Interview: Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Team Tells Us What’s Up With Those Respawning Convicts

I love to pick the brains of developers when given the chance, so I knew the opportunity to interview the developers of Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster was too good to pass up. However, something was lacking in this offer.

The offer was to ask “the development team” questions via email. Pressing for more information, I wasn’t told who my questions would be going to. That makes it difficult for me to know what sort of questions I should ask. Would they know anything about the development of the original? Whatever, I thought, it could be interesting.

As it turns out, my questions were answered by Producer Kei Morimoto, Art Director Satoshi Takamatsu, and Director Ryosuke Murai. What’s more, I found their answers to be very insightful, so I am more than happy to share them with you. Stick around until the end to learn what is up with those convicts in the courtyard.

Zoey: With the original version of Dead Rising still available on modern platforms, why did it seem like a full graphical overhaul was necessary?

The original Dead Rising had an excellent game design when it first released, and even now, I think the game feels unique. That said, Dead Rising is an 18-year-old game with certain “usability” challenges by today’s gaming standards. The controls aren’t the most user-friendly for an action game either. Our goal was to preserve the original’s gameplay experience as much as possible, so we took a careful look at every element of the original game. I think the visual enhancements in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster are the most obvious change from the original game. The development team wanted to renew characters’ aesthetics and background graphics and elevate the game’s visuals to modern standards in hopes of sharing the appeal of the Dead Rising series with an even wider audience of gamers.

Kei Morimoto (Producer)

Zoey: Was the goofy, B-movie tone of Dead Rising intended from the start, or did it happen organically as the gameplay began to develop and take shape? I guess what I’m asking is: what’s up with that dark-as-hell opening prologue cutscene?

From early stages of development, our goal was to create visuals with inspirations from the medium of film, but we were only able to achieve a B-movie level of production based on hardware limitations at the time.

For Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, we were able to create a creepy atmosphere, more realistic lighting effects, area-specific thematic designs, and even the finer details of a zombie outbreak – none of which were possible in the original game. Based on this, I think DRDR offers players the chance to experience the atmosphere of a horror movie. I was in charge of lighting design for the original game, so I’m elated to be able to reflect my learnings and know-how of the last 20 years in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Players often emphasize the more comical elements of Dead Rising, but the story itself is a serious one. Thus, I think it’s only natural that the prologue would set the tone with darker contents that make viewers feel like they’re stepping into dire Hell-like circumstances.

Satoshi Takamatsu (Art Director)

Zoey: Was there anything that you wanted to change or add to the remake that didn’t get implemented?

There are certain aspects of Frank’s move set and the Psychopaths’ battle designs that could use some fine-tuning when compared to the breadth of action games available to gamers nowadays. We considered making significant adjustments to these elements, but we ultimately decided against major changes such as adding new skills to focus on creating a remaster that values players’ memories of the original game. Instead, we made detailed adjustments to item and skill parameters, increased “usability’ for some of Frank’s skills, and tweaked some of the Psychopaths’ routines among other things to make it easier for players of all backgrounds to feel and appreciate the charm of the original game. If another opportunity presents itself, I’d love to take a stab at creating a unique and exciting action gameplay experience that preserves the essence of Dead Rising.

Ryosuke Murai (Director)

Zoey: Was it difficult to maintain the density of the zombie crowds when porting the game to the RE Engine?

It was difficult trying to maintain zombie density while keeping gameplay elements intact. The engine and programming language used to develop Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster were both different from those used for the original game, so naturally we encountered some problems.

There were definitely some accidents with imaging where the number and density of zombies on screen didn’t match our expectations, but we plugged along and made corrections while cross-referencing the appearance and actual code of the original game. In addition, rendering a large number of zombies with higher polygon counts than those in the original game naturally impacted performance. Since reducing zombie count and density goes against DRDR’s concept, we made various optimizations to ensure we could maintain performance in the final product.

Ryosuke Murai (Director)

Zoey: One of my memories of the original Dead Rising on Xbox 360 is how frustrating it would get to try and lead survivors to safety. I didn’t have that same issue with the Deluxe Remaster, but I had trouble identifying what the specific improvements were. Can you explain what was changed?

While the frustration of guiding survivors in Dead Rising was certainly an issue, I think the humorous moments and the sense of achievement players felt when successfully rescuing survivors were also very memorable. For this reason, we’ve done our best to preserve survivors’ original behaviors as their personalities, actions, and disregard for Frank’s requests illustrate how panic-stricken individuals would probably respond in a zombie outbreak. That said, we’ve made some adjustments to frustration-inducing elements that players can’t solve on their own, such as friendly fire among survivors or survivors getting stuck in certain areas due to a poor navigation system. I think these types of improvements have helped create a less frustrating gameplay experience that stays true to the original game.

Ryosuke Murai (Director)

Zoey: Did the mechanics and controls (good or bad) in later entries in the Dead Rising series influence what was changed in the Deluxe Remaster?

We made sure to analyze the gameplay systems and mechanics in previous Dead Rising games, but our priority for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster was to preserve the unique charm and appeal of the first mainline entry and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that modern action game fans can play the game comfortably. For this reason, we’ve made some changes to controls that make it easier to execute skills and commands characteristic of modern-day third person shooters. However, we have not made any adjustments that would drastically affect the gameplay loop and feel of the original Dead Rising such as combo weapons or changes to item slot specifications.

Kei Morimoto (Producer)

Zoey: I’m sure there’s nothing to announce, but is there any desire to remake Dead Rising 2 in a similar way?

As part of Capcom’s strategy, we’re always looking for opportunities to reactivate Capcom-owned IP’s, and we believe that Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is one title that fits well within that strategy. If Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster performs well, I think it could open up various possibilities for the Dead Rising series in the future.

Kei Morimoto (Producer)

Zoey: Why do the convicts keep coming back to life?

Similar to the original game, the convicts that players face after the initial encounter on Day 1 are

supposed to be different people than the original trio.

Ryosuke Murai (Director)

Wow, I’m not sure if I considered the possibility that the respawning convicts were meant to represent different people. I think they technically have names and prisoner numbers, but perhaps their appearance wasn’t varied with the limitations at the time.

I also found the information about the game’s technology and art to be interesting. Satoshi Takamatsu suggested that the team was aiming for the feel of a higher-budget film and landing in B-movie territory to be fascinating. That makes me wonder about how Servbot heads and zombie bees came into the original vision, but I’m happy they did. Meanwhile, I imagined the challenge of getting the zombie hordes to fit on the RE Engine would be difficult, and the response from Murai certainly confirms it.

I really enjoyed Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. I have a soft spot for the original, but found aspects of it to be frustrating, but in its overhaul, they’ve all been polished over making it closer to the experience I was hoping to have in 2006. Not every glow-up turns out quite as well, but it’s obvious the team knew the mission.