It’s all gone a little bit quiet lately with David Cage’s Beyond, the game quietly moving under the radar since its celebrated E3 showing last year. But Cage is still working on the game, likely to be one of the last AAA exclusives for the PlayStation 3.
In fact, he’s working on three more games after Beyond, too.
“I actually have probably my next three games in mind,” he said. “Although I’m full speed on Beyond, I know what I’m doing after it because it’s already in development, and I know what I’m doing after that and probably after that.”
“It’s great because I have more ideas than I can develop,” he added, speaking at DICE last week. “These ideas come naturally. I don’t even need to think about it. It’s just that this is how I work.”
“I keep thinking all the time, all the time I’m working. And it gives time to ideas really to evolve and to come to a moment where they’re ready to be written. So it’s not like I just finished Beyond – oh my God, what am I going to do with the next idea?”
“No, it’s something that’s matured for a very long time. That definitely helps a lot.”
Cage’s next game is heavily rumoured to be something called Singularity, with domain name registrations hinting that it’s going to be locked down for PlayStation 4. Chances are it’s related to the sci-fi based Kara tech demo, above.
Via GI.
Avenger
I hope it won’t be something to do with Kara for the next project. Nice concept, but the idea of an android becoming ‘alive’ through a glitch is ludicrous.
Cage seems like a man on a mission anyhow, though I wouldn’t recommend putting all ones eggs in to one basket. I’ll be happy to see how Beyond develops in story first.
KeRaSh
Calling Cage’s games anything but ludicrous is… well… ludicrous! :P Just look at how bonkers Fahrenheit was.
The Kara idea seems very plausible compared to that game and I personally like the idea but that might be because I’m a sucker for cyberpunky themes.
bunimomike
Didn’t Cage explain that Kara (that particular version) was the moment the operator realised that the AI had become sentient (for want of a better word) and that his realisation was the surprise. The moment when we start to lose control because they’re simply getting smarter than us from here on in. If the AI on the humans was superb, then seeing the AI on the AI (ahem) evolve would be fascinating… especially morally.
Avenger
I didn’t say Cage’s games were ludicrous, just the idea of an android becoming alive, or sentient as Bunimomike put it (rather well I thought, better word for it.)
I think something people don’t realise is the ‘A’ in AI. Artificial does actually mean something. I’ve programmed AI and a single AI is only as ‘intelligent’ as the programmer makes it. Computers are thick, and AI are just lines of code (specifically logical constants). The more sophisticated the AI is depends on how much accountability there is for every possible scenario. Also if we are talking about an Android to live in real life, the knowledge database implemented would have to be extensive, even just to enable cognitive abilities.
There is no way an AI can think, it just processes what it is programmed to do. With enough programmers/researchers/psychologists working for many years something like Kara, or Data (out of Star Trek) is highly possible, but if there is glitch there will be a ton or error code generated and some malfunction. They will never be sentient because their brain is circuitry and code, they can realise they are an android unless it is programmed in to them, likewise they can never comprehend beyond their programmed limits. Arguably the perceptive abilities (sensors, optics, sonar etc) and the ability to log that information can enable the android to take in info about the world, it can never really analyse it uniquely, just analyse it logically/scientifically.
bunimomike
Agreed, fella. However, even from your comment you can tell it’s a fascinating world to explore and someone like Cage might actually have the subtlety to do it justice. Although quite how the game would turn out is still anyone’s guess (ie. genre, etc).
KeRaSh
Do you aproach any game with so much logic?
While I understand the current limitations of such research, I wouldn’t rule out any significant advancements within the next couple hundreds of years but my point is that it doesn’t need to be hyper realistic.
It’s supposed to be a game. From what I’ve heard Skyrim seems to be a pretty popular game and last time I’ve checked, magic wasn’t a real thing, either. :P
quinkill
Goodness, whatever happened to suspension of disbelief? I duno, Kara seemed like it could’ve had a really strong narrative. Good job he’s not putting all his eggs into one basket though, what with “His Next Three Games Lined Up”
TSBonyman
A lot of science fiction seems ludicrous – until science catches up. :)
Avenger
True, but personally I just found that a narrative focusing on Kara would have been boring because I knew it wasn’t possible. Having said that there was a Star Trek TNG episode where Data creates a daughter, and it was interesting how they played off human values and emotions. It might depend on what Cage did, if he pulled it off it would be great to see the story, but it depends on whether he would anyway.
bunimomike
Lovely to know that such a fertile mind exists in gaming whether individuals like him (or his games) or not.
Foxhound_Solid
Awesome news. Would love Fahrenheit HD too!!!