Dining With Developers, Vol. 2: Haden Blackman, Part 2
4/17/2009 5:16 PM | 10 Comments | Page 5 of 9
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Blackman: I kind of missed getting on the Battlestar boat. And I don't know what's going on with the Encore channel these days, but it has been showing "Aliens" every day, it seems. It's one of those movies that I can't just turn on and walk away from. I'm really excited to see the new Star Trek [film]. But I think this is maybe the first in my life I've ever been excited about Star Trek. I think it's really true: You're either a Star Wars fan or Star Trek fan. I've always been Star Wars fan.
Lucas: Why do you think that people are either Star Wars and Star Trek fans?
Blackman: I think that Star Trek doesn't always -- for me, personally -- hit on the same mythic themes that Star Wars does. And I was always confused about who the good guys and bad guys were. You could always sort of understand the Romulans' point of view, you know?
Narcisse: Gene Rodenberry from way back was like, "We can all just get along."
Blackman: Right, and that's not all that exciting to me. This is a really geeky story, but the moment in "Star Trek II" that really stuck with me is when Spock died. I went home after the movie, and I would play out moments where Chewie died. Because Han Solo and Chewie were my Spock and Kirk. Every time I played with my action figures, Chewie always ended up dying; he always ended up sacrificing himself...
Narcisse: There seem to be lots of chainsaws popping up in games these days -- Gears of War,
Madworld. Is the chainsaw the lightsaber for a new generation?
Blackman: The brilliance of the lightsaber -- no pun intended -- is that it's so iconic. And a chainsaw? I look at it, and it's like, "OK, is it Ash from Evil Dead?" But when you see a lightsaber, you think,
That IS Star Wars. I got asked this question earlier today: Why did we decide to have the Apprentice hold his lightsaber backwards? Initially that was a total art foul. The art director said, "I want something in the game, where anytime you look at a screenshot, you see it and go,
that's Star Wars. The lightsaber accomplishes that. As much fun as the chainsaw is in Gears of War, it's still a chainsaw.
Jones: Time for a little turnabout. Are there any questions you'd like to ask us?
Blackman talks shop
I want to ask to ask you [Evan] -- because you were at that initial story press conference -- how different the initial pitch was from the final game. And be honest.
Narcisse: I hate to beat a dead horse, but using the Force to bring down the Star Destroyer is ridiculously hard. And, to be honest, it's just plain ridiculous.
Blackman: I've got a funny story about that. I think I can tell the story about the Star Destroyer and how that came about, right?
Kahn: Sure.
Narcisse: "Pull it out of the sky!!!!"
[Laughs]
Blackman: We were in a design meeting one day, and I kept saying, "Force unleashed, force unleashed, force unleashed." And the designers were getting frustrated with me. And I was getting frustrated because I didn't feel we were thinking big enough, and they were getting frustrated because I don't think they were thinking how far they could go. So finally, they got really angry with me, and they were like, "OK, so how big is too big? What do you really want this guy to be able to do?"
