Vampyr - Interview @ TSA

Dontnod's Grégory Szucs (Art Director) and Stéphane Beauverger (Narrative Director) have been interviewed by The Sixts Axis, about Vampyr.

TSA: So, obviously, you’ve set Vampyr in London in 1918, but how have you gone about reconstructing the city? Have you aimed for something that’s very accurate or more the feeling of London and the essence of Whitechapel at that time?

Grégory: We started from historical reference, definitely, but we actually […] take London at that point in time and then we digress just how much we need to tell our story.

Stéphane: It will not be like in GTAV, where it looks like you’re really in Los Angeles. It looks like London, but as you said, it’s the essence of London.

TSA: Yeah, I feel you have some common ground with The Order: 1886?

Stéphane: Yes, and the tricky part for us was to avoid the Victorian era feeling, because we are 30 years after. We are just after the First World War, so now there is no more gas lighting, there is electricity.

Grégory: Some people still use gas lights though. Not everyone [has moved on].

Stéphane: There are cars, even if very old ones, there are cars and the trolley bus, and things like that. The metro…

TSA: I think it’s still a tricky time period to get a distinctive look for, though.

Grégory: The architecture is still a lot like Victorian and Georgian.

Stéphane: But the technology is very different.

Grégory: That’s where you can get those relatable moment, where there is a steamroller or something using electricity. There’s all the advances in medicine and the tools brought back from warfare, which are very distinctive to the time period and definitely not Victorian.

Stéphane: We have a lot of historical research on scientific information, to precisely see what the medical knowledge was at this time. Personally, I’m very glad to show in the game that, yes, in 1918 they had X-rays, they had microscopes. I’m sure people will say, “X-rays? They had those?”

Thanks Eye.