MediEvil developers - Q&A

[flynn60]

Well yeah, but they still could have done some cool stuff with it. I'm just curious if they had any more ideas for the time machine and went into ideas I had.

[Winston1]

I've recently had the privilege to speak with Dominic Cahalin, the Chief Designer and writer of MediEvil: Resurrection. He agreed to help answer some things about the game, as well as providing his own personal opinion about the game's quality and reception with the fans. Its a great read, if I might say so myself;
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1) In MediEvil: Resurrection, we can see that the characters and levels from MediEvil 1 were given visual makeovers, different from their original versions. What was the reason for the redesigns?

DC - The senior management team at Sony wanted a PSP launch game and decided that a remake or “remix” of the original Medievil was the way to go. Part of the reason for this was a very short predicted development time – an original game likely to take considerably longer (we only had a year to get the game ready). I was assigned to creating this new version, and worked very closely with very talented producer Piers Jackson in terms of scoping out the project. Being a designer with my own vision I naturally wanted to make it as different as possible from the original (where appropriate) and wanted to improve the game generally where possible. I think I achieved this is some regards and failed in others.

So basically we took advantage of the new technology to make the game as good as we could, to the best of our ability. And this included new level layouts, play mechanics, characters, and graphics.

So many older gamers associate the original PS1 game with the romance of their childhood so much that they actively dislike Medievil Resurrection (there are a lot of haters on YouTube for example ) – they see the PSP version as being too cartoony, comedic, and less playable. I actually think that Resurrection overall plays better than the original (which was actually quite basic to play if you go back to it), but Resurrection is certainly more cartoony and obviously comedic… and Al Zalam is pretty annoying (I was pressured into including him… truly not my idea!).

Interestingly we developed the game originally on a PS2 and ported it to PSP… it’s a shame that the PS2 version was never made available (it easily could have been as a budget game) as it was more playable on PS2 than the PSP version, benefitting greatly from the precision of the dedicated PS2 controller.


2) In one of the concept arts, there is a character that does not appear in the game - I have heard that this was a mullock, a creature that's encountered in MediEvil 2. www.redknuckle.com/concept_pages/scarecrow/Scarecrow06_r2_c4.jpg

Also, in the Return to the Graveyard level, the grave that contains the first piece of the Anubis Stone is mentioned to be that of the Mullock Chief's.

Were the mullock's intended to make a physical appearance in MediEvil: Resurrection?


DC - Brilliant lead artist Mitch Phillips simply loved designing characters… The Mullock Chief artwork was a labour of love, at no point was the character intended to make an actual appearance in the game. Mitch just wanted to draw him


3) Mellowmede, a level from the original MediEvil, is mentioned during one of the cutscenes with the Grim Reaper. Was there an idea to make this a level in Resurrection or was it just mentioned for fun? If it was indeed a level idea, than were there possibly other levels from the original that were also considered for Resurrection?

DC - It was just mentioned for fun really, and to stay true to the idea that Gallowmere was a “real place” with consistent history and geography etc.

Initially we had planned two additional levels for Resurrection (I completed the revised paper design for them). These were the asylum grounds and the Crystal Caves (both based loosely on the levels from the original games). These were cut out due to development time restrictions, which was a real shame, as they had some cool new play mechanics and character designs. The launch of the PSP was eventually delayed by Sony by 6 months, which meant that we could easily have finished the game with all the levels


4) Were there any press kits that were released alongside MediEvil: Resurrection? It's just a question I have because Sony Cambridge's previous games (MediEvil 1, MediEvil 2, Primal, and Ghosthunter) were all released with Press boxed editions and I was wondering if Resurrection received the same treatment.

DC - I don’t think so. I certainly can’t remember one. I think the dedicated Sony web site pages took the place of such a kit.


5) If it's alright, I'd also like to ask about the game's ending message: after the final cutscene, the narrator concludes the games story and hints at Zarok possibly returning in a sequel. Were there ideas for another installment as a followup or was it just a reference to the existing MediEvil 2?

DC - Virtually everyone at the Cambridge Sony Studio wanted to make a PS3 version of Medievil! Resurrection was basically a rushed job, which explained some of its weaknesses. I did a basic design of a Zelda style version of Medievil 3 with free-roaming levels and non-linear gameplay etc. But the senior management team at Sony Europe did not believe in Medievil as a long running franchise, and were even very cynical about the chances of success for Medievil Resurrection. This attitude proved at least partly wrong, as the PSP game went on to sell relatively impressive numbers.


6) How was your reaction when many fans loved the game? Also, was MediEvil: Resurrection met with good sales back in 2005?

DC - To be fair, the reception was mixed, some people loved it and many hated it! Lol But I was proud of it. It is really difficult designing a re-make of a much loved game, as people’s perception of it is nearly always clouded by their experiences of playing the original… often when they were little children (as in this case). The game is far from perfect. BUT I do think it has a lot of strengths (and improves on the original in terms of level design) and, taken on it’s own merits is a fine PSP game with some genuinely funny moments. I also think the min-games work well. I don’t actually know how many units it ultimately sold. But I believe over a million, which is far more than were originally projected.

Cheers,
Dominic.
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[Dan's Friend]

Damn, they should've released it on both the PSP and PS2.

I wonder what their vision for those two levels was, if Jack was in the Grounds and if the Caves were somehow connected to Dragon Island or took place just before Haunted Ruins.

So that's ANOTHER MediEvil 3 draft? OMG.

[flynn60]

I knew Sony had little faith in Medievil... I always thought they would have had to for a Medievil 3 not to have been made. It genuinely makes me angry that they thought this. Not surprising but sickening.

[kaori]

C'mon, Sony! Medievil can be a real goldmine! Return to the classics!

[Garden Variety Zombie]

Sucks hearing this stuff huh? I mean, it's cool that we DO get to hear it of course, but it's all retroactive bad news

[Winston1]

Here's another thing that I asked Dominic about;
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I was actually wondering about something that had been mentioned on a site several years from original MediEvil art director Jason Wilson: he said that there had once been talk of a MediEvil movie or an animated TV show and that there was even a French company that was originally interested because MediEvil was a big hit in France.
the-dan-fanclub.deviantart.com/journal/Jason-s-Email-242293324

Do you know anything about this? Was it only discussed or were there possibly any story ideas?


Dominic Cahalin - Yes x media/animation company was interested in teaming up with us to create a show based on Medievil universe...

It would have been amazing!!!! This was at exactly the same time we were developing Resurrection

Sadly it fell through.... I am guessing that the general lack of confidence/support in Medievil from senior management (Phil Harrison, etc.) scuppered it...

I don't know exactly why though...

Big Shame!

[Garden Variety Zombie]

I'd have watched it!

[flynn60]

It seems like the only reason Medievil hasn't been more successful is that people in charge lack the confidence to even try.

[Garden Variety Zombie]

It seems so as there is very little genuine dislike for Medievil. I mean, almost anyone gives it praise if they have even played it!

[Winston1]

Not to mention how all three games achieved commercial success and were all re-released as Platinum titles...

Also, now that we have an idea of Resurrection's sales figures, I asked Chris about the sales for MediEvil 1 and 2. He said that they never actually had access to precise sales figures, but these are the approximate (lifetime) figures as he understands them:

MediEvil 1: 1.3 million
MediEvil 2: 0.7 million

[flynn60]

Then why do they not trust the series? I don't really get it.

[Garden Variety Zombie]

You think it might just be the worry of it being a risk? Not sure why, but I guess they assume that the series is seemingly so old now (to them) that most people don't remember it, and wouldn't grab a game based on the name Medievil or the face of Sir Dan alone.

Pretty sure that is wrong though.

[kaori]

Then remaking the game wouldn't give it a chance to be know by the new generation too?

[InnocentSam]

I want a remake of MediEvil 2

[Garden Variety Zombie]

I think a decent start would be putting the original Medievil 2 on PSN and go from there.
Also doing a bundle price for both Medievil 1 + 2 for PSN (possibly to coincide with Halloween in October), see how sales go and such, then work on a remake of Medievil 2, then onto Medievil 3 if possible.

Of course the problem now is that it's gotten so late that they would probably be released on Vita/PS4, neither of which I have or are likely to have for a long time.

[flynn60]

I think that by now they should just release a new Medievil with a sub title added (Like Medievil Undead) or something like that and use a different Fortesque like the original sequel idea. Have the hall of heroes and put Dan in there. He could help your character along the way or something.

[Winston1]

I'd say that it's probably too late for Sony to use a different Fortesque protagonist, especially since Sir Dan has already been used recently in PlayStation Allstars. There would likely would be many complaints from fans if they replaced Dan with a different character. I think the most likely direction they'd take is either reboot the series and start over with Sir Dan's creation story and original conflict with Zarok, or continue from where MediEvil: Resurrection left off, with Zarok and Sir Dan returning in a sub titled self contained sequel.

[Dan's Friend]

Yeah. The descendant option was lost when Daniel appeared in all the games, though I can see a MediEvil 2 remake with multiplayer, where Daniel is aided by a descendant of his, Henry, for example.

I think a reboot is unlikely. I mean, Resurrection itself was practically one. But hey, I'd love a reboot, if it was done right!

I think that if they ever want to remake 2, they should start by releasing a remastered version of Resurrection for the PS3 and Vita (possibly make it available on the PS4, so everyone can play it!) with high definiton graphics, trophies, remade multiplayer, a few tweaks to the clumsy combat, less Al-Zalam and perhaps even new content (the two cut levels, more mini games, weapons, etc.).

[InnocentSam]

Most of the time, HD versions are just boosts in framerate and texture resolution. Besides, MediEvil Resurrection is already on Vita as a backwards-compatible game where it runs at the best framerate with bilinear filtering.

But nonetheless, trophies would be welcome

[Winston1]

I had the please to speak with Jason Riley. For those who don't know, he was part of the core development team on MediEvil 1 and 2. He was responsible for the creation of the FMV's for both those games, he designed three levels for MediEvil 1, and also created the marketing art for all three games. I emailed him to ask about his work on MediEvil and what he came to enjoy from the series. I thought to share it, so here's the full response:


Jason Riley

Hi Winston,

I'm always pleased to talk about MediEvil, because to me it was a happy time and it certainly shows with overall output of the game. At the time (1995-1997) there was twelve to sixteen internal staff working on that game. and took two - three years to develop. You have to bear in mind - the first year only had one to three people prototyping the story, design and planning. On the whole for the size of the team, the game was rich with events.

The game was fun, because all twelve core members had a say in what they would like as a game. We made a lot of suggestions, but clearly this was Chris Sorrell's and Jason Wilsons game and they would have the final say in which we respected that fact. I enjoyed it because I had the opportunity to do the Cinematics, in which I had learned so much about 3D animation. I had only one years CG experience before MediEvil.

I often look back at the sequences, Wishing to render them out at a better resolution / framerate. I was restricted to the PlayStation One's movie playblast. I remember the tools for foot locking on Dan's floppy feet were a nightmare, that is why you will see them slide from time to time.

The game itself had a certain innocence about it - nothing was taken seriously. So whatever quirks, whatever inaccuracies happened, seemed to be forgiven, because it was a good entertaining story. You could have a game or a film with amazing CG and effects, but if the story is poor, then it will flop! What a waste of time, effort and resources!

MediEvil 2 - Yeah I enjoyed it - but not as much! I felt a bit rushed. We had to get it done in one and a half years. We managed it. Even so we didn't do another MediEvil until five years later, at that time I was working on two projects - 24 (Based on the Series) and of course MediEvil Resurrection, so therefore I didn't have the time to do the FMV. I did however do some good marketing / cutscene stuff, which I really enjoyed, probably because I had some good discussions about how they will look. It seems I'm happiest when I work on a project and I get to express ideas. I'm at an all time low when the job is - no discussions just do! Although that is rare, so don't let that put you off. There are ups and downs in every workplace.

It seems that the bigger the title - the less say production staff will have, because Senior Staff will have little time to listen to a thousand people (The amount of people, who worked on GTA 5). If you are in a small indie studio, the discussions are more circulatory. Games are getting bigger quantities of staff, the sad part is - sooooo many companies go down, because risk of budget seems to double every generation. Let's put it into perspective. A PlayStation one game would cost one to several Million to make. Now - cost's 137 Million to make for GTA 5, not forgetting marketing! But look at the return, over a billion and climbing!

I've got to say this Winston. Games are hard and expensive to develop. If they were easy everyone would be doing it. I would like to counter anyone that say's "Is that all you do all day - Play games" cliche. The reward comes when you have produced something that is viewed and appreciated by millions. I'd hate to think how much games will cost to develop in another ten Years!
Alternatively you could produce the most amazing original game ever made. Look how much Tetris made. You could go down two routes

A - Join the race of an overly saturated market of AAA development and be the best at it - maybe you'll make money from the final product.

or

B - Think of the most interesting indie game that has never been thought of before and make loads of money (Farmville). Be the First - be the best!

Good Luck with your venture!

Jason Riley

One more thing about whether we are developing another MediEvil - the answer is no. Much as I'd like to. We are now "Guerrilla Cambridge" - no longer "The Cambridge Studio".

Site: www.artificial-lens.com/MediEvilPics.html

[Garden Variety Zombie]

Fascinating reading as always, thanks Winston
Also the name "Guerrilla Cambridge" just makes me think of a Medievil spin off with Dogman (Medievil 2 henchman) as the main character just going around causing havoc about Cambridge town

[InnocentSam]

Makes me think of Red Faction. Then I think of that crappy game. Then I think of Cambridge and cry.

[Dan's Friend]

This sort of thing makes me sad. Everyone who worked on the original would gladly work on another installment, fans would love another installment, but Sony thinks it isn't a good investment, so the chances of such a thing are slim. Gosh!

[Garden Variety Zombie]

If Sony bothered to promote it (and also, if they had bothered a bit close to the time when Resurrection came out) it would have sold better, but would also still sell well now obviously.

[Winston1]

I just emailed Jason Wilson again, asking for some info on the original concept for MediEvil 2. Here's the conversation;

Me

I'd like to ask if it would be alright if I could ask you about a concept for MediEvil 2 which wound up not being used: You mentioned that the original idea for MediEvil 2 involved Zarok being kept prisoner in the Tower of London and Dan had to free him, after which they would then work together in an uneasy alliance.
www.sirdanielfortesque.proboards.com/thread/775/medievil-developers

I'd like to ask if there is anything more that you can describe about this concept and, if alright, why it wasn't used. About how different was this vision from the way the game actually turned out?

Jason Wilson

Chris came up with the original wonderful idea of setting Med' 2 in Victorian London. I believe at this point that the hero wasn't even Dan Fortisque but an ascendant of Dan's - a rather dapper skeleton in a top and tails (I forget his name). This revision might have been too similar to Jack Skellington but we ran with the idea for a while. The final design of this character did end up in Med' 2 as the Victorian outfit that Dan gets to wear.
Chris was busy ramping up the pre-production on Primal and was looking into technology for an engine to run on the then unreleased PS2. I was left with Med' 2 on my own for a while so I went away and knocked around a few ideas to embellish Chris's overall brief (which was how we had worked on Med' 1).
I came up with the British Museum and the exhibits coming to life as well as the Vampires in London amongst other things. At that point we had Zarok imprisoned in the Tower of London. His spell book which is held in a secure location was stolen and used by an evil cult to resurrect the dead. At some point in this early design spec the player had to team up with Zarok, who was an untrustworthy ally to save the day.
There was an idea that Dan could take out his eye ball and pop into area he had no access to so that he could spy. This was later replaced by Chris with the fabulous Dan-hand idea.
Chris also had the idea of Queen Victoria being possessed and turned into a giant monster version of Queen Victoria and stomping about London like Godzilla.
After I worked on this design spec a new project director became involved with Med' 2 - James Shepherd. James kept some of the ideas that Chris and I had specced up but also replaced some ideas with his own, such as replacing Zarok with the Palethorn gangster character and the boxing section. In terms of art design, I decided that if Zarok was thin and fey then Palethorn would be wide, square and gruff. I liked the contrast between the two villains.
I liked a lot of James' ideas and approved of the main character still being Dan Fortesque. He also added the romantic sub plot which was a great idea.
The only mis-steps was that I felt that the boxing match section was misplaced and the level designs were rather flat after the joyous undulations of the original (after a lot of level design work on Med' 1 I had little to do with level design on Med 2 as I was dealing 100% of my time on art direction and concepts). I would have loved to have seen the monstrous Queen Victoria in the final game.

I still have the original design doc for Med' 2 before James came on board. It would be interesting to look back at it and see how it evolved. All in all, MediEvil 2 was a polished game that was a good mix of ideas from Chris, James and myself, that took the game in a fresh new direction.

I went on to enjoy working with James on Ghosthunter where we continued some of the themes of MediEvil 2. Sadly I never worked on another game with Chris again. I have a good deal of respect for both chaps.

Hope that helps.

J


PS - if any of you chaps want a preview of my current project then you can 'like' my Jay Gunn Facebook page. Jay Gunn is my graphic novel writing pseudonym. I'm working on a 'science fiction fantasy horror' comic book series - "Surface Tension." There are some crazy ideas in the story and art and if you liked the art or the games that the Cambridge Studio developed then you'll probably like this story too! It'll be released in 2014 by Titan Books.

I had a feeling that Sir Henry's outfit ended becoming the Victorian costume. If I might say so myself, the original concept sounds a lot more interesting than the MediEvil 2 we ultimately got (which I still enjoyed, by the way).

Special thanks to Jason and Chris for the info they've provided on this.

[Garden Variety Zombie]

It's always interesting reading this stuff I remember the giant Queen Victoria from the design documents, that would have been brilliant.

Here is the Facebook page that he mentioned too:
www.facebook.com/pages/Jay-Gunn/320411131418972

[Dan's Friend]

Thanks for asking him! Liked the page.

[Winston1]

Here's one more thing that I just asked Jason about on the Parliament level. I know that Julian Rex already answered this, but it's good to at least get clarification from another person on the development team;

Me

Actually, if it's still alright, there's one other question I have regarding a cut level in MediEvil 2: someone on the MediEvil Boards found mention of a file called "Parliament" and I've heard that this was intended to be a level in the game. Is this true? If so, what would it have been like?

Jason Wilson

"Parliament" was the level intended as the battle ground for fighting the Queen Victoria monster. It got changed to a different level design when the Queen was dropped for the big demon that replaced her.
I do not think that much work was done on the parliament level.

[Garden Variety Zombie]

I'd like to ask questions like:
"Does *blank* have an official name/was *blank* given a name around the office when referring to them?"

*blank* being any of the 'unnamed characters' like the skeleton from the main menu or the general enemies, as the names for a lot of the enemies were just given by fans or in the unofficial guide book.
I guess Resurrection gave us a lot of the answers, but who came up with THOSE names? Was it the same person that designed the enemies in the first game? Otherwise they might still not be the right names.