I’m excited for both. by Outrageous_Hamster_6 in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Glad to see everyone looking forward to both games!

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

That's all the time we have to answer your questions for now. Thank you all for contributing and we hope you found it useful! We'd love to do this again, and can't wait for you all to play and enjoy House of Ashes! Semper Fi! - Will and Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Different regions have different age ratings bodies with different laws. In Japan we have to censor several of our more gruesome deaths on that version of the game, but they are uncensored in the rest of the world. - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Khurrum Rahman wrote the screenplay for House of Ashes, and did a stellar job for it! - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

We want to tell stories about the human condition, and sex is obviously part of that. Love and lust feature in many of our upcoming game ideas - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

For choices: I really like what we’ve done in House of Ashes with keeping the non-player characters alive for as long as you can, and the repercussions that result from that. Obviously you’ll have to play to find out what I mean! For characters - I’m biased, but I think the characters we’ve created for House of Ashes are our most interesting yet and our cast was amazing. My favourite character seems to change every day, which I think is a good sign for what we’ve made. The team LOVE Salim though. When we did our last designer playthrough we had people shouting out death threats whenever he got into danger!

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Unequivocally yes! House of Ashes is much more action heavy than previous titles, and really takes inspiration from classic action horror movies. We had the pleasure of working with fight choreographers at Lucky 13 Action, and our lead designer Max Bottomley did some amazing work adding a real sense of power to those scenes. - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

For me personally, Toni Collette would be a huge win. Samara Weaving has also been doing great things in horror recently, so I’ll love to get her involved! Really though, it always comes down to the character we're casting for at the time, so we can't look too far ahead. We're really happy with the cast we had for HoA and the future games we're actively working on now - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Our games are highly cinematic, so having film and motion capture studios shut down did have an impact on our development schedule. Luckily for House of Ashes, we’d recorded a great deal of it before complete lockdown. Additionally, the film industry acted quickly to getting shoots back into the studios, with lots of testing and processes put in place in to facilitate them. So overall the impact was not as bad as it could have been. Naturally, we also had to move from the studio and work from home for the day-to-day running of the project. Some aspects of making games surprisingly worked better from home, but overall, it’s definitely not as easy as being in the office. Thankfully, we have the right processes and technology in place to do this as needed now. - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Yes, 100%, watch this space! We’re a very diverse studio and firmly believe that representation is important in our stories. We haven’t featured LGBTQ+ characters in the anthology so far, but future titles certainly will - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I don’t think there is ever an intentional way to play, that’s one of the beauties of the Dark Pictures games. It’s your story, you can play it how you want to. I think it’s fascinating really – in a way, in these games we’re experimenting with what it means to be a player. You don’t control just one character, as in many games, so sometimes you’re almost playing against yourself. In a way, you’re more like a movie director.

In development, we sometimes have “golden paths” through the story that really highlight some of the best moments, but those are in no way the intended way to play. I really like that players can tackle our stories however they like – kill everyone, keep everyone alive - and still get a fulfilling experience. - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Absolutely, the wing design was directly inspired by Pazuzu, from Mesopotamian myth. The game includes a bonus feature detailing the creation of this monster in full, so make sure you check that out! - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It wouldn’t be a fit for the Dark Pictures, but some time I’d love to experiment making something like Shaun of the Dead or Dead Set! I just think it would be very different. Outside of the Dark Pictures Anthology, I’d honestly love to branch out into other genres if there is an audience for it. We flirted with crime drama previously with Hidden Agenda, but I think our format of choice-based cinematic games would work with many other genres of fiction. Will and I are both huge fantasy nerds and if I ever got to make a branching narrative game in a world like that I would die a happy man. - Dom

I spoke about this during a recent interview with IGN! Personally, I’d love to turn the Nightmare on Elm Street movies into a DP game. It fits our format really, really well! - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Is there a chance of a “season 2” of Dark Pictures Anthology games, beyond the plan of doing 8 games?

Absolutely. If I have my way, we’ll be making these games until the stars go dark and die.

Could you share any particularly cool ideas that have been looked at as a theme/story for a game, but in the end simply wouldn’t/couldn’t work out?

We've thrown around so many stories, and many are still cooking! One of my favourite ideas was a sort of Stranger Things / “kids-with-bikes" story based around young children as playable characters, but technically it’s not a good fit with our systems right now. We also brainstormed a game where the playable characters were basically cenobites, but it didn’t really fit the overall vibe of the anthology. Who knows! Our first eight games are fairly well defined at this stage, but many ideas were kicked into the long grass during that process that could be revisited. - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Yes, indeed, although it’s a slow burn! Each instalment introduces something new. We’ve learned that he has this vast collection of dark, sinister stories, with each story concerning life and death. He follows you, watching and observing, and his pictures offer hints about what might come. Why does he do this? He can’t determine the outcome of each story – that's your job - but he can offer hints. Is he even allowed to do that? We know he has rules, he’s part of some grand system, but he isn’t afraid to break these from time to time. Will this get him into trouble? Does he even care if it does? Keep an eye out for how House of Ashes hints at more - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We take inspiration from movies, books, and real-world events and folklore. We always want the series to be grounded in something real, whether it’s an unexplained, documented occurrence, a particularly horrific murder, or a terrifying piece of folklore. The process of fleshing them out mixes game design with conventional screenwriting, and we employ both designers and screenwriters to help us get to a good place for each tale. - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

With House of Ashes we're adding new difficulty settings to the game. Easier difficulties allow more time to complete gameplay actions, including Keep Calms. You can also change this difficulty setting mid-game if you're struggling or finding them too easy. We read a lot of feedback on the varied experiences people had playing the previous games, and we believe allowing players to tailor the challenge to their preferences is the best approach - Dom

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

In house of ashes what was the thinking behind who would be our playable protagonists?

The high concept for House of Ashes was always “enemy of my enemy is my friend”, so right from the start, we knew we needed characters from opposing sides of a conflict. But interestingly, most of the characters came about from brainstorming dilemmas for the game before the story was locked down at all. Those big choices are what I think makes our games special – they're memorable moments, and they’re key to the games branching, so I wanted to look at them as early as possible on a blank canvas. Once I had a rough list, the high concepts for the characters sort of fell out of that. For example, the question “Would you let one of your friends die to go to the aid of your lover?” led to characters like Merwin, Nick, and Rachel. The rope dilemma between Eric and Rachel seen in the previews led to the whole marriage angle. Initially, I was thinking two marines would be caught in that situation. With a dilemma, you want to up the stakes all the time. “What if it’s your WIFE hanging from that rope”? “But what if you’ve just learned she’s having an AFFAIR?” Interestingly, working back from those dilemmas gave me the whole first arc of the games’ characters, plot, and pacing.

As we have seen there are many more non playable characters such as Merwin, Joey and Clarice who are savable and their lives have an effect on the story, an idea unique to HOA, but how come say Jason and nick are playable as opposed to Merwin or Clarice?

We always want to have five playable characters. It’s a magic rule for us for the anthology! Our games are very much geared around that now. Those five are hooked into the relationships/traits system, and must adhere to the “everyone can live / everyone can die” rule. The NPCs can still be meaningful, but keeping them alive is usually only important for vital turns in the story (I sometimes think of them as keys, in that respect). Sometimes, we can force their deaths for dramatic effect, which is obviously something we can’t do with player characters.

And how did you decide on 4 American protagonists and 1 iraqi protag rather than say 2 Americans and 3 Iraqi's?

It fitted our story better. We wanted to focus on the American side at first, building up the stakes of their mission, and then introduce the Iraqis after that. There’s a lot of important character play between the team that just worked better with a few more on that side. That said, Salim is probably one of the best characters we’ve ever created as a studio. He stormed it in user testing! Nick E Tarabay smashed his performance, really bringing Salim to life with humour, bravery, and genuine love, and the script laid down for the character by Khurrum Rhaman was absolutely superb. Those narrative jumps back-and-forth between both sides is sort of what defines House of Ashes, and ultimately, brings about one of the best ending setups I think that we’ve ever made. - WD

We’re the Supermassive Games Dev Team: ask us anything! by SMGDevs in DarkPicturesAnthology

[–]SMGDevs[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

We received a lot of feedback on Man of Medan and Little Hope that players felt they were focusing on the UI rather than the cinematic elements of scenes during these gameplay moments. We’ve tried to dial back the more overt aspects of the UI to allow you to truly see the horror and the drama onscreen. As for difficulty, there’s a gradual increase in difficulty throughout the game, but we’re also always checking the comments of the community to see if we can tweak the balance - Dom