A genre-defying supernatural thriller that has you playing as a handful of characters investigating a murder mystery from different sides. Controls are nontraditional and designed to immerse the player in the game’s world and the characters’ emotions, and the player’s actions result in bends and branches in the game’s story.
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Published in edited form in the June/July issue of sister magazine Game Developer, Gamasutra is proud to present the full, extended postmortem for Quantic Dream's fascinating console title Indigo Prophecy / Fahrenheit, as described by creator David Cage.
Probably my favorite postmortem, this look back at 2005’s Indigo Prophecy has a lot of valuable insights. The one that’s stuck with me the most is that when writing a story, you can make the audience believe anything - but only once. An impossible premise is not a problem, but adding more impossibilities later is likely to backfire.
Whether you’re watching a DVD or playing a video game, you have control over the progression of the experience. You may hold a remote or you may hold a controller, but the action on the screen will start, stop, pause, and continue, in response to the buttons you press.
The fundamental difference is the degree of choice you hold. With a movie, you can only choose whether to proceed. With a game, you choose how to proceed. Even subtle or trivial decisions, such as on what path to move your character, or which weapon to use on enemies, or where to position the camera, engage you in the creation of your own experience.
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