Grant Morrison Talks About His Involvement With The Galactica Game.
Source Gamespot
29 September 2003
When it comes to dealing with video games that are based around a popular franchise then Grant Morrison is indeed the person that developers look to. Over the course of his career he has breathed new life into popular franchises such as 'Justice League' and 'X Men'. However now he can add Battlestar Galactica to his ongoing resume. In a recent interview for Gamespot.com Morrison talked about his involvement with Vivendi Universals Galactica game.
Morrison by his own admission first become involved in scripting the Galactica game when he got a call off of Tom Desanto who at that Juncture in time was producing a continuation series. Morrison who is not as a devout fan as some, loved the designs and the concept of the show, so he took the job and geared himself up to produce a story that would respect the name Battlestar Galactica.
"I'd watched the show when I was younger, and although I wasn't a devout fan, I loved the designs and the slightly mythical, religious undertones of the concept. I always felt it should have been more epic, more obviously miraculous, like The Ten Commandments in space."
In spite of his obvious knowledge of the original Galactica series, Morrison
took a little artistic license in order to try and make the concept a little
darker than the 70s television show.
"I saw the backbone as an Exodus story. It started for me with an image of the Battlestars in space--a huge armada of giant space arks carrying the remnants of their shattered culture and a precious cargo of survivors toward the legendary planet Earth. I imagined the ships broken and repaired countless times on their long voyage, and the colonial survivors weary and gaunt from decades of running war with the Cylon machines constantly on their tail. There seemed to be endless dramatic possibilities in the big biblical sweep of the Galactica concept, so I went with warrior-monks, high-tech cloisters, and the doom-laden struggle of man against pitiless machine."
The Battlestar Galactica game was somewhat of a challenge for Morrison who had never actually been asked to script for a video game before. But it is obvious that he relished the challenge and enjoyed the experience.
"It was the first time I'd scripted for a video game, so it was very much a learning experience. I really enjoyed it, and I've done some more games work since. Now that so many of the technological problems of computer gaming have been solved, the next big frontier is narrative, which is where someone like me can come in and have fun. It's really exciting to see the technology develop to the point where we can now talk about plot, drama, characterization, emotion, and consequence in games. As a writer and creator of imaginary worlds, this is the field I'm fascinated by, and I plan to spend a lot more time writing for games."
As many fans know by now The Game is a prequel to the much loved seventies series and tells the story of a young Cadet Adama. Morrison elaborated on this and gave a little plot information away in the hopes that fans would give the game a chance.
"It takes us through a defining time in the life of young Adama, who will grow to become the commander of the Battlestar Galactica. This is Adama not as a great wise warrior and leader, but as a teenage boy undergoing a terrifying baptism of fire when the Cylon hordes launch their bloodiest and most desperate campaign against the exodus yet.
"Players should get ready for an absorbing, gritty, and gruelling ordeal as Adama learns firsthand about life, death, and the mysteries of the cosmos. Unlike the original Galactica, this version's quite dark and gothic. An intense atmosphere of apocalypse hovers over the whole thing, and when characters die horribly, as some of them do, it means something. The weight of a whole culture, the last hopes of a whole civilization, gets dumped on the player's shoulders in this one, and I'm sure some may find themselves cracking under the responsibility."
Battlestar Galactica the game will be released on the 28 November 2003 in the UK and has a November 18 release date in the US. If you would like to pre-order your copy of the game feel free to use the links below.