Deadly Creatures Interview

Deadly Creatures, the upcoming action thriller on Wii, sent spines tingling across the Internet when we brought you our hands-on from publisher THQ’s Gamers Day event in San Francisco. At the same event, we caught up with Rainbow Studios’ lead game designer Jordan Itkowitz to get even more juicy details on what promises to be one of the creepiest games of all time. Read on to find out where the bizarre concept came from, why Deadly Creatures is like a Tarantino movie and discussion on a possible sequel.

VideoGamer.com: Where did the inspiration come from?

Jordan Itkowitz: We had the opportunity to pitch a number of new game concepts to THQ, for a variety of systems. And on the morning before we were supposed to as a team vote on the five we were going to go to THQ with, I had this dream where I was a snake. It was all rendered in very candy coloured graphics like Animal Crossing, but I was a rattle snake, and I was going through the grass and I was controlling it with the Wii Remote. You know how sometimes in a dream you are the character but you’re also yourself at the same time? That’s what was going on. And I was slithering through the grass with side to side motions and then I saw a rat. And then I reared up with the Wii Remote, and then I waited for the right moment, then I struck at it and I killed it. I woke up and I was like, that’s a really interesting idea for an interface and experience.

The whole team thought it was really interesting. From that original concept everybody just jumped on it. We all put our ideas into the pot and turned it into what it is today. It’s been a real collaborative team effort. The snake quickly became a non-playable character because we realised there’s not a lot you can do beyond that. But, we did settle on the idea that just being the predator and showing their experience from their perspective is a really cool concept, especially when you couple that with the control possibilities of the Wii. So that really became the central core of the game and the thing that made us fall in love with it and the thing that intrigued THQ to the point where they said go.

VideoGamer.com: It’s a bit of an out there concept. What was THQ’s reaction?

JR: It was definitely out there. Some of the other stuff we pitched was all definitely original and interesting but this one was just a dark horse, you know way out there. And they said: “That’s really cool”. And they had a directive to look for original Wii concepts and this fit perfectly and they said go, do it. So we quickly started brain storming what would be the best creatures to play as and quickly the scorpion and tarantula came out on top, not just because we live in Phoenix and we’re familiar with them! But because their morphologies are so different than other insects or mammals or anything. You’ve got this weird scuttling arachnid with a huge tail with a stinger on the end, and that works perfectly with striking down with your right hand. The tarantula is this big hairy creepy spider, crawls on walls and upside down. It’s just a really good opportunity for gameplay.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of genre of game is Deadly Creatures?

JR: Action thriller is how we’re describing it. It’s got elements of action adventure and it’s definitely got this creepy survival horror feel. We just wanted to give people a good creepy immersive thrill ride

VideoGamer.com: What can you tell us about the story?

JR: We didn’t just want to tell the story from the creature’s perspective in terms of oh, you’re a scorpion and tarantula and you’re just out to find food, that’s way too nature special and that’s pretty dry. One of the interesting things about showing life from these creatures’ perspectives is the contrast between their life down on the ground and under the ground and how they perceive and come into contact with probably their most dangerous enemy, man. We can really play with that sense of scale.

So, in addition to the adventures that you have as the tarantula and the scorpion, both creatures encounter these two guys out in the desert, and I won’t tell you what they’re doing out there, but chapter by chapter you watch them almost like a fly on the wall, and you begin to piece together this ominous, sinister storyline which has this very southern Gothic, western vibe to it and everything wraps up really nicely in the end. And the fact that we’re telling this story from two different characters’ perspectives means that we can do a lot of really interesting things with the time line, much like Tarantino does with movies like Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction. You’ll see an event happen from the scorpion’s point of view in one chapter and then when you play as the tarantula in the next chapter you’re in the same location but from a different vantage point and you see the same event happen, and you see new details come out of that and you begin to assemble the story as you go.

VideoGamer.com: Do they meet up?

JR: Yes! They’re nemeses. When you start the game you’re the tarantula and the scorpion is invading your burrow and the first cutscene shows the tarantula chase the scorpion out of its burrow and they’re fighting until they get interrupted by these two guys. Your first mission in chapter one as the tarantula is to track down the scorpion and once you do you try and kill it but it escapes at the last second via a cutscene, down underground, which starts chapter two.

Later in the game when you’re playing as the scorpion you’ll encounter the player tarantula in the last place you left it and then fight the tarantula as the scorpion. We keep going back and forth like that. There’s a lot of interesting opportunities to interweave the storylines.

VideoGamer.com: There’s been talk recently that third party Wii games do not sell as well as first party Wii games. Can they be successful?

JR: I think the jury’s still out on that. I don’t think there’s enough data to support that. What are the major third party games that you’ve seen that really appeal to core gamers? I’m really excited for Okami to come out on the Wii. It was my favourite game of 2006, and I know it is a port but it’s going to be fresh for a lot of people. There really aren’t a lot of action adventure titles on the Wii. So, especially with a game concept like this, I think people are going to see this as something new and fresh and hopefully they will gravitate towards it. Everybody so far seems to be fascinated by it.

VideoGamer.com: What kind of gamer is it targeted at?

JR: More at guys, 13 to 18, people who are familiar with this genre. But I think that just the fact that the Wii is in a lot more households of people that haven’t maybe played this type of game, it’ll be fascinating and intriguing enough that they’ll want to go and check it out. And a concept like this speaks to the eight year old boy that’s still in all of us. We’re all fascinated with this stuff at that age. Even when you see this stuff on YouTube, like that video of that giant centipede from South America eating a mouse, that’s a train wreck you can’t look away from.

VideoGamer.com: Deadly Creatures will be a purely single-player experience. Are you planning any DLC?

JR: Not for this title. But it’s a great concept and we’re hoping to make more of these with different sets of creatures and different environments. We can do a lot of interesting things with this so who knows!

VideoGamer.com: So Deadly Creatures 2 then?

JR: You didn’t hear it from me! This is just me as a developer saying you know what? It’s a good concept we can definitely do things with it.

VideoGamer.com: One final question then, if you do make another Deadly Creatures game, what creatures are on your hit list?

JR: I won’t say that! Because I don’t want to ruin the potential surprise.

Deadly Creatures is scheduled for released some time in Fall 08.