• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

David Cage is not the sole writer or director of Detroit: Become Human

D

dragonbane

Member
Since many people apparently missed this, I thought I should make a separate thread for it. Detroit is written by a team of 3 writers and directed by 2 people. David is only one of them. The other two writers are from America/Canada respectively, which is a first for Quantic Dream. Besides the trailer voice over we havent heard any dialogue from the game yet and reasonably it can be assumed it wont be present in the main game and was written by Cage rather recently just for this trailer.

This was mentioned back in 2013 already in this article from Destructoid:

Cage is now joined by two other writers in script writing Quantic Dream's PS4 game in development. The results are "very positive" Fondaumière said
Click to expand...

Cage himself commented in 2012:

DC: I'm very interested in what's going on with TV series, where's the showrunner and a team of writers, writing in the same direction. And this is actually what I'm building at our studio right now.

Q: You're moving towards a TV-like setup?

DC: Yeah, where I could continue to have the vision and the ideas - I have ideas for the next four or five games. This is what I love and I really enjoy but at the same time, instead of me spending a year away from the studio writing the damn thing, I could work for the team - people who could be more talented than I am, and bring in new ideas that I've not thought of - and work together in creating this thing. So, we're starting on this right now.
Click to expand...


We can see that he followed through with this when we check LinkedIn for a second:



OMOLSLn.png





RsEGGIj.png





The second Director is briefly mentioned here and seems to have both game and film experience.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
So there is a chance that the writing and story won't be terrible?

I just felt my hype for the game go from 0 to 1
 
P

prwxv3

Member
Like I have said before this should be a nice litmus test to see who just dislikes his writing and people that just hate his guts.
 
H

Hektor

Member
The best thing that could happen to him, i literally ranted about him not having a co-author 4 minutes before, lol.

Hektor said:
One of the things that irk me the most about Cage's writting is how he isnt able to retain a consistent tone throughout his games.

All his games start out rather authentic and believable despite some hocus pocus like ghosts, but then in the latter half always go batshit insane, the worst example of it beeing Fahrenheit in its entirety and the
waterbase/Apocalpyse
part of B:TS.

In addition to that always inserts twists into his game, for the sole purpose of having a twist and often isnt very subtle with his characters.

He really, desperately needs a proper co-author to flesh out the execution and to to prevent him from the insane ideas he got imho.

He could really make amazing games if he would up his writing skills, but i get the impression from his conference speeches that he thinks he doesnt need to learn anything at all anymore.

€: Speaking about that: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1130624
Click to expand...
 
F

Fitts

Member
Boo... let the man's hilarious bullshit come through unfiltered.

I don't care if his games are bad, they're crazy entertaining. If the writing isn't ridiculous I'll pass.
 
H

Hasney

Member
Thank fuck, as funny as Heavy Rain was, Beyond just kinda went terrible.

That said, the trailer already had the usual David Cage bad dialogue, so I'm not going to hold.my breath.
 
J

- J - D -

Member
Lime said:
Despite the other writers, I bet David Cage will still somehow manage to get a shower scene and a underwear scene for the female main character, like all his other previous games:
Click to expand...

In all fairness, Ethan gets shower scene in Heavy Rain, and you see butt.
 
P

pager99

Member
Man it's fashionable to not like cage isn't it although I thought beyond was a bit shit myself
But this is good news
 
P

Pai Pai Master

Banned
Lime said:
Despite the other writers, I bet David Cage will still somehow manage to get a shower scene and a underwear scene for the female main character, like all his other previous games:
Click to expand...

People take showers? Cage is the kind of director that likes to show that his characters are "real people", and a shower or toilet scene is an easy, albeit shallow way to hit that note. Heavy Rain essentially starts with that, but with a male character.

It may be repetitive at this point but I think it has more to do with Cage being a bit of an amateur-level writer and less to do with being "creepy".

That's how I take it at least. I'm very glad to hear he is not doing all the writing duties because he has yet to really nail it after many attempts. The guy has awesome ideas but fumbles on the execution constantly.
 
H

Hasney

Member
Pai Pai Master said:
People take showers? Cage is the kind of director that likes to show that his characters are "real people", and a shower or toilet scene is an easy, albeit shallow way to hit that note. Heavy Rain essentially starts with that, but with a male character.

It may be repetitive at this point but I think it has more to do with Cage being a bit of an amateur-level writer and less to do with being "creepy".

That's how I take it at least. I'm very glad to hear he is not doing all the writing duties because he has yet to really nail it after many attempts. The guy has awesome ideas but fumbles on the execution constantly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd go with that. I mean, the easiest way for him to show they're real people is to have them talk like real people would, but he's not mastered that yet. Baby steps.
 
Gold_Loot

Gold_Loot

Member
Lime said:
Despite the other writers, I bet David Cage will still somehow manage to get a shower scene and a underwear scene for the female main character, like all his other previous games:
Click to expand...

I know I felt creeped out at the male shower scenes too.

>.>
 
A

Axbarn

Banned
I didn't actually have a problem with David's prose... it was overly corny but it clicked for me most of the time. It is his ideas beyond the core concept for his stories that usually concern me.

Honestly, the only thing I want David to direct is the actual actors and cinematography etc. because he's good at it. The way he talked about the writing here I already imagine the other writers getting frustrated like...

DC "Okay, Parris, last night I just came up with this idea of Jennifer finding out her brain is actually not synthetic, but it's a spiritual fragment linked to the paranormal world! That's what you have to implement now"

Parris (writer) "But what about her escape from the Android Surveillance Unit?"

DC "This happens simultaneously!" *walks away*

Parris *pulls his hair out*
 
G

GoldenCrow

Member
Brilliant. I wrote this in a LTTP thread on the game a while back.

GoldenCrow said:
… After playing the game the lasting impression is that Quantic Dream are a very good studio studio and what they managed to get out of the PS3 is phenomenal but David Cage would be better as a curator and producer and QD linking up with the film and television industries would push them forward to no end. I want to see them do a The Wire, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos style experiences, drop the nonsense and go gritty and realistic, use writers that are specialists in dialogue and thematic issues and directors that have cut their teeth and fitting complex plots into concise time frames.
Click to expand...

After playing Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls it was clear to me this was the downfall of QD games. Getting consistently good writing and direction by one person in a relatively short period across such a large script is setting yourself up for failure and Cage did an admirable job considering.
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
I dunno, the Become Human trailer was fantastically pretentious, precious and up its own arse that Im not sure it isn't a one man David Cage show again
 
A

Axbarn

Banned
Dreamwriter said:
What's up with people hating David Cage? I thoroughly enjoyed Heavy Rain, both its story and gameplay.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's as if people forgot because Beyond exists >_>

Oh right. People hate HR too because they keep mistaking a scene with an unreliable narrator for a "plot hole"

Nevermind those scenes of
Ethan
waking up in the rain. Those were unexplained and weird because they changed a whole aspect of the story right at the end of production, but IMO it wasn't a plot hole still, and the rest of the plot was great, thematically inconsistent side-stories aside.
 
D

dragonbane

Member
Lime said:
Despite the other writers, I bet David Cage will still somehow manage to get a shower scene and a underwear scene for the female main character, like all his other previous games:
Click to expand...
Only if Valorie Curry is up for it ;) At least they will likely remain optional now and not graphic, a trend which Beyond started. If its purely optional and doesnt give you any kind of reward I dont really mind a director including his weird trademark. After all he had plenty of male showering in his games as well and was fighting to have Ethan appear full frontal, but Sony intervened.
 
C

Chance Hale

Member
I could work for the team - people who could be more talented than I am, and bring in new ideas that I've not thought of - and work together in creating this thing. So, we're starting on this right now.
Click to expand...
So arrogant, so pretentious!
 
S

Solid Raiden

Neo Member
Great news. I've enjoyed Quantic Dreams work but it is easy to see that Cage needs someone to real him in. Indigo Prophecy started out brilliantly until it completely went off rails shortly after, Heavy Rain was amazing until the lackluster ending but I still loved that game and Beyond was absolutely all over the place jumping between boring, stupid and enjoyable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Detroit: Become Human has sold 8 million copies
News Business Sales-Age
38
2K
kiphalfton replied
Cyberpunk 2077 Follow-up, codenamed Project Orion, grows in strength at CD PROJEKT RED North America
News Game Dev 2
53
2K
AeonGaidenRaiden replied
David Cage Discusses How Star Wars Eclipse Will Be Different From Detroit: Become Human
Opinion Game Dev
0
435
IbizaPocholo replied
  • Locked
Former Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Director, Stig Asmussen, Forms New Studio, Giant Skull, To Create Action-Adventure Game In Unreal Engine 5
News Game Dev
1
304
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Former Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Director Forms New Studio, Giant Skull, To Create Action-Adventure Game In Unreal Engine 5
Game Dev
36
1K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Top Bottom