THE MAKING OF DEAD SPACE
Looking at the recent early footage of the Dead Space remake, the most striking thing is just how similar it looks to the 13-year-old original. Sure, it’s shinier and glossier, and your Plasma Cutter now sends flesh flying off Necromorphs like porridge in the wind, but overall it puts into perspective just what a masterpiece the first game was.
As gamers start derusting their Ripper blades and lubing their Line Guns with WD-40 in preparation for the remake, I’ve looked back with the developers of the original Dead Space on how they brought together a uniquely timeless classic. When Dead Space creator and Visceral Games general manager Glen Schofield proposed a sci-fi horror game to EA, he says that “EA was a bit freaked out, because it was something they hadn’t done since System Shock.”
Schofield adjusted his idea into a potential , more with the desire to convince EA than to create a true successor to the immersive sim. This seeded the idea with the publisher, though the breakthrough launched in 2005. Suddenly, survival horror looked commercially viable again, and in the end it was the now-famous “ in space” pitch that sealed the deal.
