InDead Take, players are forced to confront things about the entertainment industry often only spoken about in shadows. While searching for a missing friend, players will engage with live-action footage blending,puzzle gameplay, and plenty of mysteries.
Game Rant recently spoke with Surgent Studios' CEO Abubakar Salim about where the main inspiration forDead Takecame from. He also touched on the game’s fast-paced production and how it incorporates live-action elements in order to enhance the game’s storytelling technique.
Salim himself has been in and around the acting industry for many years, and he was able to draw on some of his own experiences whencoming up with the concept forDead Take. According to Salim, authenticity is incredibly important for the project, so the team ensured they used headshots, movie script formatting, and other assets to make the project feel as real as possible. It also relies on the experience of Salim and other actors in the project because it relies on the dark and horrific stories they’ve all heard, likely seen, and worse. That led to a realization that serves as the backbone ofDead Take’s horror, with Salim explaining,
‘‘I’ve realized that the journey of an artist is deeply psychological. You’re forced to really confront how far you’ll go for what you want, and sometimes that reveals something you’d rather not know about yourself. It seems like glitz and glamour from the outside. It really isn’t. And we wanted this game to feel as authentic to the world of actors as possible. We use actual headshots, actual movie script formatting, actual notes I’ve received from directors. It truly is a peek behind the curtain.’’
Taking that core idea, of course, and making a fun game out of it is important. Luckily, it proved to be a great source of inspiration that allowed the studio to move on it quickly. Salim talked about how the team hashed out several ideas, includinglive-action video elementsand the escape room structure. The creative process was broad, and no ideas were dismissed. He explained,
‘‘Production onDead Takehas been fast-paced, and it’s unlocked a new kind of creativity for us. We knew that we wanted to incorporate live action video in a way that felt like it supported the gameplay experience, and we decided early on that the structure would be like a reverse escape room where you’re trying to get in instead of out. Once we had those key ideas in place, as a team, we threw all of our ideas out on the table. Even the ones that seemed completely outlandish were entertained. In the end, we landed on a gameplay experience that feels tactile and satisfying while also propelling the story forward at a brisk pace.’’
Salim and his team have clearly poured plenty of love and affection into the project. They also managed to recruit some high-caliber talent for thelead roles in both Ben Starr and Neil Newbon. ‘‘Neil and Ben were always in my head for the leads from the beginning of the writing process,’’ Salim explained, ‘‘I’m incredibly grateful for how game they were to come on board.’’
