David Cage, the mindbrain behind 2010 successful, divisive and successfully divisive
Heavy Rain has told
EDGE that
Quantic Dream’s upcoming project,
Beyond:Two Souls is not designed with fun in mind.
In fact
Cage is straight up "not interested in giving [gamers] 'fun'."
Strong words from a man developing a title about a telekinetic teenager who leaps from trains, bare-knuckles cops and finds herself regularly wreathed in flame.
Very strong words.
"My goal is to surprise people, to give them something they want without knowing they want it,"
Cage explained, his agenda, in all honesty, ever focused on sentiment, "I want to create an emotional journey, a unique experience.
"I am not interested in giving them 'fun', I want to give them meaning; I don't want to challenge their thumbs, I want to challenge their minds."
I’ve not taken a look at the figures recently, but I’d put money on the fact a decent proportion of the gaming public are intellectually capable, emotionally stable adults who have their minds challenged on a daily basis.
Fun may be just as valid a goal as emotional resonance.
"Maybe this is not what most people out there actually want," QD’s frontman continued, "but this is the goal I set myself with
Beyond: to create something different."
Joking aside,
Cage and co should be commended for having the courage, let alone resources to try something different in this golden age of gaming.
The irony being, in desperately trying to craft a work that touches people on some base level, he might accidentally be developing the one thing he has no interest in.
A FUN game.