IGN: Is the Ishimura in the middle of cracking a planet when people start to die? If so, at what stage was it in the three-year process of Planetcracking? If not, what was it doing?
Beaver:
Almost immediately after the Ishimura cracks the planet, things begin to go terribly wrong on the colony. The Ishimura witnesses the start of the colony downfall as personnel monitors begin to flatline. The infection of the Ishimura itself is only hours away.
This was the 2-year mark of the 3 year planetcracking cycle.
IGN: How did the Ishimura stumble upon the alien artifact which acts as a catalyst to all this chaos? Was it pulled in with the ship's gravity tethers, typically used to catch mineral-rich asteroids or by some other means?
Beaver:
The artifact was actually discovered by Jen Barrows, a colony geologist, as she and her team were out on their last seismic survey to verify tectonic stability before planetcrack. The artifact is nestled among craggy outcrops and other protrusions, hiding it from view of the colony until their survey route took them right on top of it. Oddly, they noted that the area around the artifact showed signs of man-made excavation, but from vehicles not seen in generations.
IGN: There have been a lot questions about whether Isaac is alone during Dead Space, could you shed some light on a few of the other non-infected characters (at least at the start) that are in his life?
Beaver:
Isaac arrives with a small crew of people, typical for a routine repair expedition. Isaac is quickly separated from them, but manages to keep in contact with two of them for the majority of the game. There are significant plotlines around them, so we can't discuss them much without giving away spoilers at this point.
IGN: During Dead Space's Comic-Con panel the folks behind the animated feature film alluded to the fact that they'd be killing off likeable characters during their storyline. Is that a theme that we can expect from the videogame as well?
Beaver:
It's hard to imagine that everyone you come to rely on in Dead Space will survive through the end....
IGN: The panel also mentioned that there are several instances where Dead Space pays homage to popular horror films. Can you cite a few inspirations besides Psycho, which was mentioned at Comic-Con?
Beaver:
It feels like we have a love affair with the emotional journey and situation of Ripley in the first Alien movie. She's forced into an extreme circumstance, and faces paralyzing terror at almost every turn and has to prevail. We have a lot of that. The dark and eerie atmosphere of Event Horizon, the uncomfortable sense of dementia in Solaris and the desperation of Sunshine also have a presence in our game. We tried very hard to create our own look, feel and art direction. Although we love sci-fi and horror and look to them for inspiration, it was extremely important to us to create a whole new universe and world.
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