Cage has written his next game already

By Oli Welsh Published 22 March, 2010

"Very different, very surprising."

Heavy Rain's writer-director David Cage has said he's already written the plot for his next game, and it's going to be "very different" from the dark thriller.

Speaking on GameTrailers TV (via VG247), Cage said: "I have written the next game, so I have a very clear idea... It's not fully written, it still in the synopsis stage, but I have a very clear idea for where I want to go next.

"I don't want just to make some kind of sequel or whatever, I really want to continue to explore and discover new things and experiment, this is what I'm really excited about. It's going to be very different, and I think it's going to be very surprising."

When we interviewed Cage just before Heavy Rain's release, he told us he wouldn't be making any more serial-killer thrillers, and hinted at the possibility of using the game's interactive drama format to tell a romantic comedy, or a tragedy from Shakespeare. He also expressed interest in the possibilities of motion control and multiplayer.

But how long will we be waiting for this next game? As long as Heavy Rain, which was first teased in 2006?

"Yeah, maybe less than you think," said Cage.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • captain_Carl #1 2 years ago

    Awesome. Loved Heavy Rain - will no doubt buy Cage's next game!

  • Vroom #2 2 years ago

    Great. See you in 4 years so....

  • Yossarian #3 2 years ago

    "Auteur."

    Auteur.

    Really, now.

    Fuck this hack.

  • Evolution #4 2 years ago

    I hope his script writing improves...

  • GamesConnoisseur #5 2 years ago

    Next game appearing on DSi!

    Involved Reggie's nightmare of trying to protect Nintendo's marketshare but being undermined by vapourware, motion+, and lack of interests from major third party studios.

  • Popsimax #6 2 years ago

    "Cage has written his next game already"
    ...
    " It's not fully written,"
    ...
    "written his next game already"
    ...
    " It's not fully written,"
    ...
    "written already"
    ...
    "not"
    ...
    "wtf"


  • RobotRocker #7 2 years ago

    "Very different, very surprising," says hack who has even less knowledge of the language of Cinema than Uwe Boll.

    FTFY

  • taurus82 #8 2 years ago

    So, it'll be a romantic comedy? with super-deformed cel-shaded characters?
    Edited by 1 at 22/03/10 @ 10:15

  • Grayvern #9 2 years ago

    Because heavy rains storytelling is automatically better than mass effect 2's because it isn't sci-fi.

    Seriously though heavy rain was interesting. But when you have to write the names down on a piece of paper and make an effort to care about them as opposed to knowing all of mass effects characters names almost instantly and caring about them after 10 minutes.

    Then again shouldnt be surprised Longest Journey was better written and storied than anything cage ever did, but because it's fantasy and a game it's ignored even though it's at least Neil Gaiman quality fantasy.

    Also if he hires similar 'actors' and writes similar dialogue for his next game and it is a romantic comedy, the very real weaknesses of his approach will be revealed.

    Edited by 2 at 22/03/10 @ 10:31

  • Skurmedel #10 2 years ago

    If it's in synopsis state... how can it be fully written? Unless the whole script is a synopsis which would make for a very lightweight story :)

  • buggrit #11 2 years ago

    as a pose to knowing all of mass effects characters names almost instantly and caring about them after 10 minutes.

    "As opposed to", you mean?
    Heavy Rain grabbed me from the get-go and I played through the whole story in basically one sitting. Mass Effect, not so much.
    Colour me interested, Cage has good ideas that have suffered a little in their implementation.

    Edit: stupid tags
    Edited by 2 at 22/03/10 @ 10:23

  • Grayvern #12 2 years ago

    Ill admit I quite liked the game. But seriously heavy rain has been given far more praise than it deserves, simply for handling a real world setting. And I honestly believe that it is eclipsed by many other games in terms of story.

    Also disagree with the comment that's fine, but bringing up sentence mistakes is only saved from being childish because it is assumed all adults are capable with the English Language.

    That peoples reasons are considered less valid in proportion to the skill with which they are put across is kinda horrible when you think about the wider implications.
    Edited by 2 at 22/03/10 @ 10:45

  • Doctor_What #13 2 years ago

    @ Grayvern: Serious question - what games do you think have better stories? I always find this kind of thing interesting.

  • SylarsStubble #14 2 years ago

    Cage should give a Mills & Boon style story a go next.

  • GreyBeard #15 2 years ago

    Excellent, but spoilerific interview, interview with Cage here:

    [link url=http://www.joystiq.com /2010/03/19/interview-spoiling-heavy-rain-with-david-cage/#c ontinued
    ]http://ww w.joystiq.com/2010/03/19/interv...[/link]

    My favourite bit is this:

    Earlier today, Richard Hilleman from EA said that when you work on a game for two to four years, and when you're done with it, the only emotion you feel is relief. Do you think that's true?

    I don't know if it's the only emotion, but I definitely feel relief. I feel relief for me, for my company, because I was personally exposed. I'm, you know, jumping on tables for two years, saying, "This is going to be something, give it a chance," etcetera etcetera. If the game was a disaster, that would probably have been the end of my career. So, you certainly feel relief, but at the same time, I feel really happy. Not only for me but for the people who trusted me to make this game, including some key execs at Sony who took a big risk in signing this game and pushing us forward, and giving us support during all these years, because I think that if Heavy Rain had been a disaster, it would have had consequences -- probably for them to a certain extent.

    I'm proud, also. I'm proud and it's not an ego thing, I'm proud for my team. People worked very hard for years, and really working hard and hoping that we were doing the right things. I'm really happy for them and proud of what they've done.


    Classy dude.

  • VibratingDonkey #16 2 years ago

    Wow at people flinging poo at Cage. Does he come off as that much of a self-important ass? Maybe he doesn't fully deserve all the praise, Heavy Rain wasn't perfect, but it sure as hell was a vast improvement over Fahrenheit in terms of pretty much everything. The scorn he gets for making a successful game of this type is weird. I think his continued interest in and learning of interactive storytelling should be encouraged. It can only get better.

    Unless this is a musical. But then he will still at least have opened the door for others to potentially follow in his footsteps and continue walking past where he croaked. He managed to get Terry Gilliam and other movie dudes to attend the odd premiere they had. I don't think they were necessarily impressed by the writing or anything, but at least they recognized the potential of delivering a story through this format. Not that I expect a Terry Gilliam game, but seeds have been planted. At some point the acorn may grow into a mighty oak (in real-time).

  • RobotRocker #17 2 years ago

    Its probably because of this part of the interview

    Wh en you're playing as Ethan, you get the choice of killing the drug dealer or sparing his life. I was curious as to why, when you kill the drug dealer, there didn't seem to be a consequence at the end. You get the code, but shouldn't Ethan go to jail?

    Well, there is no reason for him to go to jail if the drug dealer is found dead. Nothing leads directly to him.

    Doesn't he throw up next to the body?

    Yes.

    That's not enough to get him in trouble?

    ... Why?

    I thought that would be significant evidence. I thought he deserved to be punished. I killed the drug dealer on the second time I played, and didn't agree with it.

    Okay, so the first time you didn't shoot?

    Man cant even recognise his own plot holes when called out on them and dodges questions the rest of the interview about the games flaws.

    Someone get some balls and ask him how much he knows about Cinematic language and how to construct a scene. The hilarity of seeing character models pop into place like a laserdisc game every time they were too lazy to mask the position change with a b-roll shot is wondrous.

  • Evolution #18 2 years ago

    @VibratingDonkey

    I don't think he comes across as self important. I enjoyed Fahrenheit, and Heavy Rain (what I've played of it) but really he needs to have someone else write dialog for him. Another type of game might get away with it, but seeing as these games are "interactive movies" they really hinge on story/characters more than other genres. Yes there is also some rubbish acting at times which doesn't help, but that's another issue.

  • FogHeart #19 2 years ago

    When there are a multitude of games that have this 'interactive movie' style and which do not have plot holes, I will complain about any in David Cage's games. Until then, I will certainly forgive him one or two that don't break the entire game.

  • rosshuts #20 2 years ago

    So desperate to play Heavy Rain. Just waiting for pay-day next week and off to the shops to buy it!

  • space_ace #21 2 years ago

    not so dark, then "partly cloudy"?

  • neems #22 2 years ago

    I will only be interested if Mr Cage hires professional writers, editors, translators and actors. Both Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain are badly written, both in terms of dialogue and overall plot. For what it's worth, up until the point it went completely tits up I thought Fahrenheit was better.

    That said, there were some very good moments in Heavy Rain. Unfortunately, in many ways its deficiencies made it come across as more 'game like' than many more obviously arcadey games. That's a very badly written sentence, but I hope you know what I mean.
    Edited by 1 at 22/03/10 @ 14:34

  • Mr_Brown #23 2 years ago

    Critisising Heavy Rains story is stupid, it's the imersion that sets it apart from others. I personally like the way the story was delivered, but it was knowing that if you died/failed the story would continue regardless. This makes you care about what's going on and the characters, it doesn't have to be shakespeare to have that effect.

    I'm looking forward to see where this goes now. I hope to see more heavy rain, but I'd like to see someone make a Wire in the Blood game made exactly the same. :-)

  • cheekyjay #24 2 years ago

    Beyond the scripting, mo-cap, VO recording, and testing phase, much of the development time on Heavy Rain was taken up in creating the engine and gameplay interface. The work on these is now essentially done, so Cage's tease that the next game may appear "sooner than you think", might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. The game may well be a radical departure in tone, but it's quite plausible that the engine and many of the mechanics seen in Heavy Rain could be re-used.

  • Creasy #25 2 years ago

    I have Heavy Rain in front of me, but wasn't able to play it so far... It's way too great to just experience it whenever some short time is free... Will play it on vacation... And when I'm (hopefully) in the mood for it... Don't want to spoil the greatest experience in gaming history.. don't want to never have the opportunity to play it for the first time... It probably will be time in about 1 month or so.

  • neems #26 2 years ago

    Well just watch out for spoilers Creasy, you do not want to have that shit revealed ahead of time.