Cage: no more thrillers from me

By Oli Welsh Published 17 February, 2010

Multiplayer drama is "the next challenge".

Speaking to Eurogamer, David Cage has said that Heavy Rain will be his last work in "the thriller genre".

Asked what he wanted to do next, Cage said, "I know one thing for sure, it's that Heavy Rain is the end of my personal trilogy trying to tell the same type of stories with serial killers and stuff, in the thriller genre.

"I'm really happy I've done so because I wanted to have a very codified genre that I can really play with, I know where the boundaries are, it's really well defined for me and for everybody and at the same time I can try to play and learn within this space.

"Now I think I'm grown up enough to say, OK, let's expand the space and try to see what else I can do with what I've learned."

What might expanding that space entail? Cage was evasive, but he did give some hints as to what interests him. He said it would be his "fantasy" to adapt a Shakespeare tragedy into an interactive format and reiterated his interest in motion control, saying, "We have a lot of interest in [Sony's] motion controller, we start to play with it, and yeah, we definitely want to do something with it."

He also said that it would be possible, if difficult, to take his interactive drama format and adapt it for more than one player.

"I think it's possible and I think this is the next challenge," Cage said. "And that would be fascinating. It's incredibly challenging. When I saw the efforts that were needed just to make a single-player experience work on Heavy Rain, I have an idea of what it's going to take to make a multiplayer one, but that would be very exciting."

Read the full interview for much more, including Cage's response to the game's reviews, why buying Heavy Rain is "a political act", and what it would take for him to kill a man.

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 (17) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • RobotRocker #1 2 years ago

    Multi-player naked women in showers! FINALLY!
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/10 @ 14:18

  • Murton #2 2 years ago

    His personal trilogy? As they've only made three games that would be Omikron, Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, does that mean Omikron 2 is back off the cards?

    I also noticed he specifically mentions the wand but not Natal? Could he be hinting at another exclusive?

    Really like the idea of a Shakespeare like tragedy and/or a multiplayer drama. It's refreshing to see a developer who is more interested in the challenge of a new direction than pushing the same shit time and time again simply because it's popular.

  • AphoticCosmos #3 2 years ago

    Pretty sure that there's plenty of drama in online games already.
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/10 @ 14:35

  • ignatiusjreilly #4 2 years ago

    I'm sure I heard a different developer talking about making Macbeth into a game recently.

    Not sure it would work personally, but it would have to be pretty different so I'd love to see someone try.

  • geeza2020 #5 2 years ago

    yeah im sure all the bloody kids in secondary school are going to want to buy a macbeth game. To be honest i don't think i would either.

  • Tomo #6 2 years ago

    I'd love to see a Shakespeare adaptation, if only to see the industry moving in new directions. We need more genres dammit!

  • FogHeart #7 2 years ago

    I think if he spoke about wanting to make a Natal game a week before releasing his Magnum Opus the good people from Sony might be a tad upset!

    I have to agree, Natal seems like a natural choice for him. Doesn't mean an Arc game won't be great though.

  • Golgo #8 2 years ago

    He should do a comedy. The voice acting of the FBI agent was pure gold.

  • Murton #9 2 years ago

    "I think if he spoke about wanting to make a Natal game a week before releasing his Magnum Opus the good people from Sony might be a tad upset! "

    Possibly, I was more referring to the fact that technically Quantic Dream are still a third party company that just happened to have worked very closely with Sony for their first game this generation, much like Epic did with Gears but then went onto to produce UT3 which was multiplatform.

    Can't wait to see whatever it is he has planned next.

  • chubster2010 #10 2 years ago

    re 'yeah im sure all the bloody kids in secondary school are going to want to buy a macbeth game. '

    Yeah I'm sure all the bloody kids in secondary school are going to want to buy a game based on Dante's Inferno....

    See what I did there?

  • curtlikesmeat #11 2 years ago

    You forgot to ask him about The Nomad Soul :(

  • geeza2020 #12 2 years ago

    chubster - I don't think Mr Cage is likely rape his source material quite as badly as Dantes Inferno has done to try and make it appealing.

  • chubster2010 #13 2 years ago

    @ geeza2020
    I suppose...but you take my point!?

    Also...thinking about it...it would be wrong to underestimate what can be achieved with Shakespeare in terms of popular culture - just look at Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet', that was a huge film.

    So...in summary...David Cage should make Hamlet, and cast Leonardo Di Caprio in the main role. And give him a gun.

  • Eurogammon #14 2 years ago

    God this man is up his own arse.

  • Hyoscine #15 2 years ago

    The problem with trying to leave the term "video game" behind is that you lose the unique tolerances people have for the medium. If it's not a game, David, then what excuse is there for your consistently vapid, embarrassing, derivative, self important shenanigans? You guitar solo inflicting, shower scene loving, adolescent, cheese merchant.

  • schnide #16 2 years ago

    Online multiplayer drama already exists in MMOs.

    All Cage is doing is reinventing genres that have existed for years and flowering it with cinematic references. Heavy Rain is Monkey Island and Dragon's Lair dressing up in PS3 technology.

  • VMerken #17 2 years ago

    The difference being, Schnide, that Dragon's Lair proved to be crap and Monkey Island proved to be brilliant.

    ... I wonder what Heavy Rain will prove to be. The demo hints it's more of a Dragon's Lair type of game. And personally, I cringed once the FBI detective put on his sunglasses. Hopefully, the storyline has a very good explanation there.
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/10 @ 11:11