SPOnG: When Heavenly Sword was first revealed, many were quick to refer to it as “Goddess of War”. Do you think the comparison with God of War is justified, and in what ways are the two similar or different?
Tameem Antonaides: We both feature cinematic moments and are both third-person action adventures heavy on combat. One of our three stances, the Range Stance, has blades that come out on chains. I think that is why we are compared. We both set out to make a truly cinematic game experience and we arrived at the same solutions. Bear in mind that we had developed our combat engine before ever having seen God of War so it’s a case of synchronicity.
On the other hand, our focus has been much more on making you feel like you are playing through an actual movie, which is why we have collaborated with the likes of Andy Serkis, Weta Digital and Nitin Sawhney. We have fighting game-style encounters that range from one-on-one bosses to large groups all the way up to thousands of enemies. At the core of it, we designed Heavenly Sword to be a game that could only be achievable on next-generation hardware, and in this regard we stand alone in this genre.
SPOnG: Heavenly Sword is stylised very differently to your last project Kung Fu Chaos, yet still retains the same martial arts theme. Are you guys looking to see how many different types of martial arts games you can make or might you look into different themes for future projects?
Tameem Antonaides: We’re pretty good at making combat systems and action now. We made huge strides in each game from No-Combat-Experience to Kung Fu Chaos to Heavenly Sword. I think we can make another huge leap forward and would like to see where this takes us, whether it is martial arts themed or not.
SPOnG: Given the style of your projects, particularly Heavenly Sword, where does Ninja Theory stand with the ‘video games are art’ debate?
Tameem Antonaides: Given the amount of artistic talent in so many fields that are involved in game making, I would say that anyone who says that games aren’t a form of art is bigoted. For me art has to show a unique skill and be engaging. Some art is better than others as are some games.
SPOnG: It must have been pretty cool to have Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) join the production team. What roles did he play behind the scenes and does he play any characters in the game itself?
Tameem Antonaides: Andy has been invaluable. We at Ninja approached Andy because we knew we lacked the experience in casting, character development and on-set directing. We brought him on as a Ninja and worked with him hands-on on the shop floor. He introduced us to Weta as he said that we were very similar in the way we worked and would get along. He worked closely with me and our writer Rhianna Pratchett to flesh out the story and characters. He cast all the actors and gave them all a crash course in performance capture and what it means for an actor. He directed all the actors for each scene and plays King Bohan, the main villain in the game.
Going out to New Zealand with him, the rest of the cast, and working at Weta for six weeks was an experience I will never forget, but it was really tough. We would be on-set at 7am, work on the scenes till about 6pm, select takes until 9pm, edit until 12pm, and then often write until 1-2am. We would repeat the whole process the next day for 6 weeks with barely any breaks. Like all of us Ninjas, he has invested a lot of his time and creative juices in this project.
SPOnG: Thanks for your time, Tameem.
Tameem Antonaides: We both feature cinematic moments and are both third-person action adventures heavy on combat. One of our three stances, the Range Stance, has blades that come out on chains. I think that is why we are compared. We both set out to make a truly cinematic game experience and we arrived at the same solutions. Bear in mind that we had developed our combat engine before ever having seen God of War so it’s a case of synchronicity.
On the other hand, our focus has been much more on making you feel like you are playing through an actual movie, which is why we have collaborated with the likes of Andy Serkis, Weta Digital and Nitin Sawhney. We have fighting game-style encounters that range from one-on-one bosses to large groups all the way up to thousands of enemies. At the core of it, we designed Heavenly Sword to be a game that could only be achievable on next-generation hardware, and in this regard we stand alone in this genre.
Tameem Antonaides: We’re pretty good at making combat systems and action now. We made huge strides in each game from No-Combat-Experience to Kung Fu Chaos to Heavenly Sword. I think we can make another huge leap forward and would like to see where this takes us, whether it is martial arts themed or not.
Tameem Antonaides: Given the amount of artistic talent in so many fields that are involved in game making, I would say that anyone who says that games aren’t a form of art is bigoted. For me art has to show a unique skill and be engaging. Some art is better than others as are some games.
SPOnG: It must have been pretty cool to have Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) join the production team. What roles did he play behind the scenes and does he play any characters in the game itself?
Going out to New Zealand with him, the rest of the cast, and working at Weta for six weeks was an experience I will never forget, but it was really tough. We would be on-set at 7am, work on the scenes till about 6pm, select takes until 9pm, edit until 12pm, and then often write until 1-2am. We would repeat the whole process the next day for 6 weeks with barely any breaks. Like all of us Ninjas, he has invested a lot of his time and creative juices in this project.
SPOnG: Thanks for your time, Tameem.
