Jonathan Knight (Executive Producer, Dante’s Inferno) Interview with Daily Joystick

Written by wages Tuesday, 02 February 2010 00:29

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Recently, I had the chance to talk to Visceral games about their upcoming hack-n-slash game, Dante's Inferno via email. I had the opportunity to ask the team a few questions, and here is what they had to say. A special thanks to Jonathan Knight,  Devin Bennett and the rest of the team at EA Visceral. Enjoy!

1) Religion is traditionally a taboo topic in gaming, or it is done in a way that "plays it safe". It is obvious watching the developer videos, screen shots and the demo itself that Visceral is taking this very seriously with a mature approach to the subject matter. In what way do you think that Dante's could have an affect on future games that deal with religious topics?

That’s tough to guess.  We’re so focused on this game right now, and making it all it can be.  We set out to entertain people, and didn’t really worry about what trends we might or might not be setting for the future. 

2) It is no secret that many people (gamers and industry professionals alike) see your game as nothing more than a clone of God of War. How does this notion affect the team and their motivations? Does it drive them to do something different we've yet to see? or, is it something that is more annoying than anything else?

For the most part those comparisons are flattering, because despite what folks might think, it’s actually very challenging to make a game that plays as well as GoW or DMC.  We set out to build a robust fast-paced melee combat system that’s very responsive, powerful, and that runs at 60fps.  The fact that we are mentioned along side those other games is a big compliment.  But we certainly feel the game stands on its own.  Our hero has a duality to his combat, fighting both with an Unholy scythe and a Holy cross, and the player makes a choice throughout the game to either Punish or Absolve enemies and the damned.  This earns either Unholy or Holy experience points, opening up a wide tech tree with two themed paths; and the magic abilities, relics, etc., all feed into this system.  On top of that, the story is incredibly unique, and the game is a loose adaptation of a literary classic: part one of The Divine Comedy.  There are lots of other special features, and we’re really excited about some incredibly innovative DLC coming your way soon.  So there’s a lot that makes Dante’s Inferno a unique package.

3) The inclusion of Wayne Barlowe-someone with such a rich portfolio-is a very important piece to the puzzle that is Dante's Inferno. Combining that with the immensely talented people you already have on staff, it is an indicator about how serious EA and Visceral take this project. Other than art style, has there been any other influence by Mr.Barlowe, that has helped this game mature into what it is now? If so, in what ways? Music? Story? etc.,

Wayne’s focus was definitely visual design.  He gave us a lot of great concepts very early, for environments and creatures.  It was a thrill to work with him.  For other disciplines, we reached out to some equally talented people—Oscar-nominated Will Rokos on the script, Garry Schyman on the score, Diego Latorre for the comic book art, etc.  Throughout development, it was really important to me to align the project with the best talent in the world.  We also recruited some really amazing folks to the team at Visceral, and made the studio that much stronger going forward.

4) At the beginning of the project (namely E3) there were several promotional pushes that had a mixed reception. Undoubtedly there were individuals, and organizations claiming to be offended. Living in such a politically correct society definitely has affected the way we interact with each other and often times when certain buttons are pushed, it causes reactions that can be overly good or overly bad. With that in mind, have there been any people that were leaning more towards being truly angry to the point of threats to staff or property? What is the position of the team when confronting this issue?

Honestly, there has been no real official push-back.  Maybe people are worried that if they protest, everyone will just think it’s a marketing stunt :)

5) Dead Space is an amazing title that shocked everyone with its level of polish. Initially overlooked by the media, it came out of nowhere in its last few months of development and shocked everyone. During that time, the team responsible said nothing and just worked on the game; ultimately letting their hard work speak for itself. Are we going to see that same push towards really polishing up the game before it's release?  When will we see the final build of the game?

At Visceral, we are committed to that level of polish for all the games we make, now and going forward.  You can absolutely expect a polished experience on February 9^th, when the game releases in North America.

6) Everyone has been and will continue to compare this game to God of War III. Speaking for myself, I prefer the art style, gameplay (based off of demo) and subject matter of Dante's over what is being offered by the competition. I will purchase both and while I have a preference I recognize and respect what the GoW franchise has done for gaming, particularly this genre. However, many gamers don't think like me and as we speak, they are choosing sides. In what way do you expect this game to have an identity all its own rather than being called a clone?

Dante’s Inferno definitely has its own identity in its combat, its meta-systems, and so forth, as I mentioned above.  But at the end of the day, it comes down to story and mythology.  Our game takes you on a journey into Hell—specifically the medieval Christian vision of the afterlife, as synthesized by Dante Alighieri in the 14^th century.  For us, that is an incredible mythology that hasn’t be really explored directly in a video game, and it’s the central hook of the game.

7) Lastly, if the team could say anything about their experiences in creating this game, what would it be? What are some of the things you've learned along the way not only about yourselves, but with working with other people on such a controversial topic? Surely it brings you together and by the looks of it, makes you all stronger.

Honest, on the team we never really got into heavy discussions about the content or our personal feelings about it.  The team was so professional throughout, and just completely focused on making the highest quality experience we could.  Sure, we always knew we were making something that was going to raise a few eyebrows.  But the vision was always clear, and the goal was to create quality entertainment.  I’m really proud of the team for doing just that.