Rainy Woods (aKa Early Deadly Premonition Builds)

I love this game and am also a big twin peaks fan, so obviously when I heard of Rainy woods it was quickly excited. Originally planned for multi-platform and much closer to twin peaks in story and style:

"Although the game was first announced as a multi-platform release under the name Rainy Woods during the Tokyo Game Show 2007, several gaming websites noted that the title shared strong similarities with the American television serial drama Twin Peaks.[6] The comparison eventually led the developers to change the artistic direction of the game to have less similarity to the television series, effectively pushing back its release sometime during "mid to late 2009, maybe even 2010" according to a representative during July 2008.[7] All of the voice acting used for Rainy Woods had to be rerecorded to accommodate the new elements and the revised protagonist.[8]"

My question is, have any non-360 or pre-reworking builds shown up at all? I'd be very interested in seeing the version deemed to resemble Twin Peaks too much. Any pictures or videos released would be cool, I'm about to start watching twin peaks again

 

I couldn't get into deadly premonition, maybe I'll gave it another go

 

It has a slow start, but it picks up not too far in.

 

As much as I love deadly premonition, I can help but wonder how the game would have been with a different character but same exact dialogue, situations.It started out of rainy woods which by the looks of the 2007 trailer it was complete as it has close to the end cutscenes.To top it off the main characters father in the finished version is actually a 3d model of the prototype main character but with his face blacked out.And for some reason in the promotional facebook account they have for the final game u can see the prototype main character left in.According to a magazine their dev timeline stage after the tgs 2007 trailer ,the project was frozen and development restarted in 2009 but treated as a new project.

 

Swery always says that deadly premonition was a separate/parallel project to rainy woods but I have a hard time believing it.

 

I agree, theres so many similarities i don't see how they could have been separate projects.

 

Its not even similarities, its bascially the same exact thing just with characters re-named and completely re-recorded audio.Just look at the shots above, thats from the end part of the game and yet it was present in the 2007 trailer?What I dont understand is to why he would he deny that it actually is rainy woods.The most that I heard him admit is that deadly premonition uses some rainy woods assets but the way I see it its the same flipping game.These screeshots pretty much give that away.(Also if you look at yorks father and compare him to the prototype protagonist,they are the same model.)

Edit: Fixed but couldnt arrange the picutrs all that well.These are from the year 2007/2008.As you can see the game seems to be finished long long ago.

 

pictures aren't working

 

My impression from talking to Swery (we hung out a lot at GDC) is that Rainy Woods was a different game in terms of mechanics, not story and setting. I dont think it had any fighting at all, it was more about hiding. The useless dumpsters and holding your breath are leftovers from the old design, I think.

 

That would make more sense.But those elements made it in the game in form of the rain coat killer chase where your forced to retreat and hide/hold breath instead of offense.Having that type of mechanic in place for the entire game would have been like silent hill shattered memories huh.Know why he changed george's design though? I always been curious to why change him.

 

I'd like to know the official reason as well, but general consensus seems to be that George's original design was deemed too similar to the Twin Peaks character that inspired him, Sheriff Harry S. Truman.



Obvious changes to George's final model include his mustache and heavier wrinkles. Not so obvious is his hair; in the final his hair is straighter, shorter, and slightly darker. The length of his sideburns was also increased.

Thing is, SWERY will probably never discuss exactly what was changed, because in doing so he'd have to admit how big an influence Twin Peaks was on Deadly Premonition. It's pretty obvious, but it wouldn't be smart from a legal standpoint if he suddenly announced that DP is more or less his take on the TP concept. Take a look at this interview he did with Gamasutra:

Gamasutra: What inspired the direct homage to Twin Peaks? Can you speak at all about the content changes you had to make to the game after the first trailer was released?
SWERY: As I said previously, I wanted to create a game with an urban setting based around forensic sciences. But it eventually ended up being something more occult with forensic sciences having trouble to make the transition in a small countryside town.
To be honest, I don't consider this game as an homage to any particular contents even though I don't have the confidence to say that I wasn't inspired by anything, especially with all the contents we have accessed to nowadays.
About the trailer, it was actually something created by the publisher [Marvelous Interactive] so you should check with them, I think, for more details.

( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5870/thank_you_and_guys_i_love_you__.php )

Completely dodging the question. I think when SWERY says they restarted development, he's making a deliberate exaggeration to help distance Deadly Premonition from Rainy Woods (and, by extension, Twin Peaks). What he told TheRedEye is probably closer to the truth; in the switch from RW to DP, they changed the gameplay by adding the combat segments. Kind of a shame, as the fighting is the weakest part of an otherwise great game.

By the way, Gamasutra put up a new interview with SWERY yesterday: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6396/the_swery_game_hidetaka_suehiro_.php

 

Oh wow didn know they interviewed him recently,thank you for the link.Ive read most if not all his interviews and he always pull a matrix and completely dodges that bullet every single time rainy woods is mentioned.

Also you should get the game developer magazine, it has very detailed article on deadly premonition.Two things that caught my attention were :the production schedule list the tokyo game show 2007 trailer sep 2007 project frozen October 2007, ouch.And their budget all it says on that is... very little lol.

http://www.gdmag.com/archive/aug10.htm

One last thing...I cant tell but is the voice actor for york the same as david young henning?They sound similar but henning sounds like he has a somewhat different way of stressing his words.

Edit:They never showed Jeter did they?I always wondered how he would look like when compared to York and Zach.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll be sure to check that article out.

I'm 100% positive that the same guy (Jeff Kramer, as I recall) voiced both Young and York. I don't think any of the voice actors were changed... more than that, I question exactly how much dialogue was redone. It seems that the only lines they rerecorded are those containing altered names or plot elements!

Listen to :04 - :10 in the 2007 trailer ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbbhwO7pRHA ). Now, check :03 - :09 and 1:42 - 1:45 in the final version of this cutscene ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7St1TXYbv-A ) The way the lines are spoken is identical. Same pauses, same inflections. Now compare :23 - :40 in the 2007 trailer to :59 - 1:35 in the final cutscene ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJEILlTN8U ). Diane's screams are identical. George and Young's lines were trimmed for the trailer, but otherwise seem to be the same recording. Check :25 to :27 in the 2007 trailer. George says, "We don't have time! Thomas, cut that wire!" There is an obvious cut between "time" and "Thomas". But watch his lips... admittedly, the lipsynching isn't great, but you can see he mouths the trimmed section of the dialogue, "She's dying!"

I don't think they ever released a picture of Jeter. If I had to guess, he'd probably have black hair and a scar across his eye--like York, Young has a mark through his left eyebrow, though Young's is less noticeable and doesn't extend into his hair. (I wonder if the name "Jeter" was meant to be Zeter/Ziter, which would keep the alphabet motif.)

I've been going through old trailers for Rainy Woods/Deadly Premonition. What struck me first is how full of spoilers they are. Not that they'd make much sense without playing the game first, but they show things like the final boss, clad in his recognizable outfit, a certain character's transformation, a man in a dress... Secondly, several trailers released after the game became a 360 exclusive in North America show the English interface alongside PlayStation buttons, seen here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7iiyTIVKJQ ) at 1:17, or here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4vcVbC51Y ) at 1:15. Also of note, this trailer ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNFdmnJws2M ), starting at :57, shows a jacketless York, armed with a shotgun, in the game's prologue. In the final, the jacketless outfit can only be seen in the last chapter, and you don't get the shotgun until later. I think if you replay the prologue after collecting the shotgun, or any other weapon, you'd be able to use them, but as far as I know it's impossible to remove York's jacket.

 

The link I posted actually leads to a digital magazine that has to be bought for like 4 bucks.
Wow thats a good find about jacket-less york,I think that model is only seen in cutscenes when hes about to rest.About the voices your right,that the only noticeable differences are in lines that were most definately re-recorded to fit in the new character/town names like "I finally got to see the real rainy woods" vs " I finally got to see the real green vale."Henning is still left in some small but weird places.You can see henning on that deadly premonition facebook ad I posted a few posts up and I really do think yorks father is henning's model as well.Which makes me wonder if that scene was in rainy woods at all or maybe they swapped father and son?Look at xander morgans face silhouette and compare it to young.They seem to match up despite being in different angles/lighting conditions and heck re-textured.

 

Agreed about Young and Xander, they're remarkably similar... good eye! As you say, their profiles are basically a perfect match. As well, they both have wavy, tousled hair and broad, flat chins. Interestingly, York is the opposite in both cases; his hair is short and neatly trimmed, and he has a small, pointed chin.

 

Yup complete opposites,but those dont end there.Henning/xander physique is very scrawny when compared to yorks who is somewhat buff.Also the cut of their suits, henning wears a suit that is loose in the mid section but tapered in the arm cuffs and tapered legs unlike york.If you compare xanders suit to henning they match as well.To me at least theres very little doubt they share the same base model but it makes you wonder is yorks model was meant to be the father in rainy woods.

 

this is an old thread.
I found some screenshots from identical foreshortenings, and it seems only models of characters have been changed.

 

Mizzurna Falls was the earliest version of this game ^_^

 

IIRC, the combat was added to DP in order to appeal to western audiences used to games like RE4 and Gears Of War. That's why the Prologue is so abrasive.

 

I really enjoyed this game. I own the Japanese 360 version under the name of Dangerous Seeds. From the cover it looks like complete crap but I'm so glad I bought it. True the graphics for that generation are not so hot but as a game it's pure art. Fantastic and so absorbing. Also, never use the quick access feature on the map. always drive to your destination to hear some quality and funny chat about 80's pop culture.