Planet Redwood

Absolutely incredible podcast interview with DP creator SWERY, in which York's voice actor Jeff Kramer reads the deveoper's answers in English. A must-listen for fans. NOTE: The actual interview starts at about the 3 hour 15 min. mark, but the rest of the discussion is largely DP-related and very worth listening to.

An old but fascinating Insert Credit feature written by SWERY65 in 2004, in which he talks about his early life and how he went from four years of film school to a seemingly unplanned decision to join the games industry.

A wonderfully long and juicy SWERY interview that puts a lot of Deadly Premonition in context, and fleshes out more of SWERY's design philosophy. "Lovely Useless Elements" should become a standardized developer term.

Heitor De Paola, a games journalist writing for the Portuguese website Gamerview, was kind enough to send me this translation of a SWERY interview he conducted in September 2010. Short but insightful, with more than a few facts not mentioned in other interviews, and some very perceptive questions asked. Here's hoping Paola gets to talk to SWERY about DP2 someday!

An interview from a Planet Redwood affiliate! More musings on the philosophy behind DP's game design, the possibility of a sequel/prequel, and another interesting tidbit about a major character in the last question. ***MAJOR SPOILERS***

Excellent interview of SWERY65 by the folks at Giant Bomb in the second issue of the Luchazine. Download the hi-red PDFs here: [http://www.mediafire.com/?1ennghzltoj]

Gamasutra interview with SWERY65 by Brandon Sheffield.

Great little interview from Faceoff Games in which SWERY talks a bit about his creative process, what he'd change if he could, and his favorite video games (one of which is of course, cementing SWERY as my favorite person of all time, Mother 2).

This interview from DiHard GameFAN was conducted just before DP's North American release date, so it's interesting to note the cautious tone of the questions and answers. SWERY obviously doesn't want to spoil anything here!

I was actually asked to contribute a few questions to this particular interview, so I have to thank the great folks at GameCritics (especially Brad Gallaway) for the offer! Questions 2-6 are things I was personally interested in and I was quite pleased with the responses. There's a lot of other DP content from GC on this page, so be sure to check it all out!

York makes the cover of GDM's August 2010 issue! A great article that covers pretty much every aspect of DP's troubled production, telling how the developer's love and passion for the project saved the game from never getting made at all. A must-read. NOTE: Due to the secure URL of GDM's online store, I am unable to link directly to it from here. Just click on their Store link on the left side of the page and look for their August 2010 issue; it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Matthew Weise is a lead game designer at the GAMBIT Game Lab, a gaming academic and research collaboration between MIT and the government of Singapore. This is an incredible lecture from September 2010 about... Well... Just about everything that makes DP interesting. We don't need an MIT grad to tell us what those are, do we Zach? Even so, this is something probably everyone should watch. Insightful and an analytical fresh breath of air for those who like to examine mechanics we usually take for granted with a more critical eye.

Article from the October 2010 issue of 360 Magazine, all about the challenges faced by publishers when distributing Japanese titles to the US and UK. Deadly Premonition gets its own little section, with Rising Star Games explaining why they made the decision to bring it to Europe and the process of localization.

Despite the ironic-sounding name, Daniel Weissenberger is totally serious about this. And he's not the only one. A multiple-part series of articles expanding in greater depth DP's strengths and flaws, illuminating some aspects of the game that you probably had never thought of before. Great read.

Gamepro, May feature. A good look back on the cult success of DP and the many factors that contributed to its success.

SWERY, number five from the top in the field of Design, is briefly recognized as one of 50 developers who made "some of the most significant contributions to the game industry over the last year". Re-printed from the November issue of Game Developer Magazine, which also ran a post-mortem feature on DP in August.

Good, long analysis of SWERY's auteur status, with lots of comparisons and contrasts between his creative process and David Lynch. For those who want a slightly deeper take on the game and its artistic inspirations.

Interesting analysis of SWERY's previous game, Spy Fiction, as it relates to Deadly Premonition and Access Games.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Matthew O'Mara of Unbox Magazine challenges typical readings of York's personality as the product of psychosis, and offers an alternative interpretation that considers the more spiritual symbolism seen in the game. Also check out his other DP writings on LevelFortyTwo above.

The name might be a handful, but this PopMatters article presents a neat take on how the player's interaction with York as Zach can be seen as a parallel to every player/player character in all games. A good read on a deserving topic! ***MAJOR SPOILERS***

A short but quite perceptive BitMob article on a vastly under-represented subject: Romance in video games, and why DP's succeeds in making us believe in it where other games fail- or don't even try. The author, Cameron Pershall, also guest-hosted a more in-depth DP discussion in an episode of This Podcast Contains Spoilers, available in the VIDEO/AUDIO section below.

To my knowledge, the most comprehensive and most accurate version of the soundtrack available for downloading. Comes in both flac and mp3 flavors!

These were an incredibly popular series of videos that involved the Giant Bomb staff adding MST-like commentary over their playthrough of the game. There are actually two sets of these: BR (Brad/Ryan) and VJ (Vinny/Jeff). They are definitely worth checking out, but I recommend playing the game first before watching them.

A glimpse into a world that could have been...

Too lazy to hit A every once in a while? Here are most of, if not all, of the fortunes available from the coffee pot in the Great Deer Yard Hotel cafeteria. Courtesy of corruptedsave.

Unlike most people, I first heard of Deadly Premonition not through Jim Sterling's review or Giant Bomb, but these guys. And for that, I am forever in their debt.

"Evan and Cameron Pershall discuss Swery65's B-movie-tastic game Deadly Premonition. In doing so they also address the depictions of homosexual video game characters and the bizarre public decency of John Shaft."

"After a super-long hiatus, we grab a cup of coffee, snag a bite from our "Sinner's Sandwich", and head to "NOT Twin Peaks" where Sean and Rob will attempt to review the game to end all games: Deadly Premonition!"

"Sadly, due to some busy schedules the editing of this episode was lost in the shuffle, but the discussion of the impending Halo: Reach beta and Deadly Premonition was entertaining enough to warrant this episode."

"Simply put Deadly Premonition is one of the weirdest games you may ever play. It is a budget title that has picked up ridiculous amounts of buzz in the gaming world of late. After hearing so much about it the crew here at SPT had to see what all the fuss was about..."

"Deadly Premonition: Shovelware or Game of the Year? We're pretty enamored with it, and we spend the entire show telling you why. We discuss its critical response, its connection to Twin Peaks, the mystique of Francis York Morgan, and why it may feature the best storytelling in the history of games."

Very nice in-depth podcast review by C.H. and Splinter47 that covers pretty much all aspects of the game, including stuff like an Evil Dead reference that I'd never heard of before. Planet Redwood also gets a shout-out at 29:33! Bullseye!

Whitney and the crew at Hell Descent talk about many things horror-related, so of course Deadly Premonition had to come up at some point! DP discussion starts around the 52:00 mark. Whitney also runs the DP fansite Welcome to Greenvale as well as a host of Silent Hill sites. Both WTG and Hell Descent are site affiliates, so please check them out for more survival horror goodness.

This is really cool! Send a Tweet from York Morgan's personal Twitter account. Anyone can do it, Zach! (Not related to the Agent York profile set up by Ignition; this is more of a fun thing.)

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** It's not exactly a review in the traditional sense, and actually isn't entirely ironic, but Something Awful's hilarious piss-take of both the game itself and the journalists who scorned it is both entertaining and surprisingly insightful. For the record, the DP thread on their forums is chock-full of appreciative fans.

A rather flippant but somewhat amusing take on the similarities between the two games.

April Fool's joke.

Jim Sterling's inflammatory follow-up to his already gasoline-soaked review of DP, in which he starts off comparing the two games before eventually sinking into a hilarious mire of racist remarks about PS3 owners. Clear-headed individuals should be able to pick out the truth from the flame-bait; all others stay away, unless you want to get burned.

Meticulously and thoroughly cataloguing every common narrative element DP shares with other media in pop culture. Even wondered about "Not Using the Zed Word", or what's up with Anna's "Godiva Hair"? If you're not familiar with TV Tropes by now, get ready to waste at least three hours of your life after clicking this link.

From Topless Robot comes this list of, well, exactly what the title suggests. What the authors of this article don't seem to realize is that they've put both Deadly Premonition and Seaman in the top two slots, without realizing that Jeff Kramer played the main characters in both games. Which is almost as weird as the games on the list.

Amazingly, the game's creator has his own Twitter feed, and he speaks pretty good English! He follows pretty much anyone who follows him so you can drop him a question any time. He's answered a few of my messages to him, so I know it works. If you have a Twitter account, just add @Swery65 in front of your message. He's a busy guy and we don't want to distract him too much from his next project, but it can't hurt to try!

Sporadically updated and in Japanese, but still has some interesting stuff like the chart he made of DP's supernatural mythology.

Yes, York also has his own Twitter feed. It's maintained by Ignition Entertainment staff, so you know it's for real. Sometimes he has updates on what's going on with the game itself, and other times he'll just be musing about coffee cake and the nature of the cosmos.

Ignition's official English page for Deadly Premonition. Nicely polished, hasn't been updated in a while. See also IgnitionUSA's Twitter feed: [http://twitter.com/ignitionusa]. You might also try e-mailing them directly at [info@ignitionusa.com].

Japanese publisher. All in... Japanese.

DP's European publisher. See also their Twitter feed: [http://twitter.com/risingstargames]

Hosted by site affiliate Welcome to Greenvale, of which Planet Redwood is a Community Partner! If you're a DP fan, this is the place to be. Come on by- the coffee is always made fresh.

Into creative writing or online role-playing? Step into an alternate Greenvale where you may be just one of many characters involved with or trying to solve the mystery of Anna Graham's death. You can apply for characters from the game or of your own creation; just make sure to read the rules and have fun!

"A Community for all things Deadly Premonition". Just started, but has some nice images and cute puns buried in the interface. Check it out!

Not as active as some other forum threads about DP, but this is the place to go if you want to complain about the PS3 release (hey, it worked for the PAL version!).

UK distributor's Deadly Premonition thread on their official forums.

The DP thread at SA is chock-full of appreciative fans who definitely seem like the right audience for this game. If they love it so much, why don't they marry it?! (Answer: Because we're already engaged. I got the ring and everything.)

Since every game has its own board apparently, things here are a little more organized, though almost half a year after the game's release has seen things quiet down a bit since then. Still a good place to share new info though.

Nice OP, and again, sometimes it's nice to re-read these old threads just to see how people's perception of the game changed (or didn't change) as time went on. History is being made!

One of two reviews that helped (inadvertently) to put Greenvale on the map.

Flame bait or actual review? Either way, it helped to set off a chain of events that nobody could have foreseen... Probably best known for his description of the game as a "beautiful trainwreck".

Aggregate scores for Deadly Premonition, based on 23 critic reviews. Worth noting the User Score, at present, is split completely between positive and negative with no mixed scores in-between.

"If Deadly Premonition was an incredibly polished and gorgeous adventure, we'd probably let most of its brilliance pass us by. It works because of its faults, whether they were intentional or not."

In which Deadly Premonition makes #9, beating out FFXIII and sitting just under Heavy Rain. More astonishing was the fact that people seemed more upset about Heavy Rain being on the list.

"Once you look past its flaws, you'll find a game that is completely engrossing for far longer than it ought to be, is refreshingly self-aware that it is, in fact, a videogame and not a movie, and in many ways, is one of the best examples of game writing I've ever seen." Nice!

It actually links to a longer review by someone else on the same site, but I chose this page for its awesome headline: "DEADLY PREMONITION: STRANGE AND UNCOMPROMISING". Put that on the box, Ignition!

"Pros: Best Plot Ever. Best Characters Ever. Emotional Journey". Did you see that Zach? This score goes up to ELEVEN!

Covers familiar territory, but the comments are pretty fun to read. Solid article.

Makes the same points as most other reviewers, but the points deserve to be made again. Although I think it stands out for the interesting description of York's "almost autistic withdrawal from the real world" as being surprisingly apt.

"If you couldn't tell, there's a lot of food for thought in Deadly Premonition, which I think is a mark of high quality. Though many reviewers may have been turned off by a lack of superficial polish, I think that Deadly Premonition is one of the best games I've played in a long time. It's absolutely worth playing, thinking about, investigating, and examining. It is a rare gem."

"...for those of us that love seeing something different, that love playing something totally out there, Deadly Premonition is a compelling and emotional ride through a weird part of the world. The mainstream marketplace has no place for games like this one -- I've never really seen anything quite like it."

"...Deadly Premonition is a budget title I would have gladly paid full price for. For just $20 you're looking at twenty hours of one of the strangest and most original games in a long time. This is a must have title. So says Mr. Stewart."

"it's an experience like no other, if not always for the right reasons. I adored it, but I couldn't tell you in earnest that you will feel the same. But I will tell you this: you absolutely must play it. How else would you ever know?"

"It's often been said that there's a fine line between genius and insanity, and Deadly Premonition treads that line with wanton abandon... For gamers who wish to explore the greater reaches of what the medium is capable of, Deadly Premonition is essential. In a nutshell, there are very few more imaginative acts you'll see this year."

"If there was any justice in the video game world, Deadly Premonition will be sat in clear view with a big "Must Buy" sticker stamped on the front. It's the most entertaining 30 or so hours you'll have all year, AND it's a budget game!"

"There a genius level of experience here wrapped up in mediocrity and crazy. Peel away the layers and underneath, through the frustration and cringes is a magnum opus that just might be on the same wave length as you."

"The story and characterisation are strong enough to force open-minded players to forgive each and every one of its numerous flaws. ...Most of you will hate it- with good reason- but invested gamers will discover a genuine cult classic that has no equal on the system."

"Deadly Premonition will have you scared, confused, howling with laughter and confused some more, and that

"It's all so vastly more interesting than Alan Wake and Heavy Rain (the two games we imagine it will be most commonly compared to) that we've half a mind to go back and dock their scores retroactively."