by: Jason McMaster

How did the idea to make a game centering on The Divine Comedy come about?

Our Executive Producer, Jonathan Knight, was interested in doing a video game based in Hell, and as he was doing research he kept coming back to Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece epic poem. The central idea of Dante’s Inferno was visualizing Hell as a series of nine concentric rings under the earth and that is so compelling and such a natural fit for a level-based video game.

One big worry for you must have been the fear of backlash for adapting such a famous piece of literature. What challenges did you face in adapting the Inferno?

We definitely wanted to let people know that we were taking the poem seriously, but it was also important to communicate the idea that we were adapting it. It was most important for us to make a fun game first, so there were obviously some changes made for that reason. But we worked hard to make sure that the characters and the setting stayed true to the original work. We hoped that it would bring attention back to the Divine Comedy for a younger generation.

What had to be altered to make it work in a gaming platform?

We needed to add a stronger narrative to help push the player through Hell. The poem reads like a travelogue, with Dante and Virgil talking their way through the underworld. So we wanted to give more conflict and action throughout the game. We made Lucifer a more active protagonist and gave our version of Dante a troubled past. It was our adapted story that was the biggest change from the original poem.

Limbo was certainly much bleaker in the game than in the poem -- I assume this was just to set the stage for what was to come? Where did the inspiration for that come from?

It was part of our amped up combat and darker, more conflicted narrative. It was important to start the adventure with a lot of combat and some signature visual elements from Hell, which drove us to make those changes. And we chose to put a unique spin on the design of the character Charon, which then helped inform what we did with the entire level.

The graphic design for Hell led to some great set-pieces and fantastic visuals, how much inspiration did you take from the poem on the levels?

We took tons of inspiration from the poem to work into the environment art. Artists throughout the generations have been inspired to paint or sculpt based on the amazing imagination of Dante’s Divine Comedy. We took that same inspiration with our concept and 3D art. Our art director, Ash Huang, did an amazing job of working different ideas and inspirations into the game, whether through statues and figurative elements in the environment or with our wide variety of characters.

Is there anything about the circles that you wish you had done differently? Either from a length, design or even layout standpoint? That ice bridge at the end was as monumental pain in the ass.

Our version of the ten malebolge in Fraud is probably a place that we could have done differently in a variety of ways, both artistically and in gameplay. We also could have paced the story more evenly throughout the entire game as well, which I think could have helped with the flow of how the levels were delivered. But overall, I’m happy with how the game levels turned out both visually and with design.