"The Amazing Spider-Man" game has been released, the team at developer Beenox has some time to kill between projects, so I got the opportunity to talk with producer David Boudreault about the most recent installment in the Spidey franchise.
[Ed. Note] This article will be presented in a question-then-answer style, with our question to Boudreault in bold text followed by his answer in normal text.
Spider-Man movie games have been coming out for as long as the movies have been, most of them not so good, but it seems that "The Amazing Spider-Man" is trying its hardest to break that stereotype, what drove you to make an (forgive the pun) amazing game?
At Beenox, everyone is a huge fan of Spider-Man so we dedicated all our passion and energy on making this a great game. The core team of "The Amazing Spider-Man" already delivered the awesome "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" two years ago, therefore we had strong and experimented resources working on this title.
Because it is a movie tie-in game, were there any limitations that you had when creating the game?
Our main limitation was self-imposed . We wanted a great Spider-Man game, respectful of the source material and respectful of the movie universe created by Marc Webb.
With the game coming out a full week before the release date of the movie , should players be worried about any big spoilers in the game?
The game is heavily linked to the movie on some ways, but we made sure that we would not spoil anything too major.
On that note, did the team over at Beenox get a chance to see the film or at the very least read the script to help with the game?
Sony was really cooperative and they helped us tremendously in making sure the game would rock. We had the chance to read the script at the beginning of the project, and we were in constant communication throughout the course of the project. We received movies and images as references in order to make sure we were staying as close as possible to the movie universe.
You mentioned to me at E3 that the actor for "The Amazing Spider-Man," Andrew Garfield was too busy with the films shooting schedule to do the voice over for the game. Who did you get to replace him in the game, and do you think players are going to have a hard time reconciling the different voice actors?
Even though the game is an epilogue to the movie, we also made sure it was standing out on itself. Having a different actor won’t be such a big deal, especially since Sam Riegl did an awesome job in voicing Spidey/Peter.
The camera in this game has been brought to an over the shoulder position, which differs from many of the past Spider-Man games. What prompted this decision?
Spidey takes on Rhino. |
I recently just downloaded the "Amazing Spider-Man" demo for my 3DS and the villain of choice in the demo was Felicia Hardy, also known as the Black Cat. In the comics, she and Spider-Man have a little romance, so are we going to see that interaction as the story progresses?
You don't want me to spoil the story, do you?
The combat system has reportedly been built from the ground up replacing the old X, X, X, B combo style for a more free-flowing combat mechanic. What inspired this transition?
Spidey is a strong character, but we wanted to showcase his spectacular agility. We wanted the combat to be as acrobatic as possible. We feel our new, unique combat system will allow the player to experience that agility since you’ll see him execute moves never before seen in a Spidey game.
Beenox has become relatively well known for creating good Spider-Man games. Does the team still want to continue working on the franchise, or are they just fed up with the web slinger and want to move on?
Beenox thrives on challenges, be it with a character like Spidey or other characters. If fans like the game, we definitely would want the chance to give this game a great sequel. That being said, we might also have a surprise or two in our future.