David Cage gets heavy

David Cage, head of Quantic Dream and maker of Heavy Rain doesn’t want your money. That’s not why he got into video game development. He wants to build that brand that is ‘David Cage’ and create brand new IPs rather than revisiting existing ones. In an interview with Develop, Cage spoke of how there definitely won’t be a sequel to Heavy Rain, despite selling so well and being an unlikely poster boy for some of the first Move supported games. He said that he wasn’t in the business to make money and wrote Heavy Rain because he was excited about the idea and wanted to tell a that story. Now the story has been told, Cage sees no reason to go back to it and prefers instead to focus the energy of Quantic Dream into making ground-breaking concepts.

On release, Heavy Rain was a fantastic showcase for Sony and the PS3, with stunning graphics and a story that was truly mature, tackling subject matter that wouldn’t normally be found in a video game. The plan was to support the game with DLC furthering the story and the characters personalities but only one was actually made available as the studio was persuaded to develop Move functionality. Sony didn’t seem to bothered but the halt of Heavy Rain and nor does Cage who once famously said (and now claims he was mis-quoted) that you should only play Heavy Rain once and live the the story and consequences you chose the first time around. As tempted as I have been to go back to it, I’ve only ever played it though the one time and agree with Cage that there really is no reason other than a wallet-padding to go back to that world.

Cage added how he sees himself as more of an author and regardless of him celebrating his 42nd birthday this year, he hasn’t lost the spark or passion for game design and isn’t yet worried about concentrating on making money in order to fund his family. Maybe Cage should have a chat to his colleague Guillaume de Fondaumiere about the money making abilities of Heavy Rain. Just this month, Fondaumiere criticised the second-hand market for losing him and the studio upwards of €10 million in royalties because a rough estimation showed that 2 million people bought Heavy Rain whereas 3 million actually played it. The way I saw it, a further 1 million people were exposed to the work of Quantic Dream, potentially expanding the audience for whatever they make next.

Back in March, Cage’s talk at GDC caused quite a stir when he begged for the industry to make games for adults, not teenagers and forget the preconceived ideas of how to make a game – boss battles, levels, points, shooting, missions etc – and think of games in a totally different way. This latest chat with Develop echoes these sentiments but also adds even more pressure for the next Quantic Dream game to be as forward-thinking as Heavy Rain was. The fact that it’s not Heavy Rain 2 is a very good start.

It’s raining BAFTAs

Quantic Dream took quite a risk with their new approach to video game design and story telling in Heavy Rain but it was one that paid off both financially and critically. At last night’s BAFTA’s, David Cage’s melancholy drama left with three awards; Best Original Music, Best Story and Technical Innovation. Not bad for a game whose overall credibility is still being debated. Though I whole heartily agree with all three victories and like many other fans find it even more frustrating that we’ll probably never get to explore the world any further by way of DLC.

Back in June 2010, Guillame De Fondaumiere of Quantic Dream spoke of the three planned DLC, known as Chronicles, were to be put on hold while the team focus on developing PlayStation Move controls into the game. Later, David Cage revealed how the DLC was no longer on hold but effectively cancelled because revisiting Heavy Rain would have delayed their next game.

Implementing Move into Heavy Rain hasn’t really done wonders for its sales figures. Before the patch (and re-release), the game had sold over 1.5 million units worldwide and now the estimated total is 1.65 million. It’s difficult to gauge the profitably of DLC but the potential would have been 1.5 million customers downloading three add-ons for, say, £4-5 each. That opportunity is all but gone now though so no real point moping about it, just hope that after such success, Sony will convince Quantic Dream to find some time and finally develop the add-ons since they persuaded them to focus their attentions to Move. My breath is not being held, however.

The Heavy Rain movie you’d want to see

A while back there was talk of NYPD Blue and Deadwood creator, David Milch being given the scripting duties for a Heavy Rain movie which Hollywood are said to be fast-tracking development on. Why a game so dependant on player interaction to further an incredibly personal story would be considered for a straightforward movie is beyond me. It may have something to do with the success of last year’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film which had a less than stella story, based on a game with a very ‘gamey’ plot. Heavy Rain has raised the bar (whether gamers and designers choose to accept it or not) with video game narrative so Hollywood are no doubt hoping to make that all encompassing flick appealing to both gaming and non-gaming folk.

Whether it’ll work or not is another question altogether but I’m sceptical as to how anyone will be able to capture the unique journey Heavy Rain pushes people towards. A good way of doing it is to stick as close to David Cage’s vision as possible with graphics, acting and directing pulled straight from the game, which is exactly what YouTube member GamersGlobal has done (via Kotaku). The video lasts for almost three hours (and why I haven’t posted it above! Click here to see it), chock full of spoilers if you haven’t played Heavy Rain but then if you never will, it’s a great way to see what all the fuss is about.

The best games of 2010: Heavy Rain

This is an easy choice for me. Heavy Rain was so very different to other video games and treated its story as if it were the star instead of using it to justify game mechanics. Add to that some frankly stunning graphics and a true feeling of choice with every action you do having a purposeful effect on the narrative. There were a lot of mentally challenging scenes that presented me with mature adult situations, the likes not common in gaming. Do I kill an unarmed lunatic? Or drink a vile of poison for the final clue to the whereabouts of my kidnapped son? And how does someone react when watching a child drown because of the incompetence of adults? The best and most touching moment was taking control of Ethan Mars after picking his boy up from school. A scene that could have so easily have been the epitome of boredom became like a test for my own fatherly instincts, making sure my kid is fed and trying to discuss the death of his brother. And as quick time events go, Heavy Rain doesn’t do the usual button-press sequences. The process you’re going through to get the playable characters to respond tries to be representative of real life. Mars’ awkward traversal of an electrified maze is mirrored on the PlayStation pad by a finger-bending combination of button presses making the inclusion of QTEs a necessary one. All this brilliance, only sullied by a peculiar wrap to the story, had to make it into my top games of 2010.

Heavy Rain’s deleted scenes show a more surreal side

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Psychological thriller Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy in the states), was bordering on genius until the last hour of storyline took a very surreal and jarring turn. The spiritual successor, Heavy Rain, could have almost succumb to the same fate if these deleted scenes (shown above) weren’t discarded by director David Cage. It reveals what was meant to happen during Ethan’s blackouts (which would have been a playable segments) why Madison Paige can’t sleep and the killer’s last victim.

If you haven’t played Heavy Rain, you should, it’s awesome, but you may want to give the video a miss as it has some major spoilers inside. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Heavy Rain, a Move in the right direction?

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Heavy Rain creator David Cage may have been surprised at its retail success but I wonder how many more gamers will pick up the game once it gets patched for PlayStation Move? If this demo footage is anything to go by, I’m guessing not many.  Tweaks do still need to be made and the code is by no means finished but the unresponsive hiccups and over-waggling is slightly worrying. The chap in the background seems less than impressed and the demoed scene where Madison is attacked in her apartment – a highly intense moment of the game – loses almost all of its spectacle when a glowing blue sphere is waving all over the place. Granted, you’ll never really know unless you get some hands-on time with it so given the benefit of the doubt, this could be the kind something wonderful, only realised when played… Then again it could be the exact opposite.

Heavy Rain’s success was ‘unexpected’

David Cage, the brains behind psychological-thrill fest Heavy Rain, has revealed his surprise but happiness with how well his game has sold. Despite the talks of it redefining storytelling in video games and how Heavy Rain would need its very own genre, Cage and Sony never actually expected it to do so well. In a session at Europe’s GDC (via GamesIndustry.biz) Cage said: “Heavy Rain is a commercial success and that’s not something Sony or Quantic Dream expected, to be honest.”

To date, Heavy Rain has sold around 1.5 million units and over a third of those went in the first two weeks of sale. Cage credits Sony with allowing him to craft a game that he wanted to make and for believing in his vision even when it didn’t look so good – though a certain amount of confidence on his part was needed: “It was a game that came together very late. If I showed you the alpha [build] you would kill the game. It looked ugly. Many publishers would have killed it. The game comes together very late and you need to communicate with your publisher because he doesn’t have any reference.” I’m glad Heavy Rain wasn’t killed because it is one of the best games of 2010, receiving a B+ in my review.

In his best statement yet, Cage appeals for other developers to take these kinds of risks: “Stop making games for kids. Adult is a huge, untapped market – there is almost nothing for adults, I’m not talking about casual or family games. There is a real market based on sophisticated values. See yourself as a creator, not a toy-maker. Ignore the rules.” Bravo. The adult gamer has very quickly been stereotyped as someone who only really enjoys mental development games or the non-game experiences like digital books etc. But like all businesses, a publisher would have to be certain of some kind of return on investment before deviating from the norm. It’s clearly worked for Sony and Quantic Dream though.

Cage comments on Heavy Rain DLC freeze

A couple of weeks ago, Guillame De Fondaumiere of Quantic Dream revealed in an interview with Game Informer that the planned DLC for Heavy Rain was to be put on hold while the team work PlayStation Move controls into the game. Speaking with NowGamer, Heavy Rain‘s creator David Cage is claiming that the hold may actually be a permanent one.

“We proposed three episodes about one hour long and being focused on the background of the main characters. I thought fans would really enjoy these episodes because they explained many aspects of HR and why characters are who they are.” Collectively known as Chronicles, the first and only DLC was called the Taxidermist featuring Madison as she sneaked around a suspect’s home. While it was more ‘gamey’ than the campaign it still offered an extended narrative to Madison and from the sounds of it, all of the characters were in for a similar treatment. But Sony has a motion-controller to sell: “Unfortunately, Sony preferred to ask us to focus on Move to support the device rather than on creating new content,” said a disappointed Cage. “On our side, we did not want to spend more time on HR, which would have meant delaying new projects.” He went on to say how happy he was that Quantic Dream are able to support Move but saddened at the fact that fans “could not finish the story of HR the way we intended.” Heavy Rain certainly left areas open for an explanation or two and maybe they were to come in the form of DLC. Not anymore however, we have Move to look forward to instead. Thanks…

Review: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Prologue
First and foremost, is Heavy Rain a game? Yes. Despite director David Cage wanting a new classification for it, this is still very much a game. The overall concepts and certain interactions aren’t far enough removed from videogames to be considered anything else. This is by no means a derogatory comment at all and don’t expect to be hiding behind cover or gliding up the sides of buildings but do be prepared for one of the most heartwarming and crushingly tragic tales to date. Heavy Rain shows how mature videogames can be and tackles subject matter that may be painful to experience but you should fight back those tears and persevere to the very end – even if that end doesn’t quite live up to everything that came before. You may spend more time watching Heavy Rain than interacting with it but when you do, the smallest actions could have the biggest consequences.