David Cage: Adults Need Games too
Heavy Rain producer thinks adults need gaming too
We’re really excited about Heavy Rain. Quantic Dream’s forthcoming PS3 exclusive looks like it’s going to turn any number of gaming conventions on their heads, from doing away with the ‘game over’ screen to never, ever having to repeat a section.
Producer David Cage obviously wants everyone to feel as excited as he does about the game, and in a wide-ranging interview with NowGamer he details his hopes that Heavy Rain will be the torchbearer for a new breed of adult games.
He explains: “The market is diverse and we need to make products for all of these different kinds of people. There are some people – a lot of teenagers – who just want adrenaline and fun. At the same time we believe – though it’s not demonstrated yet – that there is a market for adult and for more major products based on storytelling, emotion and other things.
“It makes a lot of sense for the publishers to fund [FPS] because that is what the market wants, but is it what it wants, or is it because there is nothing else? It’s chicken and egg. Do people buy shooters and so on because this is the only type of experience on the market? If we offer them something new will they buy it? Do we give people what they expect, or do we give them something they don’t expect? And that’s a gamble.”
It’s a great interview, raising as many questions as it answers. And while there’ll always be a place for in my heart for simple shooters, I can’t help but agree with most of what he says. Technology may have moved on, but apart from a few rare instances – Shenmue, Metal Gear Solid – we’re still essentially playing Contra.
I desperately want Cage to be right, and would like to see someone bring games up to speed with mature content that matches what you’d expect from an 18-rated film, not merely schoolyard titillation or over-the-top violence. The main problem developers have is that they’re seemingly incapable of marrying a good writer with a decent game, as Graham Linehan pointed out on Gameswipe – “people have stopped reading books and just look to Hollywood or movies for inspiration”.
That’s certainly something you see in most blockbuster games, even a series as close to my heart as the mighty GTA.
Going on Quantic Dreams’ previous output, Fahrenheit had potential before it turned into a mess of punishing quick time events and bonkers surreal moments of messy plot.
For games to truly progress and become proper “mature” games, you need mature teams with decent writers working on them and you need games that can move away from the stereotypical central characters that infest popular series.
Show me the game developer who can match up to Lynch, or Von Triers or for that matter even David Cronenberg, and I’ll start believing that games will one day truly mature.
Great article Gavin, loads of food for thought.