Inside Dead Space™ #6: Back to the Beginning

In the leadup to the release of the Motive™ remake of Dead Space™, we talked about what it means to remake a classic; we revealed the new technology driving the Necromorphs, the Ishimura, and the Intensity Director; and we discussed the expanded role of story in the remake. Since then, the game has finally escaped from the dark, twisting corridors of the studio into the wider world. So today, we are going back to the very earliest days of the project to answer the question: How, exactly, did the Dead Space remake come into being at all?

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

As many games do, this project started with a simple question: What’s next? 

“The Star Wars™: Squadrons team was starting to wrap up the game,” says Senior Producer Philippe Ducharme, “and they were looking for the next project. And Patrick [Klaus, General Manager of Motive] was brainstorming with the team leads, and one of them was Mike Yazijian, who was the art director for the Montreal portion of Dead Space™ 2. Mike was keen to make more Dead Space.

“This was a dream come true for me,” says Art Director Mike Yazijian, “to have the opportunity to revisit my favorite franchise. I was on board right away.”

The core team came together almost as quickly.  “I got a call about working on Dead Space,” says Creative Director Roman Campos-Oriola, “and I was like, ‘Yes!’ And they’re like, ’So it’s—‘ and I say, “Yes. Whatever. Whatever it is. Dead Space? Yes.’ And of course there was then a lot of HR and discussion and meetings and stuff but the first contact was: ‘Dead Space? Yes. Count me in.’”

Philippe tells a similar story. A recruitment meeting with Patrick began with a thorough discussion of the studio, its culture, and its values. “And I was like, ‘OK, yeah, Motive sounds great,’” Philippe says. “‘But what’s the game?’ It was almost like, ‘What’s the catch?’ And that’s when he said, ‘Well, there are some possibilities, but maybe a Dead Space remake? Would that be—‘ And I’m like, ‘OK, where’s the paper? Where do I sign?’”

What started as a core team with Roman and Philippe coming to Motive grew to a team of hundreds to bring the vision for the remake to life. And the enthusiasm for the franchise went all the way down the org chart. “Many of our team members came to Motive specifically to work on Dead Space,” Mike says, “because they were big fans of the original.. So it really is a personal project for us; it’s a game made by fans, for fans.”

GIANT BOOTS TO FILL

If you’ve played the original yourself, you likely understand why it’s such a beloved game for this team. If not, well, any of the leads would be delighted to help spread the good word. “There aren’t many games like Dead Space out there,” Mike says. “What stands out for me is the perfect blend of sci-fi and horror. And the flawlessly executed audio and visuals. And the creepy atmosphere, the design of the Ishimura and the Necromorphs, the dismemberment gameplay, the physics, the immersive user interface—”

“Yeah, it has a really unique mix,” says Roman. “It has that mix of sci-fi, zombie themes, and the kind of psychological horror you see in things like Lovecraft. Usually, you get a mix of maybe two of those elements. But the mix of all three, these really popular kinds of horror, that’s really unique to Dead Space.”

“And it also has unparalleled immersion,” Philippe adds. “From the visuals to the sound design to the gameplay, everything is so immersive that the world outside disappears when you play it. Nothing pulls you out of the experience; you feel like you’re walking in Isaac’s shoes and experiencing what he’s living through. Very, very few games have been able to get that kind of emotion from me as a player. In fact, when I started working on this game, the first thing I did was go back and do a full playthrough of the original, and I remembered those first jump scares; they were ingrained in my memory because they worked so well. So I have a lot of extremely fond memories of the original game.”

In light of such glowing praise for the original, you might wonder why the team wanted to remake it at all. The answer: progress. “Fifteen years may not seem all that long,” Roman says, “but in terms of technology there have been a lot of advancements. And those technological advancements are really well aligned with what makes Dead Space great. Everything that’s been improved—lighting, audio ambience, even the speed of the hard drives—really allows us to push the experience much further.”

“Plus, the industry has evolved,” says Philippe. “And the survival horror genre has evolved. It’s more mass-market than it used to be.”

“And we wanted a whole new generation of gamers to experience the same feeling we had back in 2008!” adds Mike. “We want new players to be able to experience Dead Space for the first time with all the recent technological improvements like 4K resolution, no loading, volumetric fog, 3D audio, raytracing, fully dynamic lighting, and 60 frames per second. All of this to deliver an experience that is even more immersive for our players. But we also wanted to give returning audiences new surprises, additional lore, and maybe a few Easter eggs—along with the same satisfying gameplay as the original.”

SETTING THE BAR

Many reviewers have noted that the remake manages to very precisely thread that needle of honoring the original while also improving upon it. “This game captures what I call the ‘glorified memory’ of the original Dead Space,” Roman says. “It doesn’t recreate it like it was, but rather like you think you remember it. One thing that’s very funny is that often, when people see footage of the game, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, it looks great! Exactly like I remember it!’ And then you show them an image of how it was and they’re like, ‘Oh, f—-!’ For us, that means we succeeded. And if there was just one goal for the project, that would be it—that we pay homage to the original material, and that we capture that memory.”

“Right,” says Mike, “it was very important for us to honor the memory of the original game, to enhance it and update it for modern audiences but also respect the core pillars of the franchise. Being fans of the original, we treated each element of the remake with a lot of care and respect.”

“One of the first things we said to our team is that we wanted people to use our game as a reference for how to do a remake,” Philippe told us shortly before release, “We want this to be the bar that remakes have to hit or surpass. And very early on in development we were able to nail that moment-to-moment experience of walking through the ship, all tense, not knowing what’s going to be there. It feels like Dead Space. That’s super-important, and I think players are going to think, ‘Oh, yes. This is what I was hoping it would be—and more.’”

Judging from the response, that seems to have been a very accurate prediction.

The wait is over. Dead Space is available now on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.