heard in their entirety during the driving missions and can also be heard at various points during the run and gun missions.

The music in the driving sections tends to reflect the specific nature of the mission such as 'I Gotcha' during the Marvin kidnap mission. By using diagetic music we're also able to juxtapose funky seventies feel good music with specific areas of action - it was this approach with 'Stuck in the Middle With You' that made the ear cutting scene so effective in the movie and it's a technique that we've employed in a number of places throughout the run and gun missions.

" Your rating also dictates the one thing that the player can affect in the game - namely the fate of Mr Pink."

Two features in the game appear to stand out - the Psycho/Professional rating system and the Threat System. Can you explain more about how they work and how important it is to utilise and understand them?

The threat system is a key feature of the game. Traditionally, neutral characters don't play much of a role in shooters and enemies tend to only serve one purpose. In Reservoir Dogs, we've expanded upon this so that the player can interact and exercise control over all characters in the game - including taking them hostage, ordering them to move about, getting them to unlock doors, 'neutralising' them (forcing them to drop down and face a wall) and in the case of armed characters, drop their weapons. Armed characters will require more persuasion than unarmed characters, and it is here that the additional ability to 'rough up' a hostage comes in useful.

The rating system is a sort of 'moral swingometer' that tracks how you deal with each situation over the course of each mission, as well as over the course of the entire story. Shooting and killing will push the rating toward the Psycho end of the scale whereas threatening and neutralising will push it toward the Professional end. In order to achieve either of these ratings, the player will need to play through an entire mission in predominantly the same way which naturally requires more skill than combining the two approaches - which will yield the more easier to attain rating of Career Criminal.

Your rating also dictates the one thing that the player can affect in the game - namely the fate of Mr Pink. I can't say anymore other than to say that there is an element of moral retribution!

Again linked to the fact that Reservoir Dogs doesn't initially seem at face value to be adaptable as a videogame, what sort of objectives are there for players to complete? Is there a level of strategy involved or is it just a straightforward run & gun title with chase elements?

We've catered for the player that simply wants to blast their way through the level and we've also catered for the player that wants to employ a more strategic approach. The objectives tend to either focus on reaching a destination or flat-out escaping, and whilst completing each objective is the core goal for each mission, it's how you complete the objective that provides the real challenge.

In terms of strategy, one of our core design goals was to try and sustain a continued sense of 'knife-edge' tension throughout all the escape missions. The threat system is very powerful in terms of what you can do but it's not without risk - you can't just take a hostage and breeze through a level. Cops will outflank you and shoot you in the back, they'll run for guns if you start shooting at them, they'll call for backup at the first opportunity and civilians will panic and run for alarms. Any one of these things can flip a seemingly controlled situation into one of chaos and it's here that a cool head and a good strategic approach really becomes paramount.

How important a part does dialogue play in the game, and have there been attempts to have the original actors reprise their roles? If not, why not?

There were discussions with a number of the actors during the project but for various reasons, not all of them become involved. We do of course have Michael Madsen who was really keen to become involved in the game and he did a fantastic job for us in the recording sessions - I think he quite enjoyed bringing Mr Blonde back to life and hopefully everyone will enjoy getting to play as the most memorable character from the film.

The dialogue plays a huge role in the game as it provides a great way for us to get across the unique characters of each of the Dogs. We've tried to get the tone of the writing as close to the film as possible - the driving sections in particular gave us a great opportunity to have the characters engaging in banter.

More importantly though it provides vital feedback when engaging with other characters. Crucially, the dialogue is always relevant and always conveys what the AI is doing. We were keen to avoid using lots of filler speech to try and make the game sound smarter than it is - the game really is that smart! When a cop calls for backup, he's not doing it for effect - backup actually does arrive.

TVG would like to thank Nick Adams for providing this insight into Reservoir Dogs. Scheduled for release during September keep an eye out for further coverage soon.