Eurogamer Expo Sessions: Ninja Theory presents Enslaved

I read up on a lot of the comments on different forums. The reaction from a lot of people is that it seems overly simplistic and linear, which I accept, because it is a tutorial level of the game. The reason the demo's linear is because you're on a slave ship that flies and you can't get off - you can't really get any more linear than that.

But the game then opens up and you've got Trip involved and you get new mechanics and it gets tougher and more complicated and puzzles come in and combat developers. It's always tricky with a demo because you don't know whether you should be giving people a tutorial level to ease them in to the set-up or whether you should give them something in the middle of the game - throw them into it.

I thought doing the tutorial was the right thing: it sets up the story, it sets up the basics. On the other hand, a lot of people that maybe aren't so analytical of the minute, just enjoy that it makes you feel like you're in this rollercoaster ride, on this slave ship trying to escape. It's gone both ways.

If you want a single-player action-adventure, there's not much actually out there to choose from.

How many new IPs are being launched this fall, this autumn? There's Vanquish that's coming around, there's us. I struggle to think of any others. This is a general malaise that's hitting triple-A games, that the publishers are now so risk-averse that the chances of any new IP coming out are slim.

It's like those turtles that crawl out of the sand and then get picked up by seagulls on their way to the sea and then only a handful make it into the sea and then they get eaten by sharks. You're lucky if one or two survive. I feel that's kind of what it's like to be releasing Enslaved in the run up to Christmas.

I get annoyed when I got to a presentation about a game and they just show the game. Well, you can buy the game and check it out. What I would really like to do is show as much of the behind-the-scenes material as I possibly can - stuff that you would never get to see.

There's so much stuff we create that's never meant to be seen. I want to show some of the original concepts, some of the CG trailers we created at the beginning, artistic style tests, sound work - all of that stuff. I think it's fun, I think it's interesting. You just don't get a chance to see that very often, even in Making Of videos you don't really see what the raw material is behind it. That's what I want to show.

Eurogamer is a prestigious event! And Eurogamer has some of the most passionate fans that I've seen on any website, so I'm bringing my umbrella just in case there's any rotten tomatoes or cabbages coming along that way. No, I am actually really excited to be talking. I don't feel that comfortable trying to pimp the game, and this gives me an opportunity to show cool stuff the team's done without blatantly pimping the game.

I don't know. I haven't heard. He's been very elusive of late. I know he's been shooting Rise of the Apes in Vancouver up until recently and he's only just come back to his family. I'll ask him, but I'll understand if he says no.

It's strangely anti-climactic. If you have a movie coming out you have this release, a premiere. You invite all the stars and everyone's there and it's all a big celebration and people watch it and even if it's a terrible movie people will clap and you can feel good about it. Whereas we release Enslaved out to the wild and you don't see... These games can sell over a million. Easily. Some of these games are selling four or five million. I'd like to see four or five million people in one place just to see what that looks like and feels like, you know. It's actually incredible how big and to how many people it gets. But the only evidence you really see of that is blog posts, reviews, forums, chatter. It's weird.

We're all going to go down to the pub. Day of release we're going to hit the pub and we're all going to get smashed out of our faces and we'll try and arrange a little all-inclusive trip for the team and do something more than that later on. But yeah, there's no film stars, no hungry paparazzi, nothing like that.

It's just a bit cheesy, isn't it? What's everybody going to do - get on the red carpet and come into a cinema and someone's going to play the game? Or are we going to take turns? You can't force the glamour on a medium it doesn't really fit.

We'll let the game come out, we'll see how it does. If it does OK, if it actually looks like it's got legs, we'll start thinking about what's next. The thinking from the beginning was not to assume there would be a sequel, just to put everything into this game. It's a new IP so let's not plan for a sequel because the chances are we'll only disappoint ourselves. So we mentally prepared for that - we've not planned for a sequel. But if it gains some traction, I'd like to see something happen.

We've also announced a new project that I can't say too much about, Devil May Cry, and we've moved some team members over to that.

No, we've been growing into two teams for the last year. We've got capacity to do two games.