Support NeoGAF

[Draugoth]

source​

---

• The Dead Space Remake developers held an AMA session, where various fan queries were quenched, including the development cycle, missing features, future updates, and more.
• The remake reportedly took only 2.5 years to brew to perfection, which surprised the community.
• A quick 180-turn feature was initially planned for Isaac, but it was ditched due to the decrease in immersion.
• EA Motive is also considering adding level 1-6 suits as skins, but no DLC has been “promised” yet.

The Dead Space Remake launched to critical acclaim, but it reportedly only took just under three years of development to reach its excellent state upon release. The developers recently held an AMA session on the most prominent Dead Space Reddit, where the team touched on many development and gameplay-related queries.

The team noted how long it took to brew and polish the stellar next-gen reimagining of the original Dead Space. The game began developing in September 2020; in other words, two and a half years were spent loyally whipping up the new Dead Space Remake to match all the anticipations of the community.

EA Motive instantly jumped on the Dead Space Remake project after releasing Star Wars: Squadrons in October 2020. The revelation of the short development period surprised the community since it was enough for the developers to create an enthralling action-horror venture that leaves you frightened at every moment. A user noted in response, “Wow. Three years and yall made a masterpiece of a remake. hats off to all of you!” The EA Motive team also touched on a feature that was initially supposed to be included in the new remake. The new feature would have given Isaac the ability to make a quick 180 whenever a necromorph appeared out of nowhere. However, it would have taken some immersion out of the original title, so the team ditched the idea.

At the begining we wanted to add quick 180 turn to Isaac. But we decided to not do that cause it was breaking the combat loop of Dead Space. The core combat loop is about a scary and almost unstoppable threat coming at you. If you can turn around and flee to fast it changes a lot the experience of the fight. So we ended not doing that

The devs also replied affirmatively after a user asked whether various available suits could be worn as skins essentially in the new game plus; for instance, a level 3 suit with the stats of level 6. EA Motive is reportedly “investigating the possibility,” but no DLC has been “promised” just yet. Moreover, EA Motive also acknowledged the praise and the “amount of pride” as developers due to the high acclaim from the gaming industry. The team also noted, “User scores, Metacritics, Press headlines have been great but also validation that…you know, we didn’t f*** this up in the eye of the DS Community and Devs of the original game!” The developers also seemingly earned internal praise from various executives for garnering such high quality.

It is worth stating that a remake usually takes a short amount of time to develop in contrast to a new rendition; it is due to the availability of old assets, including character designs, a set story, and the like. However, it is still a meritorious milestone noting the development times needed in recent years due to the increased complexities.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I hope they've already started 2's remake.

 

[AV]

• A quick 180-turn feature was initially planned for Isaac, but it was ditched due to the decrease in immersion.

Really ruins my immersion when video game characters do things that I can do in real life.

 

[saintjules]

I wonder if that's a similar timeframe for the RE Remakes.

 

[Punished Miku]

I wonder if that's a similar timeframe for the RE Remakes.

RE2 and 3 are both very small games. Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Bloobs]

Now make 4

 

[Kacho]

Wish all dev cycles could be that short.

The remake is fantastic. The graphics upgrade didn’t look impressive in videos, but now that I’ve played it it’s like “wow… ok, yeah.” I really hope they’re working on Dead Space 2 now. That was more action focused and I need that with the candy visuals.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Wish all dev cycles could be that short.

They could be if todays games would stop being so bloated.

 

[Skifi28]

Really ruins my immersion when video game characters do things that I can do in real life.

Probably meant to say diminished the horror which would be accurate, the anxiety of not knowing where an enemy you hear will come from is a big part of the game and a quick turn would trivialize it.

 

[IAmNotFromDelaware]

Wish all dev cycles could be that short.

But this is a remake. The story is already there, the layout of the levels was already done. The controls already existed. The developers and designers already had the environment and the characters, they just had to improve on them graphically.

I see this as the opposite, considering it took 2.5 years to do a remake, I can understand why a full game starting from zero can take so long these days.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

This is good to hear, but not especially surprising. When you hear about the 5+ years dev cycles, there's usually mention of complete project restarts/ scraps. They had a complete game to start from as a base.

If you add the dev time for Dead Space OG to Remake's, then you probably come close to a typical current-gen dev cycle.

 

[Spukc]

well it's a remake after all

 

[Kacho]

They could be if todays games would stop being so bloated.

I wonder how long the dev cycle for AssCreed Mirage will be by comparison. If it’s 2.5-3 years then publishers should definitely scale back on the open world bloat.

 

[SJRB]

Not to knock on the achievement but 75% of the game's design work was already done before they even started.

Sure it had to be remade but that costs significantly less time than creating something from scratch.

 

[AlteredForms]

Well it's a remake so why would it take so long? They already had a solid foundation to build upon with the 2008 original.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I wonder how long the dev cycle for AssCreed Mirage will be by comparison. If it’s 2.5-3 years then publishers should definitely scale back on the open world bloat.

Not sure they wanna do that considering the “wait for sale” attitude many have towards shorter games... The industry is doomed man. With everything and their mother being backwards compatible there is just too much to play. It’s way to easy to wait a few months for prices to drop. Unlike Nintendo I guess most pubs can‘t afford to keep their game prices on the same level for years.

 

[sachos]

Wish more devs had smaller teams dedicated to pumping out 2.5 years 8-10hs games, we could get full trilogies over the duration of a generation.

 

[EverydayBeast]

It’s clear making dead space remaster was a success.

 

[diffusionx]

Probably took about that long to make the original game. Anyway this is why all these devs are turning to remakes, they can just put a coat of paint on something that already exists and resell it. If it is good people will buy it and they don’t need to spend 4-5 years and $150+ million.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

"only" ?!?

2.5 is definitely too long for a... remake/remaster considering all the foundation they had, we are FAR from RE2/3 true remake.

 

[Kacho]

It’s clear making dead space remaster was a success.

Dead Space is a video game

 

[ANDS]

This. . .doesn't sound surprising? Shouldn't development on a game whose conceptual phase has already been well laid out, take significantly less time in development?

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I remade the Mona Lisa with my piss and the turn around was far quicker than Leonardo DaSucki took on the original of that resting bitch faced little hot pepper.

 

[GymWolf]

It's a remake so not that surprising.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Not like they had to actually plan out the fucking game. All they had to do was play the original then remix it a bit.

 

[PlayedStation]

I'm loving the remake, currently on chapter 7 and this is my first time experiencing Dead Space. Hopefully we get a DS2 remake by 2025 at the latest.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Bros, it's a remake, of course it's going to take way less time to develop.

 

[HYDE]

I hope they've already started 2's remake.

Was just going to say…DS2 when?

 

[Flabagast]

Why "only" ? It's a remake for fuck's sake, stop treating it like a brand new game.

 

[FeastYoEyes]

Dead Space 2 remake late 2025?

 

[Rippa]

Cool!

DS2 Remake when?

 

[SSfox]

No shit!! Real games, even remakes take time, guess EA got too used to release Fifa patches at 70 bucks

 

[TGO]

Why "only" ? It's a remake for fuck's sake, stop treating it like a brand new game.

Prince of Persia TSOT Remake is proof that just because you have an original to work off doesn't make it easier to make.
Having the foundation means nothing, it helps but it means nothing, they're not copy & pasting the game in a new engine and touching it up.(except TLOUPT1, they literally did that)
It goes through the same process as a new game, whether it's new or a remake.
The production plan is still presented the same and they both begin from scratch.
The only difference is they have a proof of concept to constantly compare to.

 

[Sleepwalker]

They could be if todays games would stop being so bloated.

Gigantic map Open world collect-athons with cookie cutter quests and a whole checklist of things that need to be included are the cancer of the industry

 

[Danjin44]

Its remake of existing game, of course its going take less time than brand new game.

 

[TheKratos]

Here I'm thinking 2.5y is quite long for a remake

 

[J3nga]

Prince of Persia TSOT Remake is proof that just because you have an original to work off doesn't make it easier to make.
Having the foundation means nothing, it helps but it means nothing, they're not copy & pasting the game in a new engine and touching it up.(except TLOUPT1, they literally did that)
It goes through the same process as a new game, whether it's new or a remake.
The production plan is still presented the same and they both begin from scratch.
The only difference is they have a proof of concept to constantly compare to.

POP SOF remake was announced in September 2020 meaning they have worked on it for some time, DS remake has been started at the same and is already released meanwhile we don't know much about POP remake to this day but I think it's safe to say they are remaking the remake.

 

[ozz ex machina]

Here I'm thinking 2.5y is quite long for a remake

It's a remake not a remaster.

 

[semiconscious]

Probably took about that long to make the original game. Anyway this is why all these devs are turning to remakes, they can just put a coat of paint on something that already exists and resell it. If it is good people will buy it and they don’t need to spend 4-5 years and $150+ million.

it took just about that (from scratch). welcome to the current state of the game industry:

...When they pitched the game to parent company Electronic Arts in early 2006, they were given three months to create a prototype.

In order to get a playable concept ready within that time, the prototype was developed on the original Xbox hardware. The team decided that it would be better to get something playable, before planning how to make the game work on next-generation hardware. Their twin approaches of early demos and aggressive internal promotion ran counter to Electronic Arts practises for new games at the time. Electronic Arts eventually approved the game after seeing a vertical slice equivalent to one level, by which time all the basic gameplay elements had been settled upon. According to co-producer Chuck Beaver, this pre-greenlight work lasted 18 months. After approval, and using their experience creating the vertical slice, the team built eleven more levels in ten months...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_(2008_video_game)

 

[MikeM]

Lower dev time means lower costs and more room to be considered a financial success. I hope this paves the way for DS4.

 

[Edder1]

The time it takes to remake the second game (if it happens) should be even shorter because of all the game mechanics and physics already being in place, they would just need to update visuals and presentation.

 

[STARSBarry]

After this I hope Dead Space Extration (the on the rails spin off prequel) gets a remake for PSVR2.

I really enjoyed my time with this remake, and extraction needs its time to shine as one of the best story based rail shooters ever. This team gets dead space, so hopefully we see more or it from them. I know most want to see Dead Space 2 at least.

 

[SantaC]

2.5 years is not short...

 

[Danjin44]

2.5 years is not short...

For very well made remake not remaster, I would say its pretty reasonable.

 

[EDMIX]

For very well made remake not remaster, I would say its pretty reasonable.

True, a lot of that is also likely based on how well the team can use Frostbite. In the right hands, under the right conditions, they can do great work.

2 and half years for something like this is pretty damn good.

2.5 years is not short...

We know of a remake of this scale and quality being made faster? For example, Resident Evil 4's remake started development in 2018, so about 5 plus years....

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

But this is a remake.

We've had remakes tale more than 3 years to come to fruition.