Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades and Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis, who brings a mighty motion capture performance to Heavenly Sword, popped along to the Three Speech event at 3Rooms last week, answering a bunch of questions from those in attendance.
Read on for their thoughts on cut scenes, Blu-Ray, emotional engagement, the making of Heavenly Sword and more.
ON CUT SCENES
Tameem Antoniades: “A common misperception is that we have voice acting in the games. We don’t have voice acting. Every performance is a real performance. In terms of cut scenes, we took things quite a bit further than is traditionally done in video games.”
Andy Serkis: “Tameem’s intention was to elevate the cut scenes to dramatic pieces, so that you actually care about the characters and feel an emotional connection with them – it wasn’t just a bit of extra story telling bunged in which you got when you reached the next level.
He asked me to get involved. I came from a dramatic perspective, not a gaming perspective. Through my experience working on motion capture characters such as Gollum and King Kong, I thought we could find this fusion between gaming and narrative storytelling, and make the character much more engaging.
We rehearsed it like a play or film. We sat round a table with everyone at Ninja Theory and said let’s work with Weta Digital in New Zealand, who I’d worked with over a number of years, and take this into a more dramatic environment. It really pushed Weta’s boundaries too, as they hadn’t work with multiple actors on stage before.
Traditionally scriptwriting and gaming have been two separate things. Tameem’s desire was to create a story which had a flow between cut scene and game play. This seemed like a tall order, as hardcore gamers want to get into the bit where they’re in control. But I said to the actors, let’s treat this like a film and if it’s engaging enough hardcore gamers will want to watch. Hopefully, there’s a marriage between both areas and it’s more of a rewarding experience as a whole.”
ON EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
TA: “Despite our ambitions, what we’ve done on Heavenly Sword is just the beginning of what’s possible in terms of drama in video games. We engage players in every single level possible – it’s the only medium that actually engages the audience at a visceral level. One of the areas in games we’ve had trouble engaging people in is on a more emotional, meaningful level. If there’s one thing I hope after Heavenly Sword, it’s that more developers take up the mantle of motion capture and performance capture, and create games that genuinely have feeling behind them.”
AS: “If that happens, a lot of people will come over from the film industry – actors, directors, filmmakers, composers, visual effects artists. They are genuinely excited by the gaming industry; it just seems to me that the scripts have always let everything down; there isn’t an inexorable end point which is focusing everybody. If scripts become really great in gaming, you may see a massive fusion between gaming and film.”
TA: “I’m keen to point out that gaming is the most diverse medium every created. There’s nothing that says you have to have stories and nothing to say you don’t. Warhawk is a great example of play – it’s pure play. Heavenly Sword is a good example of being a hero. Whether you feel part of it is your call – it’s an interactive thing; either you like the story-based games or you don’t.
ON THE SUGGESTION THAT BLU-RAY MAY ENCOURAGE DEVELOPERS TO FAVOUR CUT SCENES AND MOVIE MATERIAL OVER ACTUAL GAMING
TA: “In my experience, it’s not storage that makes developers go a certain way. With Blu-Ray, you have a lot of storage. 25 gigs is first generation; next year I think everything’s going to be 50 gigs. Then there’s 100 gigs and 200 gigs. As a developer, you’re always fighting against the limitations of the hardware, and so the more storage you have, the higher resolution textures, the more audio you can put on it. It’s just easing part of the development process – it’s not a bad thing. Nowadays, we just want to make the best we can with the equipment we have. The more we have, the better we can make it.
ON KAI, NARIKO’S LITTLE SISTER
TA: “She plays completely differently to Nariko – she’s got no melee combat but has an enormous pump action crossbow, so she has to play with more cunning. It breaks the pace between the brutal full-on combat.
We wanted to create a real relationship between Nariko and Kai, so as you play, you start to feel an attachment. A lot of Kai’s game play is more about duck and cover. The way the narrative is played is more film-like, so you play as Kai and then the action passes over to Nariko at certain points.”
ON THE APPEAL OF HEAVENLY SWORD
AS: “Because I was never a massive gamer myself, what I’ve strived for is a purity and artistic truth. I think it could appeal to a family audience – I think gaming can command an intelligence of story writing and script writing in this area. I think it’s an arena that could be opened up to a much wider audience. Wouldn’t it be interesting to make a game of Macbeth or to find a way that brings text like Shakespeare to life through a game? So I am coming at it through a dramatic keyhole, not a hardcore gaming perspective. In rehearsals I was encouraging the actors to treat it as seriously a project as they would a film or play.”
TA: “We workshopped and came up with little relationships between the characters, and it doesn’t mean we have to have big long cut scenes to explain it - it’s just little snippets of dialogue here and there, and you understand a little bit of the personality behind the characters, so it gives the fight scenes more meaning. This is something that Andy brought to the project. As a traditional games developer we’d never have explored this.
AS: “The technology’s arrived where you can actually bring characters to life. They’re still fantasy characters, they’re still larger than life, but they’re based in a dramatic truth. If you’re going to have characters in a game that look extraordinary, let’s give them a life.”
ON WHETHER A TIME WILL COME WHEN CUT SCENES ARE FULLY INTERGRATED IN THE DYNAMIC OF THE GAME
TA: “Will that time come? Yes and no. We’ve explored a little bit of this in Heavenly Sword but we haven’t fully explored the concept of gaming as a film language. I believe games are going to develop an interactive language. Games are all about pacing - sometimes you want to be fully in control and pressing lots of buttons, other times you want to ease off. But there will be a point where you always have control in the game play, but the level of control varies.”
In addition, here’s a re-run of some interviews we filmed with the Ninja Theory team earlier this year.
Here’s our interview with Andy Serkis (he of Gollum in Lord Of The Rings fame), with him talking about the motion capture process and his role as King Bohan in Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword - a game he also worked on as dramatic director.
Here’s our interview with Sia Tong Man, lead combat designer at Ninja Theory, who tells all about combat systems, game play and core features:
Here’s our interview with Laura Kippax, lead character artist at Ninja Theory, who reveals the processes that were required to bring the unprecedented levels of reality into Heavenly Sword’s leading characters:
I’m very impressed with Heavely Sword so far although I am worried as to the length of this game, i’ve been warned its over way too quickly. Also, not since Metal Gear solid have I seen such a weird gang of bad guys…
Comment by Terry — Sep 17, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Why does the game cost 71,95€? The normal price for Sony games is 61,95€.
Comment by Andreas — Sep 17, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
@ Terry. Tameem did discuss the length of the game a bit. He said their focus was definitely on quality over quantity; on getting the pacing right. He mentioned that if the game proves popular they’d like to make extra features available for download.
Comment by Three Speech — Sep 17, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Nice, any more news from 3 Rooms, such as the WH tourny :p
Comment by King Ownage — Sep 17, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
@ King
Warhawk tourney? WHAT warhawk tourney!?
Lets just say it didnt work out lol
But fun times were still had by all.
Comment by Ricky — Sep 17, 2007 @ 6:31 pm
2. It a secound party game, eg its not made by Sony. Sony just help develop it, they still want there licence fee from each game sold.
Comment by carl — Sep 17, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
@ Andreas
Wow, why don’t you buy your game at www.blahdvd.com
There the game costs 47.99 € (free shipping).
The game is fantastic!
Comment by Tielo — Sep 17, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
I still think the best part of their presentation was when they were showing Nariko fighting Roach, and Tameen suggested the fella controlling Nariko (sorry, forgot his name) kill Roach quickly. The guy replied that he was too busy looking at the work he had done, designing Roach, and seeing what he could do better. A great presentation by a team that obviously isn’t scared to try something a little different. Also, thanks to Andy Serkis for just “dropping by” on the night!
Comment by MuggleMind — Sep 17, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
can you say DLC? bring it!
Comment by sectionz — Sep 17, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
I LOVE HS!! My wife is even into it, and she’s very hands off-ish when it comes to games. She constantly is asking for story updates, and even watched the anime with me. Good job, Ninja Theory!
p.s. ign’s wrong. the combat never gets repetitive, and i could play this again and again. only qualm i have is some camera issues.
Comment by benjamin — Sep 17, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
First of all… Nariko’s my Godess….
The game is amazing….. i think every bit of detail on the game is at an emotional level that I’ve never seen before. Sawhney did an amazing job with the Music….. I can’t wait for the soundtrack.
I got this game over this weekend…. and I am on the Final Battle….. everything’s great but I wish it would last longer…. even though I wouldn’t mind playing the battle scenes again… especially Kai’s Story…. Ninja Theory….. you guys are geniuses….
Comment by []D [] []V[] []D — Sep 17, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
9 hours max gametime for a full game..
a sony embarrasement
why no news from again the weekly dissapoint of the EU store…
why no news from the announcement 21-11 GT prologue (first free,now around 45 €,as announced by sony Benelux)
why no news about singstar online (or the prices per song)
why no news about Home (public beta supposed to be released 1 july,and currently holding around 8 peeps a day)
come on three-speech,you could do better than this
Comment by Darkie — Sep 17, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
@Ricky
I know there was no tourny, I was there!
But they said that they will be holding it online…?
Comment by King Ownage — Sep 17, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
I also believe that games have the capability of surpassing films as an enjoyment medium. But the stories have to be more compelling.
Comment by Savage — Sep 17, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
Oh yeh, bring on the online Warhawk tournament! I forgot about that!
Comment by reakt — Sep 18, 2007 @ 8:33 am
I found HS to be an amazing game. The graphics and presentation polish are the best I’ve seen on the PS3 to date. The cut scenes are just brilliant, telling the story with drama and quite a bit of humor. The game play is balanced just right between the two characters you play. Thanks Ninja Theory for a fantastic experience. Looking for to any DLC you may do.
Comment by Ben — Sep 18, 2007 @ 8:51 am
I’m fighting the evil bloke at the end now, although I’m having a lot of trouble with this guy! Its definitely a game that I will go back to many times once I do finish it. My only gripe was some of the timed sections - didn’t give me muh opportunity for sightseeing lol. Very interested in DLC, what have they got in mind? Additional levels perhaps?
Comment by Terry — Sep 18, 2007 @ 9:54 am
I have been playing HS since Sat and I think its wonderful. The graphics are beautiful and yes the cut scenes are so good it makes you really care what happens in the gameplay. The gameplay itself is very good but has room for improvement. I love the after touch six axis effect, shooting arrows to protect Shen was an awesome bit of gaming.However I think in the regular combat mode more buttons should be available like in tekken. Im also concerned about the length of the game. I havent had too much diffiulty getting through many of the levels.Maybe the game should be a little harder? Overall I think its a real achievement though.
Comment by phil — Sep 18, 2007 @ 9:57 am
Also, this is what the PS3 needs to prove its metal, now all it needs is more dedication from first party developers. Without ruining this game for people who have not played it yet Chapter 5 blows the lid of anything you will have seen before.
Agree with Phil the aftertouch feature when using arrows or rockets is awesome but it becomes troublesome when the enemies do get close. Maybe more of a “stealth” approach would have been better.
The game reminds me a lot of the orginal Devil May Cry if anyone can remember that far back, very beautiful visuals for its time and high production values.
I think it will be better if additional content for this game is made to interlink with this game instead of a sequel. just a thought.
Comment by Terry — Sep 18, 2007 @ 10:10 am
Got this game for E54.99 - the game is brilliant and a true next gen experience. Having recently completed it , it didnt “Feel” to be really short ive certainly cleared other games in a shorter space of time (Gears of War to name one)
I ignored all the hype about the cinematics and the involvement of Andy before release as i wasnt expecting much but Andy and his team have done a fantastic job in engaging the player in the story and actually getting you to care about the end result.
The cut sequences are filled with visual delight and with surprising humour. King Rohan although the games main villan certainly gave me a fair share of laughs. The end fight is definitely one of the toughest battles in any game. this is where the depth of the fighting mechanics comes into play. Button mashing wont win you this fight!
10/10
Comment by Paul — Sep 18, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
@MuggleMind - His name was Ricky. Nice chap.
Comment by Three Speech — Sep 18, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
Hah, that night was awesome. Meeting Andy Serkis and all. Great Fun.
Comment by Reza — Sep 18, 2007 @ 4:35 pm
[…] Enough about the place – what about the games? Firstly, due to unfortunate events involving the 3Rooms network (the superstitious among you would notice it was the on the 13th…), it wasn’t up for a game at all, so the Warhawk competition was eventually abandoned. Despite the initial setback, it turned into a great night. After a short time to mingle with the other attendees and have a quick go on one of the games on offer, we were ushered upstairs for a demonstration of Heavenly Sword – presented to us by Tameem Antoniades (co-founder of Ninja Theory). It was great to be shown the game by someone involved in development, and had things pointed out to us as well as the odd interesting fact about development. In addition to Tameem, we also had the pleasure of meeting Andy Serkis – who you may know from his role playing Gollum in Lord of the Rings, and also performed as King Bohan in the Heavenly Sword cinematics using motion capture technology. We had a Q and A with the two, which I won’t go into because you can handily find a transcript of the full interview here. […]
Pingback by Absolute Blog » 3Rooms: The Lowdown — Sep 22, 2007 @ 1:36 pm
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment