At the press event dedicated to Marvel's Spider-Man we had the opportunity to chat with Bryan Intihar, Creative Director of Insomniac Games. There has been a way to talk about the game and the future of the brand in general, but we can say with certainty that the development house has focused on creating the most complete spiderman experience possible. Below you will find the complete interview!
To create the world of videogame Spider-Man, how much did you take from the comic book mythology of the character and how much did you write yourself?
The creation of the world of Marvel's Spider-Man lies squarely in the middle: while many of the things you'll find will be taken from comic book mythology, it will all keep a fresh but familiar air. Even longtime fans then, despite being aware of a lot about the various characters, could find a twist around the corner at any time.
Are you planning to work on any other superheroes in the future?
Not at the moment, for now I'm totally focused on Spider-Man.
In the game we have the duality between Spider-Man and Peter Parker, but there are many Spider-Man enemies: will the game focus only on the Marvel hero, or will it also explore the various villains?
It will certainly also explore Spider-Man's enemies: as you advance in the game, discovering the villains present, you will also discover their motivations, which will be very personal. All the things that happen in history will always be personal and motivated, they will not be done just to create chaos.
All the characters have a particular and well-detailed characterization: which of the many was the most interesting in terms of work and difficulty to work on?
Some characters are very traditional, like Rhyno, while Electro for example is very different from the comic counterpart: it was interesting to work on the characterization, trying to give it those characteristic traits without completely copying the design of the comic.
What about Mary Jane? Was it inspiring to work on it?
Not too much. Taking off her hair, which is always annoying to create, we wanted to create a character who would occupy the role she will occupy in the game, that of journalist.
Are you afraid of the reaction of the fans? Last year, Marvel-based games weren't as successful as DC's.
Certainly there is some pressure to find out what the reaction of the fans will be, but that is coupled with the excitement of finding out how all the work will go. Marvel characters are very popular, and become more and more popular with the arrival of new movies, TV series and other products. It is therefore mandatory not to spoil their characters.
Will there be side quests with a strong plot component, even capable of giving access to enemies who, if these missions were not carried out, would not be encountered?
Definitely yes: the missions will be of various types, some based on history, others a little less, others on the discovery of some characters. There will also be side quests with a high plot content and optional.
Has the working approach between this and the previous games you played changed?
Not exactly: it remained quite similar. The change was necessary in working with dozens of additional assets, much higher number of NPCs than previous games. It was a very technical challenge, rather than a general development one.
While Marvel's Spider-Man story is totally new, were there any story arcs that influenced it?
Many stories have influenced our Spider-Man, even if there is no specific one to mention: our Peter Parker resembles in some respects the recent one, the scientist version, even if the industries where he works are different and also the his interpersonal relationships with some of the staff. The Ultimate series also helped us with the setting, more modern than the classic version.
Why did you decide on this version of Peter Parker, very different from that of the film?
We felt like the student version had already given a lot: a too young boy in the game would have totally different dynamics in our game. We wanted to tell an interesting period in Peter Parker's life, and we chose halfway between his school youth and his adult life.
We have the Avengers Tower: any cameo from one of the Avengers?
The folks at Square Enix are already working on an Avengers game, right? It's already difficult to work well on a franchise: in the Marvel Cinematic Universe they didn't start with Avengers, they first did Iron Man, then Captain America, then Thor. The game will be 100% Spider-Man focused, we don't know what's going to happen in the future.
But then the game experience will make us live a world where we will be aware of sharing it with other heroes and characters, or will the feeling be just of having a big city with only one hero?
A little bit of both: we tried to do our best to put everything in a larger and more complex context, and these insertions (such as the Avengers Tower) serve above all for this.
