A Chat with the Creators of Façade | Sequels, Secrets & AI in Gaming
256Here's my chat with Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern who created the 2005 cult AI-powered interactive drama Façade. We talk about elements of the game they had to leave out (at one stage you were supposed to be able to leave with the characters if you flirted with them enough), how they made their "drama manager" for the game, thoughts on AI in games now and perhaps most excitingly the fact that after a long hiatus they are once again finally working on prototypes for a sequel to Façade - The Party!
Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:20 Did you ever think Façade would have this impact?
00:04:20 How did you meet
00:08:02 What made you decide to make a game
00:11:44 How did you decide on the dinner party setting
00:13:42 How did you go about starting Facade - how much was from scratch
00:19:14 What did you leave out?
00:23:11 Will it ever be open sourced?
00:24:28 What's the canon ending?
00:28:33 Why is melon one of the words you get kicked out with
00:30:02 Do you have a theatre background
00:33:36 Who is your favoruite Tripp or Grace?
00:35:15 What was it like recording Facade?
00:36:27 Do you have the original voice recordings (60 hours worth)
00:37:56 Are there still secrets in Facade to be discovered?
00:39:25 Are the names people you know?
00:40:18 Game files
00:41:14 How did the drama management work?
00:47:02 Why haven't we moved on since Facade?
00:54:36 What are you working on now - anything together?
00:57:39 Facade sequel The Party - they're making it!
01:01:16 How do you both see where we're at with AI - good and bad?
01:06:01 Relying on AI vs it replacing us
01:07:00 Do you still get sent Facade fan art?
01:10:11 Would Facade sequel use computer generated voices?
01:12:27 Would people be able to get kicked out in Facade's sequel?
01:13:00 Beta builds
01:16:10 Fav chocolate bar?