Ghostbusters: Exclusive Interview

Mark Randel – president of Terminal Reality, developers of Ghostbusters: The Video Game – gave us a lot of information for our July 2008 issue feature story. Problem was, he gave us so much, we couldn’t fit it all in. Here’s more Q&A from our interview, and you’ll only find it on oxmonline.com.

OXM: Were you at all concerned with taking on a 20-year-old franchise and making it relevant?
MARK RANDEL: When we originally approached Sierra, we were pitching them an entirely different game. They had just done a test of iconic properties, and they found that the Ghostbusters logo was the second most recognized logo in the world, next to Coca-Cola. It turned out that Ghostbusters is pretty much universally loved around the world, so what concerns us most is the pressure not to screw this up. We have to work extra hard and give it extra special care to make sure that this game is going to be what fans want.

OXM: Were there things you looked at in the original movies and simply said, “No way are we bringing that back”?
MR: Fans sometimes love or hate the second movie, but everybody universally loves the first movie, so we’ve tried to use more from that. But there are some items from both movies that we use that hardcore fans are going to go crazy for.

OXM: Ghostbusters was Dan Aykroyd’s baby and he’s always wanted to revisit it, but Bill Murray has been a holdout until now. What lured him back?
MR: I would love to be able to tell you the story about Bill Murray, but I’ve been sworn to keep it quiet. But Bill Murray is so talented and I’m so glad we were able to get him into the game — it just wouldn’t be the same without him.

OXM: We understand there is no co-op campaign for the game. Is there some form of multiplayer?
MR: For multiplayer, we decided to create all-new maps and make a different experience from the single-player. But there will be multiplayer in the game — you’ll be able to play smaller missions, either co-op or competitive.

OXM: Will gamers get to drive the Ecto-1?
MR: You will have interaction with Ecto-1, but you won’t be driving it. We wanted to stay strongly focused on being a third-person action game. A lot of times, when you try to be a driving game, an action game, a boating game, what have you, it doesn’t come out as well as if you just take one item and focus your energy on that. So for Ghostbusters, we decided to focus on being a third-person action game and do that well, but still include the Ecto-1 in some fashion. So I don’t think the fans of the series will be disappointed at all.

OXM: When Zootfly released their test footage of its Ghostbusters game early last year, your team was probably well underway. Did they have any idea?
MR: They had no knowledge — we were already working on the game six to nine months at that time, and the license was either signed or about to be signed. What Zootfly did for us, inadvertently, is help sell the concept. When their footage came out, we were close to our green-light meeting, and when the executives saw the reaction from the fans, they immediately knew, “Hey, Ghostbusters is going to be a big hit – we need to put this game into production.”

OXM: It must be asked: Have you or any member of your family ever seen a spook, spectre, or ghost?
MR: Uh, no comment.

OXM: No comment? You’re not swearing to any paranormal experiences yourself?
MR: No comment.