Dead Space’s New And Original Creative Directors Reflect On The Remake

The opportunity to reinvent old ideas can be offered by remakes. Dead Space is a great case study, as Motive Studios smartly updated Visceral Games’ successful template while preserving its most beloved elements (here’s our review). To learn more about how the remake came together, we had a conversation with Motive Studios’ Roman Campos-Oriola, the creative director of the Dead Space remake, to reflect on the game’s development and success. However, there’s an added twist. 

Bret Robbins is the creative director for the original Dead Space. The ex-Visceral designer has beaten the remake multiple times and shares the standout elements of Motive’s version. He also discusses the challenges Visceral had to overcome while creating the original and whether he was ever contacted for the job. Campos Oriola is also asked about the possibility for a Dead Space 2 sequel.

Game Informer: Roman, what’s your personal history with Dead Space prior to this project?

Roman Campos-Oriola […] I’m a big fan of Dead Space. When the original was released, I was in another company and had been working on a first-person shooter. It was a great experience, and Dead Space made it even more fun. [laughs]. The core gameplay worked, but there was more to it than that. The level of immersion. [Visceral Games]could achieve this through the use of a third-person gunner. At that point, immersion is limited to that particular level. [appeared]FPS games really succeeded in creating that sense of immersion, not only inside a third person game but inside survival. [horror]. This is what I believe has allowed survival horror to evolve. As a result, survival horror becomes more immersive. […]. This is a part of Dead Space’s history. This is why that game has become my favorite. This is why I found it so frightening.

What has been the time since the original remake was in the making? When did Motive decide to tackle the project?

Campos-Oriola:After that, the decision was made to remake. [Star Wars]Squadron was nearing completion. Patrick Klaus, Motive’s boss, tried to decide what was next. There was much discussion at the studio. Many people used to work for Visceral Montreal in collaboration with Dead Space 2 or Dead Space 3. Another was among those. [people]Mike Yazijian was the director of art for Dead Space. [who was]The art director of Visceral Montreal at that time. And he said, “Dead Space?” […]. Also, a lot of people in the studio were like, “Dead Space? Dead Space?” And that’s where the idea came from. The pitch was created to revive Dead Space. This is how the project was born. [the] greenlight. Motive joined me shortly after receiving the green light for the project. 

Bret: How did you react initially to the news of the remake as the creator of the original video game?

Bret Robbins:When I heard that Dead Space was coming to fruition, it excited me. Dead Space was a significant project in my life and career. I have many fond memories working on this game. So, it was a joy that the franchise was alive and well. It was still a great version, but I was slightly sceptical about its quality. They should honor the original and keep the best parts of the game. Thank goodness they did. I’m extremely happy with the new remake.

What does it feel like to see another studio remake the title that you played such an important role in creating? 

Robbins: It’s kind of crazy because when I’m playing it – and I’m still playing it, I’m on my third playthrough – it’s a walk down memory lane. It’s all I can remember, the arguments, the discussions, and all of the decisions we made during the initial one. It was quite a bit. The page was blank. It looks fantastic, and it feels just like an old game. This is a combination of pride and nostalgia. Roman and his crew really took pride in it. Their smart decision-making was impressive, I believe. They chose the best areas to make the game better, while the ones they left and kept were right. The whole thing is quite thrilling. It was amazing.

Roman: Did you ever reach out to someone who was involved in the original project when discussing a remake? Motive does have some former employees from Visceral, but was it possible to get in touch with them?

Robbins:Nobody called me. [laughs]

Campos-Oriola:This is always complicated as there may be different companies and other things. It’s difficult to know where to start. EA is a company that I was able to join. [to]They were fond of the game and so they worked on it. Our goal wasn’t to recreate the original game as it appeared, but instead as we thought we remembered.

What we did was, we worked with more players with the “community council” for diehard Dead Space players. Then, Dino, the UX director at Visceral was among them. [Ignacio]He was a member of the community council. But he was more involved because he is still involved with that survival horror genre and that community. […]. It was unfortunate that there was no process for reaching the original developers. […]

Robbins:Yes, but also I will say there wasn’t much paper for design documentation. When we created Dead Space, things were very fast-paced and the majority of our design work was done in the game. The best document that you could have was the one you were playing. But yeah, Roman and I have talked about this, the pillars of being as immersive as possible, which is where things like the holographic HUD came from, single camera cinematics – really very little cinematics – never really kind of breaking player control very often, not pausing the game on your map or your inventory so you’re always feeling like you’re under threat. All those things were, those were pillars we used and we actually had to fight hard to sort of get them right, because they weren’t necessarily easy things to do. 

As a core combat mechanism, the pillar of destruction influenced every creature behavior, weapon design and player ability. It was difficult to do in those days. So I began playing the game again. The combat felt good because it didn’t destroy the things that made the original so important. Amazingly, all the design elements and room feelings were intact. They then improved upon a number of small, but important details. I have to admit, there was a lot that I would rather do on the original. It was first that I saw the Ishimura It was more like a continuous space. You can also revisit other decks and they all work together beautifully. That was what I wanted on the original. It wasn’t possible to do this well because we didn’t have enough time nor the money. My version was much more of a linear experience, so right away I was like, “Oh, that’s awesome.” They were thinking the same way I was 15 years ago.

Campos-Oriola: We didn’t want to make changes just to be different, but to strengthen all those elements. One of these elements was unbroken immersion. He mentioned Dead Space was really big on immersion, we were like, “Okay, how can we push that further?” […] That’s where we started to think about “let’s make Ishimura more interconnected.” Because also, it’s improved that kind of meta-character that the IshimuraYou are inside the game. This makes the game more tangible in the mind of players, as if it is becoming a more real place. 

Bret: What other budget or technical limitations kept Visceral achieving the vision of the original Dead Space?

Robbins:Dead Space the original did not have huge budgets, particularly when compared to AAA budgets. We had to be very careful with what we did. We turned many of these disadvantages into benefits, I believe. You can see that much of the action takes place in the IshimuraIt shares the same look and feel throughout, but it was not necessary. However, as Roman stated, it gave rise to another character. This made it possible to Ishimura a character and gave the game a certain consistency and a certain focus to it. 

The remake has made significant improvements in graphic fidelity. The game should be as beautiful and appealing as possible. Some of the mechanics could be changed. [like]It was smart to adapt the Dead Space 2 Zero Gravity mechanic for Dead Space 1. I think our Zero G mechanic in the original, it was good, but it was a little bit disorienting and a little tough for players to navigate. The newer version is easier to use, and it speaks to Roman’s earlier talk about how creating Dead Space feels. I think if you asked a lot of people they might think “Oh, yeah, the Zero G mechanic was the same,” well it actually wasn’t, it was very different in the first game versus the second game and very different in the remake. 

So yeah, I think all those things are improvements and the game’s better for it. The original can be enjoyed as an experience on its merits, however the choices we made back in 2006 may not have the same impact in 2023. Isaac speaks in the remake but didn’t in the original. This wasn’t an issue of budget, it was simply a design decision. In 2006 there was more debate about the idea of the main character talking. There were games such as Half-Life 2 and the original Bioshock that didn’t feature a main character who spoke. For a third-person video game in 2023 it might be unusual for that to happen. They made the right decision to make him a character.

Roman, now that the game is out and has been well-received, what changes made you most nervous in terms of whether or not fans would accept it?

Campos-Oriola: So definitely giving a voice to Isaac was highest on that list. We had other options that were more stressful. [after] our launch. For example, the change to Zero G. This felt right because people associate Dead Space with a series and not just one title. Bret said that Zero G contained elements that aren’t in the other games. It reinforced the feeling that you were in danger. Some elements have been altered in the remake. [are people]Are you going to respond to it? […] And yeah, the last thing is, we kind of change the ending twist and some of that end story […].

Bret: What has been the biggest surprise and most impressive about any change?

Robbins:It’s also important to note that the things that haven’t been altered are just as, or more, important than those which have. These design decisions were made to keep the combat and dismemberment feeling natural, and largely kept the weapons exactly as they were designed. Room layout, storyline, how the story is told, everything. It’s not hard to imagine there was much debate over all that. However, they should be credited for not changing the things and not breaking the things they shouldn’t.

Campos-Oriola:In reality, we tried to ship more items than we actually received. [We] tried changing stuff, and then we pulled back because we’re like, “No, we’re losing the experience.”

Robbins: Yeah, I’m sure there was a lot there. It was the story elements that I found surprising, which made it interesting and changed my mind. It was all something I enjoyed, and I found it to be very good. It was also a subjective view, so I don’t want to see everything one by one. If I’m going to enjoy the remake I will need to find something that surprises me. So I was happy to see that there was some changes along the way that I was like, “Oh, that I didn’t know that was going to happen, that’s good.”

I think the thing that I really liked, the one thing that stands out that I really liked, it’s sort of related to the fact that you could backtrack and that the IshimuraThis was an inexorable space. They call it the intensity manager. The game’s programmatic feature will still try to scare you. It is common to create a horror movie in a scripted and choreographed way. To create fear, you need to be precise with your timing. It’s amazing that the actors can do this kind of thing on the spot while I am exploring. And, even though it’s Dead Space, I am not one to scare easily. Because I created what is around every corner of the game, I am able to see what lies around each corner. The times I leapt the most were when the game did something completely unexpected.

The game’s secret ending paves the way for a Dead Space 2 remake. Roman, is that possible? Bret: What would you want to see in the remake of the sequel, Bret?

Campos-Oriola:You don’t even know. You know, like we just finished [laughs]. We’re still doing some final [touches]Thanks for playing. And then holidays going on – I go on vacation next week, actually. We’ll then see what happens to the game, how it performs and what the studio needs. Then we will decide what as a group what to do. There is no plan at the moment.

Robbins:We won’t lie: I found myself thinking about possible ideas after I got back into the game. I am a big fan of survival horror. Dead Space was, like I stated earlier, a very important point in my personal life. The project was definitely one of the best I have ever done. It is definitely the game about which I receive the most questions and has the longest legacy. It has the greatest legacy. And I’ve been working on Call of Duty as well as some other major franchises. It was clear that I began to consider what I would like to see in the sequel. Roman and I will hopefully have the opportunity to talk about this at some point. For now though, it is enough to just enjoy that the franchise, the game, is still around, and that people continue to play it. This is pretty amazing.