A mildly sarcastic tweet reminiscing about Isaac Clarke’s bemusing appearances in games outside of his own Dead Space franchise has revealed the protagonist’s subsequent presence in titles like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Skate 3, and NBA Jam: Fire Edition was less about a knowing wink to a legendary character and more about how easy it was to plop him in there with not very much effort.
Last week, @topherflorence posted about “that hot second where EA kept trying to act like Isaac Clarke from Dead Space was this iconic universally beloved character” to which former EA Redwood Shores developer Ben Johnson replied “All these games used the same basic model rig so adding Isaac was as simple as importing the model. Dead Space’s engine was a branch off of Tiger Woods, which was made in the same studio as Dead Space back then.”
Hey, Dead Space LD here. All these games used the same basic model rig, so adding Isaac was as simple as importing the model. Dead Space’s engine was a branch off of Tiger Woods, which was made in the same studio as Dead Space back then.
— Gᴏᴏsʏʟᴠᴀɴɪᴀ (@GameDesignerBen) October 12, 2019
Johnson is now working on Psychonauts 2 at Double Fine. After another person in the conversation responded to the thread with their own fond memories of Dead Space, Ben replied with “Thanks! There’s a handful of former Dead Space people at Double Fine now, so hopefully we can recapture some of that magic” to which someone joked that Microsoft Excel with Dead Space devs would be wild to see.
Johnson was ready with a quick and pretty brillant comeback:
— Gᴏᴏsʏʟᴠᴀɴɪᴀ (@GameDesignerBen) October 13, 2019
Twitter’s not so bad sometimes…
Wireframe #24 is out now
