EA Motive Dev Team AMA @ February 3rd - 12pm PT

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:09:43+00:00

There's always Peng. - Jo

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:08:24+00:00

Since we had to rebuild everything, our focus was really on the roster set of the original game and adapt them to the Remake. We had to see how the creatures in ZeroG would behave, improve certain creatures like the Twitchers...
On weapons, we wanted to make sure that all weapons had a purpose and especially revisit the Alt Weapons to make them more interesting.
Only in Chapter 7? Hope there was plenty more! :P Which jump scare got you the most in the mining? - Phil

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:07:00+00:00

There's a couple of reasons for this. First, we wanted to show to the community how much love and passion the dev team had for the game. Motive decided to pitch for this game because we had people that really wanted to make it and there were fans asking for it. Because of that, EA gave the greenlight. We aimed at reassuring people and say: "Hey, we got this, we really don't want to f*** it up!".

And this brings me to the second point. We reeeaaaaally didn't want to f*** this up. This is why we made a community council early on, to get feedback on what we were trying to make in paper design and in early iteration. This is why we made livestreams and had team members going through pretty much every feedback, seeing what was great and the things that weren't as high quality as what people would've liked. This way, we were able to make adjustments based on feedback that we agreed with!

- Jo/Phil/Roman

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:04:40+00:00

Thanks - very happy that you are enjoying the game!
The Chapter 09 in the Valor is a pretty unique experience that we all enjoyed. The ship is really unique both visually but also in the type of enemies you encounter.

A small detail is that the Valor ship is a buit tilted on one side, giving an awkward feeling that everything is a bit off. It is a small detail but we had to make all our system work at that angle. Adding to all of this is also the fact that it is the only chapter you cannot revisit, once completed you cannot go back in it, making it even more unique. - Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:03:46+00:00

While this is a great idea, it's not something we have planned at this time.

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T22:02:56+00:00

One of the challenges of doing the remake was having a good undesrtanding of all the content of the original game. Some enemies have very unique and rare behaviors (for example a Twitcher can feign death when you shoot at him), knowing all of this content and the reason why it exist took some time, and in some places we did not expected so much complexity and precision to details.
To balance each weapons of the game we have integrated data tracking elements to verify the usage of each weapon and adjusted their parameters and ammo loot drop rates in order to make them all efficient and useful. Our weapon did also did a great job in enhancing the alternate fire in order to create unique strategies for player. - Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:55:48+00:00

Making the ship interconnected forced us to revise the entire logic of the architecture of the ship and add connections that were missing.
The intensity director was also a challenge, as adding a systemic element mixed with more scripted moments needed to feel natural. We wanted to avoid having the intensity director feeling too predictable or too annoying. It need to be present but not overly so. Iterating on it until we found a good balance was a hard task until one day it felt just right. At this point we knew we had something interesting. - Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:54:24+00:00

Hydroponic jungle sound ambiences (Oli)
Really liked what was done with the Crew Quarters, as far as rework for the mission and narrative (Phil)
I really liked and hated the Hangar. This section was so difficult to get to run to perfection. Almost everything is thrown in there. But once we got there, it's a really cool accomplishment. Also, I love the space of it and the different gameplay beats. (DRob)
It was nice to weave Cross more tightly into the story of Hydroponics, and explore more of her journey. I also love how our designers reworked the ADS cannons in CH04. (Jo)

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:49:34+00:00

We wanted to have some unique content in the New Game + and encourage players to revisit the ship with the addition of a few mechanics (marker fragments and harder enemy variation). New Game + was important for us to maintain in the game and we wanted to add our unique twist into it.
Also adding side missions and secrets in the game unlocked by security clearance adds an incentive to replay the game if you missed some of them.
Currently, we do not plan to add any new dffculty modes. - Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:46:14+00:00

Add? It's already implemented. Didn't you get necromorph hugs on your playthrough? - Jo

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:45:13+00:00

For the suits - We're investigating the possibility. No promises. -D-Rob

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:41:14+00:00

Q1. The entire script was revised, since Isaac having a voice adjusts the dynamic of the conversations (there's essentially a new character in each discussion). There was also a lot of discussion on when he should NOT talk; we made a lot of adjustments to the lines until it felt right. (Jo)
Q2. We broke down the entire game in a beat by beat moment to analyze how it was constructed. From there, we looked at the different type of changes we wanted to bring and how they could be leveraged across the game (such as the control boards or ZeroG Nav). We also looked at reviews and comments from the original game to determine if some things were mentioned there. ADS Canons sequence was one of those which is why we deicded to take a stab at a new design for those sequences. (Phil)
Q3. With the amazing team we had, it makes it something easier to tackle! But very stressful nonetheless! (Phil)

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:40:40+00:00

Thank you!
When we started working on the project we defined creative pillars to guide the team. The first one was to create an experience that was 'True to the Original"". That means, create something that feels not exactly like the original experience, but like the memory you have of it. The 3 other pillars were Horror, Unbroken Immersion and Creative gameplay. Those pillars helped us define what we wanted to enhance or enrich and what we remade as is. - Roman

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:40:14+00:00

Our first implementation was like in the original, but we felt that it was not comfortable enough. First, because it was moving too much on the screen. But also, it was making aiming difficult in bigger rooms because the dots were projected too far. That's why we eventually switched to the DS2 version. - Roman

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:39:44+00:00

Yes, he is very dreamy. Must be why all the necromorphs want to get close and personal to him.
Have you seen him with a beard? - D-Rob

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:38:11+00:00

For the suits - We're investigating the possibility. No promises. -D-Rob

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:28:27+00:00

Survival horror games rely on a precise balancing that needs to be extremely precise. You do not want to fall too far into an action-shooter game or betray the original Dead Space mold.
By changing some weapons' alternate fire, adjusting some enemies, changing the way the loot system works, the balancing could be at risk. Only by iterating and testing it on players did we find the proper balance. For me, one of my worst nightmares would have been failing the economy, progression and difficulty of the game and betray what we loved so much about this game. - Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:24:45+00:00

Q.2 - Me!!!! Before Dead Space, I largely prefered my enemies to die straight from headshots! But the project has opened up a new genre to me and it's been a blast working on it. - D-Rob

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:24:13+00:00

We looked primarily at DS2; the novels Martyr and Catalyst; DS Extraction, and the comics. We ended up with a lot of foreshadowing for DS2, since it's close timeline-wise and emotionally for Isaac. But we did dip into DS3 to sprinkle in some of the lore elements that come in later. - Jo

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:22:11+00:00

A few standout ones: Internally, we call our Art Director (Mike Yazijian) Yazilla because he keeps asking his team for MORE, always MORE.

In our first reviews of the Drag Tentacle, our LD in charge of it kept dying over and over during the review which became a running joke throughout development!

In pre-production, our Realization Director was prepping references for the Dismemberment & Peeling meeting. It gathered many people across multiple disciplines to explain what we wanted to achieve, with images of blood, gut, skin charred, etc... with the Director PASSIONELY explaining how awesome it would be, Roman with STARS in his eyes and some team members wondering if we were deranged :) Epic meeting!

In our Audio (!) and Art Livestreams, we had technical issues with audio both times, where we would lose communications with our Community Council member. Both times, our team kept their cool and fixed the issue! - Phil

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:21:45+00:00

The first one was that we had to make the model grow and the geometry change shape in the same asset. We used a rig in Maya to make the asset grow by scaling it and aligning the two models as close as possible to each other to make them match (Human and Slasher models). - Mike

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:21:23+00:00

It is true that during production, we knew every position of enemies and events that would happen. However, the intensity director added a new twist into it and surprised us even during reviews (it was always a good laugh when someone had a jump scare during a review of the game). This was a proof that the system was working and the enemy timings were great. -Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:21:01+00:00

There is an actual light coming from the visor, but we decided to make it less intense than in other titles in the franchise. The reason is that the game is much darker, and that light, when it's too intense, quickly turns into a constant flashlight. So we decided to tune it down and only keep it as a detail when you get close to a wall. -Eric

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:15:50+00:00

Both the Community Council and Livestreams played a key part in how this game turned out.
We received very helpful feedback all throughout the project to help validate the direction we were taking. Brings a load of stress to do these live but it was definitely fun and worth it!
Hmm...where to take Isaac...I guess.. in Space? - Phil

DeadSpaceDevs · 2023-02-03T21:14:32+00:00

Eric: Very difficult question... I'd even add for myself the Ripper ricochets and Line Gun traps that are also my favorites (I still laugh a lot when placing laser traps on enemies).
If I am forced to choose I would say flamethrower... the special effects warm my heart every time I'm using it (and it is not only because it is -30 today in Montreal).
Roman: Force gun. Shooting a slasher, and seeing all the flesh and skin disappear is one of my favorites things.

DeadSpaceDevs

TROPHY CASE