Above: You can detach Bucket’s head and use it like a drone to track the creature.
GamesBeat: Is there anything that specifically inspired the design of the characters and monsters? I kept getting a Jurassic Park vibe when I was playing.
Robb: It kind of starts with … Chris will just throw out a theme or have some ideas for abilities, maybe like ‘We want to do an electricity theme for this guy.’
Ashton: Yeah, Markov was all about electricity.
Robb: He’s Assault, so he’s gonna be a big dude. The character team takes that and figures out who this guy is. It’s rarely ever a formulaic process. Each character — it sounds kind of cheesy — but in a way, they’re born very much like people. As we tool with them and work on them, and do visual explorations, a lot of time it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s the guy!’ For Bucket — for the longest time, we didn’t have a clear idea what his voice should sound like. And then one day, one of the guys was like, ‘Hey, listen to this guy.’ And we’re like, ‘That’s Bucket!’
It’s kind of a very touchy-feely process of creating our characters. We don’t have this big, high-minded plan. We have a gameplay idea, and that’s about it. The characters slide into that naturally in a strange, organic way.
GamesBeat: For the big aliens like Goliath, who obviously doesn’t talk, do you try to emphasize their physical appearance instead?
Robb: He was our first monster, so we wanted him to be the most accessible. We looked at things that were more familiar archetypes for him. Godzilla is one. … King Kong’s another one. These are the classic movie monsters that everyone can identify with. Goliath is essentially a mix of those two. King Kong climbs and jumps and throws big rocks. Godzilla breathes fire and likes a good brawl. At the end of the day, that’s what Goliath is. He’s a brawler. …
Ashton: He likes to get up front and …
Robb: And fuck shit up. [Laughs]
