Dead Island Cinematic Designer Interviewed.

Techland isnt a developer you hear about often, Their previous development titles being that of Call of Juarez, and Chrome (neither of which I had actually heard of untill now) But Techland made quite a splash last week with the release the Dead Island announcement trailer. It was Glasgow-based animation group Axis that worked on the video, along with publisher Deep Silver.

The trailer itself showed a family being attacked by a horde of zombies and it recieved mixed reviews – most people loved it, but some condemned it for showing a little girl getting mauled.

Speaking to Game Informer, Deep Silver cinematic designer Anton Borkel revealed that despite all the graphic violence shown in the trailer, what they really tried to put into focus was the intense emotions that come hand in hand with the carnage that ensues when, say, a zombie apocalypse suddenly takes place in your hotel.

How did you come up with the concept for the Dead Island trailer?

This was actually a long process. When I joined the project, Axis had already developed several ideas. Some elements were already in place at that time — for example, the little girl as a character was in most of the drafts early on. The idea behind it changed quite a bit though. Ultimately, we focused on challenging the audience and putting in twists and turns as we went along. There were many heated discussions on how well the audience might react to a rather complex trailer structure, but in the end we all felt that this could actually work. By reversing some of the content in the trailer, we not only get to see interesting and surreal/gruesome scenery, but we also leave the viewer on a different note than many other trailers: showing a peaceful world, something worth fighting for.

Was the cinematic created using the in-game engine/assets?

Yes. Axis used models and textures provided by the developer to portray actual locations on the island, including its famous hotel and lighthouse, as closely as possible.

The family in the trailer found themselves in a pretty dire situation. Are they the main characters of the game? If not, will we see them again?

We are not quite ready to talk about the involvement of the family in the game at this stage.

What would you say to people who are skeptical the game won’t measure up to the trailer?

People always have doubts when a CGI trailer is released as a first piece of media which is understandable, but I think we set out to create something that would be close to the game’s atmosphere, which we feel is a significant differentiating point for Dead Island. As long as people don’t expect to play the game in reverse-slowmotion-mode they should be just fine.

Check out the full interview over at GameInformer.com