Interview - Murdered: Soul Suspect developer chat

Murdered: Soul Suspect has players taking control of Ronan, a ghost detective on the hunt to solve his own murder. He'll use his skills to search for clues, possess different humans, read minds and generally act like a ghost, and he'll encounter different obstacles and uncover dark secrets along the way. You can read our early thoughts on how the game is shaping up in our preview.

We also got the chance to sit down with Eric Studer from Airtight Games, and he told us his views on Murdered: Soul Suspect and the studio's hopes and fears for the murder mystery title.

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What platforms is this going out on, because it doesn't look like a current-gen game at the moment?

It'll be on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Xbox One and PC.

And how do you develop a game across all those platforms?

It's an interesting challenge. All the SKUs have different things that you have to watch out for. So you do need to make sure that you take advantage of those platform's strengths, and you make sure that you're developing exactly the right systems for those platforms. There's a lot of management involved, if you want to know the truth, not just from a technical standpoint but from keeping track of what you're doing on what platform, and making sure that you build the game right for each one.

Square has recently gone in a bit more of a narrative direction with their games. The Tomb Raider reboot, Thief... What do you think Murdered brings to the table that the other Square titles haven't brought?

I think the aspect of a true murder mystery is what we bring to the table. Those other games are a little bit more action orientated, in our game we're focusing on the cerebral experience. We want the player thinking about the world that they're in and interacting with it in a slightly different way. And the story that we tell reflects that larger creative direction.

Is there a danger that by taking the cerebral route, you're making it less of a game? It could be more boring effectively?

I hope that the story that we're telling is really interesting, and that players will be really engaged with what we have to share with them. If you're taking a risk on anything there's always the chance of a misstep but we've spent a lot of time, we've hired a lot of talented staff, people who not only write great stories but who make really, really good cinematic experiences, that I believe it'll all come together and people will be excited that we've built it.

Obviously cinematic is key to this, there's a nod to certain films. 'Ghost' for example. How much of an influence did other media have on this?

Not only in the sample of Ghost lore, and I think Ghost is a good example, especially from a standpoint of rules for the world. Ghost did a good job of knowing when to adhere strictly to the fiction and the rules of the world, and when to bend the rules a little bit for the sake of the storyline. So that was a really good foundational point, and I think true crime in general, in terms of telling a really great murder mystery, had a strong impact on us. Not only in the standpoint of movies but a few instances in games. There have been a few really good murder mystery games and drawing inspiration from all sources gives you a broader spectrum of ideas.

What's been the most challenging thing?

Striking that perfect balance where it doesn't feel obvious, but players don't feel so frustrated that they put the controller down. You want the players to feel a little bit lost, feeling lost isn't a bad thing, it's feeling frustrated is what you worry about. And getting that exact blend of 'I don't know what to do right now' and not so frustrated I want to stop playing is probably our biggest challenge.

How about your proudest moment?

I think creating an incredibly interesting lore. An incredibly interesting world that people are going to want to spend time in. That they want to get lost in, characters that they're going to remember and take with them, well after the point that they finish the storyline.

The protagonist is dead, where does this lead for further storylines? Is this a protagonist led game or narrative led?

You see a sense of that right off from the first chapter. There is something beyond that Ronan wants to work towards. But there are a lot of unanswered questions about not only Ronan, but the characters that he interacts with. And those characters will absolutely come into play. And because they're so critical in Ronan's life I don't think you could drop any other character in there and have the story work the same way. It still very much is about Ronan's life and the impact he's having in the world even after death. 

So it does leave it open for other games potentially with Ronan? 

Well, who knows? I'm not going to tell you the ending of the game just yet!

What engine are you running on?

Unreal 3 is what we're using. The studio has a lot of experience with it so it was a natural fit for us. We understand the limitations of the platform, it allows us to do some really interesting things not only from a standpoint of, you see a lot of transparency in a game, and transparency is not an easy thing to do. And so you don't want to tread into unfamiliar waters when you're trying to do some really interesting stuff like we're trying to do in the game.

There are a lot of different dialogue options, I was wondering if you could ever say the wrong thing or make the wrong choice? 

You can't really make the wrong choice because everything that we've put into those interactions is important to solving cases. And so as a result you'll notice that pretty much every question you get a new clue. A lot of times those clues are used in further cases. So interrogations are more about you, at the appropriate time, learning about the characters you're interacting with and the story of the world.

Is it hard building the character of Ronan, a ghost who can't directly interact with humans?

It is hard, and one of our biggest concerns was a fear that the dusk would feel lonely because he can't just talk to everyone in the space. We did a couple of things to help alleviate the potential for creating a very lonely game. There are other ghosts that you interact with. There are side quests that you can partake in; there will be characters that you find a way to communicate with.

And can you tell us a bit more about the demons you encounter during gameplay?

Absolutely. Enemy encounters in the game serve two purposes. Not only from the standpoint of gameplay pacing. If all you're doing is going from crime scene to crime scene, fatigue is going to wear in. So we wanted to break up that pacing, we wanted to change the emotional tether of the game occasionally, so the demons serve that purpose when you encounter them. But also from a fictional standpoint it creates a sense of foreboding in the dusk. This isn't a place that Ronan wants to dwell in; he wants to escape from here. Not only from the standpoint that these demons are basically hunting him, but also this is his fate if he stays here too long. The longer it takes to solve his unfinished business the more likely it is that his own soul becomes corrupted and trapped here as one of those demons.