Interviews | Legendary
Das Interview: Legendary’s John Garcia-Shelton
November 04, 2008
Once upon a time, blasting the pixelated viscera out of Hell’s legions was a simple task: See demon, aim chain gun between the horns; spot Jack Thompson, go hand-to-hand (why not enjoy it a little?). Nowadays, thanks to what scientists refer to as an “assload of shovelware” and big-budget sequels, picking the right finger-blisterer is slightly less straightforward. Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, Crysis: Warhead, and Fallout 3 represent a murderer’s row of FPS titles this holiday. But Spark Unlimited producer and creator of Legendary, John Garcia-Shelton thinks his title will stand out in the crowded and bullet-riddled field.
Legendary, is a first-person shooter that crosses modern warfare with mythology, letting you–as art thief Charles Deckard–trade slugs with werewolves, gryphons and minotaurs, amongst other fabled creepy-crawlies. The game aims to bridge the gap between dork factions, uniting war hawks, Painkiller junkies, id Software’s faithful and all three of you who still has their Clash of the Titans lunchbox under one pizza-stained banner. Give Spark Unlimited props. Not only is the developer daring to go against the grain in a time when most developers stick to rocking household name branding or humping casual gaming trends to cover their budgets and asses. Spark are also laying it all on the line by providing the flagship title for indie upstarts Gamecock Media, which (never a good sign) just sold out to new corporate overlords SouthPeak Interactive.
Will the game, which launches for PS3 and Xbox 360 today (the PC version ships November 18), go down in history as one of the most storied outings of all-time, as its oh-so-humble title might suggest. Or will it simply end up a cute little foosball for genre tyrant Epic Games’ multimillionaire playboy owners? Hell if we know, but Garcia-Shelton certainly seems psyched, so why not let homeboy have at it.
Das Gamer: Creatures from myth and legend, yadda yadda, one dude with mystic abilities and big-ass guns to save us all, so on so forth…anything we’re missing here in terms of the story?
John Garcia-Shelton: Not bad. You pretty much play as Charles Deckard, an international art thief paid to steal an antiquity, which you don’t know is Pandora’s Box. And by opening it, you release the creatures of myth and legend into this world. You’re hired by a professor who’s a high ranking member of the Black Order, an organization which believes that change should happen fast – damn the consequences. You hook up with The Council, a group who opposes them, and the battle begins.
That’s nice and all, but we’re living in a time when most games are based on real-world activities (i.e. My Toenail Clipping Coach) or senior-friendly topics or filling your living room with plastic instruments. Why go with a first-person shooter, let alone one that gets all high fantasy up in here?
John Garcia-Shelton: Escapist entertainment, especially in tough times like today, is always a great way to unwind. These types of games let people dive in and forget their problems, and enjoy a cool hook and story. We’ve always gotten sucked in to that, but have traditionally focused on World War II games. Eventually, the opportunity to explore something different here proved irresistible to us.
You didn’t prefer a fictionalized, corrupt universe where brutal overlords enslaved humble serfs in order destroy the very fabric of spiritualism and reality? I mean, surely, you could’ve gotten the Dow Jones or NASDAQ license on the cheap…
John Garcia-Shelton: (Laughs) Yeah, we should’ve considered simulating the stock market. Everyone thinks the drop now is bad. Wait until you see minotaurs running roughshod on Wall Street.
The game was originally named Legendary: The Box. What happened to that cute subtitle: Afraid of naughty double entendres?
John Garcia-Shelton: Well, I think it became pretty clear pretty much instantly that it sucked right after we came up with it. Just the sheer volume of fun that the public had with the name was probably worth it, but really the only reason we had it in there was that we all missed Pandora so much. We just wanted to keep some part of Pandora or Pandora’s Box in the title. But it also helped me accomplish a personal goal of not having “of” or “to” somewhere in the middle of a three-word title, like Medal of Honor or Call of Duty.
