Also because we're trying to show that it's possible to have an interactive story, that it's possible to offer players something different to just fighting, shooting and driving - that interactivity can be more than that. We know this positive pressure brings responsibility, especially because I think that the promises we're making with Heavy Rain are quite important for the industry. It's important that the team know what they're doing will be seen, so we're very proud. Especially in a game that's emotionally driven, where emotions are at the core of the experience. It's extremely important for all the members of the team to know there's a point to what they're doing, that people care. I think it puts positive pressure on us - it's exactly where we wanted to be when we started the project.
Working on a platform-exclusive title brings benefits, one of which is greater visibility - Heavy Rain's now a key PS3 title on the slate - but how do you respond to the added pressure that brings? There seem to be fewer horror stories around these days, that's true. Unfortunately we've all experienced that in the past, and you're using up a lot of time and resources - but thankfully we've had a great relationship with SCE and I think, from what I hear from other developers, not only are developers becoming more mature, but also publishers. This is also very important - when you don't have to worry about whether the publisher is going to pay you, whether they're going to accept this and this, whether they're going to ask you to do the same thing two, three or four times, and so on. The Worldwide Studios group in Liverpool has been really dynamic, it's been a great working relationship. I must say that we've enjoyed a great relationship with Sony. I think it also has a lot to do with the way that publishers interact with developers. I think we've reached another stage in the industry where developers can be much more mature. Of course, it's extremely difficult to plan a production on a new platform and to basically create two, three, four times the amount of data that you'd have had to for previous cycles on other consoles.īut from what I can tell, looking especially at the games I've seen at E3, a number of developers are doing this successfully. I don't know if we found a recipe, because I think each studio and each project is a bit exceptional in a way, but for us it turned out to be a very good experience. So it took quite some time, but it's been quite successful, and we're very happy with how we organised internally to be able to work with faraway outsourcing companies, the way the outsourced work was delivered, and the way that the whole thing integrated into the final game. You don't work the same way when you outsource - especially when you outsource 500 man-months of production - than if you have everybody working in the same room on a project. And for almost a year and a half we not only worked on technology in setting certain standards, and the quality bar on the development, but also on the organisation. We understood we'd have to double the structure in our studio, that we'd have to rely on external resources to produce our next game. I think we prepared for a long time, before we started production of Heavy Rain, and I think that back in 2005 when we were finishing Fahrenheit and starting to look at next-gen consoles in particular, we understood we could no longer produce games the old way, like in the old days. How have you managed the process to make sure that's happened? Is it as simple as just having the right management procedures in place? "On time, on budget" - that's good, something that doesn't happen enough in the industry, one might argue. So we're now entering the most interesting part of the development, I think, which is perfecting it - making sure that all the scenes are as we expect them to be, at the same level of quality. It's a great moment, because we now have the whole game in our hands and we can play from beginning to end. We delivered the alpha of the game on April 15 - on time, on budget - so we're pretty happy. How is Heavy Rain coming along - the last few miles of the marathon? Specifically he updates us on where production is at, as well as the challenges of emotion and the maturing relationship between developers and publishers. Following on from part one of this exclusive interview with Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere, in which he talks about his role with the EGDF and the importance of games as culture, here he talks more about the development of Heavy Rain.