Dead Space Remake Team Showed Diehard Fans the Game Every Six Weeks in Early Development
Dead Space developers used hardcore fans to help keep things on track.in the meantime new blog postCreative Director Roman Campos-Oriola revealed that Dead Space Remake’s developers consulted their own community council every six weeks.
“Really, really early on in development, we started talking to members of the community who our team identified as avid fans,” he revealed. We met with them to give them full access to what we were doing.”
Why did they consult fans? Well, it seems they wanted to ask for opinions on various “polarizing” topics.
“We have our opinions, but that doesn’t mean we’re right!” said senior producer Philippe Ducharme. “We had a lot of divisive topics that we wanted to check intuitively, so we gathered feedback from these groups to make informed decisions. Focusing on the community is a key pillar of this project. So we got a lot of information by getting feedback from live streams, reading user reviews and Twitch comments: Who is this game for and why is it for them? It was all about understanding what makes Dead Space spectacular.”
An upcoming remake will retell the story of system engineer Isaac Clarke. This hapless astronaut ends up aboard his USG, his Ishimura, which is overrun by deadly necromorphs before his crew activates a distress beacon.
EA Motive is responsible for the remake, with a release date of January 2023.
“First, we honor our heritage,” Ducharm said. “We have the utmost respect for the original game, so the core foundation remains the same. We are strengthening.”
Despite this deep respect for the original game, original creator Glen Schofield will not be part of the upcoming remake.
“I took [the announcement] As a compliment,” he said. “I still take it as a compliment. […] They want to make games that are better than the ones you make. ”
Still, the Dead Space remake sounds like it’s going to great lengths to bring back the magic of the original game.
“We want Dead Space fans to rediscover Dead Space like they did for the first time,” said Campos-Oriola. “But everything feels familiar and recognizable. That’s what’s really important to us.”
Want to know more about Dead Space? Check out all the EA games currently in development and take a deep dive into how Dead Space is being remade.
Ryan Leston is IGN’s entertainment journalist and film critic.you can follow him twitter.
