In a recent talk at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in France, Quantic Dream’s David Cage discussed emotion’s role in videogames. Quantic Dream have claimed their new game, still known after two years by its codename Heavy Rain, has conquered the Uncanny Valley, creating human characters so lifelike that players can’t resist identifying with them. In his talk, Cage discussed mixing motion captured performances with hand-drawn animation in Heavy Rain to achieve such natural expression in an interactive setting. Performance is only the beginning of Rain’s ambition, though, as Cage turned the topic to utilizing finer, more social human emotions as love, jealousy, and shame to create a game’s foundation for immersion versus the more primal emotions traditional to games, such as anxiety and aggression.
Quantic Dream’s previous games, Indigo Prophecy and Omikron: The Nomad Soul, were laudable attempts at drawing players in through empathy rather than fight-or-flight response, though not always successful. Omikron was an ambitious project limited by the technology of its time and Indigo Prophecy, for all of its remarkably directed dialogue and Law & Order-quality characterization, is even less interactive than Metal Gear Solid 4. The now ancient (by technology standards) demo for Heavy Rain is certainly impressive, its digital actress’ fury and desperation conveyed well, but the character still comes off as robotic and, subsequently, repulsive.
Cage makes a good point. Videogames, by nature of design and player trends, have traditionally relied on tension-and-release to ensconce a player — the vast majority of videogames rely on reflex and strategy as a basis for play, after all. The problem inherent in using more complex and subtle emotions to immerse players is that, no matter what your medium, these emotions are difficult to evoke at all. How do you actually use play to make a player feel shame or pride without relying on the language of another art? A cutscene speaks like film, text like prose.
Whether or not Heavy Rain will, in its final form, cross the Uncanny Valley — and find its strength as a game in tapping players’ compassion — remains to be seen. What’s clear is that Quantic Dream and David Cage will only achieve their goals by making something that is, itself, compassionate.
Our thanks to Gamasutra for their report on Cage’s talk.
Related links:
Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda at the Nordic Games Conference
Happiness in Games: The Importance of Being Earnest