Writer Alex Garland of The Beach and 28 Days Later fame penned Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. That game was developed by Ninja Theory of Heavenly Sword fame. Garland hadn't played that game when he met Ninja Theory. Why?
Here's why: He was "fucking sick" of his PS3. "There weren't any original games that really blew me away," Garland tells Edge Magazine. "I was really into Xbox Live; I was much more into playing Call Of Duty 4 on Xbox Live. So Xbox really had its claws into me, and I just never bought Heavenly Sword."
But when he finally did play through Heavenly Sword, he was "very impressed" with the title. "Because by then I knew more about my industry, the film industry, and knew how hard it is to get something which isn't pre-existing — which is to say the licence — financed and off the ground, with enough money to actually do a decent job," Garland adds. "There were all sorts of things, and some were imaginative and some were pure production values."
Garland is frank and says that if he had not been impressed with Heavenly Sword, he would have found a way to "politely" step away from the project. But he didn't, and voila, we have Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
Interview: Alex Garland - Part One [Edge Magazine]