Since E3 2004, it seems the scuttlebutt around the videogame industry has been about two things: next-generation consoles and what Neversoft was up to next. Normally known for its Tony Hawk games, Neversoft is embarking on a completely new adventure and franchise, known simply as ?Gun.? This third-person shooter takes place in the Old West, a genre heretofore butchered by developers both in story and in gameplay, LucasArts? Outlaws notwithstanding.
While attending the official unveiling for Gun (read DailyGame?s Gun preview here), we had a chance to throw back a few shots of whiskey with Chad Findley, Project Lead for Gun. Between shots, and between trips to the bathroom, we had a surprisingly coherent conversation about the creative process behind Gun, the team?s goals for Gun’s story and gameplay, and the ways in which Gun will differ from any other Old West game you?ve ever played. Below is the sobering transcript of that interview, complete with more than its fair share of cowboy-like cussing. Consider yourself forwarned.
What about the Old West inspired you guys to leave the comfort of the Tony Hawk franchise and create Gun?
Chad Findley: Well, you know, here people were after the Civil War, the entire Western U.S. is wide open, and nobody knew how to go forward. There were so many opportunities, but you had to take them. It [was] scary, the brutality and the violence, and it was disgusting at some times, but totally fantastic. Once we started doing research on it, we were like ?well, we?ve gotta to that. We?ve gotta do that. Oh, look, a coach full of loose women who are being transported across the country!? There were just all these things going on, and we just had to use them. I think a lot of people don?t realize what it was really like, because a lot of the old Westerns didn?t really capture a lot of that, the harshness of [the West]. So this is a perfect genre to put the player in that spot, where he has to survive in this world and then also deal with this whole story that?s going on of betrayal and vengeance. It?s just the perfect vehicle.?
So how this all began was wanting to capture that mayhem and chaos?
Yeah, it started off with us wanting to capture that mayhem, and that?s before we really knew how bad it was, how tough it was, how brutal it was. It?s a brutal, fantastic, and almost fantasy-like in some respects, because a lot of America was unexplored at that point. A lot of the canyons and ravines, the Badlands and Montana Territory, from Dodge to New Mexico, some of the harshest terrain, when you actually see the pictures of what it really looked like, it almost looks like a fantasy. So we were able to put this in the game, but not just like in the Hollywood movie, where it?s out in the sand dunes or whatever and looks black and white. …[As] we did more and more research on it, we realized there?s just way too much stuff to even start to do all of it. Between the people who are going for gold, the people who are wanted by the law, the detectives who went out there, the cow rustlers, the cow ranchers, all these different factions working together and butting heads and starting fights and wanting their territory and wanting their land … it was just a sandbox ready to fucking explode, so that?s what we want to do.
When you were doing this research, where did you go? Did you go to libraries, look at archival photos, what?
We went to the Autry Museum, we bought the 29-book Time Life set, watched all the movies, read a shitload of books, did the Internet research, we did it all, so we could get all the coolest shit and then put it in the game. We wanted the player to feel like he?s really part of the West, … so we?ve included all these little side things that you can do along the way. So everything is like a little story that we can add that people wouldn?t realize went on. Like Chinese workers, they would buy a gold claim that was no longer valid, and they?d start mining it, and if they found gold, the people who sold it to them would find out about it, go and blow up the mine and seal them in and suffocate them, dig them out and then work the claim again. It?s that type of stuff that makes you go ?shit, that?s not right,? but it happened back then [and we?ll let you play it].
How big of an influence for you was the movie Deadwood, if any?
Personally, the influence was fantastic, because I love that series and just the ugly, raw grit of it was fantastic, and I think for a lot of the guys around work it was just as influential. We didn?t actually use anything from it, because we wanted to make our own story, but we liked the style they were going for, and it was pretty similar to the things we wanted to do. We pretty much knew what we wanted to do before Deadwood came out; we?ve been working on this for about a year and three-quarters now, so we pretty much had an idea. We wanted to make a brutal, gritty Western that was dark but had a theme behind it and a reason behind it, and [so] it parallels Deadwood a little bit, but we didn?t take anything from it.
With Read Dead Revolver being somewhat lackluster, was that any sort of deterrent or motivation about making a game in this genre?
Well we started work on Gun before we even knew Red Dead Revolver was even coming out. We wanted to make our game, and [Rockstar?s] game was something on the side, like ?OK, that?s interesting,? but we had a clear vision of what we wanted to do. We wanted to make our real Western.
So is that where you think it?s really going to stand out from Red Dead, by including the real stuff that went on in the Old West?
That?s definitely what we?re doing. We?re making the shit that went on, and we?re making a great game that controls and plays well. The horse combat that we?ve got going on, it?s so much fun to play. I was doing the demo here tonight, and I just love playing the horse combat. It?s insanely fun. And the hand-to-hand, and the pistol, and our ?Edge? mode, and every bit of it. [Our games] control and play really well, and [Gun] puts the player in a fucking awesome and fantastic environment that existed yet they didn?t know about.
Speaking of Tony Hawk, there?s a big difference here between that franchise and Gun.
It?s funny, people think Tony Hawk?s a completely different game to make than a lot of other games, but I?ve worked on three or four of the Tony Hawks and Spider-Man, and good design and good gameplay are the same thing across the board. You just have to figure out how it works and you make it happen.
What are you most excited about in Gun?
To be honest, I think I?m most excited about people really getting to experience something they had no idea about. You know, you?ve got your sci-fi games out there, and you?ve got your urban games out there, you?ve got your drivers, but this is something I don?t think you?ve ever played before.
Yeah, but people knew there were whores back then, people knew there were gang killings back then. What is it that?s so new to people? What is it that we?re going to experience that we don?t know existed?
Well, I think a lot of it is just that when people think about the West, they think about a fake West, a Hollywood West. Unforgiven and Deadwood start to touch the side of what really went on then, but I can?t impress upon you enough the sheer number of bizarre, brutal, backstabbing, ugly, weird, fantastic, crazy things that went on, and that?s what we definitely want to bring out. That?s just another day in the life of the West, you know? It?s not fantastical in that it?s not unreal, but it?s just like ?holy shit. This is cool! I get to do this. I?m going to raid this fort full of renegade soldiers and take it down, and then escort the whore coach all the way through Indian territory. I?m going to do all these cool things I?ve never gotten to do before.? That?s what we?re doing right there, and giving it to people, and having them go ?this is fucking awesome.?
Is there anything else you?d like to tell our readers that we haven?t already covered?
I really hope you guys enjoy this, and I hope you guys really get a chance to get into it, because we?ve been working really fucking hard on this thing. We?ve got a great team assembled to do this, and I think you guys will be pretty impressed when it comes out.
Special thanks to Activision, Neversoft and Chad Findley for their hospitality and availability at the Gun unveiling.