팟캐스트 2: 이어지는 스토리

ELIZABETH: Welcome to the second episode of our podcast series for The Darkness II. I'm Elizabeth Tobey, and today I return to Digital Extremes to talk with three leads on the project and explore both the world of The Darkness and The Darkness II as video games and how they tie in to the comic series.

TOM: Hi, I'm Tom Galt, I'm the Lead Designer.

DUSTIN: I'm Dustin Crenna, Lead Sound Designer.

DARRYL: I'm Darryl Baldock, the Lead Programmer.

ELIZABETH: The Darkness was originally a comic book. Can you talk about this world and this game fits in with that world?

TOM: Yeah, that's a good question. Kind of the direction we've been taking was to capture the theme and the style of the comic book; sort of the feelings you get and the emotions you have when you're in the comic book and bring that into the video game. We want the player to have that connection, if they're fans of the comic book, playing this game should make them feel like they're playing one of the monthly installments of the comic book, you know, or one of the graphic novels. So of course it's our graphic noir style that does that quite a lot. With the outlines of the characters and the hand painted textures and the broad color palette all serve to make it feel like you're sort of playing what you see on those pages, which is actually a really cool experience. Of course, a lot of the characters from the comic books come back; we're trying to keep that continuity. We have a unique story, of course, with Paul Jenkins writing it. He wrote the comic books and the first game. It's an all new story with a continuation from the first game; where it's 2 years after the death of Jenny and Jackie is now the Don of the Estacado family. Then we take it from there and sort of explore what's happened to Jackie in those 2 years and of course there's some interesting events that happen here that drive the story forward. It's all unique, it's all new; but it definitely does have the feelings of a comic book.

DUSTIN: It sounds like a comic book too.

TOM: It does sound like a comic book.

DUSTIN: But that's just the thing. How do you make it sound like a comic book? You just have to take that art style and try to match it with the sound, which is really cool. You have to just create it. We're following the first game, but trying to amp up everything: the gore is more intense and the violence is more intense so the sound has to match that. Music, sound… you create your own palette from the visuals.

DARRYL: They play off each other.

TOM: Don't forget about the guns too because the guns are definitely intense sound and we got a lot of feedback from that from the guys at PAX. People said they loved the sound of the guns.

ELIZABETH: So you talk about how this is 2 years after the first story. How do you guys continue the story? Because there is a lot that's similar to the first game and to the comic books; but there is a lot that's different. Can you talk about what's similar and what's different and how you bridge that gap and add that to your story while moving forward with what's going on with the present of the game?

TOM: Yeah, well there's a couple of things that we're doing there. I think one of them is the level of violence that we have and the style of our gore. Like Dustin was saying, it really fits with the comic book vibe, the graphic novel, graphic noir vibe that we have. And that is really coming from the inspiration from the comic books. It's really amped up from the first game. I mean the first game you could poke a guy with your demon arm and carry him around, but it wasn't ever very bloody or gory. Now we're ripping these guys apart and we're tearing their heads off, we're eviscerating them, we're doing lots of cool stuff.

And a lot of inspiration comes from reading the comic books and seeing the crazy shit that Jackie does to people who piss him off. So there's that part there where we're taking the level of violence and what The Darkness means in the comic books and bringing that into the video game, I think to a much truer extent than the first game did and on top of that I would say we're embracing the supernatural a lot more in this game than the first game. The first game was a great origin story. It focused more on the juxtaposition of Jackie and his supernatural powers with this realistic world. We still have that to some extent, but we're bringing more supernatural powers into it with the main villain and his cohorts, and the things that they can do, and their knowledge of The Darkness with the siphon and that kind of the stuff. It's less of Jackie in the real world and more of Darkness in the real world. But The Darkness isn't just Jackie, it's this entity that has spread out through the ages and some people have learned how to use its power.

ELIZABETH: Why a new game now and why this story? I know that you guys were talked a little bit about amping everything up, but out of all the different possibilities and all the different books and inspirations you could have gone from, why did you go down this road?

DARRYL: Well you know the answers for most of these things here. That's the problem. I'm in programmer land here, right? I do know some of the back story here, but….

TOM: What was the decision for the blood shader?

DUSTIN: I don't have anything…why we went down this road. I had a comment from the previous question about telling the story and continuing the story on from the first game and 2 years later. More from an audio standpoint and we're trying to tell the story with music and sound as well. We're doing something a little different from the first game, whereas the first game the soundtrack was more in your face, like metal guitars. We're keeping some of those elements, but without revealing the story and what happens, the music plays a part in following what happens to Jackie, what happens in the arc of the story and the music will change depending on what's happening overall.

It starts off like big orchestral type stuff and then it starts to change and lose its epic-ness. Well, not its epic-ness, but its orchestral feel by adding layers of different kinds of percussion, different types of synths, but it really matches what's happening in the story. You'd have to know the story to figure it out.

TOM: Yeah, we take Jackie and the player on an emotional roller coaster where's there's a lot of different competing emotions that happen and states that happen throughout the game, which is well-reflected in the music.

DUSTIN: Totally. The music is layered in such a way that it reflects that.

TOM: Yeah and on why this? You're asking why are we working on this, why are we taking it this direction?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, and why this story? I mean, really there are infinite possibilities for what you want to do as long as you don't turn it into a pink unicorn or something.

TOM: Right, well we did have a pretty pink pony in there for a bit….no, no I'm just kidding. It all actually came off of our discussions about the original game. Like I've said before, we really loved the story and Jackie's emotional journey. It was a love/revenge story really. It wasn't a mob hitman story. It was about Jackie and his love for Jenny and his desire or his thirst, rather, for revenge, and that struck a chord with us and we wanted to explore that further. So, that was really what drove a lot of the early decisions; it was, at the end of the first game, you really got the feeling that Jackie would rather die than do without Jenny at this point, you know, he didn't want to let her go. I think if he had the option then, he would have done whatever he could have, but of course he couldn't kill himself. So he already knew that wasn't an option to be with Jenny, and so we really explore that in this game: about what has Jackie become and how has he handled this and what is he willing to do if there's ever any notion to being with Jenny—whether it's killing himself or anything else. That gave us the emotional roller coaster we were looking for and allowed us to explore his character a lot more than a simple story of hunting down the supervillain would have been. And of course we have some of that; we have a really cool antagonist, but that's not necessarily the focus of Jackie that sort of plays as a means to an end for both characters, actually. That was really it; we wanted to tell a character-driven story and we felt like what we had was probably the best way to do it.

DARRYL: Yeah, I think this has been a good direction. If you remember the end of the first game, Jackie eliminates all his enemies; he was in control of The Darkness, so where do you go from there? I think the arc of this story works well where you start off and you're Jackie and you continue with the Jackie of that game, how do you go from there? How do you break him down, how do you cause chaos in his world after he has been able to control everything? So I think the way we're doing it now works well.

TOM: Yeah and to your point there as well, we didn't want to just start there directly because at the end of the first game, Jackie was extremely powerful. We didn't want the player to start with all these crazy powers. We needed to find a fictional way to strip him back down, so that the player could have a progression throughout the game and that was what this was: it's a denial at the beginning of the game of “I refuse you,” but through a sequence of events, he's forced to use The Darkness again. He's forced again to build it up and get that progression that we want. So that has worked out pretty well for us.

ELIZABETH: I know we've talked a little bit about the sound and how it plays into the story and I know that later we're going to talk about the visual design, because the art style is very specific and new to this game. But in terms of progression of levels and obviously this is going to have to stay vague because we don't want to reveal anything, how did you guys really go from building that up making it a world that's known in continuation but also something new and approachable for both people who haven't played The Darkness and those who have? For comic book fans and people who thought it just looked really cool when they walked into the store?

DUSTIN: So how did we create like the soundscape for it?

ELIZABETH: And the design and the levels really just how are you making it a game that people can enter into?

DUSTIN: Well sequels always have to be bigger. That's just the rule, so everything about this is huge. As Darryl commented on the guns, the guns are bigger; the music is on par. It starts out epic and gets really crazy but we're also taking that…it's in New York and you have your real world sounds. But then there's also the element of the supernatural and you have to try to find a way to blend both. Because people are familiar with what they hear on a daily basis, so if you can nail that part of the game then it feels realistic; it feels lifelike, and it's something that they can relate to. But we're also making a horror game here too so you have to figure out what scares people and you have to mix those two together. It's psychological, but at the same time it has to match the art style, because if you stand out too much with your sound and everything else, then it doesn't flow right. So we also really had to look at the art style of the game, figure out how the levels progress and match that. It's just a balance of the supernatural, real world stuff and just mixing it so that it matches the comic book style.

TOM: Yeah, it's tricky getting all these supernatural, insane powers and abilities and making it sound like something recognizable.

DUSTIN: Yeah, it's weird because it's something you've never heard before, yet it can't stand out as being too different or else it just really detracts from everything: what you're seeing, how you're playing it.

TOM: Yeah, how does a demon arm flying through the air sound?

DUSTIN: Yeah, exactly.

DARRYL: I don't know but when you hear something, people go, “Well that doesn't sound right.” But how do you know? Really?

DUSTIN: Right. Like if it's too animalistic, it doesn't feel right. But if it's too synthetic that doesn't feel right either, so it's a combination of more real-world, realistic animal sounds, but also at the same time you have to have the fake, non-realistic sounds in there. It's just a balancing game all the time but it works well. I think it works well now.

ELIZABETH: I think also in terms—and this may be more in your forte--I think in terms of the visuals, like the demon arms; the art style and ripping guys in half; how do you make that supernatural, comic-y and believable? How do you make a world where it makes sense?

DARRYL: Well with our animation stuff, we definitely spent a lot of time going back to the drawing board with how we do our animations, making them a lot easier for especially animators to create and manipulate within the Evolution engine. We definitely want to go more—not necessarily over the top, but it is based on a comic book. You don't want to necessarily go super realistic because we are doing some crazy stuff: You're ripping people in half with demon arms so it needs to be visceral, it needs to be in people's faces and it needs to be shocking as well. We felt we had that response from people playing the game so far and that's what we're looking for for sure is that. You go there and you use demon arms and you're having a great time and you want to experience that combat—face-to-face combat because of the reward of…I don't want to say because of the blood and guts and gore porn element of it, but it definitely is rewarding when you're slashing guys around and you're seeing body parts flying, as well as the versatility of the demon arms—the grab demon arm in particular, when you can interact with objects in the environment as well as enemies. You can throw them around, experiment with different types of objects, like parking meters vs. newspaper bins and that kind of stuff and what types of effects those have on enemies as well.

TOM: Yeah, our art style has really helped us create a unified style, I think. If you try to cut a guy in half and you try to be ultra-realistic it's not going to work. You know, you can barely even do that in movies, but when you do it you have intestines spilling out, you have blood pooling, you have bones sticking out. And that would be possible maybe, but extremely hard and expensive for us to do. Whereas when we go with this stylized, graphic noir look, we can have gory visuals, without being ultra-realistic about it and it fits into the environment; that sort of graphic novel feel that we have. So it was a huge win for us and that was one of the things that made it recognizable for players; especially with the demon arms. They fit into this world a lot more, they don't stand out. Going back to the original question, I think that's probably one of the most recognizable elements between The Darkness and The Darkness II is these two demon heads. I mean you look at any screen shot of The Darkness and know what it was and that we've carried over. So players will recognize that immediately as a screen shot. Like if they know what The Darkness was and they see a screen shot of the first person perspective in Darkness II; bam, they know what that is. It's immediately obvious.

So that's one of the things we carried over and as Darryl was getting at with the Grab and the Slash, we've actually made those core mechanics of the game now. So they're there not only there to look pretty and make you feel like a badass, but they actually have gameplay potential. And the Darkling would be another big thing that…they're huge in the comic books too; they do almost anything. I saw somewhere they're flying airplanes, you know? Like go figure! Ours don't do that, but they're definitely an iconic feature of the franchise as a whole. So bringing those back was huge for us and there are other returning characters for us: Jimmy the Grape was in the first game and he returns. Of course there's Jenny. Jenny has a role to play as she did in the first game and the comic books too. So there are those touchstones in terms of characters and mechanics that we've carried over.

Of course The Darkness is a character too. He's a character in the comic books; he was a character in the first game. Mike Patton lent his voice talents to the first game and he's coming back for this game, so we're all super excited about that and are trying to devise ways to go down and meet him but…That has a lot of fans really excited. I've done some interviews and the first question they ask is, “So is Mike Patton coming back?” Hell yeah, he's coming back. So there's some vocal talent returning, there's the elements of the comic book and in the first game that are iconic and we make sure we carry over; and it's the style and the themes that we're sticking to as well.

ELIZABETH: So for the last question, I think I'm going to loop back to the beginning questions, but in a personal way. In terms of story, what is The Darkness II to each of you guys or alternatively if you want to answer this one: what do you want a gamer to get out of it, personally?

DUSTIN: Oh, I get to start. I guess it's... Jackie is someone who has a darker side, who has his own demons and I think that everybody can relate to that. Everybody has their own darker side. Everybody has lost something or someone. I think that the story touches people, no matter what style or lifestyle you have, what's happened to you. I remember when we first started this game really being attached to this story because I could really relate to it a lot. And I think that just despite the supernatural elements, the monsters—I guess if you want to call them that—that are in this game; it's still a very realistic, lifelike story that just touches on everyday life that everybody has gone through.

TOM: Yeah, I mean the first story in The Darkness 1 was about revenge. This story, it's almost about –I'm blanking on the word I want—retribution but proving yourself again. What's the word? I'm trying to think of that word.

DARRYL: It's almost about trying to overcome personal internal turmoil or something like that; conquering your past demons.

TOM: Yeah. Damn, what's that word?

DARRYL: The game is all really the coping strategy for Jackie.

DUSTIN: Support group.

DARRYL: Support group, right.

TOM: When the first game was about revenge, Darkness II is about personal…ah, damn! You can go ahead while I think what my word was.

DARRYL: Well personally, from my standpoint what I want people to get out of the game is just the fact that it's not your typical run-and-gun first person shooter. Well, we do have that in there, but we've got so many new elements that are being incorporated with it; like the Quad-wield. I'm not sure where that term came from but it definitely does accurately describe what's going on. We do have 4 weapons that are available simultaneously so it's not like you're going to be sitting in cover shooting guys—you're going to be up close and personal. Not only that, but yeah, we do have a very rich narrative to go along with it so you're definitely going to be identifying with characters and you're going to want to continue to progress the story. You're not going to want to put it down, you'll want to see what‘s going to happen next. There's definitely a lot of curve balls in the game as you play through it so you're gonna be like, “OK what the fuck just happened there?” I can't just pause and [be like] “okay I got to the next checkpoint. Let's go play another game now.” So between the totally revised combat and just the atmosphere and interactions with the environmental objects and stuff, it's going to be a game that no one's really experienced before. So it's exciting to work on something like that.

TOM: I totally agree with what Darryl is saying about the gameplay side of things. Players are going to come away from this like “Wow, that was fast-paced and a really intense story.” But you know there's two sides to it: it's a really fast-paced, violent game but at the same time it's a very touching, emotional story. And it's interesting working with that dichotomy, where at one point we want the player to be very emotional, but at the other point, we want them to just go in there and rip shit up and be violent. You know the first game was revenge, and all about revenge, and this game is about conquering those fears and conquering those demons, figuratively and physically.

ELIZABETH: This concludes our second episode for The Darkness II podcast series. We'll be back next time to explore more of The Darkness and what role it plays in the upcoming game. Thanks for listening.