Spark Unlimited and Capcom's upcoming third-person shooter video game, Lost Planet 3 is set to release on March 31 for the PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.
The game is actually a prequel to the original game, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and takes place on the same icy planet of E.D.N. The game's plot takes place during the time of the first human settlers, who were sent there by the Neo-Venus Construction Company or NEVEC. The company later becomes the main antagonist in the third-person shooter series.
Players will take on the role of Jim Peyton, a colonist who is working for NEVEC and helping mine the planet. NEVEC is helping to make the planet habitable to humans by constructing thermal post and structures capable of sustaining human-life.
In a recent interview with Polygon, Spark Unlimited lead designer Matt Sophos and Lost Planet 3 producer Andrew Szymanski talk about the collaboration between Spark Unlimited and Capcom and Western Studios and Japanese publishers.
"In early stages, our fear was that we'd make compromises, they'd make compromises, and something in the middle would be something that nobody really likes," Sophos told Polygon. "After that, we realized that they came to us for a reason. We were afforded the freedom to spin [Lost Planet 3] in a Western-centered way."
Szymanski told Polygon that Capcom's move of the game's development to a Western studio is not due to something like outsourcing, but instead is a way for the game publisher to showcase its ability to work with Western developers.
"Our first and foremost goal is to show people that this isn't just outsourcing, or farming it out to the lowest bidder," Szymanski told Polygon. "We wanted to make sure that it was understood that we're working with Western developers. We're trying to create something more than the sum of its parts. We needed to create a really good test case - a really good representation of, 'here's how we can work with Western developers.'"
So why would Capcom hire Spark Unlimited, a studio that has recently had a couple of gaming misses with the releases of Legendary and Turning Point? According to Polygon's article, Szymanski says it's a valid question and that there was some unease about the decision.
"There was a certain amount of trepidation walking into Spark," Szymanski said. "I'd seen the games. I'd seen the Metacritic. You know - there's no point in sugarcoating it. But I'm not going to write them off purely because of that. We've all known teams that have fluctuated between great products and not-so-great products. A lot of it is publisher relationship."
He mentions that after speaking with the studio he felt more comfortable with the decision and that Spark Unlimited also had a gaming prototype that was awe-inspiring, but the producer did not provide any other details about the prototype.
Sophos didn't leak any information about the prototype either, but did explain the basic structure of Lost Planet 3 and how the game has a almost Wild West like plot.
"This culture is moving from one planet to a place that's uncharted," Sophos says. "We went the route of making it feel like the loner on the frontier. What speaks across both cultures? It's not about family structures, but a family man who's trying to do right for his family."
He continued, "As game developers, where you sacrifice time with your family and things like that, that's universal. Caring about family and wanting to provide for your family, even at a high personal cost: That's where we ended up. The superficial stuff we have is very Western. The music you've heard in demos, the sarcastic and quippy nature of our main character, those are Western trappings. But at its foundation, it's a story that universally anybody can feel and get behind it."
Unfortunately, not a lot of game details were revealed in the article. In the rest of the interview Szymanski is relatively critical of the Japanese game industry and says games like Lost Planet 3 that are collaborative efforts between Japanese publisher and Western studio are a new norm in the game industry.
"The Japanese game industry is on the decline," he says. "The domestic market is shrinking. We're seeing a lot more ... not only the emergence and domination of Western pubs, but also situations like Lost Planet 3, where Japanese publishers are figuring out what they can do to remain relevant'
You can read the full interview here on Polygon. Lost Planet 3 will release on March 31 for the PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. Watch the game's trailer below...
