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Making of Dredd vs Death
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1st
February 03 |
 The
Making of Dredd vs Death
Jamie Boardman
and David Walsh
Review by Gavin Hanly
What to expect:
An in depth look into the making of the Dredd vs Death videogame, from
early concepts right through to publicity and pre-release. Also features a potted
history of 2000AD and Judge Dredd, plus a brief history of 2000AD video games
Review:
It's hard not to come to this review with preconceptions that have been inherited
from experience on the Dredd vs Death videogame. I feel obliged to comment early
on that I was distinctly underwhelmed by the game itself - and felt that much
could have been done to improve that. While this view undoubtedly coloured my
experience of The Making of Dredd vs Death, it's true to say that this
book does often manage to scale greater heights than the game itself.
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An
unused Mean Machine concept |
The first thing
that hits home when the book is opened is its design. The whole package is beautifully
put together, reminding me more than a little of Edge Magazine's designs with
a pleasingly clean feel throughout, heightened by the used of stark white backgrounds.
David Walsh has seemingly treated this book like a labour of love and it shows,
with some great use of the game designs and graphics at his disposal, innovative
border design, and little touches like the "flip-book" Judge Dredd in
the corner of the book, giving the reader an quasi-animated Dredd. It's this high
level of design that immediately elevates the book above formerly expected "cash-in"
and make it well worth purchase consideration.
As for the overall
content, things start very well indeed, with a concise history of 2000AD and Dredd's
World that should bring any newbie to the comic right up to date. The history
of 2000AD computer games is also a fascinating exploration of what had come before
(although it's frustratingly short and lacking in decent sized images of the games
themselves). It's this initial part of the book that is arguably the most successful
section, and gives a good taste of what a collected "Thrill Power Overload"
could looked like if Bishop was matched with the same book designer and editor.
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Death
falls to pieces |
Things start to
go slightly awry, unfortunately, when we get to the actual "making of section".
It starts well enough with fascinating insights to the planning stages, and how
things get cut out of the game but there are certain areas where the book doesn't
go far enough. For instance, there aren't nearly enough images to illustrate how
the development of the video game Dredd himself came about, arguably a key part
of the design process.
But it's when things
get technical that it really starts to go wrong. There are pages of developers
talking about the "asura" engine, AI and the mechanics of the game that
are a real trial to get through and left my eyelids feeling heavy. When the subject
of "bicubic bezier patches that can be tessellated at different levels of
subdivision" came up I started to despair. and it's this section that seems
to be the book's major missed opportunity. It would undoubtedly appeal to anyone
who works heavily with computers, but the rest of us are left swimming in jargon.
A real "idiot's guide" approach was needed here, and the book falls
far too short of this.
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A
possible future Rogue Trooper game? |
There are other
issues of concern. Some of the initial pages of the book which just describe the
places and characters that appear in the game seems a little too much like a video
game manual, and while the book with an admittedly fascinating "wish list",
this brings things to an abrupt close, when an "epilogue" or something
similar was needed. This wish list also does the unfortunate job of making me
wonder just how much better the game could have been if their ideas were included.
It's fairly telling that none of the developers call for more monsters and zombies
in any potential sequel..
Overall
So the Making of
Dredd vs Death falls short in its task of making game production seem interesting,
but it still succeeds on may other levels, mainly design and a useful introduction
to the world of Dredd. But mainly, it is a worthwhile experiment for Rebellion
in producing a "non-comic" book, and one that should be repeated, but
perhaps with more accessible material.
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A
Mega City 1 panorama |
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