American: Actually, in Bad Day L.A., there was an emphasis on violence as sort of playing it up in a tongue in cheek way because the whole concept was built around, you know, the idea of…
Society crumbling around you.
American: Exactly. But, no. I think in presenting a third person perspective, you’re just setting the character apart from the player. We’re not suggesting to the player that they’re just trying to assume this role. In fact, I think that, especially with Alice, we want the player to come along with her as an equal and let her live and breathe in her own space.
So it was one of the things, probably one of your more infamous quotes has been you wanted to be like Walt Disney, telling stories throughout different mediums.
American: Right.
Do you feel like that’s a goal that is easier to attain now with video games or kind of become more mainstream?
American: Sure. Sure. Well, yeah. When I made that quote, it was definitely coming from a place of thinking about building a business on fairy tales and adapting fairy tales because that’s where Disney’s business came from. But then, there’s also something of a manner of production and being independent, of pushing for a certain type of storytelling or art presentation and sometimes quality as well. Though, if you read about Disney, you see where they had to move the sliders at times in order to get stuff made and quality wasn’t always the thing that was on top in terms of the requirements.
He showed a certain skill at adapting as the thing he was building kept growing.
American: And so, there’s a lot about that story in him as an iconoclast that I think is really attractive that here was a guy who really came from nothing and built an empire.
Sure. Sure.
American: And he did it on top of fairy tales. But I don’t think that the empire itself is what’s interesting. I think that the journey that they took to get there and really more attractive was when they were still small. That’s where that quote came from.
And you feel like that’s informed your own career in terms of the independent route?
American: Yeah.
Because I think the thing that surprised most people about making the game in conjunction with EA was that you’ve been an independent developer for so long. Is EA Partners part of that? People don’t necessarily tend to think of you as being in bed with somebody like EA, at least not anymore.
American: Well, I think EA’s different from when I was here, and EA Partners didn’t exist in this form when R.J. and I were here.
Sure.
American: And so, they’ve made it a lot easier to be partners with them by virtue of being what they are today. But I take your point and I think that, yeah, there has been some sense of sort of being outside for quite a while and certainly a lot of physical travel to the outside.
Well, you’re set up in China now…
American: But I have to say, it’s nice to come back and it’s especially nice to get the kind of support that we’ve had. And I think that a title as big as Madness Returns requires that. It needs something beyond the local concept of it because this is a truly global IP. We’re coming out on PS3, 360, and PC. And we’re addressing a global audience with a piece of IP that is globally appealing.
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