Take a journey into the depths of Hell with Electronic Arts’ Jonathan Knight, Executive Producer of Dante’s Inferno.
Can you describe the basic concept of Dante's Inferno?
The concept is a videogame adaptation of The Divine Comedy by Middle Ages poet Dante Alighieri. It's pretty difficult to overstate the influence The Divine Comedy has on western culture, especially on the European worldview of the afterlife, which it's essentially responsible in shaping in a very fantastical way.
It's an amazing story of a guy who travels to the afterlife to get to his love, Beatrice, who died quite young. The epic love story and journey to get to a girl, combined with the vivid description of Hell, seemed to be perfect for a game. Dante basically maps Hell with the nine Circles and if you open any edition of the book you'll always find a map, so bringing that to life in a videogame is part of the creative impulse.
There's not a tremendous amount of story, action or drama in the text - Dante thinks and talks a lot, so our Dante is definitely more of an action hero. We've written a new story that layers on top of the basic elements of the poem [in regards to] that - Beatrice has been kidnapped by Lucifer, and Dante's fighting through the nine Circles of Hell to save her.
Was there a lot of debate over the look and style of how Dante should appear in the game, especially with his change into an action hero?
Yeah. The look of Dante is actually inspired by his author. In terms of his weapons, he is killed in the opening of the game but fights back, killing Death himself and taking his scythe. So once we had that story detail we started investing in the scythe as a weapon.
We also wanted him to have a duality, so we gave him a cross which gains more power as you cruise through Hell - so between the scythe and the holy cross he has these two sides that define him. He's also a Crusader and did some horrible things in his past which will haunt him in Hell, so rather than just keeping him in a classic Crusader tunic, Dante ends up ripping off the tapestry and sears it into his chest as a way of expressing this guilt. He literally carries his sins on his chest.
How big a role does the element of morality play in the game?
It's something that's really within the heart of the game and what defines Dante. One way that manifests is through the various damned souls who have backstories and dialogue, some of which are abridged from the poem. With those characters you're given the choice of absolving or punishing them, and the more holy things you do the more powerful his cross will become, while the more unholy things you do the more powerful Death's scythe becomes.
We really think players will want to go back and play again to see the holy path versus the unholy path and see all the upgrade, weapons, magic and collectibles based on those paths.
Does each Circle of Hell have its own distinctive look and style that reflects its particular theme?
That's what will probably be the most exciting thing about the game and will keep people playing. The nine Circles of Hell are really unique and from a gameplay standpoint we don't want to repeat the same patterns so you're going to see different designs, big over the top action sequences, thoughtful puzzles, sub-bosses and mini-bosses, new enemies and minions for each Circle...
We've put a lot of effort into making each level unique, with big, epic cinematic moments. It also gets darker the further into Hell, so the punishments are more severe because the sins become more offensive. And the lower Circles such as Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treason are the sins of malice, the sins that only humankind can commit because they require a capacity to reason, plot and harm. So just like in the poem, you can expect those Circles to be more terrifying and grim.
What were the hardest parts to recreate and capture from the source material?
Everything was probably harder than we thought it was going to be. Going from high concept to actual designs was a big leap. For example, you choose something like Lust and you then have to decide what it's going to look like. And then we went into the poem and realised there's not a lot of description of Lust - it's pitch black, which wasn't going to work for a videogame!
But the toughest part is that it's set in a place no one has been to or able to come back from to tell us about it. There's no reference material and everyone has a different idea on how Hell should look. So figuring out the environments has been a challenge, along with the story, as we had to write a tale which would work for a videogame but also still be very much feel like Dante's Inferno but more pumped up.
Were there any other sources which helped inspire the game?
Yeah - the developer studio is a bit like a Dante museum and has these fake gates of Hell which frame the entrance. We researched a lot of artists, painters, sculptors and writers who have done various interpretations of Dante or of Hell. We also worked with an artist called Wayne Barlowe, who has a series of paintings called Barlowe's Inferno which have a particular take on Hell, and also designed some of the creatures for the Hellboy movies. He was a big part of influencing the look of the characters and environments.
Are there any differences between the PlayStation 3 and PSP versions of Dante's Inferno?
The PSP version is very much the PlayStation 3 version, but on the go, and that's the main focus - to recreate the PS3 experience, especially in terms of the combat. It's a high quality action adventure, and to be able to bring that epic scale to the system is cool - all the cinematics are there and it's essentially the same game.
DC Universe Online developer interviewFrom ‘Avatar’ To ‘Watchmen,’ Our Top Nine Movie Moments Of 2009
