Art of Grasshopper Manufacture: New Info
Written by user cj_iwakura on this NeoGAF thread:
First off, you should buy this for the artwork. There is some brilliant artistry on display.
From Killer Is Dead to Shadows of the Damned to Sine Mora to Lollipop Chainsaw to No More Heroes to Killer7 to Flower, Sun, & Rain to The Silver Case and back again, this has something for everyone. You can easily get it at Amazon.jp for around $40, with shipping,and with a full English translation included. (Image credit to Eolz)
…But what REALLY makes this fascinating is Suda’s personal tidbits on every game in the book. Not just the mainstream stuff, he even comments on projects that he merely oversaw or assisted on like Contact, Evangelion: 3nd Impact, and the iOS game Frog Minutes.
Here’s some fascinating excerpts.
On Shadows of the Damned, and EA making him do FIVE DRAFTS
Suda51 on Shadows of the Damned:
“They [EA] told us that ‘westerners are about guns, so give him a gun’, and the direction of the project turned 180 degrees. EA is a really macho company, and we argued with them as we developed it. Their demands were really strong. We ended up drafting the scenario five times before it was completed. In the end, each was so unique that it felt like I had basically written five different games. In the very final (fifth) draft, it turned into a love story. EA informed us, ‘There’s this thing called an ‘elevator draft’, and if you can’t tell your story in the length of an elevator ride, Hollywood won’t use it.’ All their stories fall into one of four categories.”
Keep reading
