On Twin Peaks And Deadly Premonition
This past week’s Game Developer’s Conference had an interesting entry. When browsing over the offerings for the event, I noticed that Thursday had a scheduled lecture for one Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro on his cult hit Deadly Premonition, discussing the “7 points to check if your game’s storyline might already be dead”:
While it’s been said to have the worst graphics and controls, the unique, appealing characters and unpredictable complicated storyline have successfully grasped audiences. In this session, DEADLY PREMONITION’s Game Designer, Swery, explains his unique method of architecting games. How did this awesomely strange so bad it’s good game come to life? What processes were used to create the meticulously calculated storyline and characters? What exactly are the lovable unnecessary elements that SWERY speaks of? This talk touches upon the 7 points to check if your game’s storyline might already be dead with this a frank and candid session. So please, relax, and join us in a roundtable-like discussion. And if possible, please bring an aromatic fresh cup of coffee.
Interesting timing, this panel—Deadly Premonition is hardly new, but the fervor has grown over it steadily for the past year or so. I myself just started my second play through. I also just completed the early 90’s TV show Twin Peaks, what you could call the “source material” for Deadly Premonition. Having re-read the panel description, I find myself inspired to discuss the similarities between the two.
I’d wanted to compare these two pieces of fiction before, but hadn’t found much of an angle. The observation that Deadly Premonition was “inspired” by Twin Peaks is not a new one. But lately, with all this talk about “integrated storytelling”, it seems a certain desperation has emerged to create games that are no longer just a vehicle for the latest graphics engine. The time has come to write the game around the story; technology no longer dictate we write it around our limitations. The challenge is now to create “interactive movies”, and as such, people are looking to creators like Swery as some kind of authority.
But I wonder what kind of “panel discussion” can be had on storylines when led by someone who only wrote half of a story. Sure, there are differing elements between Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition, and I’d be lying if I said the game’s story didn’t majorly deviate from that of Twin Peaks halfway through. But in terms of what made the game magic— troubled, secretive characters who were as polarizing as they were endearing—they are identical. Add to that the many Twin Peaks references (both existing and removed in post production) in Deadly Premonition and it almost reads like fan fiction.
Let’s review the plot shall we? FBI agent comes to small Washington town to investigate the brutal murder of a young blond woman. All the residents of the town seem to have a secret, and the victim was no exception, her double life of sex and drugs eventually leading to her death. As he investigates the crime, the agent meets many of the town’s characters, including a batty woman with an unnatural attachment to an inanimate object, and a weepy deputy who sobs at gruesome crime scenes. The case leads him all over the backwoods of Washington as he rushes to investigate what few witnesses he has (including a young woman, a friend of the victim’s, who escaped the assault), but he still finds the time to take in the lush scenery, drink some damn fine coffee and even do a little fishing before ultimately solving the crime.
In fact, Deadly Premonition originally had to be altered in post production, as observations from the 2007 trailer aired at Tokyo Game Show revealed even more similarities to Twin Peaks. A large red room, with two red chairs and identical midgets, was later changed; the midgets exchanged for two young boys, the room now ensconced in thematic red leaves. The character model for Agent York was also changed, said to be too similar to Agent Cooper of Peaks. Fans of both will also note the identical diners (where the victim worked, in both the show and game), identical police stations, almost identical bars, the use of a large grand hotel, a familiar map layout (the one drawn on a chalk board in the show is a dead ringer for the one in the Deadly Premonition menu), even eerily similar music themes.
Above is the original 2007 trailer for the game, called Rainy Woods at the time. Note the song near the end, which was changed later to one in a lower key, perhaps to sound less like Julee Cruise, a performer at Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse. The image of Agent York reaching into the victim’s mouth and pulling out a seed is highly reminiscent of Agent Cooper pulling out the embedded letters underneath the fingernails of [SPOILER] Bob’s victims. Agent York and Agent Cooper both have a tendency to talk out loud to a person you never see; York to an invisible friend named Zack, and Cooper to a secretary named Diane, dictating notes to her on a voice recorder. Even the victim’s names—Laura, and Anna—are similar, and both the game and the show feature a character that loses their hair color due to shock.
One of the many themes reminiscent of Twin Peaks.
These are not tiny details thrown in for reference; in both cases they are major characteristics that virtually define the material. Thus, there is no question that the game toes the line between homage and rip off.
Deadly Premonition of course does have its distinctions: the red seeds, the Raincoat Killer and corresponding myth, the absence of key characters and families. It also has what I consider the most chilling role reversal scene in video game history. Agent York’s back story was enough to haunt me for months and I could cry sobbing buckets of tears right now remembering the end scene. For that, Swery does deserve credit. However, I will point out that the driving force behind the game’s plot, whether it has fantastic elements of his own or not, is Twin Peaks through and through. No credit can be given to Swery without first remembering David Lynch and Mark Frost. Perhaps with the emphasis on storytelling growing ever larger in the industry, this can serve as a reminder to developers to find their inspiration everywhere. Even in a canceled surrealist TV show set in the Washington backwoods.
On a side note, I just finished the main storyline for Alan Wake. It isn’t as directly inspired by Twin Peaks as Deadly Premonition was, but there are some delightful little similarities that are more firmly planted in homage territory: collectible coffee thermoses, a foreboding red chair, another identical police station/crazy local lady fixated on an inanimate object. In terms of the setting, the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, I’d say Alan Wake does a better job in showcasing it, even better than Twin Peaks. For the Twin Peaks fan it’s a must play, simply because the references are too delightful to miss. I promise you though—you won’t love it like you do Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition. If Cooper or York were real, I’d hand them over my heart signed sealed and delivered, on demand, any day of the week. Wake? I just wanna tell him to go back to bed. But if you want another taste of the mountains I call home, I highly recommend all three.
