Interview: Different Tuna’s Gordon on Derrick the Deathfin
Derrick the Deathfin, a wacky PSN game with the art style that resembles paper mache is coming to the PlayStation Network on Tuesday. We had the opportunity to catch up with Gordon, the Head of Produce, over at Different Tuna and see what this game is all about, and just how it came to be! Join us after the jump for the full interview and remember to check out Derrick the Deathfin this upcoming Tuesday on the PlayStation Store!
Jessey – “What was your inspiration for “Derrick the Deathfin?”
Gordon – “Like all truly great ideas, the genesis of Derrick the Deathfin arrived whilst drinking. I was sitting in a pub with some of my friends when the subject of Ecco the Dolphin came up. This sent me into something of a drunken headspin: as I explained to the yawning masses gathered there that evening, I loved Ecco on the MegaDrive almost as much as I loved Sonic. What if there were a game that combined the feeling of jumping out of the water in the original Ecco with the pace and craziness of Sonic?”
Jessey – “So the trailers for “Derrick the Deathfin” put an emphasis on the paper craft art style. If i’m not mistaken, most of the things that the player will experience were filmed, how did you guys go about doing this?”
Gordon – “You are mistaken actually, but I can understand why as the making of trailer might give that impression. We created almost all the assets in the game out of paper, but then these were photographed and modeled as 3d objects before being imported into the game. The full process goes something like this: it begins in the talented but oddly distorted mind of Ronzo – http://ronzo.co.uk. He transposes things directly from his mind onto paper in the form of sketches by means of a pencil. From there he and his team of helpers build the actual papercraft that roughly correspond to those sketches. These papercrafts are then photographed from all angles and sent to our 3d friends over at ten24 – http://www.ten24.info/ – who model and animate everything beautifully. From there I import the models into Unity and away we go!”
Jessey – “The gameplay is divided into three types: Race, Puzzle, and what seems to be a more Action-oriented mode. Normally game developers would integrate these elements into each level, what made you guys decide to divide it up level-by-level?
Gordon – “A good question but not one that I had ever considered before to be honest. It just seem a natural fit for the game to do it this way. One of the things we very keen to bring to Derrick was variety: variety in the visual styles between levels, variety in the challenges in each level, variety in the level designs and so on. It seemed logical seen in this light that different level types should be present. It also allows for a change of pace between level types.”
Jessey – “With the Vita picking up some speed this holiday season, there’s always one question on posed to PSN developers when a new game is revealed: “Will this be available on the Vita?” So I’d also like to ask “Are there any plans for a Vita port?” and if so “Do we have an ETA on that? Or is it too early to say?”
Gordon – “Yes we have had that question about a million times too! The answer is that there are no plans for a Vita version as things stand, but in the future anything – including time travel – is possible.”
Jessey – ”Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to those apiring game developers out there?”
Gordon – “Yes. You would be well advised to study everything that I do and then try your damnedest to do the opposite.”
Thanks to the guys over at Derrick the Deathfin for the insightful interview and for their time!
