Interviews

Airtight’s Jim Deal Sheds Some Light On Dark Void

July 03, 2008

Capcom, the publisher that’s best known for Bionic Commando, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry is serving up a new action game next year in Dark Void. It’s an original sci-fi action game from start-up developer Airtight Games, which includes most of the team that brought Crimson Skies to Xbox. (Former head of Microsoft Game Studios, Ed Fries, is a co-founder of Airtight.) Airtight’s president, Jim Deal, took some time to talk about the new PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC game, which hits stores in spring 2009. Read the full interview with Deal after the jump.

Das Gamer: Did the development team’s background in Crimson Skies influence the creative process for Dark Void?
Jim Deal: Dark Void came about as a natural evolution of some of the things we were talking about doing on Crimson Skies for Xbox, namely getting out of the plane. We had a demo of just that for Capcom early on in the process. We had a lot of game-play in that demo, (on foot, in-airjacking, motorcycles, and giant robots to name a few) but it still needed something. While we were there, Capcom mentioned how we had the opportunity to do more with 3D space than most games, since we had flying. We went back to the office and were discussing the matter with Airtight co-founder Ed Fries. Ed told us that the game was missing something, something to pull everything together. He didn’t know what it was but he knew it was missing. He also said that Capcom was giving us a unique opportunity to develop something new and we should take the time to do it right. All the senior staff at the meeting agreed with Ed. The whole while, over on the side, our lead designer, Jose Perez III was turning white. It was easy for most of us to shake our heads, but he had to make it work.

How did you figure out what was missing from the game?
Jim Deal: A few days later Jose came into work early, (which is unusual) and he was all excited. Apparently he had stayed up all night working out the details on something new, called vertical cover. As soon as he described it to us, we got it and why it was cool. That was it. In ways, the rest of the game followed. For example, we invented the Void as a world to support the game we were now making. Other games were set in a horizontal world, we reinvented the world to support the vertical and in air experience. We had to re-write the story and reinvent the enemies. In essence, this one feature changed the whole intellectual property. It was great that the team at Capcom saw the vision early and helped us to embrace it.

What’s the story for Dark Void and who’s the protagonist?
Jim Deal: The game is about a cargo pilot named Will, who is just scraping a living together when he takes a delivery run through the Bermuda Triangle. A violent storm causes him to crash land in a strange inter-dimensional world called The Void. His initial motive is to escape the Void and get back to earth when he gets caught up in a huge conflict between an ancient enemy of mankind called the Watchers, and the local resistance fighters, the Survivors.

Can you talk about this Void as a setting?
Jim Deal: This game is set in the Void, which is fictionally set in the universe as we know it, but in a parallel dimension. This dimension is entered, mostly by accident through the Bermuda and Dragon’s triangles as well as a few other legendary spots on earth (Mel’s Hole in Eastern Washington, which is suspiciously close to the childhood home of our lead designer, Jose Perez). These spots are reputed to be wormholes into other dimensions. This game takes place in an inter-dimensional rift we call The Void. The Void, as it stands, just happens to be the perfect place to do things, like vertical Combat.

Can you talk about how the game transitions from on-foot battles to in-air jet packs and flying saucers?
The story throughout the game takes Will and puts him into circumstances that are unfathomable in everyday life. He starts out on foot, gets a hover pack that allows him to jump up and battle on vertical surfaces, then gets a rocket pack that allows him to fly in the right areas and also jack enemy aircraft and fight giant bosses. So as the game progresses you get to play with more and more powerful tools against larger enemies and do it all transitioning from on foot to vertical climbs to rocket packs to enemy UFOs. So in the end the answer is that the transitions are up to the player, and in much of the game they choose how and when to use each tool.

What types of enemies will players encounter?
The enemies are varied and numerous. Since we are a year out, I don’t want to give away too much yet. Suffice it to say that the enemies will increase in difficulty as the story progresses and the character gains experience and weapons. Picture lots of explosive action in vehicles and on the backs of giant bosses, all the while dangling over unimaginable precipices.

Capcom has yet to announce a launch date for Dark Void, stay tuned for more coverage on the game from E3.

–John Gaudiosi