Eidos Montreal on designing Deus Ex 3, new trailer debuts

GDC 2010: Art director on how the Icarus myth influenced the cyberpunk prequel, trying to come up with a distinct visual look, and Heavy Rain's scary characters; full trailer and video developer interview inside.

Who was there: Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete, who spoke about his work on the upcoming Deus Ex Human Revolution.

What they talked about: The Deus Ex series has always featured dark and moody visuals, which was a perfect fit for the dystopian future the games presented. Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete--the man in charge of the look of the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution--spoke about the challenges in creating a unique visual style for the prequel during his 2010 Game Developers Conference session, and it seems that while team members are big fans of the original, they doesn't necessarily want to mimic its visual signature.

Ocular bionics are back in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Ocular bionics are back in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Jacques-Belletete began by highlighting the fact that this was the first public showing of the game and firmly asked for no cameras during the session (the images in this article are from the new trailer). He said that while all of the team members at Montreal were big fans of the original, Deus Ex did not have the most fully realized game aesthetic. Jacques-Belletete wanted the new game to have its own individual voice that was still informed by cyberpunk visual archetypes, such as nighttime environments, fog and smoke, clutter, near-future technology, and transhumanism.

For Human Revolution's high-level visual goal, Jacques-Belletete said the team focused on two points: illustration as opposed to simulation and design distinction that creates desire. When it comes to illustration, Jacques-Belletete wanted to create a world that wasn't necessarily photo-realistic, but one whose individual pieces looked like they all belonged within the same reality. This aesthetic extended to a character's face. Jacques-Belletete said they wanted to avoid any uncanny valley problems and even singled out recent PlayStation 3-exclusive Heavy Rain for some critique. "It (Heavy Rain) is a beautiful game, but those people are so scary! And you look at the teapot in Beauty and the Beast, and that little dude looks alive and he looks like a human being," he said.

On the second goal--design distinction that creates desire--Jacques-Belletete explained that looking unique can be a strong selling point for a game. He cited the example of the Big Daddy and Little Sister designs in BioShock as great examples of a game pushing a distinct look. He then put up a slide showing stills from games like Killzone 2, Gears of War, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Unreal Tournament 3, and Turok saying they were examples of games that all looked similar and therefore weren't doing anything distinctive.

Like the original game's J.C. Denton, the new protagonist will sport futuristic shades.

Like the original game's J.C. Denton, the new protagonist will sport futuristic shades.

In Eidos Montreal's quest to be different, Jacques-Belletete said he focused the team to have two design analogies in mind--the Icarus myth and the Renaissance. Jacques-Belletete said Icarus fit the theme of transhumanism perfectly. "Dude, this guy is augmented. That's transhumanism," he said. "He has too much fun with transhumanism, and then he burns and falls to his death--this is my metaphor; this is perfect." With the Renaissance, Jacques-Belletete said he found many links to transhumanism. "If you want to upgrade a system, first, you need to see how it works. And that's what the Renaissance was--they tried to understand how the human machine functions. It's the first step towards the transhumanist era," he said.

But when the design team members tried to directly inject Renaissance themes into the game's art--balloon sleeves and pants, ruff collars, and patterns--Jacques-Belletete said they failed. It wasn't until he started to look at the world of modern fashion and decided Renaissance-flavored clothing must still look like it would be wearable today that they locked on a design aesthetic. Jacques-Belletete then showed several characters from the game, including the main character Adam Jensen. Jensen sports a pointy, Don Quixote-like beard and wears a long black jacket with a high, almost Edwardian collar. Other characters--including enemy soldiers--looked futuristic, but they did feature some classical touches like geometric patterns and ruffles.

The best thing about the transhumanist era? Robot arms!

The best thing about the transhumanist era? Robot arms!

While Jacques-Belletete's session was heavy with still images and concept art, he did show one brief section of in-game activity. It was a dialogue scene with someone who looked like a police officer that was leaning casually on a desk inside an office. While the dialogue was hard to place out of context, it did highlight what appeared to be the dialogue wheel for the game, which looked like a circle with choices selectable around its hub.

Quote/Takeaway: "A lot of people were saying just do Deus Ex 1 with better graphics. And there's a lot of that in our industry--just do that, but bigger and shinier. We didn't want to make an echo of the first one." -- Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete

62 Comments

  • megadupek

    Posted Jun 8, 2010 5:11 am GMT

    I loved Deus Ex 1... it was one of the first FPS-RPG games (if not the first).

  • dyziux

    Posted Jun 7, 2010 12:23 am GMT

    I've played a day ago Deus ex,and its fantastic, idk why but it can keep me playing for longer than one sit, as for much games not, and wait its released at 2000, awesome game

  • kholdspark

    Posted May 6, 2010 7:16 am GMT

    I think us long time gamers need to look at this whole uncanny valley thing with a little perspective. We've all grown up watching games become more and more realistic and therefore we can admire the technical advancements and ignore some of the problems. However for people on the outside looking in at games like Heavy Rain, the uncanny valley is a problem. Games don't need to look like cartoons either. Take Uncharted 2 for example. The facial features were slightly exaggerated which makes the character easier to show emotions but you would never say Nathan Drake looked like a 'cartoon'. Compare Nathan to someone like Ethan from Heavy Rain and then ask yourself which character was better at conveying human emotion. Nathan Drake. This is because Naughty Dog understand that right now in today's industry, facial features need to be exaggerated slightly because technology is yet to be sophisticated enough to properly replicate human emotion.

  • Mizuki88

    Posted Mar 31, 2010 5:38 pm GMT

    Ok everyone who hasn't played the 1st DX go do it now, Still think it's the best game I've ever played.

  • Elian2530

    Posted Mar 18, 2010 1:56 am GMT

    Never was a fan of Deus Ex, but I also never played a single DE game either. Something about Deux Ex: Human Revolution that has me hyped. I hope they dont incorporate too much of the Square Enix-Japanese flair, and I hope they keep it more of a Western look game like its predecessors. I believe in the interviews, Square Enix were the ones that called the shots when it came to the hair style for the character. They had some say-so when it came to some of the character and game designs, and it shows. Here's to hoping DE:E stays true to it's roots and remains a fun and an engaging game.

  • Rudorlf

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 8:35 pm GMT

    Played the 1st game, but never finished it.. (I know, punishable to death for not finish one of PC's greatest game.) Will reinstall and finish it.

    Hope the 3rd game will follow the gameplay of the 1st game, and become the best among the series.

  • ETPC posted Mar 14, 2010 6:02 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ETPC

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 6:02 pm GMT (hide)

    this is gonna be beyond terrible

  • Saije

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 6:00 pm GMT

    That uncanny valley stuff is bs. I don't find them scary, most reasonable people don't. You just get paranoid people who find something frightening where there is nothing to be frightened about. It's a tad pathetic to be honest. To me it almost sounds like an excuse for graphical limitations on their part.

  • ioannisdenton

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 5:09 pm GMT

    DUDES what are you waiting for!!! play deus ex 1 ASAP!!! don t mind graphics you ll get blown away!!!!!

  • BLaZe462

    Posted Mar 13, 2010 4:56 pm GMT

    wow, shocking some ppl here haven't played Deus Ex

  • AnelZukic

    Posted Mar 13, 2010 9:51 am GMT

    I never played the first one but I support them by not making an "echo" of the first one (although I heard only great things about it and I want to play it). I'm excited about this one and I hope it will be done great

  • FsLeonhart

    Posted Mar 13, 2010 8:05 am GMT

    I'm very excited for this game!!!

  • kamizuka

    Posted Mar 13, 2010 4:08 am GMT

    the old game had something about the illuminates and now they are talking crap about the human evolution? what kinda kind of propaganda is that?!

  • pamplinas322

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 11:51 pm GMT

    Sweet.

  • Frysco415

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 11:17 pm GMT

    where are some screenshots?!

  • PodXCOM

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 9:26 pm GMT

    Can someone tell me if I'm the only one who is really bugged by his "uncanny valley" Comment?

    Because I don't want games to look like silly cartoons.

    By the way, the "uncanny valley" is the reason why Pixar's Up looked so cheap.

  • internetrush

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 9:15 pm GMT

    For those that have played the second, play the first. The second was more "Open ended" but the first was actually rewarding. The second left a hole in the Deus Ex title, dragging the title throgh the mud, hopefully this will fill that. If this game is anything like the first, Eidos stands to make a lot of money, if they make it like the second, Eidos stands to rate a lot of insult.

  • Olde-Fashund

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 5:49 pm GMT

    I hope its more like the first than the second.....

  • solidniko

    Posted Mar 12, 2010 4:06 pm GMT

    never played the first one