E3 2019 - Interview for John Wick Hex
One of the first games I got to check out on the first actual show day of E3 2019 was John Wick Hex and I am sold on it, but I also had the chance to sit down with Nic, Co-Designer and Lead Programmer on the game to ask a few questions about it.
Q. How long as John Wick Hex, been in development for now?
A. Over a year, we started working on it proper, before Parabellum was teased.
Q. So over a year, how did it come about, had you heard that they were looking for someone to make a game, or was it something else?
A. So Good Shepherd (publisher) and Lionsgate (movie folks) were talking somehow and then Be, our producer, who works with Good Shepherd came to us and said, did you want to put together a pitch, because I think you would like it and obviously we like the movies, so yeah, we put something together and that’s how it formed up.
Q. How long would you say you spent on the pitch, was it something quick like a few pages in a document, or did you present a prototype of the game?
A. We put together a prototype, it was a strategy game and was more turned based, cause we put it together kinda quickly. It was a very limited prototype but was always a strategy thing from the beginning.
Q. And the reception from Good Shepherd and Lionsgate, is obvious now, but was it always like that?
A. I don’t know directly, but they seemed pretty positive and have always been with our idea from the beginning and has been really nice to see they support it so.
Q. In the initial PR release information, it was listed that some of the fight choreography was done by the stunt team and even have some of the actors involved. How much support have you had from the team behind the movies?
A. It has been close, so Mike (Bithell) has been going back and forth to LA a lot, talking to the filmmakers and stunt team, who choreographed the action and they were able to see what we were doing. They were able to take the fight scenes and take it apart into a player friendly way, specifically that push action that you can do in the game, that was something that we wanted to do as a move, as it was interesting and tactical move on the grid, but was never in the movies really.
We went to the stunt team, or Mike asked when he was with them and we were like, hey we want to do this thing that looks vaguely like this, how would you structure it and do the flourishes like they do in the movies. They pulled out a camera and worked some stuff out and made it look like how they do and then our animators looked at that.
Q. With regards to platforms, it has been announced for PC and consoles, do you envision a lot of differences between them, due to the input nature on the PC, compared to consoles?
A. No, when it comes to consoles, we will be working really hard to exactly replicate what we have on PC.
Q. The art style is quite unique, the key art alone shows John Wick, but also not him. Was it set up early in development to go that way, or was this a by product of the games design?
A. That was a conscious decision, we wanted to put something together that captured the feel and look of the movies, the lighting and colours especially and get that sense, without having to go photo real.
Q. You have actors Ian McShane and Lance Reddick confirmed to reprise their roles; will they have a big part in the story?
A. So right now, I can’t say anything more about the story, besides the fact that it is set before the beginning of the movie, but I can’t elaborate more.
Q. The first movie?
A. Yes, the first one.
Q. So this is like a prequel story, to the movies that we know.
A. Exactly.
Many thanks to Nic for showing me the game, check that out here and taking time to answer my questions. John Wick Hex is currently without a release date, but once there is one, you can be sure my pre-order is going to happen.
