Tell us about the process of working with the game's scriptwriters.
Chris and Tom have an incredible amount of knowledge of the Buffy universe as authors of the official Watcher's Guidebooks and novelizations, and series regulars on the comic books.
It was important to create a story that lent itself to good gameplay and not create a disk full of non-interactive cinematics. First and foremost this had to be a great game and they understood that from the very start.
I think we've hit a perfect balance between story and gameplay. The character switching in Chaos Bleeds makes sense to the story and is not an arbitrary thing. Furthermore, each of the main characters may face obstacles in the game in the form of "bosses" but the cool thing about having such a strong story is that each of these obstacles are as emotionally tough as they are physically tough for each of the characters. This is not something you normally encounter in games.
What's your feeling about the place of narrative in games generally?
Generally, to tell you the absolute truth, I'd rather have a great game with no story than a terrible game with a great narrative. When I want a truly great story, I'll read a book instead of play a game.
A game has to be really great regardless of the characters. Chaos Bleeds, at its heart, is a great fighting game and a great action and adventure game regardless of the story.
Our game rates just as high with people who have never watched a single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a matter of fact, on a few occasions we've created new fans. Just recently someone told me they went straight to the store and purchased the entire collection of Buffy episodes on DVD after playing our game.
