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Ghostbusters The Video Game screenshot

VideoGamer.com: Were there any things that you had to pull from the game because they just didn't work?

Both: Oh yes!

BG: At the very beginning, and it was a huge technology element, we had complete voice-command squad control. On all platforms. "Ray, go open the door!" And then Ray went and opened the door.

DH: Well, about 70 per cent of the time. [laughs]

BG: It worked! But in all seriousness, we came to the conclusion, "Hang on a minute. You think Venkman is going to do anything that this noob tells him? No!". And that's where it was. It was cool, but not what we were looking for for Ghostbusters.

DH: Even the Ghostbusters don't boss each other around. They give each other suggestions, but there is no squad leader. It's egalitarian.

BG: People ask us, "Do you drive the car? Can we drive Ecto 1?". And we have a lot of fun with that in the game. They're not going to let you anywhere near that thing! "Hey, shall we let the rookie drive?" "No!".

DH: Another thing we threw out… We originally had a full character worked out for the player. He had lines and was a funny guy. While I think the comedy worked, the player experience wasn't really what we wanted. It changed the dynamics of everyone's relationships and it's not Ghostbusters. Even though people may think that's what they want, what they really want is to be a Ghostbuster and to watch the Ghostbusters. This was just the best way.

BG: Ray's enthusiasm, without Egon's dryness and Venkman's insolence. Each one of those independently… yeah, it's a laugh, but put it all together and it's magic. It just comes back to that question: if it works and it's really funny, are you sure you want to mess with this?

DH: We've talked a little bit about the new movie and however they're going to deal it. We don't really know.

VideoGamer.com: Is that confirmed now?

DH: Well, it's confirmed that they're writing the script. It hasn't been green-lit as far as we know. But they don't have the luxury of having this blank character that you can put in and play around with. They're really smart, funny guys, so I'm really looking forward to see how they deal with that.

VideoGamer.com: Well, that makes two of us! Before I go, I wanted to ask you about physics. It seems that physics is going to play a big part of this game. What was your thinking with this?

BG: Terminal Reality has had technical strength with physics for quite some time, and with the Velocity engine it really gives us the freedom to have physics not just as eye-candy, in destroying New York, but as something that gives real game relevance - like the Gollum technology allowing us to put characters together in real time. So we see it as a major part of making New York a character, which was so important to the original Ghostbusters film. Without the destruction, they're not the Ghostbusters. To a degree, I think that's part of the reason why we were selected as the developer for this.

DH: We've got the tech, but also as a developer we're extremely devoted to developing gameplay-significant physics and environmental interaction. That's what we're going to do with just about every game we tackle. So Ghostbusters was a perfect marriage for us.

BG: We think that's where games need to go: physics gameplay.

VideoGamer.com: Can you expand on that? We're already seeing a lot of physics engines in games, so where are we going to go?

BG: To a degree, it [the current use of physics] is eye-candy. But one of the ways I can build a huge amount of tension and fear is if you know that any of the objects in the room could form into a huge creature and demolish you. You walk into a room that's nothing more than full of bricks, and you're like "Crap! I'm way in over my head!"

DH: "I don’t want to walk around the glass pit just now!"

BG: So being able to use the environment as a character, and as a weapon and as a defence for the player, that's something that I don't think has been exploited. It's always been about graphics - make it pretty, make it pretty! Now we [developers] are very close to photo real. We can do some really high-end stuff, so it's what's going to be the next stuff and where you are going to innovate.

Ghostbusters: The Game will be out on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii on June 19.

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