Live Q&A with Dead Rising 4 Developers - 09/21/16

[On September 21st, 2016, Capcom Vancouver employees and a community manager hosted a live Q&A in the Capcom community forums, disclosing several details regarding the game which have yet to be discussed publicly. In addition to transcribing the Q&A, I've added an index indicating what answers address and a section summarizing information from the Q&A.]

Summary:

- The timer is removed, previously confirmed. The justification for removing the timer is that the mechanics of Dead Rising 1 and 2 don't work with an "open-world" game, and that, "people at shows," and, "people who played the game from day 1," are glad that the timer is removed

- Escorting survivors is removed, for reasons similar to those above. [Is this even Dead Rising?] Instead, survivors may be, "good or bad," and provide the player with weapons and PP when assisted. The survivor bulletin board is removed.

- Developers deliberately avoid discussing psychopaths as they existed in Dead Rising 1, 2, or 3. Instead, the implication is that psychopaths have been replaced by "non-zombie" enemies appropriate to particular environments.

- Unique zombie types return, but not necessarily the types from Dead Rising 3. There are "Freshly Infected" and "Evolved" zombies, the latter of which have a, "sense of self-preservation," and can infect standard zombies.

- Frank's voice actor was replaced because the developer's envisioned a more, "grizzled, older take," on Frank 16 years after the original incident (even though he's less grizzled - and less older-looking - than in OTR).

- There is a sprint mechanic, including a stamina meter.

- There is a context-sensitive music system.

- The Williamette mall is actually a new mall.

- There will be lots and lots of Christmas music.


Index:
Q1: "User friendliness", moving away from elements of Dead Rising 1 & 2, unique enemy types
Q2: Discussing psychopath concepts
Q4: Improvements to AI, shaders, and rendering
Q5: Discussing combo weapons as "over-the-top", Dead Rising as an action game
Q6: "Buy our game."
Q7: Chuck Greene in OTR
Q8: Avoiding discussing psychopaths returning, discussing unique enemy types instead
Q9: Survivors, "no escort missions"
Q11: Hand-to-hand combat is "gated by the hit counter"
Q13: "How has the design ethos of Dead Rising changed?" [Note: This answer is incorrect.]
Q14: New characters for each installment
Q15: Why TJ Rotolo didn't remain Frank West's voice actor
Q16: Frank's personality
Q17: Discussing DR3 plot point
Q19: Discussing the tone of the series and DR4
Q21: Why the time limit was removed
Q22: Multiplayer maintaining classic DR challenges?
Q23: Camera angle in DR3 and DR4
Q24: Discussing freshly infected and evolved infected, new infected types
Q25: Sprint mechanics
Q27: References to the original game
Q31: Christmas music
Q33: Not discussing co-op
Q34: Context-sensitive music system
Q35: Avoiding discussing psychopaths, discussing "non-zombie" enemies instead
Q37: Survivor bulletin board removd
Q38: Williamette Memorial Megaplex is the name of the (new) mall in DR4
Q39: How far is the game in development?
Q43: References to Canada in Dead Rising

Live Q&A:

Joining us will be:
o John Ellenton - Senior Game Designer at Capcom Vancouver who's worked on the series since Dead Rising 2.
o Roy McCombe - Lead Game Designer at Capcom Vancouver who's also been with the series since Dead Rising 2.
o Trant Lee-Amies - Asset Manager another Dead Rising 2 vet.
o Jeffery Simpson - Community Manager and noob. That's me!

Q1: Playing Dead Rising HD really does showcase how much more "user friendly" the series has gotten. Is some level of urgency and desperation returning in DR4, or did you guys decide to keep on with the newer, more fast paced action oriented form Blue Castle started the series on with Dead Rising 2?

JE: The goal is going to be making DR4 harder than DR3, but we're moving away from some of the elements of the first two games like the timer that added a lot of the challenge. We're also trying to up the challenge by adding new enemy types which present different challenges for the player.

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Q2: Are there any psychopath ideas you've had that got vetoed for one reason or another?

JE: Yeah. With all the games things change during development, or some concepts don't work or we run out of time to add them all.

TLA: Sometimes they don't progress the game or the story that we're trying to tell.

JE: Or they end up just not fitting. The homeless guy may have been the initial concept for the guy in the bathroom (DR2).

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Q3: Will there be water in Dead rising 4? All pools were empthy in Dead rising 3.

TLA: There's water, but we've frozen it!

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Q4: What technical improvements have been made in DR 4?

JE: We switched to a new AI system so our AI is a lot better. And are shaders and rendering systems have improved quiet a lot.

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Q5: Do you think that combo weapons did make Dead Rising 2 and later titles really easier compared to the original where you have to carefully use your resources to survive instead of matching up together random things spread everywhere on map?

JE: Yeah, absolutely. It's one of the hard things to balance how over the top the combo weapons are. But it was the evolution of the series which took it away from a more serious survival game to a more action orientated over the top game.

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Q6: What would you say to people who havent played any xbox one dead rising titles who might be interested in 3 or 4 when it comes out????

TLA: Get it! Wait until December 6th and get Dead Rising 4.

JS: While I think we're drawing on a lot of DR history it's not like we're making a LoTR game where there's four appendixes of languages to learn. A new player will be able to pick up and get what's going on, even if they don't get all the easter eggs we've got planned.

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Q7: After the boss fight with psycho Chuck Green, in the cutscene Frank West stops to inspect the key Chuck dropped, and when he turns around Chuck has vanished. What was the intent behind this? Was it to show Chuck has actually surived in Off the Record and was maybe set to appear later on, or that Frank imagined the encounter and is going a bit off the rails himself?

JE: OTR isn't canon, so it doesn't affect how Chuck is after that. Also we didn't want to kill Chuck, even in a non-canon game, so the idea was that he just kind of escaped.

TLA: We see Chuck again later in the series.

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Q8: We've heard Psychopaths ARE confirmed for returning...

JE: We have some unique enemies but we're not going into too much detail yet.

TLA: The enemies are more a part of the world than before.

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Q9: Are survivors returning and if so, how does saving them function in DR4?

JE: They're coming back but there's no escort missions.

TLA: They're part of the encounter system, so they could either be good or bad or otherwise.

JS: In the demo we've been showing you may have seen them dropping weapons after Frank saves them - so you'll get some PP as well as something useful for your time.

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Q10: will there be more hairstyles? I loved being able to color and shave frank's hair in the first game

JE: Lots of crazy outfits. More Christmas and winter themed than before.

TLA: Frank is a stylish man, he likes a do or a bouffant.

JS: Excuse Trant's French.

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Q11: Will the hand to hand wrestling abilities from Dead Rising 1 and 2 make a return in Dead Rising 4? Double lariat, backflip etc, and if so, can they be used without combo kills? "

JE: We have some of these moves but they're mostly gated by the hit counter - so it's not the same system as DR1.

TLA: What Jello (studio nickname) meant to say was 'yes they're back you just got to be cool to perform them.'

JS: All our fans are cool.

JE: That's the non-technical answer.

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Q12: Are you guys aware that Terror is reality tournaments go on and are still going on strong? What kind of achievements are we gonna be expecting??

JS: Yes we knew that about TIR and it's impressive!

TLA: Nothing to say at this part about the achievements but .

JS: Yes there will be cool achievements.

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Q13: How has the design ethos of Dead Rising changed between the studio working as Blue Castle and being taken in as Capcom Vancouver?

JE: No it's all the same people.

TLA: Mostly.

JE: Mostly, but we still have a core group.

TLA: The design ethos is what's core to the franchise and what makes sense for design.

JE: And how we can evolve the franchise.

JS: So I'm confused, but I guess the answer is no.

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Q14: How did the studio come to the conclusion of trying a new lead character for each main installment (minus DR4)? Other Capcom series like Devil May Cry tended to stick to the same primary lead perhaps to avoid alienation with new mechanics and characters.

TLA: You have no baggage or history with a new character so you can try something new. Is he a tough guy, a helpful guy... you're trying to make a new hero and we can set the game in a different place without having to worry about how it links to Frank. If Frank West is at all the outbreaks it would get a little bit tiring.

JS: Like how many terrorist incidents is Frank McLean going to be a part of? I mean I love those Die Hard movies but that guy has the worst luck.

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Q15: So... TJ Rotolo. Without regurgitating the same "the fans wanted a more mature sounding Frank" farce, what exactly was the thought process behind dropping him unceremoniously after 10 years? Did you anticipate the huge negative fan feedback or did you really think no one would notice/care?
Frank West is iconic enough to appear in crossovers, not just each of the DR games I some form. Is there a reason why he appears to have a new voice actor for Dead Rising 4?

TLA: Frank has evolved as a character and we wanted to work with someone to provide a more grizzled, older take on Frank at this stage – just don’t ask him about his age. In ‘Dead Rising 4,’ Frank is much older – 16 years have passed since the events of the original game – and we decided to cast a new actor that reflected his age while still retaining the charm and humor that made him such a hit with fans.  We think Frank’s new voice actor has done a phenomenal job, and we can’t wait to share more of him with you in the future.
It's no disrespect to history or previous actors, TJ has done a bang-up job. It was a chance to with a new game to progress the franchise as best we can with a different vision just as we see new James Bonds over the years.
I vote Idris Elba for the next James Bond.

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Q16: Is Frank still gonna be a wisecracking smartass?

TLA: You better believe it! [Note: Leaked cutscene dialogue includes such wise-cracks as, "What?! You told me we were gonna go play mini-golf!"]

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Q17: In Dead Rising 3, Nick has the blood type that can cure people and save everyone, have you considered working around this plot point, if you haven't already? Do you feel that it backs you into a corner, with what you can do with Dead Rising, now?

JS: We're doing mental gymnastics here about how to answer story related questions since we're wanting to protect as much of that for DR4 as we can.

TLA: Nothing can really back us into a corner because there's always a bigger and badder zombie bee.

JS: Yeah. But we're not going to go too indepth about DR4 story stuff here, sorry.

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Q18: I might be asking something that's too far off for a specific answer, but are you considering making something similar too Super Ultra Dead Rising 3' Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α for DR4?  I loved that DLC.

JS: Too early to talk about DLC at this point I think. Sorry about that.

TLA: That's got to be the best title.

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Q19: Dead Rising one and Two are literally my favorite games, So I have two question and im sure you can't answer the first one. The first question is, why did you change Franks voice from T.J and are you aware of the petition to change it? And my second question is do you think you'll ever go back to the more serious and a bit more mild gameplay from the first two games?

JS: We've spoken about your first question up top.

TLA: It's always a balance, you know. Between putting comedy at the forefront and allowing players to create their own comedy through gameplay.

JS: I think one thing you'll see is that the series plays the story quiet seriously, even if Frank's wearing a pirate costume or dressed as a famous video game character. For Frank and the characters in the game this is deadly serious stuff.

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Q20: Megaman Legends and Megaman has a healthy number of cameos largely through Servbots in Dead Rising. What are your favourite MegaMan games? Each of you may answer if you don't mind. A general series or game works as an answer.

JE: Mine are probably the Mega Man Zero series for the Gameboy.

TLA: I love the little blue man.

JS: Trant's been trying to steal Capcom USA's statue of Mega Man for our Vancouver offices for awhile now. Customs won't let him take it across the border. Mine are the originals, because that's what I grew up playing on the NES. Going back to them now though they're $&#&$ hard. I can't believe I passed them. I was way better at video games when I was a kid.

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Q21: Can you really explain why you removed the time limit?

JS: I wasn't involved in the decision, but talking to people at shows (PAX, Gamescom) the majority of people who ask about time limits are happy that they're gone. Even people who played the game from day 1 were glad to see it go. Definitely there's support for time limits, but I'd say the vast majority of the people I've talked to face-to-face are glad they're gone.

JE: It just didn't work with an open world. Mainly it's difficult to expect people to try to find all the collectibles or explore when they're under a time pressure.

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Q22: As someone who is a huge fan of the original Dead Rising and almost as big of a fan of Dead Rising 2 and Off The Record I am severely dissapointed to hear that the timer has been removed and survivors are no longer to be escorted to a safe area. Is there a possibility of these features being added in at a later date? As some kind of extra 'challenge' mode of some sort?

JE: No the game isn't built with those challenges in mind so it wouldn't work.

TLA: Multiplayer has challenges that reflect some of those systems.

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Q23: Why did you decided to change camera angle in DR3? It looks really uncomfortable for this type of game where you have watch everything around you.

JE: It was an art direction choice and gameplay and art direction came to a compromise. Dead Rising 4 we're going back to not as close.

TLA: Dead Rising 4. Not DR 4. Type it.

JS: Okay.

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Q24: I feel honored having my question answered since I love Dead Rising so much. I do have another question if you have the time. I think allot of people felt Dr3 was very easy and you've said you're trying to amp the difficulty up. So will the regular zombies be more deadly than dr3 and be a bigger thread the Dr1 ones, and will these new types of zombies be quite brutal?

TLA: We have two new zombie classes. The Freshly Infected - freshly bitten survivors. They're a bit scatty, ragey.

JE: More aggressive.

TLA: More aggressive. Then Evos which are...

JE: Evolved. They're smarter, they have a sense of self-preservation they're not just going to rush in. They let the other zombies attack the player and then pick when to attack. They can also infect the horde around you and are really strong.

TLA: And you're not just dealing with the Evo.

JE: The base zombie horde are also more aggressive and we have implemented a system where they all surround you and put you in what feels like quicksand.

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Q25: Will the sprint mechanic from Dead Rising 3 be returning? It's just a little mechanic but it gave me this rush of excitement. It's one of the little bits that made the game, for me.

TLA: Yes you'll be able to have that rush of sprinting excitement.

JE: We've also offered a stamina meter so you can't sprint forever.

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Q26: Where my boy Otis at? #ProtectOtis2016

TLA: You'll have to wait and see.

JS: Otis' funeral was in Dead Rising 3.

TLA: Was it?

JE: It was a picture of Otis but...

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Q27: what kind of throwbacks to the original game will we see ie: outfits, characters, locations, etc

JE: Well it happens in Willamette.

TLA: The mall.

JS: The demo had a lot of references. I think in the newspaper offices there's a lot of stuff in the demo that references the first game. Not many people saw that though.

TLA: Costumes.

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Q28: In otr frank comments on mash potato in a tumble dryer i heard that its because of what was said in the zero punctuation review of dr2 is that true???

JE: Yes that's true. It was an Easter Egg to reply to his review of our game.

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Q29: Will the zombie models from Dead rising 3 also return  to create more variety in zombies?  Like the prisoner zombie, cop zombie, fireman zombie, rugby zombie etc.?

JE: The prisoner and cops and such aren't returning. We have new types of zombies, which we talked about earlier here.

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Q30: Since Frank's model looks so much younger, for whatever reason, say we see Isabela (just an example) would she look any younger? Not asking if she'll be in the game, but just trying to see if any of the returning characters will have aged as gracefully as Frankie

TLA: Frank isn't younger he just ages well, like good bottle of wine. Scratch the bottle of wine. Bourbon.

JS: How do you spell bourbon?

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Q31: Will there be any collaboration with music artists? I loved Celldweller in Dead Rising 2/OTR

JS: I tried to get Oleska here he's our in-house composer and he's been with the series since Dead Rising 2. But he was too busy doing music for this game called Dead Rising 4.

TLA: There's lots of Christmas themed tunes, you'll get to sing along with or without Frank.

JS: Confirmed we're working with U2. (NOT TRUE). I don't think we've got any collaborations to announce.

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Q32: Sorry to ask again, but it is well documented by players that Dead Rising Remastered is censored on all platforms based on the European version of the 360 original.
I'm honestly not sold on games with edits (refunded my Steam purchase till I see mods) so can someone let me know if there are plans to restore the assets or give me a sign that Dead Rising 4 is safe from the same fate.

JS: We're not quite sure what you're talking about. Sometimes there are different versions of the games that need to be released for different territories due to local laws and sensibilities.

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Q33: Are you guys able to elaborate on any co-op features at all?

JS: Not much at this point. Stay tuned!

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Q34: Has the tension-killing music that plays whenever you got near a crowd of zombies in DR3 been removed in DR4?

JE: We have a whole new dynamic music system that looks at threats, enemies and changes on the fly based on what situation Frank is in.

TLA: It's showcased in the demo. It adds a really good tension level to the game.

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Q35: Are we getting psychopaths this time round? Haven't heard anything about them in any interviews etc. If we are - are they based on the ideas of deadrising 3's seven deadly sins psychopaths or more random original created psychos like in DR1 and DR2.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions guys much appreciated.

JS: We've answered this earlier, so check out above. But basically yes there's non-zombie enemies and they'll be more related to the world than in other games.

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Q36: I believe Gogeta is talking about the edit to Jessie when Frank helps her after she falls over, the physics around the chest area have been removed. It's a small edit but people have noticed. There is a video on the comparison between versions.

TLA: We didn't change the physics on the re-release. They didn't change mechanics when they remastered the titles. Changing from 30 fps to 60 fps may have reduced a bit of wobble here and there.

JE: We've only ever altered gore for different countries.

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Q37: Will the survivor bulletin board make a return? Liked that very much.

JE: There's no bulletin board.

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Q38: Thanks a ton for the response. I do have one more question: Will we be able to explore the entire Willamette mall in DR4? Or only revisit bits and pieces?

TLA: It's the whole mall.

JE: Sections will be gated based on story progress.

JS: It's a new mall also. The Willamette Memorial Megaplex.

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Q39: How far is Dead rising 4 finished? Are weapons and stuff still added or is it more polishing?

TLA: We're finishing up, it hits the shelf December 6th. There's a mountain of work to do and little time to do it.

JE: At this point we're wrapping stuff up as opposed to adding new stuff.

JS: So my suggestion of moving the location to Hawaii didn't go through?

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S40: Question. Well more like a statement. If no one else tells you all this today.... You are all awesome, you are all wonderful, you are all amazing. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

JS: I make my mother phone me every morning and tell me this.

TLA: In the words of Frank West, "I know." You're welcome.

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Q41: Did any of you attend the Terror is Reality event in Japan with the announcement of the game? What was it like?

TLA: No unfortunately not. Jon Airhart may have done (Capcom USA staff who has worked at the studio and in Japan).

JS: If anyone wants to fly the three of us to Japan...

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Q42: Will there be unique Survivor based missions w/ babysitting escorting?
Will Dead Rising 2: Case West be recognized? I could see Frank West taking Chuck Greene telling him 'The World needs Frank West' as a turning point to put the past behind him and evolve as a character rather then being a bitter out of shape drunker.

JE: There's no direct nod.

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Q43: Dead Rising 2 had a few things that seemed to be referencing Canada littered throughout the game warped in a Dead Rising fashion such as Mooseheads you could use to sweep up zombies with, and a zamboni retrofitted into a killing machine. Was there anything included in the games you've developed that you're particulary fond of as a little reference to your home and city, Canada, Vancouver?

TLA: Still Creek in Case Zero is the street that our studio is on.

JE: The moosehead in DR2. The hockey gear.

TLA: Ice hockey gear in Los Perdidos seemed odd.

JE: Probably our grammar.

JS: Nick apologizing to a zombie every time he hit them. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

TLA: We named the Dead Rising 3 theatre in Ingleton in the Queen's English.

JS: Roy just joined as we're wrapping up. So you missed that, sorry guys. Thanks for your questions! They were really great. Sorry we couldn't hit them all but we've got a game to make.