Blade Runner Game Director Louis Castle: Extended Interview

Blade Runner Game Director Louis Castle: Extended Interview | Ars Technica

Рет қаралды 14,916

Күн бұрын

Ars Technica is proud to present our extended interview with Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle - the executive producer, art director, and technical director behind the influential 90’s point and click PC adaptation of Blade Runner. Learn more about the challenges Louis and his team overcame in converting the Blade Runner universe into an interactive environment, reinventing adventure games and taking players on an audiovisual journey on par with Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece.
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00:00 Introduction
00:30 The Landscape of Mid-90s Gaming
01:23 When Westwood Got Involved
02:44 Building The World With New Tech
08:07 Blurring The Lines Of Reality
13:20 The Team & The Gameplan
17:38 Building Blocks Of The Characters
25:21 Staying True To The Film
27:37 Getting More Funding
28:55 Finishing The Game
30:40 The Power Of Planning
31:30 Evolving Tech During Development
33:40 Using Dirty Buffers For Live Renders
35:00 Boosting Sales Via Low-End Machines
36:43 Realism Of Unreliable Clues
39:47 The Meta Of Making NPCs More Human
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Blade Runner Game Director Louis Castle: Extended Interview | Ars Technica

Пікірлер: 60

@TitusFFM 3 жыл бұрын

I remember buying it in late 90s I think it was 4 CDs and this was the game I played for hours. Exploring every detail enjoyed it so much. Thank you for the interview.

@MattHall 3 жыл бұрын

These extended interviews are such a gem

@lachlangordon9806 3 жыл бұрын

We miss you Westwood :(

@Indigo_Gaming 3 жыл бұрын

This is super interesting. Very rare to see such a nice, personable game dev who is both incredibly savvy in both technology and creative design.

@dennis7782 3 жыл бұрын

This is one of my fav interviews you did, thanks for uplaoding the whole thing!

@stevemuzak8526 3 жыл бұрын

At that time it was the most realistic game I ever seen. It's still impressive even in 2020. Great Blade Runner atmosphere. I'm soo happy that is still available and playable on modern pc's.

@leif54 3 жыл бұрын

I love hearing him talk. Its so much information in every sentence he speaks.

@peterdelevoryas4684 3 жыл бұрын

Yes!!!!!! Thanks for releasing this, I already watched the shorter segments like ten times.

@mrqe5 3 жыл бұрын

He's almost 60, but looks so young. Nice 👍

@kaspartambur 3 жыл бұрын

Speed of thought and sentences also feels like he's just a freshman!

@slot9 3 жыл бұрын

This was excellent!!! I am taken aback by the really cool ideas and systems that were in what I thought was a linear adventure game!

@kaspartambur 3 жыл бұрын

yeah, this interview actually makes me re-look at the whole game in a new way!

@177Darksharp 3 жыл бұрын

Love this game. Wish someone would do a proper remaster in Unreal 4/5.

@Indigo_Gaming 3 жыл бұрын

Remake. A remaster updates the original game using its original assets/technology. Porting the game into a new engine with fully 3D models would be a remake, not a remaster. :)

@fabricem.5977 2 жыл бұрын

You'll love BR 9732 project by Quentin Lengele

@Fuuntag 3 жыл бұрын

I have heard Louis talk through this about 10 times now...never gets old.

@ESPLTD782 3 жыл бұрын

Soo glad they put this game on GOG. I still play it

@ColorauGuiyino 3 жыл бұрын

This guy is just a genius.

@famistudio 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ars! Love the extended version! :)

@stephanemignot100 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks to GOG and the ScummVM team I can play this game on a 2004 eMac!

@beefchampion2792 3 жыл бұрын

Great interview! You guys are one of the best channels on youtube!

@smokydogy 3 жыл бұрын

Quality upload, thank you kindly

@saugatmanandhar6473 3 жыл бұрын

I love this video. Great interview!

@robertledet 3 жыл бұрын

amazing game. great interview!

@LIANG14 3 жыл бұрын

This is awesome work!

@murkyseb 3 жыл бұрын

Really interesting. I want to hear more from this man

@Chocolateness2000 3 жыл бұрын

This one is really great!

@raphaeldwain7834 2 жыл бұрын

Great interview

@ricepony33 3 жыл бұрын

Love these extended interviews. How about the No Mans Sky team?

@candyman666ification 3 жыл бұрын

one mans lie lol

@jm3267 3 жыл бұрын

Agreed, I think an interview about their difficulty with managing fan/publisher expectations and how they've worked to try and support and expand the game for the last few years would be incredibly interesting!

@JoesGuy 3 жыл бұрын

Looking forward to seeing what happens with this remaster.

@Lazarus1119 Жыл бұрын

Interesting... the special ending he refers to with turning on the replicants and steele being alive was cut from the game.

@m9000k 3 жыл бұрын

I love the Blade Runner game and I still have it :)

@NicolaMela1 2 жыл бұрын

Super interesting! I wish there was some game footage tho

@celozzip Жыл бұрын

he must be livid at the remaster

@hawk5946 2 жыл бұрын

Remember Sound Blaster cards?

@NeilRieck Жыл бұрын

Rendering farms? I haven't heard that phrase since the original days of Babylon 5

@iforgotthenamemate 3 жыл бұрын

Bring the Team resposnible for spec ops the line!

@nicholasfitzkee5881 Жыл бұрын

This is a great interview, but can anyone confirm that this game will really run on a 4.77 MHz 8086? He mentions that several times. I can certainly imagine targeting a 486 or first-generation Pentium in the mid-90s, but nobody was using 8086/8088 hardware back then. Current hardware specs all mention Pentiums, but since they are GoG or SCUMMVM, it's hard to tell.

@SavageArms357 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'm confused why he mentions that, because the recommended system requirements on the original box suggest at least Windows 95 and a 90mhz Pentium.

@esdrasminikoski 3 жыл бұрын

Can you guys Interview the creators of myth the fallen lords?

@vonpiro2397 3 жыл бұрын

1:20 Ecstatica

@ESPLTD782 2 жыл бұрын

I always wanted to take max Payne and put him in a blade runner world. Lol I feel like he would fit perfect with his narration and style.

@sunlin894 2 жыл бұрын

I just read the transcript of this interview....and it suddenly hit me what i was confused about how they solved the "clue" dilemma.... it wasnt anything innovative ...they just used liked lists in the programming. For every clue one bit of info is "name of npc that passed the main character this clue last". You then link back to that character and the same...."name of npc that passed this npc the clue last", ....link...link....link. Until you know origin and path from npc to npc of a reliable or unreliable clue that arrives at main character. To test if an npc "knows" about a certain clue ...see if they have any value in their link node. If "null" then....they dont know. C Programming 260 & 265 college.

@Nutsaur 3 жыл бұрын

17:01 That ending doesn't exist. I've tried to get it, looked on KZfaq, looked at Wikis, and it doesn't exist.

@EstrangedEstranged 3 жыл бұрын

You tried it on the GoG version or on the regular version?

@EstrangedEstranged 3 жыл бұрын

In the abridged interview footage this ending is shown as L.Castle speaks - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNGno8RmvrbMqGw.html I'd assume that ScummVM have broken some things when porting the game, just like they have caused a lot of game breaking bugs when porting Lure Of The Temptress to ScummVM, another game with simulated NPCs.

@Nutsaur 3 жыл бұрын

@@EstrangedEstranged As far as I know it was a regular version.

@stroggoff 3 жыл бұрын

@@EstrangedEstranged That is simply not true. There are not any known game breaking bugs in the ScummVM release. In fact, many original game bugs have been fixed. However, if you have spotted one, you are welcome to report it on our (ScummVM) bug tracker and it will be fixed ASAP.

@stroggoff 3 жыл бұрын

This is indeed the case. That ending does not exist, or rather is not possible to get it. There is some extra dialogue in the game that is more or less along the lines of what Louis Castle mentions, but it is untriggered, since the conditions for it are impossible (they are conflicting conditions). There is a plan to restore this in the "restored content mode" but that is currently work in progress and I cannot offer any ETA.

@aaet4872 3 жыл бұрын

This guys voice got slower and slower with each chapter

@DanielElia2036 Жыл бұрын

So sad they lost the original master 🤦‍♂️ We want back games like blade runner.. now storytelling in games is so boring and linear .

@CsendesMark 3 жыл бұрын

3 replicants did not like this video :D

@damazywlodarczyk 3 жыл бұрын

The guy is just lying, you didn't invent voxels and the game was not open world.

@sunlin894 2 жыл бұрын

Im not going to get into the particulars of what i think he is embelishing the truth on -or exaggerating the details of ....i.e. lying....because i have the game....but to not take away from the accomplishment of a great looking game for its time - and the pixel rendering and lighting effects for the game technology of the time still drops my jaw - and unique detective role play that seems to have some basic A.I. where decisions are influenced by past choices...he does seem to be talking it up like he's in an interview for a job or still selling the idea to get a contract for sure....nice dude though...smart....has a good pitch.

@sunlin894 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah and at the end he says it was a short story.....wrong....a novel. Not lying but certainly a game salesman....a pitch man. Nice dude though. Especially when he says " whos going to know we cut this out....only us....ha ha ha" does that mean whos going to know we didnt achieve what im saying we did achieve....ha ha ha ....who could know...lol