Heavy Rain Interview with David Cage (Page Two)

5. Now that Heavy Rain has been completed and is well received, do you think that other developers will experiment with games of this type? Do you think that it's important for developers to experiment with games of this type?

DC: Heavy Rain has been incredibly well received, not only by critics and players, but also by major designers in the industry, which was something that was very encouraging. I think the game showed it was possible to create interactive experiences not based on mechanics, patterns and violence. Many designers start to get tired of designing the same games for the same audience, many have the desire and the talent to do something different. I hope that Heavy Rain will open doors to them.

I hope that more creators will explore new directions in the near future, whether they are close to interactive drama or very different. Our industry needs talent and innovation, rather than more shooters and technical demos.

6. The number of variations in endings for different players and the number of differences in the particular details of those endings is quite surprising. How did you keep track of all of the possibilities as Quantic Dream built the paths to the various endings?

DC: All the game design of Heavy Rain was written like a movie script, except it included alternate story paths, variables, potential consequences of players’ actions and alternate stories. Basically, it was like writing a movie script where you don’t know what the main actor is going to do in a given situation, and thus have to anticipate all possibilities and their consequences on the script…

I used a software program to manage charts and diagrams, which helped to keep track of all consequences and make sure all possible storylines and variations remained consistent. That was certainly one of the most challenging aspects of the project, especially because the game was not conceived like a tree structure with branches, but rather like an “analog” structure with a wide range of variations having a wide range of consequences.

7. Ethan and Madison's love scene feels like a natural story progression moment. When you were working on Heavy Rain, how did you handle the build to this moment to make it feel so natural? Did you always envision the potential for a deeper connection between Ethan and Madison?

DC: In one of the first versions of the game design, I wanted all characters to have the possibility to meet all others, and I wanted Madison to have the possibility to fall in love with any of the three male characters. No matter how hard I tried, it quickly proved to be impossible. Writing one believable love story is already a massive challenge, so writing three was very difficult to imagine without completely breaking the character’s consistency. But from this first draft, I kept the love scene between Ethan and Madison as that seemed to me to be the most interesting one.

At the beginning, Madison is only interested in creating a relationship with Ethan to get a good story to write, but she slowly starts to fall in love with him, understanding how much he cares for his son, how sincere and courageous he is. On his side, he is not interested in Madison, but at some point, he is completely despaired, lost, alone, enduring incredibly difficult things so he may (or may not) fall into Madison’s arms. Some players thought that Ethan would not do it because he is only focused on saving his son. I disagree, I think he reached a point where he needs someone to hold in his arms in order to continue. Madison was the only person to be here for him since everything started, helping him and accepting him as he is. I believe he could have a moment of weakness, a moment where he desperately needs a rest. The good thing about interactive drama is that players who believe Ethan would not fall in love with Madison can play that way and see the version of the story they want.

My main focus on Heavy Rain was to build relationships between characters: Ethan and Madison, Ethan and Shaun, Jayden and Blake, Shelby and Lauren. All these relationships were quite complex but they were incredibly important for the storyline. I really tried to build them, make them evolve and progress to create emotional stakes, so that when characters fall in love it doesn’t come from nowhere, or where we build the feelings of a character for another (the love of Ethan for his son for example, or the love affair between Shelby and Lauren, that was something very long and complex to put in place –actually, it took the full game…- to make sure it does not feel ridiculous or out of place when it happens). I must say that this aspect of the writing was by far the most interesting part for me.

Page: 1 2 3