Having worked on the original Dead Space, were there any lessons you learned post-release that affected the development of Extraction?

About halfway through Dead Space, we started talking about Extraction with a few meetings here and there, obviously still focusing on getting [the original] done. In my role, one of my responsibilities was coaching the horror moments of the game, really pushing them to make sure they were great, and what we called our “focus areas.” Some of the big moments throughout the game that you experienced are areas where I was tasked with making sure that the polish was there and everything was up to snuff. What I took away for Extraction was that there is never enough polish for a game.

On the horror side, it was interesting because Dead Space obviously let you control Isaac. From time to time, we had these really ambitious ideas for scares, but because you could control Isaac, you wouldn’t even see them. We’d spend a lot of time and effort on a sequence, and in the end, the player may be standing in the corner looking at the wall. With Extraction, going into that first-person perspective and being a guided experience, it allowed us to implement some of those ideas we couldn’t guarantee would come off properly in Dead Space.

Thank you for answering my questions. Any last words you want to add?

No, thanks for the interview and I hope everybody enjoys the game!

We'd like to thank Steve for taking the time to talk to us. Look for Dead Space Extraction on September 28th exclusively on the Nintendo Wii.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you