Games That Made Us // Dev diaries (re-post)
This dev diary post was originally posted in 2019 - now it's slightly updated and re-uploaded (because of nostalgia, and- ) to celebrate the release of the game.
Bánk, the project's writer-director, gathered for us which games were especially influential in creating Chicken Police's story, world, and characters. They might not come as a surprise, but the reasons are. ;)
Bánk "I wanted to be a videogame developer since my childhood. Among other things, these games were the ones that eventually drove me to this journey and even played a huge role in the development of Chicken Police."
GRIM FANDANGO – For Love and Bones
Well... what can I say? To me, Grim is everything! It was maybe the most definitive gaming experience of my childhood and also turned out to be one of the most determinate experiences of my adulthood too. Unforgettable characters, endlessly exciting and insane story, the music, the art-direction, the voice-acting, simply everything! For a long time, I only had the demo version of the game, which I've completed about 10-15 times, if not more. I didn't even understand the text completely, I learned English from video games, and then I was less than a beginner. So I came back to it again and again, and I understood more and more every time. Not just the text, but what the game really wants to say...
Grim taught me that no matter how great your setting and your story is, the characters are always your most important assets! - That's why I've created my (silly and strange, but effective) character generation formula, which I use ever since, and Grim, among others, made me fell in love irrevocably with the noir genre, and movies like Gilda, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity or Casablanca. (which is not even a real noir, but that's another topic)
Manny's adventure also taught me that music is one of the most important elements of moody games like these. "Un dos tres cuatro... ta ta taaaaa!"
Huge heartfelt thanks to Tim Schafer, Peter McConnell, and Tony Plana, amongst many others, who made this gem of a game a reallity!
L.A. NOIRE – The Golden Boy
Heh... a no-brainer, eh? Yeah... not even a question. By the time this game came out, noir was already one of my favorite genres. L.A. Noir was not only an almost perfect story with a fantastic mood but the definitive investigating simulator. Unfortunately, the project was bleeding from a few wounds (Somewhat the full open-world structure and the lack of focus on the main storyline hurt the experience a little), but it still inspired us immensely. So, huge respect and thank you, Team Bondi!
POLICENAUTS AND SNATCHER – Neon lights and buddy-cop noir
Both of them are amazing detective games in Mr. Kojima's unique storytelling, featuring real, alive characters (and hilarious dialogues at times). Policenauts is maaaaybe a little closer to my heart because of the buddy-cop feel, which Chicken Police also borrowed in the end. If you thought about it, it's Lethal Weapon in sci-fi version, and it's hard to come up with anything cooler than that...
Furthermore, these games' gameplay is similar to what we created, with dialogues and interrogation being the main focus. Cult classics, that's true, but still undeservedly ignored. (REMASTER, anyone???!)
BLADE RUNNER – Do the androids dream of great videogames?
When I first saw it as a child, it made my brain almost-literally explode (it still does even today, when I get back to it from time to time). Hardcore noir-adventure with great mini-games and even some action sequences, and that "camera-photo" riddles (I don't know how to address them) were almost surreal like I've never seen again ever since.
I also LOVE the original novel by Philip K. Dick (and all of P.K.Dick's works to be honest), and the movie version is very close to my heart too, so it's a no-brainer BR is in my top games. (and yes, Deckard was an android! - at least in the movie...)
ALAN WAKE – "Previously on Alan Wake"
An undeservedly ignored game. Wake masterfully twists the literary topoi of classic pulp-horror novels and their movie versions. Simply a forgotten masterpiece, a never made Twighlight episode in a game form. I've completed it a thousand times, and - when I'll have time to play anything -, I'm sure I'm going to reach for it again.
"Previously on Alan Wake" I'm never going to get this sentence out of my head.
SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD – Total mindcluck!
Shame or not, I've only run into this game in my adulthood. I started to play with it at the insistence of our programmer, Péter, and its humor, breakings of the fourth wall, and the irresistible chemistry of the two main characters just blew my mind. How the cluck I don't played this already a hundred times???!
I'm still trying to recover from it, with more or less success... (probably less)
+1 / BIOSHOCK - Would You Kindly?
For me... there's Bioshock, and there's everything else. Narrative design, writing, characters, setting, music, mood - Bioshock is one of a kind! Whatever game I'm working on, or will be in the future, Bioshock always affects me one way or another. It's definitely on my bucket-list: I'll have to shake hands with Ken Levine once.
"Would You Kindly" - is still the best plot-twist in every game ever!
+2 / THIEF 2 : The Metal Age - Iron trees? Not in my part of town.
This... this is maybe the strangest entry in this list yes, but hear me out! How is Thief a noir??? Well, the original Thief series (especially Thief 2) borrows heavily from the film-noir heritage. A grumpy, morally compromised anti-hero with inner-monologues, distorted shadows, and silhouettes, a dark city with corrupted cops and politicians, seemingly endless nights, complex mysteries, and even a great femme fatale! (you are the best, Victoria!)
But what was even more important as an influence, than the medieval-noir setting, was the amazing and still unmatched worldbuilding of the first three Thief games.
These games (and especially the second one - The Metal Age) inspired me to always give no1 priority to the well-thought-out structure of the world and the deep, carefully-written lore, no matter what kind of story I'm creating.
"To sum it up: Maybe the most important thing is that the mood and the atmosphere must be coherent. In creating narrative games, you must pay attention to a lot of things that the player maybe won't even notice (or will be affected only subconsciously), but all in all, I believe everything stands on the characters, who we'll learn to love or hate in order to be breathing with them within the world they live in."
It all depends on whether you, the player, want to know: is the character has a life outside of the game? If the answer is yes, you, as a writer, did your job well.
- Bánk & The Wild Gentlemen