Denis chats with PGC at the Gamers' Summit about Eternal Darkness, Nintendo, the Wave Bird and more!
Rick Powers, Planet GameCube: So one of the things you said in the beginning when you were talking yesterday is that the game is mostly finished. The story’s complete, correct?
Denis Dyack, Silicon Knights: Yes.
PGC: So it’s basically just some bug testing and some other little things we have to fix up before the game is done then?
DD: Yeah. We have a small percentage of assets still to drop in, meaning some touch-ups on some cinematics and things like that, but mostly the game is 90% done and getting ready to go into full bug test.
PGC: You said that there’s gonna be 12 playable characters in the game?
DD: That’s correct.
PGC: One of the things you mentioned yesterday is that the Knights Templar character, Joseph DeMolay, isn’t in the game?
DD: No, he’s not.
PGC: Was he originally planned to be in the game, and was dropped, or was he something that was thrown in as a red-herring?
DD: Well, really when we were designing the game we did a lot of tests and we showed a lot of things at E3 that weren’t really intended ever to be there, we created a lot of levels that didn’t exist. Joseph’s character was one of the characters we wanted to test with “akimbo” (Ed. Dual-Wielded) weapon sets, or with the Florentine. But as we continued to develop the game and work on the game, his purpose was served at E3 and he’s now gone.
PGC: So you said that basically all you have left to do now is some gameplay tweaks and things along those lines, and some of the things EAD has been working with you on polishing up the gameplay.
DD: We have been working very closely with EAD.
PGC: Can you give us some examples of some of the things that have changed since you started talking with them?
DD: Well, just to be clear, We’ve been working closely with EAD for a very long time.
PGC: About how long?
DD: Over … almost two years, maybe three. It’s been a very good relationship. Really, for us, we’re really in the learning stages of trying to make sure we understand how Nintendo creates great gameplay. I think over the next few years, we’ll continue to grow and we’re looking forward to working with them in the future. Really, it’s a collaborative effort … so just at that level, we’ve been working together for a long time. This is not new, this is not recent. This has been going on for a long time.
Where have they helped? I think they’ve helped in almost every regard. We’ve all worked together to try to make the game the best it can be. We’ve started to and we’re going into the final stages of balancing, is this too hard, is this too easy? Simple, fundamental mechanics that help the gameplay feel more intuitive. It’s hopefully something when you played, it was more of … you didn’t understand why, but you felt a flow, a natural flow to the game.
PGC: Yeah, that’s definitely coming through.
DD: Oh, thanks, thanks. That’s, in some regard, where EAD and Nintendo in general have contributed immensely. There are so many areas. For me to give you sort of an exact (list of) what they’ve helped, it would be too much. I can make broad, sweeping generalizations everywhere. Storyline, graphics, everything. You name it, they’ve helped us.
PGC: One of the things I notice is that the third character's level, the Ellia character, there is an item that actually helps heal you as you’re going through there. It seems like that the entire area would be very, very difficult if you didn’t have that healing ability. Is that one of the things that was added in to make that level a little bit easier?
DD: Well certainly, there are things like that. We wanted to make sure that the average person, not (just) the hardcore gamer, is going to be able to enjoy Eternal Darkness. One of the things you may or may not have noticed with Anthony as you play … I don’t want to give the plot point away, but his level is extremely easy. It’s just a matter of understanding what’s actually happening there. Basically, adding those kinds of things is there to balance, to make sure it’s fun for the player. We’re really not interested in making the game difficult to make it seem longer. We’re very confident that the game is of a scope large enough that players will be satisfied. Really what we want to do is make sure that within the first five or six hours of the game, without question, people are just really enjoying it, having fun, not getting frustrated. That’s the goal. Hopefully the puzzles are very intuitive; they make sense to the player. And that’s one of the reasons that amulet is in there. A lot of players don’t need it, a lot of the good players, but some of them do.
PGC: Obviously, you guys have been working on Eternal Darkness for many, many years. I know the first time I saw it was at E3 ’99, when it was still an N64 title. Obviously, you’ve put a great deal of your life into this game. Seeing it now, seeing it pretty much in completed form, and seeing the way people here are reacting to it … are you satisfied? Is there anything else you’d like to change if you had the time?
DD: I think when you make videogames, there’s always more that you could do. And certainly I think we would love to continue to add more, and add to the game. But at the end of the day, I think it’s going to be a very different experience. For me, seeing how people reacted this weekend, it seemed very positive. I’m eagerly waiting to see some of the press reports and stuff, to see if it continues in that trend.
We’re not finished yet, so this for me is like a mini-vacation … I’ve got to go back into “crunch mode” and we’ve gotta finish the game. Right now, our job is not to disappoint the game players, and we’re working really hard to make sure that when a player comes up and picks up Eternal Darkness, that they’re completely satisfied. And that’s really the general Nintendo philosophy. I think one of the things that really separate Nintendo from the rest of the other first parties, is that Nintendo cares about making great games that the players will enjoy. We work for the consumer, and that’s the bottom line.
It’s good seeing it close to done. Believe me, it’s nice to see. But we’ve got more work to do, so it’s no time to celebrate yet.
