[samIamsad]

Thank you for the nice interview! I didn't know that de Foundamiere was with ugh, Arxel Tribe. So he actually worked on the awful Hitchcock and Casanova games? Interesting, indeed.

[Hammerite]

Why dont you do a developer chat?

[Ninja Dodo]

Nice interview, but how come nobody asked whether the cutscenes are skippable? When are designers going to realize that putting players through the horror of watching the same cutscene over and over again is ...

[AFGNCAAP]

The interview was conducted during the E3, long before we all have played the demo. Also, Jackal said in the other thread that making cutscenes unskippable was not completely moronic on developers' part, as many of them are actually interactive.

[simpson_yellow]

Thanks, Laura and Emily! That really was a top interview . Kudos to you both.

Sounds like the game had a really positive development process.
Think I'd better start warming up the gamepad

[fov]

Glad everyone enjoyed it. As has been mentioned, this was the end of a looong first day at E3, and long before we knew to ask about skippable cutscenes. We conducted the interview inside this swanky private room where Atari was holding a party. I tried to take pictures but the camera was set for nighttime and so no flash, and they came out all fuzzy. (This actually continued for the entirety of E3, because I'm an idiot. )

Incidentally, Christina and Berian (AGA) were there representing AG as well, but apparently Laura and I were the loudmouths.

The most interesting part for me was hearing how much they enjoyed working with Atari. It sounded like Atari stepped back where it mattered and really let them do what they wanted to do. After having their first publisher deal fall through, that was probably really encouraging.

[Ninja Dodo]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

The interview was conducted during the E3, long before we all have played the demo. Also, Jackal said in the other thread that making cutscenes unskippable was not completely moronic on developers' part, as many of them are actually interactive.

Yeah, but that argument only holds up for a couple of scenes, like when the cop goes to the bathroom. There is no excuse for having to watch the full intro every time you start up the game just to name an example.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Yeah, but that argument only holds up for a couple of scenes, like when the cop goes to the bathroom. There is no excuse for having to watch the full intro every time you start up the game just to name an example.

Yeah, I know. I think I might have even complained about it elsewhere.

And, as I forgot to say it before, great interview, guys. Quantic Dream fellows strike me as the developers who genuinely have a vision.

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Yeah, but that argument only holds up for a couple of scenes, like when the cop goes to the bathroom. There is no excuse for having to watch the full intro every time you start up the game just to name an example.

Well, that's really not an "example" of anything else, as there's nothing nearly as lengthy or annoying anywhere else in the game.

I agree with you that not having skippable scenes is a nuisance. And I never said the decision wasn't moronic ( ); just that there was a reason behind it.

Anyway, if we're going to continue this topic, let's resume in the other thread.

[Orange Brat]

It's easy enough to get around...make the non-interactive cutscenes skippable. That's easy enough to implement via a check in code. It would take about 5 minutes to put in place.

[RLacey]

Doesn't it depend on how much background loading is being handled, though? Or how they've scripted the movements of characters given that the cutscenes are in-engine?

I always assumed that the reason for non-skippable custcenes were the logistical problems of instantly repositioning chracters and such.

[LauraMac]

We conducted the interview inside this swanky private room where Atari was holding a party.

Yep, looked like a "facade" type crowd inside sitting rather quietly at tables. But all they served at the bar was bottled water We did steal some pretzels outside in napkins. Don't sneer - was our food for the day. Good move on the covert food grab, fovily!

Incidentally, Christina and Berian (AGA) were there representing AG as well, but apparently Laura and I were the loudmouths.

I think "we couldn'tshutup were just enthusiastic" is a better description

The most interesting part for me was hearing how much they enjoyed working with Atari. It sounded like Atari stepped back where it mattered and really let them do what they wanted to do. After having their first publisher deal fall through, that was probably really encouraging.

That was a refreshing thing to hear, with so many publishers seeming to work against developers these days. I was impressed by all the detailed testing they did and prep for the game development as well. Don't know yet, how effectively that all comes together in the end - but, they certainly threw a ton of effort and planning into it.

and it was the highlight of the show to me. Great guys to talk with.

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Anyway, if we're going to continue this topic, let's resume in the other thread.

Ahem.

Orange Brat, RLacey

[fov]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Ahem.

I'm sorry, did you say something?



About the swanky room, it was a little lame that all they had at the bar was bottled water, but the bottles had Atari labels on them, which made it marginally better. Then I left mine behind, which made it marginally worse again.

[RLacey]

Eep.

Um, moving back to the topic...

Originally Posted by GF (in interview)

We have thirteen hours of full body and facial animation. It has never been done in a video game, a TV series or even a movie.

This surprises me. I'd (mis-)asumed that games like Enter the Matrix, which constantly boasted about their use of motion capture, would have a load of unique animation, and that lots of action games would manage this. Thinking about it, though, this is a fairly impressive feat - it's a good six-and-a-half films' worth, after all.

[Ninja Dodo]

It's mocap though, not animation.