After what seemed like years of rumours, EA finally announced that a remake of the first Dead Space is in production exclusively for next-gen consoles and PC. The Dead Space remake is currently being made by Star Wars: Squadrons developer Motive, who are new to the series – but it seems a core member of the Dead Space 2 team has joined them.
As the original Dead Space team at Visceral Games was shut down by EA in 2017, the remake’s being handled by a fresh crew at Motive. In a new ‘meet the team’ article posted by EA, several core developers on the remake talk about their experience with Dead Space – including art director Michael Yazijian. As he recalls, “I remember enjoying it so much that I didn’t want it to be over.”
Yazijian also served the same role on Motive’s Star Wars: Squadrons and WB Montreal’s Batman: Arkham Origins – but, most interestingly, was also art director on Dead Space 2 as part of Visceral’s Montreal studio. This gives Yazijian “a unique perspective on the remake”, according to EA, with ideas from the sequel that’ll be used to craft the new game.
When approaching the remake, Yazijian dug out his old notebooks for Dead Space, which he says “really comes in handy, seeing all the notes from the sequel.” Those notes include “concept art, visual guidelines, source materials, notes on the conversations [the Montreal studio] had with [Visceral Redwood], the knowledge that they gained – it’s all here. It’s all going into this game.”
Nevertheless, Yazijian says that the main source of inspiration is still “the original vision for Dead Space. We make sure we’re following the story, the art direction, everything, out of respect for the original game.” The team will apparently even be including cut content for the original, which was removed due to technical constraints or other reasons.
Dead Space is still one of the best horror games on PC and the sequel is great, so hopefully Michael Yazijian’s experience will make the remake be even better.