MediEvil (1998)

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==Development==

Development of ''MediEvil'' started in 1995 at independent developer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Interactive Millennium Interactive]. Chris Sorrell, previously known for the ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pond James Pond]'' series, created the original concept for MediEvil and served as the games creative director. Prior to the development of ''MediEvil'', Sorrell had endured a rather torrid time working on some edutainment products that Millennium Interactive had signed up to create. "Once these products were finally complete, I think management took pity on me and rewarded me with the chance of making my dream game" he recalls. According to Sorrell, the first design proposal for the game had the working title ‘''Dead Man Dan''’ and described a game that was a fusion of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capcom Capcom]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost%27n_Goblins Ghost'n Goblins] with the art style of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton Tim Burton]– especially the look and feel of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas The Nightmare Before Christmas],both of which were things that he was a huge fan of back in the mid ’90s. Lead artist and designer Jason Wilson shared his interest in dark, Gothic influenced artwork and they worked together to define the look and feel of the game. As development progressed, Wilson pushed the game into more of a ''Zelda''-like direction, which Sorrell approved of and said that he would liked to have explored more.

~~Development of ''MediEvil'' started in 1995 at independent developer [[Millennium Interactive]]~~. ~~Creative director Chris~~ Sorrell ~~said that the first design proposal for the~~ game ~~had the working title ‘Dead Man Dan’ and described~~ a ~~game that was a fusion of Capcom's ''Ghost'n Goblins'' with the art style of Tim Burton – especially the look and feel of ''The Nightmare Before Christmas''~~. ~~Both cases were things that he was a huge fan of back in the mid ’90s. Lead artist Jason Wilson shared his interest in dark, gothic influenced artwork and they~~ worked ~~together to define the look and feel of the game. In addition to bringing together~~ a ~~brand new team – none~~ of ~~whom had really made~~ a ~~3D game of this scale before – they were in ‘sell’ mode almost from day one~~, with the ~~future of the studio riding on their ability to attract~~ a major publishing deal as quickly as possible. They were initially working on multiple platforms including Windows and Sega Saturn as well as PlayStation before finally having the chance to pitch an early demo to Sony, who were so impressed with their work that they bought the whole studio in ~~order to have the team work exclusively for Sony~~.

From the outset, Sorrell wanted his game to possess a unique lead character. They worked with a script doctor named Martin Pond when looking for more of a backstory for lead protagonist, Sir Daniel Fortesque. Pond came up with the idea that Sir Daniel could have been a pompous failure in life whose reincarnation was his one shot at redemption.

~~Jason Wilson designed the art and set the visual~~ style. ~~During~~ the ~~project he also became~~ the ~~lead designer owning~~ to ~~his experience in game design~~ on ~~previous titles~~. ~~He pushed~~ the ~~game into more of a Zelda-like direction~~ and ~~added many details to~~ the ~~story of~~ the ~~world and its characters~~, as ~~well~~ as ~~writing the preliminary scripts~~ and ~~working on~~ the ~~VO recordings~~.

In addition to bringing together a brand new team – none of whom had really made a 3D game of this scale before – they were in ‘sell’ mode almost from day one, with the future of the studio riding on their ability to attract a major publishing deal as quickly as possible. They were initially working on multiple platforms including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows Windows] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn Sega Saturn] as well as PlayStation before finally having the chance to pitch an early demo to Sony, who were so impressed with their work that they bought the whole studio and became Sony's second United Kingdom development studio. Late in the game's development, Sony requested that ''MediEvil'' should support the (then) new PlayStation analogue controller, which Sorrell described as a "particularly fortuitous event" as it allowed them to capture much more fluidity and intuitiveness within the game.

Sorrell said ~~that~~ ''MediEvil'' ~~presented~~ a mountain of challenges due to the fact that, like many other developers at the time, they were still very new to 3D gaming. Things like camera and character control presented many interesting new challenges and required the team to try out a number of approaches before settling on solutions that seemed to work. Even so, he said that the game still came very close to the original concept and he was most proud of how the team pulled together to finish the game without compromising on the quirky attention to detail or scope of the game.

Sorrell said that ''MediEvil'' presented a mountain of challenges due to the fact that, like many other developers at the time, they were still very new to 3D gaming. Things like camera and character control presented many interesting new challenges and required the team to try out a number of approaches before settling on solutions that seemed to work. He said that they spent many long nights without sleeping, trying to finish the game. There were also many levels and ideas from the original concept that they were forced to removed because of time and budget constraints. In most cases, the best of what they had already created for those levels ended up being spliced into the levels that they shipped with. There was also intended to be a platform oriented section of the game where the player would control the worm that lived in Daniel's skull. Concept art and a level ost was created for this section, but it never materialized into the game. Even so, Sorrell said that the game still came very close to the original concept and he was most proud of how the team pulled together to finish the game without compromising on the quirky attention to detail or scope of the game.

==Cover art and CDs==