'Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' Developer Interview and Alternate Costumes Revealed
by John Carle, Aug 16 2010
On Marvel.com, Activision has revealed all of the unlockable skins for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. By playing through the game, players will have the opportunity to unlock new looks for their favorite wall crawler across the four dimensions of gameplay. Make sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this post for screen shots of all the new costumes.
At Comic Con, we had the opportunity to sit down with Studio Head over at Beenox, the developers behind Spider–Man: Shattered Dimensions, Dee Brown. In our short time with Dee, he discussed with us the choices behind dimensions of the game.
He also mentions creating new villains for the game as well as the hype that has been coming out leading to the game's release.
The Flickcast: First question I have, what was the thought process behind the four dimensions Beenox picked?
Dee Brown: Well, what we do when we start a project, we did what we always do when we start a project, a deep dive into the brand and we dug up a lot of the comic stuff of Spider-Man, and we did this big presentation to the team and the entire company.
Everybody loves Spider-Man of course, but nobody knows all the different universes and everything, so we did this presentation and showed shots of 2099 and Noir and all the amazing universes. People, like me for example, I didn't know about Noir and when I saw it I thought "That's amazing, that's so great."
And so we started brainstorming about what we were going to do as a game, and eventually everybody thought the dimensions were so cool and we couldn't make a choice, there's no way, so somebody thought about this crazy thing about making a game with four different dimensions, four different art styles, four different [kinds of] gameplay.
First time somebody came to me with that as a manager I said, "Are you crazy, guy?' Doing four games in one? But then again I'm also a big player of videogames and I thought "Yeah, that would be so cool. So let's try it." And we did. That's kind of how it came all together.
FC: Well obviously the Amazing dimension is the Stan Lee Spider-Man so that was almost a given, what made you say Noir, 2099, and Ultimate would be the other three as opposed to all the other versions of Spider-Man that do exist? What made those three stand out to you?
DB: Well we wanted to initially right from the start to go for a variety as our motive for that game. So we decided to look at the various universes and we said ok, we want something that looks fresh and new for the player. So Noir was so so different from anything you could expect, it's a total opposite of Amazing in so many ways while still being Spider-Man. 2099 is in the future, it looks different, it's incredible. So this is really why we picked those two.
And the others we wanted to provide something already familiar to the player as well so we went with Amazing. With Ultimate, because we wanted to have this different experience, we decided to put him in the black suit, which kind of gives him a very different style than Amazing with the web-based combat.
Ultimate has this combat system based on the black suit so tendrils move, he has a lot of reach so he can do those 360-degree moves that take care of all the enemies around him which is really cool and we've built the gameplay around that feature so he's often going to be swarmed, almost overwhelmed, by enemies, so he has all those moves to take care of them. Which brings me to the other new and unique feature of Ultimate which is Rage Mode.
When the meter is filled you can unleash your Rage Mode and all the enemies around you just get blown away and, as long as Rage Mode is on, you're going to have special powers only unlocked in Rage Mode. We have tons of new stuff in Ultimate and I think it's why we've chosen all these dimensions, to provide something fresh and unique every time.
FC: From the developer perspective, how did it feel as you were announcing each universe, the videogame community speculating on what those other universes were going to be? I know on our side, I was one of the writers who was covering this, and I was going through all the different Spider-Man universes and I was like "Is it the House of M Spider-Man, the Zombie Spider-Man?" How did it feel having people speculate on what you guys were going to reveal when it came down to that?
DB: Well, I for one was very excited and everyone on the team was very excited about that because it kind of proved that we made the right choices for the concept. Like everybody was putting their own Spider-Man. For example, when we announced Amazing and Noir in the beginning, 2099 was always coming up on the forums.
We read all that, so that kind of reassured us, like 2099 seems to be loved so then we announced it and it just comforted us knowing that we made the right choice by going with multiple universes. Everybody has their own favorite so there's going to be a piece in our videogame for everybody. Everybody's going to find characters they love but also discover those other universes that they might not have known before and all build on that wonderful character that is Spider-Man.
FC: If given the option, was there a fifth universe you would have liked to include or do you feel like these are the top four universes and this is the definitive way you wanted to tell your story?
DB: It's hard to say, because there's a lot of personal opinion in there, of course, and there's also production concern. What we wanted to do is to really offer a good dose and a good amount of experience for each character. Obviously if we had had ten dimensions or something like that you'd have been able to play each Spider-Man for only a couple of minutes and that's just not worth it.
We wanted to be able to play and have a really deep dive into each world. So we had to make the cut at some point, it's hard and there's still a ton of material out there that would certainly be worth their own dimensions.
FC: Now I know this might be way too early to ask this since the game is still over a month from being released. Is there a chance of DLC of another universe being added or is this too early to talk about that?
DB: It's probably too early, and we've not announced our DLC plan yet for Spider-Man, and the game is going to be released in September so we're getting pretty close, we're a little more than a month away from release, and the game's going to be released early September for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. There's going to be a separate DS game as well.
FC: In terms of all these different universes, like certain creators are very tied to their specific universe, obviously Stan Lee is the guy who created the Amazing Spider-Man universe and Peter David is the one who worked on 2099, did those creators have any input into this game or was it mostly taking the source material that was available to you and studying that thoroughly when creating the stories that lead to the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game?
DB: Well we obviously studied a lot of the Spider-Man material before starting the game and while doing the game and conceiving the various levels. One thing we wanted to be sure of is that we were true to the Spider-Man license, that was very, very important to us. We did not hire a writer for each Spider-Man but we did go with Dan Slott, who is the current writer of the Amazing Spider-Man storyline and he's very good and very loved by the fans and has been very helpful.
We had him on board right from the start to the end of the project, he's the one that came up with the story about the tablet being shattered across the dimensions. He helped us plan the story but also made sure that the game, the writing, the dialogues, and everything else was really fit for Spider-Man and that the fans would like it, a complete package, and he really did a great job.
FC: What came into the creation of the Hobgoblin in 2099, because that's a character that never actually appeared in any Spider-Man story before? What was the origin behind Hobgoblin being created for this game?
DB: Obviously 2099 and Noir don't have as many comics behind them than Ultimate or Amazing, so obviously the villain cast from Marvel is a bit limited in those two universes. However, we wanted to create something fresh and unique for the fans, so we've been working on the idea of "What if we add new villains?" Marvel was very supportive of that, and they gave us some ideas that really inspired us, and Slott helped us too. So there's the Hobgoblin, there's Hammerhead in Noir, and more to come.
FC: Thanks so much for your time, I've got one last question for you. Of the four universes, since you've gotten to experience so much more of the game than we have at this point, which of the four is your favorite dimension?
DB: [Laughs] My favorite dimension? Well that's a very hard question because it kind of moved during development. I think all of them really have something unique and I enjoy playing all of them. But if I had to pick one that I really like and fits my play style more, Ultimate. The levels of Ultimate are so adrenaline-packed, it's really cool.
But quite on the contrary, I'm a big fan of stealth games as well, and Noir is providing you with a really cool experience, a total opposite of Ultimate. It's slower pace, very strategic. You look at your enemies and plan how you're going to take them down. There's something for everybody and the cool thing is that we kind of allow the player to pick which universe they want to play in a given act so you can go with Ultimate and then switch to Noir and you never get tired of any of them.
In the end, it's Ultimate probably, but it's such a hard answer.
Unlockable Costume Gallery
Cosmic Spider-Man
First appearing in Micronauts #8 in 1979, the Uni-power travels from person to person to help set right the wrongs of the universe. An unlockable exclusive through gamestop pre-order, all four versions of Spider-Man will receive their own Captain Universe Spider-Man skin, including a small power boost to the character as well.
When Ben Reilly took the mantle from a retiring Peter Parker, this clone version of Spider-Man came up with his own unique costume. Though he didn't last long, the clone saga is an important and still constantly debated episode of Spider-Man's history. Scarlet Spider will be available to the Amazing Dimension.
Mangaverse Spider-Man
With Manga being its own unique subculture in the comics world, it is not surprising Marvel attempted its own Mangaverse which included a Japanese version of everyone's favorite arachnid themed hero. Ultimate Spider-Man will be able to don these Manga threads.
Negative Zone Spider-Man
Once stuck in the Negative Zone, Spider-Man was infused by the Darkforce power which changed the look of his costume. This costume fits in perfectly with the Noir universe's monotone color scheme.
Before the super hero Civil War broke out, Peter Parker was Iron Man's next in command. As a result, he got his very own Iron Spider suit with enhanced gadgets. After going back to the red and blues, the Scarlet Spider clone triplets of Avengers: The Initiative donned the Iron Spider suits. Iron Spider will be available as an alternate suit for Miguel O'Hara of the Spider-Man 2099 dimension.
Armor-Suit Spider-Man
Earning its place on the cover of Web of Spider-Man #100, the Armor Suit has only ever appeared once in comics but is still recognized by long term fans of the series. Like the Iron Spider suit, this will be exclusive to the 2099 dimension.
Posted in: Activision · Announcements · Comics · Exclusive · Games · Interviews · Marvel · News · Playstation 3 · Video Games · Wii · Xbox 360
Tagged: Activision, Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox, Dan Slott, Games, Hands On, Interview, Marvel, PC Games, Playstation 3, SDCC, SDCC 10, SDCC 2010, SDCC10, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Ultimate Spider-Man, Unlockable Costumes, Video Games, Wii, Xbox 360
2 Responses to "'Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' Developer Interview and Alternate Costumes Revealed"
Tweets that mention 'Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' Developer Interview and Alternate Costumes Revealed | The Flickcast -- Topsy.com says:
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Flickcast and JC, JC. JC said: RT @theflickcast: 'Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' Developer Interview and Alternate Costumes Revealed http://bit.ly/aAG1a7 […]
Dboyj1 says:
WHERE'S THE AMAZING BAG MAN?