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David Cage “unhappy with everything” about Heavy Rain

S

shinobi602

Member
We’ve seen developers slag off their own games before but it’s rare to see someone appear as disappointed in their creation as co-CEO of Quantic Dream David Cage.

When asked what he felt strongly about in terms of Heavy Rain Cage replied:

“[Big sigh] Well, there were different things. With the team, we were pretty much unhappy with everything. We thought we could have done a better job in all areas, and have better rendering, and better visuals, and better gameplay, and better everything.”

But don’t take that the wrong way people, David is still “really proud of Heavy Rain. Not in an arrogant way, like, “Look at how good we are”; we’re just proud of having made it.”

It’s refreshing as a games reviewer to see the developer step back, take a long hard look at their product and acknowledge that their game isn’t perfect. However, I don’t think I would have been quite as harsh as David is on one of the more interesting game concepts in recent years…

For the full interview, which also includes Cage’s take on storytelling, Fahrenheit and a whole bunch of other game developing goodness, head on over to this big old Gamasutra piece.


http://beefjack.com/news/david-cage-unhappy-with-everything-about-heavy-rain/

http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/171004/beyond_heavy_rain_david_cage_on_.php
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Better gameplay? What gameplay?
I enjoyed Heavy Rain.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
Inb4 hate

Oh wait.

If it means their next game is better for it, then this is good to hear!
Heavy Rain did suffer from some jank in it's execution and writing but overall it was a great game
 
J

JumpingTheGun

Banned
Great experience don't get me wrong, but I can't ever find the strength to replay it due to it being so fucking depressing. Never expected Cage to feel that way though. I thought the team did an exceptional job with the story and atmosphere. They really nailed Philadelphia in some areas.
 
B

bigboss370

Member
i loved heavy rain. it was different and it was fun. narrative could have been better in places, but overall i i liked it, and i want more games in the same vein.

and as for gameplay, it was just like Indigo Prophecy which was awesome too.
 
E

Endo Punk

Member
The only thing that interested me about HR was sexy Madison but not enough to ever purchase the game. Maybe if Quantic went through with the DLC plan I would of bought a complete version. Anyhow Im looking forward to his next game, Kara completely sold me on it even though it may(or may not) have anything to do with it.
 
M

mxgt

Banned
If you're gonna have a plot hole ridden, nonsensical story then you need solid gameplay to fall back on

HR had neither
 
M

Micerider

Member
Thank you David, I was looking for support to back my impression of the game and you amongst all were the last one I was expecting :)

Well, I see a lot of promising ideas and concepts in the game, so it's a good step forward to admit that they can improve on it.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
I fell for this last time. On reflection he seemed to agree with all the faults I saw in Fahrenheit, and that was why I gave Heavy Rain a chance. He'd realised his mistakes, so I thought.

He has no benefit of the doubt for the next game. It'll have to win my over all by itself.
 
S

snoopeasystreet

Member
I'd love to see him make a more traditional game. He has some interesting ideas but then makes the most abstract gameplay mechanics that makes the game as boring as shit to play.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Employing the ol' "throw your old project under the bus" strategy to hype the new one which does everything better.

I see your game, Cage.

The diner scene in Fahrenheit is still the best thing he's produced and the biggest reason why I'm following his endeavours. Produce more with that level of quality, and I'm there.
 
D

DICKS AHOY

Banned
Thought the game was pretty laughably bad and did well mostly because Sony was smart enough to strike a nerve with the GAMES ARE ART crowd, but I still respected what it tried to do. Even if I don't think games should be aiming for a more cinematic feel and rather their own ways of telling a narrative it's a nice change of pace to see Cage being humble about the game and I think the guy's quotes get cherry-picked sometimes to make him out to be more egotistical than he really is.

That whole completely misunderstanding what red-herrings was still pretty revealing about his grasp on narrative techniques though.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
plagiarize said:
I fell for this last time. On reflection he seemed to agree with all the faults I saw in Fahrenheit, and that was why I gave Heavy Rain a chance. He'd realised his mistakes, so I thought.

He has no benefit of the doubt for the next game. It'll have to win my over all by itself.
Click to expand...

To be fair, the gameplay of Heavy Rain is drastically different to Farenheit, the latter being pure QTE simon says sequences, Heavy Rain's gameplay was nothing like it.
Also, the story didn't go to absolute shit at the end, despite an iffy plot hole.
 
J

j0hnny_385

Member
I enjoyed the game very much. One of the most original titles this gen for me (bring the hate, c'mon...). Tech was amazing, controls were very weird but overall a great game. Can't wait to see what'll they do with Kara
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
It’s refreshing as a games reviewer to see the developer step back, take a long hard look at their product and acknowledge that their game isn’t perfect.
Click to expand...

Games journalism.

Last game was always shit in every conceivable way. New game is always better in every respect and the second coming and rapture and..
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Good interview, Cage feels a bit frustrated with Nutt at times. Maybe he was just tired of the interview circuit.

Cage doesn't really feel like he has any specific goal. Everything's so vague. And somehow by reaching this uncanny valley goal all these mysterious possibilities will open up. Maybe that's what it takes to be ground breaking. But the way he talks about technology feels like he's just pursuing this really specific challenge and not sure what he is going to get out of it at the end.

It's more about crafting something, and building something all together for two or three years with a team. That's really what we do. And if something of what we create today, people still talk about it 50 years from now, then we'll say, "Okay, it was art." But that's really not something I have in mind every morning. Honestly, I don't care.
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This seems to kind of confirm it. It's quite distinct from other developers who set out to create an 'art' game.
 
N

Nessus

Member
I understand they are a French developer, but they have to realize if you want your game to be taken seriously, as an art form, as mainstream entertainment on par with movies, made for adults in North America, then you need to hire a native English speaker who is actually a professional writer to go over your entire script. And then, you need to shell out the money to hire decent voice actors.

Same goes for Alan Wake. Game had amazing atmosphere, a great concept, and I don't regret spending money on it, but I just can't take it seriously when they expect me to believe this guy is a writer on the level of Stephen King and instead it comes out sounding like a jr. high school student's C grade writing assignment.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
BlazingDarkness said:
To be fair, the gameplay of Heavy Rain is drastically different to Farenheit, the latter being pure QTE simon says sequences, Heavy Rain's gameplay was nothing like it.
Also, the story didn't go to absolute shit at the end, despite an iffy plot hole.
Click to expand...

the action sequences were very like Fahrenheits in terms of being QTE sequences, they were just done better... but then i never actually had a problem with the QTE bits in Fahrenheit. beat most of them first time and seemed to be the only person who felt like they were able to pay attention to the required inputs AND follow what was happening behind them.

Fahrenheit's story went to absolute shit halfway through, and Heavy Rain's story has issues even if we overlook the massive plothole, which I don't think you can really downplay.

Sure, it's not as bad as the shit Fahrenheit pulled with its story, but then only a very small list of games have stories that bad. 'The story issues aren't as bad as Fahrenheits' is a pretty meaningless statement.
 
O

Omikaru

Member
I thought Heavy Rain was great, except for the writing. For a story-driven game, it had embarrassingly poor writing. Maybe they should focus on better writing first of all.
 
7

7threst

Member
Nessus said:
I understand they are a French developer, but they have to realize if you want your game to be taken seriously, as an art form, as mainstream entertainment on par with movies, made for adults in North America, then you need to hire a native English speaker who is actually a professional writer to go over your entire script. And then, you need to shell out the money to hire decent voice actors.

Same goes for Alan Wake. Game had amazing atmosphere, a great concept, and I don't regret spending money on it, but I just can't take it seriously when they expect me to believe this guy is a writer on the level of Stephen King and instead it comes out sounding like a jr. high school student's C grade writing assignment.
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Heavy Rain was "made for adults in North America"?

....
 
C

coopolon

Member
Interesting that he didn't specify story because that was far and away the game's biggest flaw. And it was all his doing.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
Nessus said:
Same goes for Alan Wake. Game had amazing atmosphere, a great concept, and I don't regret spending money on it, but I just can't take it seriously when they expect me to believe this guy is a writer on the level of Stephen King and instead it comes out sounding like a jr. high school student's C grade writing assignment.
Click to expand...
I can fix your issues with Alan Wake. Alan isn't on King's level even if he aspires to be. He's on Koontz's level. See! Magic. If you don't believe that someone with Alan's writing abilities could have the level of success he's painted as having in the game, you should read some books from the best selling authors of today.

Brown, Meyers... It clearly isn't just about your ability to spin great prose, but your ability to tell a story that people connect with. It doesn't even need to be some amazing ground breaking story to acheive mass market success.
 
M

Meier

Member
What this amounts to:

"We have a new game coming out and a lot of people shit on our last one.. ooh, ooh, let's shit on it too!"

(I'm a Heavy Rain lover and consider it the PS3's best game more or less)
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Fahrenheit is probably the worst game I have ever played.

Heavy Rain did little to improve their reputation. At its best, it was mediocre, forgettable. At its worst, it was embarrassing for all involved.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
This guy is learning from Molyneux well.

Though he's not wrong. The controls could have been less stupid, no R2 to walk or whatever it was. The writing could have been a LOT less abysmal and game ruining, and he can hire americans to do american accents next time.
 
T

tmarques

Member
Haunted said:
Employing the ol' "throw your old project under the bus" strategy to hype the new one which does everything better.

I see your game, Cage.
Click to expand...

Surprised it took 30 posts for someone to point this out. Funny how no one seems to be "unhappy" with their work right before release.
 
G

.GqueB.

Banned
This is one of those cases where I feel the developer should keep their mouths shut.

"Yea guys you know that game you paid $60 for a couple years ago that we said was amazing? Yea we weren't happy with that at all and released a product we thought was inferior to what it could've been."
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Heavy Rain is a fun game to play with friends. To do things like throw dishes if you can, or do pretend like your character is having a crisis trying to open a door - it's stupid fun with friends.

I enjoyed it well enough up to the shitty, shitty, SHITTY reveal. Soured the entire game knowing it was written in dogshit runes.
 
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