As you can see, Dead Rising 3 is a game that raises a lot of questions. You may also remember that awhile back, DR3 developer Capcom Vancouver asked for your questions about the game. Well, today we have some answers straight from Producer Josh Bridge. He hasn’t answered every single question that came along (and there were a lot), but what we’ve got is a most lovely and informative list. Hit the jump to read!
Q: Do you plan to continue the series after this game’s ending? Also, did you enjoy developing DR3 more than the previous entries?
A: No announcements have been made for any new titles. At this point we are still focused on improving Dead Rising 3 and delivering the extended experience with the Untold Stories of Los Perdidos.
Q: When are we going to get a patch to fix the Glitched Blueprints for the Beer Hat and carts?
A: We are preparing a fix for this one. I appreciate everyone’s patience as the issue comes up following a specific triggering sequence. Stay tuned as we’re focused on it and will get the word out soon to let everyone know when a fix is coming.
Q: Can you make something to tell us what happens to Frank and Stacey?
A: We really love Frank, Chuck and the extended group of characters in the Dead Rising universe. When we consider creating a new Dead Rising we’re always thinking how we can create a new ‘everyday’ person. It’s a big part of the appeal for us with working on the series.
Q: What were some of the difficulties in building a game on hardware that had not been released yet?
A: Consider it a potato sack race of sorts with lots of people in one sack! The partnership we had with Microsoft’s teams allowed for lots of back and forth as we each needed each other’s help settling the underlying software and our game code. Scary and exciting all at once!
Q: Is it possible to add 4 player co-op to an upcoming Dead Rising game?
A: We really love co-op in DR3. It’s great to see the fans are enjoying it as well. Four player isn’t something that we can easily add… there is lots of complexity to it as well as an impact on the amount of things you can do together at any one time. It’s something I would love to see in more games as well.
Q: Did you ever wonder if some of the weapons in the game were a bit too farfetched for the Dead Rising universe? Like the Electric/Ice staff, it’s a fun weapon but, it made me feel like I should be fighting dragons. Same question about the outfits.
A: Heh. We talked a lot about this when coming up with the ideas. We wanted to put more emphasis on the realistic weapons (and that they are easier to get to), and have the photo-bomb equivalent of finding crazy and over the top weapons. The overall idea with DR3 was to push it to look more realistic and gritty, and then leave it up to you to create crazy weapons and put on silly outfits to photobomb it yourself.
Q: Why did you guys tell everyone that normal mode didnt have a time limit when you guys still put one in that was just longer?
A: We originally had the time fully unlocked. Through testing we found that players felt a lack of urgency where they would have expected it (having to escape the city before the bomb dropped). We went for tuning it to be really generous for normal Story Mode; it felt like the right balance to take.
Q: Did you ever consider bringing Frank or Chuck back as the protagonists, or was it always the plan to develop a brand new character? What was the inspiration to bring Katey back as Annie?
A: It was always the intent to develop a brand new protagonist for DR3. It is something that we have made as key to the overall brand; a new everyday character that has to survive the outbreak. The inspiration to bringing Katey back was to answer questions through Dead Rising 1 to Dead Rising 3. Lots of questions were left hanging after Dead Rising 2 and Katey felt like a connection which would connect through the series.
Q: How many [planned] combo weapons and combo vehicles were not put in the final game?
A: Not really that many. We spend lots of time up-front testing ideas before moving forward deeper with them. I think it is more of a case of the weapon/vehicle’s abilities shape over time as we find what is fun and what we hit for technical roadblocks.
Q: Josh, would you please tell us who your faviorate psychopath is? Maybe you could also tell us if psychopaths were always going to be part of DR3 or were they an addition to the game during development?
A: Psychos are a critical part of Dead Rising; they were planned right from the beginning for Dead Rising 3. I really like Albert (he represented Greed from the 7 deadly sins) and how it challenged with a more of a puzzle instead of just all out fighting. The mood and setting was creepy; felt like a great contrast to the overall cast.
Q: Mechanic Nick Ramos is kindhearted and puts the needs of friends and strangers before his own. I wish there were more people in the real life like Nick. Would you please talk about the struggles you encountered if any for Nick’s character development?
A: Lots of struggles! First and foremost was his look. We iterated on that for well over a year. It is incredibly challenging to find a look which captures someone you would like to play as and at the same time fits within the world of Dead Rising. Beyond look, finding the balance between being too kind hearted and then growing into more confident by the end of the game was a big challenge. Having him grow in confidence alongside the player was tough to take on.
Q: Several main characters were alive at the conclusion of Dead Rising 3, especially compared to Dead Rising 2. Was it difficult to decide which characters would survive (and which ones would die) over the course of DR3?
A: Yes and no. Lots of us really wanted to see Diego die a horrible death. This felt like it would have been a surprise and the shock would be worth it. We spend a lot of time fretting over the story and outcome. With DR3 we wanted to give a feeling of hope with the best ending; which is why a fair amount of them survive.
Q: Why did you make it so easy? DR1 was about perfect difficulty wise?
A: That was a tough one. We found that the incredibly tough difficulty of DR1 was fun for some and a turn off for others. With DR2, we made an attempt to tune it overall to find a balance. We went further with DR3, finding that a bigger world felt like I should have more time to explore and not hit walls of control bouncing. We split that out to NightMare mode; it is tuned to about DR1’s timer and the overall difficulty and aggressiveness of the zombies are cranked as well. Play Nightmare mode if you really want that DR1 classic challenge.
Thanks so much to Josh and team for taking the time, and to you for your great questions!
