This is an old interview. As old as 2011. That's 6 years from where we are in the brink of Detroit: Become Human. But good stuff is never old. One of the other notes is that only a day ago I have -finally- bought Heavy Rain on PSN for PS4 -as I never had a PS3- in the bundle with 'Beyond', I still haven't played it yet (I have to wait for the correct time of month so I don't ruin my metered connection) but it is soon. So here it is, the fans of Mr. Cage probably already read this, but for the others this is one of the best articles I have read coming from a creative person's mind.


"David Cage the brand, as you call it, is about not having to make sequels. It’s about creating a brand that is the name of the creator, not Heavy Rain 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12.

 Let me be stupid for one second; I’m not in this business to make money. I wrote Heavy Rain because I was excited about it, because there was something to say. Yeah I could make Heavy Rain 2, but I’ve said what I’ve had to say about it. That’s the strength of Quantic Dream, to have the capacity to create new ideas, to make something that breaks ground.
I don’t know what to say. I guess I don’t have a long-term strategy for my career. It’s certainly not to make as much money as possible though. I see myself as an author, really. I just trust my instinct. I think fans of what I do want me to do that too.
I’m an old game creator. I’m 42 this year. There are so many old game designers who have passion when they are young and they get a bit a bit older and the passion falls away. They get a family, and suddenly they think ‘okay I need to make as much money as I can for my family – this is what matters.’ I’ve not reached that stage yet.
I still think I’m doing something important. That may sound naïve in this industry, but I still think I’m here to be creative. I just have a company because I need that structure to develop my ideas."

Read the rest here: http://www.develop-online.net/interview/david-cage-from-the-brink/0117243



This is inspiring. So much so that in months I have finally posted an entry for my blog.

I'm playing Talos Principle for a week or so now. It was fun at first, then it got hard. Not that I complain. But some parts were way too far-fetched. Luckily I had YouTube. I didn't use it unless I had to tough! I solved them by myself as much as possible.
Anyway, TTP is a puzzle game. But the creators seems to be knowledged on storytelling. I do know this how? One of the particular sentences I have read (which I didn't really read much of the content of the game FYI) was criticizing 'a story as a decor' theme which they seem to abide to. Not that I have any complaints. I knew what I was getting into from the get go. So they were criticizing themselves, also they were hinting about the power of storytelling and their inclination to it. So I am fairly sure that the creators at least have some idea on how to story-tell and how to do it good.

Anyway, TTP actually surprised me on that department and it turned out even better than Portal 2, the game people can't stop talking about. Not to mention its easter egg reference to it. TTP doesn't really have much of a thing you can call visual storytelling, but it tells you some stuff through other means and this is coming from a Dark Souls hater. So I'm not really into "make your own story" stuff, as I find them phony, a joke. But TTP is different from that. I know I said it doesn't have much of a visual story-telling but, being just about in the middle of the game, I enjoyed what I saw when I completed the level "A". And it did give me some ideas and inspirations.

No, no, I'll just go ahead and say it: The Talos Principle inspired me to create one of the most original ideas I have created and I like to believe I have some original ideas. So, Talos Principle is that. It is a modern-ish and spiritual take on some fundamental stuff. Which is good. I am very curious to see how the game will end. I think the game can lead me to imagine one or two more unique stories. I am also looking forward to the see what TTP's developers have up their sleeves, they can do some cool stuff if they make their next game a more story-driven game.

Batman: Arkham Asylum. I have been skipping it till this day (not literally) because of extremely-left-aligned-camera tear my eyes out, now I am at 65% I feel safe to say this is one hell of a game. No-Not perfect, a lot of stuff could be improved BUT it is a great game which can still be played after 6 years of its release as if it was released just now. I have completed nearly 200 story modes in my life so I am not of "COD youth" (more like a die-hard Mass Effect and Fahrenheit fan) but not every game will age like that. Say, Saints Row 2 was also made in 2009 but its gameplay is on the verge of being unplayable. Batman: Arkham Asylum's gameplay is sure great. Story too.
What would I improve? More cutscenes, smoother boss fights, a bit of pacing adjustments. But it really is a great game. And I am looking forward to playing City (which I will do as soon as I complete this one, and will be very interested to see technological AND gameplay/storytelling advancements) and rest. One of the reasons contributed for me to delay this game so late was that I was simply annoyed by how they sticked to "Arkham" and kept and kept leaving Gotham out of the picture, but the game is so good and it is so interesting to see how will things develop that it almost makes you forget this. And I gotta hand it to them, they gave us a flashback/dream with Gotham AND Joker in it!
Right now I have most of the main upgrades done, 160+ riddles, I am truly enjoying the atmosphere, feeling of being Batman, not particular to fighting but to his character, his past, his thoughts, his humanity, his idea, actually when I stop and look closer for a second I can find similarities between him and myself. Well this may not be a shock if I told you I was grown with watching Burton's Batmans, but I don't think I quite felt like this before. I don't just think about Batman either, I think about the ideas and feelings that comes with a Batman story too, it is hard to tell I guess, this isn't exactly limited to being a hero and criminal, this is about the state of the plane that story takes place.
Music is good too, there are some Elfman bits here and there, and some new things, the constant announcements of Joker makes me feel similar to when I was in BioShock's Rapture. But I wish following games have more Elfman bits. I can't simply get over Batman Forever's Theme Music.
One of the annoying things about the game is the problem with PhysX drivers tough, I have a 560Ti Hawk which is absolutely capable of playing this game at 1080p60 at highest settings but with PhysX at High I get 3 fps at sections after 40-60 fps, switching PhysX to Medium sometimes fixes it, then playing with Medium a bit, switching back to High won't have the previous problem. I keep switching between these settings. I played most of the game at High, some Medium, when I had to turn it Off I barely played anything, I always found a way to play it with Medium or High. So long story short there is no solution to this and it seems to be random that sometimes you can play it the best way, sometimes not. PhysX .dlls in this game are so old that this kind of problems emerge. And Nvidia doesn't really help with the case. Oh well no biggie. I will surely complete the game with no harm done. But if anything like this happens with the 2nd game I'm gonna be pissed.
When this game first came out I had a HD4870, I was annoyed by the fact that I would not be able to play it with all the cool effects enabled, one of the reasons I bought my GTX was PhysX and I did not exactly benefited from that so far so much so this is a nice thing to happen. Actually I even forgot the fact that this game had PhysX feature underlined with it. I never imagined I'd play this game years after and still (actually more) enjoy it like the first day. Much like the feeling of time standing still in the game. Irony? Luck? Destiny? Whatever you call it, call it something storytelling-worthy, 'cause, you know, stories are better than reality.

This was taken from my Reddit post. It was written 21 days earlier than the official opening of this blog, so dated as so.

They're USUALLY "longer than they should be".

Meaning, most games are stretched. Just like TV shows. That doesn't mean Dragon Age can't be 100+ hours. But there has to be enough meaningful content to be that long. Otherwise it is all about collecting feathers, doing retarded copy-paste side-missions like saving the villager, or shooting people forever.

There needs to be screenplay, there needs to be game mechanics that capable of the length and there needs to be a meaningful world. Until now most open world games were absolutely boring. There are at most 2-3 games that are not GTA copies that didn't bore me and didn't made me do same thing over and over again. Last open world game I completed was Far Cry 4, while I loved it, it was collecting diamonds for 60% of the time. There are infinite amount of diamonds in that game. I normally quit falling for Ubi's BS a while ago but I made an exception for FC4. It felt good for a while, but then I felt my time was wasted. However I would never ever regret the 162 hours I spent on Dragon Age: Origins.

A game must be as long as needed. Not longer, not shorter. That means most 5 hour FPSs being 2-3 hours, 10-20 hour FPS/TPSs being 5-8 hours, 20-30 hour mixed games being 10-15 hours. But some games can still be 30 hours, 50 hours, 100 hours or more. But nothing must ever be a second longer or shorter than needed. But this will not happen for the forseeable future. Companies are too frightened to make shorter games, and most gamers think "longer is always better", which, most companies try to provide to, hence make poor games. When majority of games are more than killng thousands of people, running hundreds of miles, it will change.

Beyond: Two Souls. Despite the script's humongous length, the game is only 11 hours. That means you need to earn those hours you want to extend your games to. It is not a piece of cake. It requires skill.
(I haven't played Beyond yet, it is one of the fewest games I can't wait to play when it comes to PS4)