Heavy Rain (PS3)

By Sony Computer Entertainment, Quantic Dream | Released: 2009

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Heavy Rain Interview

By Wesley Yin-Poole - 02/09/2009 - 7:30am GMT

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Quantic Dream's David Cage is a man with a message. His on stage Heavy Rain presentation during Sony's gamescom 09 press conference will go down in history for the most uses of the word "love", an emotion he hopes he'll capture with the hotly anticipated PS3 exclusive. The following morning we sat down with the man himself for an extended interview on all things Heavy Rain, and a heap more. Read on for part two of Cage's most revealing interview yet. You'll find part one here.

VideoGamer.com: Is Heavy Rain a game you can make a demo of?

DC: There are some big debates at the moment within Sony about the proposal and the interest of a demo. Even to make shows like Cologne, it's a real nightmare to pick out one scene and say, look, we're going to choose one scene and people will understand what this game is all about. It's very difficult to find one scene like that because each scene in Heavy Rain is different. So when we showed Mad Jackal, people thought, okay this is the game. You are a profiler and you investigate and you fight and we got 20 scenes like this. No, it's the only scene structure like that in the full game. Then we show Madison - they say okay you go with this character and you explore. No, it's the only scene like that. Now we show Shelby, and we're going to show Ethan's scene. All four scenes are different, so it's difficult to say look, this is Heavy Rain.

VideoGamer.com: Does that mean you won't do a demo?

DC: Honestly I don't know at the moment. There are pros and cons to doing this. If you release a demo some people may think this demo represents the game where it's not the case. Like in a movie, can you imagine I'm going to release two minutes of a movie and you're going to imagine what the movie's about? Not easy. It's the same thing. How can you convey the emotional side of the game just with a scene? But there's also the other counterpoint, which is if you don't release a demo some people may think, oh they don't release a demo because the game is not good. No, that's not the case.

VideoGamer.com: You're in a difficult situation then?

DC: It's a difficult situation because it's a different type of game and it's difficult just to take a sample and say, look, you understand everything if you play this thing. And there are some examples of very good games in the past who released not that good a demo. The game was fantastic, but the demo was kind of okay. So it's still in debate.

VideoGamer.com: Your games have always focused on story and the more narrative-based elements of interactive entertainment. On a personal note, do you consider yourself to be a game developer or a storyteller?

DC: First thing, it's difficult to say, but I believe I'm not making video games any more. So when I'm saying this I'm not saying I'm doing movies and it's not interactive any more. I'm just saying video games, the way we see them for 20 years, mainly targeting kids and teenagers, with a certain type of very limited gameplay based on violence - I'm not doing this any more. Honestly I believe I will never do it again, whatever happens with Heavy Rain. I'm 40 years old now and I don't want to make shooters any more. I'm not interested in that. Little characters jumping and crouching and running and shooting - yeah that was fun when I was 15, but I don't want to do that any more. And after Heavy Rain? It's the type of game that changes the way you see things in a matter of creative development. It's difficult to go back to basic things again. So, I see myself as a creator. I could be a writer. I could be a different thing. I'm just using this medium to tell the stories and the things I care about and the things I believe in, and try to trigger emotions. I use this interactive medium. I could use another medium, but I think this is the most exciting one right now.

VideoGamer.com: What's your take on the motion sensing technology that's been announced both by Sony and Microsoft? Is that something you think could work for your games?

DC: Well, it may work well with Heavy Rain because Heavy Rain is based on motion already. The way we deal with action sequences, really trying to use the controller as much as possible to make you feel the same moves of your character at the same time. So yeah I feel close to that. At the same time it really depends on how you use it. You can do very different things with motion control. You just need to be careful about how you do things. Do I believe that every single game will be motion control and it's going to replace regular controllers in the future? No I don't think so. I think it's going to work well for certain experiences and people will enjoy some games with that. I don't think it's going to overwhelm the market and all games will be like that.

VideoGamer.com: A happy medium perhaps?

DC: Yeah I think so. And I would be interested to see people using this type of controller not for casual and family entertainment, but for more serious experiences.

VideoGamer.com: Do you think motion sensing will be reserved for casual experiences, or will we see serious games for adults perhaps?

DC: That's my hope. I would like to see more interesting experiences, more adult experiences using this. Not just casual games.

VideoGamer.com: Heavy Rain is coming out next year. It won't support Sony's motion sensing controller, or might it?

DC: Not at the release date.

VideoGamer.com: But it may do in the future?

DC: Who knows?

VideoGamer.com: All we have so far in terms of a release date is 2010. Can you nail it down to a quarter?

DC: It's going to be the first quarter. Hopefully!

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