QJ’s Dead Head Fred interview

Tons of more info about the upcoming PlayStation Portable title that has heads turning – and rolling – with this QJ exclusive interview of Dead Head Fred. We give you the skinny on what’s the absolute latest with this game, with all the facts supplied by none other than Eric Peterson himself, President and all-around bigwig of Vicious Cycle Software, Inc.

For the uninitiated, Dead Head Fred‘s about gumshoe Fred Neuman who’s lost quite a bit off the top after being brought back from the dead. Instead of trying to live a normal life – as normal as someone without a head can possibly be, anyway – Fred’s seeks revenge on the people who made him lose his head, and with him on the warpath, heads are going to roll.

The full interview awaits after the jump!

In any case, here’s the interview with Eric Peterson, with us picking his brain apart (not literally). Enjoy!

QJ: Last we checked, the release info set for Dead Head Fred indicated a Q1 2007 release. Has this changed, and do you have a more specific date you can give us?

Peterson: Yes, it has changed. Dead Head Fred is set to release on August 21st 2007.

QJ: It’s safe to say Fred’s a rather unique character, following this, can you tell us which came first, the basic gameplay design or the idea for the character himself?

Peterson: The basic game mechanics came before the character himself. Originally, the mechanics I envisioned were meant to be for a younger audience title/character. It was a game concept where I wanted the main character to be able to use his head to traverse environments, solve puzzles, do dexterity challenges and attack enemies. No weapons, just heads. The idea was titled Geo and you can read more in one of the developer diaries on our website:

Viciouscycleinc.com – Dev Diaries

As you can see in that diary, Geo was a cute little character much like the innocent design of Rayman. FredÂ’s design came much later through several iterations along with focus testing his look to numerous groups. We wanted him to be cool looking, dark, and demented. And we wanted prospective fans of the game to really have the desire to play that character once they saw him.

After developing many games many different ways, I became convinced that the game mechanics were essential to develop prior to ever thinking about what the character should look like. It is great to have a wonderfully designed character, but it doesnÂ’t mean anything if it doesnÂ’t play and feel fun.

QJ: The game’s unveiling trailer hinted at an experience drenched in a dark, noire atmosphere and peppered with dark humor. How have you tried to carry this over into the game’s presentation, gameplay and story?

Peterson: Yes, that is exactly what we were going for, but never in a totally serious fashion.

Our visuals are stylized with a darker edge. Some environments have a fairly realistic look compared to the mutated, creative character designs. Since we rip heads off and dismember and kill enemies in numerous ways, we have achieved a mature feel as well.

The real flavor is contained within our voice over, script, story and cinematics. It is in those areas in addition to our visuals that nail the Â“twisted noirÂ” aspect of our game.

Quite a bit of thanks has to go out to John McGinley too. His adlibs during our recording sessions really added to the humor in the game. His sarcastic tone is what we were looking for and it really brought Fred his character. And Jon Polito did a fantastic job as our main villain. He really pulled off that old style mob boss persona which gave the noir feel a boost.

QJ: You mentioned in our previous interview that the game would feature large environments, multiple mini-games, and an estimated 10-15 hours of gameplay. Do you feel that Dead Head Fred has enough re-playability that players will be compelled to return even after completion?

Peterson: I actually think it could be more like 15-20 hours for the first time player. And that amount is if you just play the main missions of the story. If you embark on side missions and quests, which I know people will, and you lose track of time playing mini-games like Pinball, Dirty Pool, Fishing and The Feather Dome, then you could be looking more at 20-30+ hours.

Just as an example, I was doing a demo a few weeks back at a PR event and I had some downtime in between meetings and played Pinball for an hour without even thinking about where the time went.

I think people will return to Fred to play some of those side missions they didnÂ’t complete or to upgrade heads or to play mini-games or just to have more fun ripping of heads and performing kill and rage moves. They never get old.

QJ: Battery life has always been a concern when it comes to games for handhelds, how did you folks consider that issue while developing the game, particularly with regards to saving progress, and pacing?

Peterson: Even though Fred is a very big game and has a lot of depth, you can pick it up and play it for any amount of time and put it back down again without concern. We have a very good save system and tons of checkpoints so that the player doesnÂ’t have to worry about battery time. You can save any time at your last checkpoint and power off your PSP.

Levels and locations have many regions and many small loads to keep waiting times down to a minimum as well. We stream data off the disc, but keep it to just VO and cinematics for the most part.

I like to think that we are a lot like a Zelda title when it comes to small chunks being loaded during levels so we can keep the look and the feel of the environments fresh and less repetitive.

QJ: On the subject of performance, what are the things you’re most proud of technically that you were able to achieve on the PSP?

Peterson: I feel that we are pushing the PSP to its limits in just about every departmentÂ—graphics, game play, you name itÂ—and I think that Fred is one of the best if not the best looking game coming to market for this system. Our engineers have done a great job getting our PSP engine to where it is right now. Shameless plug for the Vicious EngineÂ….everyone should buy it right now.

In all seriousness, Dead Head Fred is our flagship PSP game and we didnÂ’t want to hold back on anything. We have very detailed textures for a PSP game, lots of unique geometry, and loads of animations. We even used targeted tessellation to achieve nice lighting detail. The lighting is fantastic and really sets the mood for the levels.

We did everything we could think of and used every bit of memory and performance we could find in order to make a great game experience.

QJ: Speaking generally, a lot of developers and gamers alike have voiced concern over proper implementation of control in PSP games, do you think you’re at a point in Dead Head Fred’s design where you think this won’t be a problem?

Peterson: Well, the game is about wrapped, so at this point I would say we are very happy with our results. We have taken many precautionary steps to address the issues that other PSP games have had thus far. I think that we have done a great job with this issue and I believe that the results of our focus testing have validated the control scheme we ended up using.

The combos are fun to pull off and everyone that has tried it out has commented on how successful they were at ripping off heads and killing their enemies. We have also received praise on our camera controls. For the most part, the game steers the third-person camera for you, but at certain times if the player feels the need, they can choose to re-center the camera behind Fred, rotate the camera around Fred to see where incoming enemies are coming from, and even use a first-person view to look around like a mouse look on a PC title for exploration purposes or as an accurate targeting mode.

We have also provided the player with a soft targeting lock to take the frustration out of long distance ranged combat. These items along with informative menus and GUIs help round out the package.

QJ: What are the chances that we’ll see a demo (downloadable or on disc) for Dead Head Fred before release?

Peterson: Let me shake the magic eight-ball. All signs point toÂ…very likely. We are looking into the feasibility of this now and if we do a demo, we want to be sure to release a great one that shows the player what a vertical slice of Fred would be like if they purchased and played the entire game. We should have more info on this soon.

QJ: There’s a sense that the PSP is just now really starting to spread its wings and deliver on its initial promise as a high end portable gaming machine as well a handheld multimedia device, its games library is rapidly expanding and Sony seems to add ever more desirable features with each firmware upgrade. As a developer, what would you like to see from Sony in terms of features, support, possible hardware revisions or even marketing?

Peterson: That is a tough one that I havenÂ’t given a lot of thought to. If there is to be a PSP 2, then I would want the right thumbstick to be built in, so it was more like a regular Sony console controller that you would use at home for your PS2 or PS3. I would also want more HDD space, more memory for more textures, etc. and a CPU that was the speed of the PS2 or greater.

More battery life would be great too, but I am ok with what it is now with the games that are available. Oh, and please get rid of the phone style keypad for inputting textÂ…it is annoying to type things and takes forever to do so.

I love my PSP and wouldnÂ’t trade it in Â– period! There are a lot of great games coming out this year that I want to play so it is only getting better with each passing month.

QJ: Like we said earlier, Fred’s a pretty unique character, and the universe he inhabits seems to be pretty rich and interesting… perhaps we’ll get to explore it in even greater detail on, oh, maybe… a next-gen console?

Peterson: That is the plan. The PSP game is the launch bed for this brand. This wasnÂ’t intended to be a one off game by any means. We feel that the character, the story elements, the game mechanics, etc. all translate well to a next-gen system. We certainly have aspirations of moving it to that level so we can make Fred even more robust, the levels more detailed and continue the story where we leave it off in this version.

I think gamers are going to really enjoy this game, this character and the world we have designed. It must continue and live on in new installments. Fred is a franchise in our eyes and we believe it has the legs to be just that.

QJ: Any parting words or our readers?

Peterson: Get ready to rip off some heads. Dead Head Fred comes out later this summer, so be prepared to experience a PS2 sized game in a PSP package! We have had a blast making the game and are proud of our efforts. We hope everyone enjoys the game as much as we do.

Thanks for your time!

Thank you!

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