Activision and High Moon Studios upcoming video game based on Marvel Comics' Deadpool will release at some point this year for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The game's feature character is wisecracking mutant mercenary with advance healing abilities. The comic book character is also known for breaking the fourth wall in an attempt to interact with the audience.
This is something that is rarely done in video games and presents an interesting challenge to developer High Moon Studios. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, the game's director Sean Miller explains how they approached the character's humor, tendency to break the fourth wall and some of the staples of action-adventure video games.
"It's an ongoing challenge," Miller told Eurogamer. "One of the things we love about Deadpool is he can break not just the fourth wall but some of the stigmas of the action adventure genre. It was a way to bring something fresh. But then you have the problem of sustaining that comedy over a period of time. And, how much talking is too much? That's something we were very cognizant of."
Miller told Eurogamer that early on in the game's development they created a long prototype experience to ensure that the team could sustain the comedy for a longer period of time then just five or ten minutes.
"Keeping it contextual was an important thing," Miller said. "He does have a certain amount of one-liner goofiness and we have a mechanism for pacing that out so it's not all the time. There are priorities for what you're going to hear and when you're going to hear it. And then there's a significant amount of stuff that's contextual to where you are in the game."
Miller said that Deadpool's joke won't just repeat over and over again and the material will mostly stay fresh throughout the game.
"You won't necessarily hear the same jokes over and over," Miller said. You'll hear jokes early in the game you will never hear again, and you'll hear stuff later on. Keeping it contextual helps a lot with that. "And, we do a lot of user testing. We're playing the game over and over so we hear that stuff over and over. It can get really old pretty fast."
How does High Moon Studios choose the comedic material for the game? Well the team uses the stuff that makes them laugh and smile, according to Miller.
"We stick with the stuff that still makes us laugh and smile," Miller continues. "We use that as a litmus test. The team has a great sense of humour and we can let them have fun with it. And then we work with Daniel Way [writer of the comic book] to make sure the things we're doing are appropriate for the character and they fit who Deadpool is."
You can check out the rest of the interview here on Eurogamer. According to the game's official website, Deadpool will be release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. Check out the game's announcement trailer below...
