Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future

Interview with David Brin

Cheers to David Brin who kindly answered me questions I had about the game and the storyline. Hooray!

1. How did you get to be the author of the game "Ecco: Defender of the Future" for Dreamcast"?

The designers came to me. They had read STARTIDE RISING and other works. They wanted a story that would inspire... and fit their game.

2. Did Appaloosa give you any demands on things that should appear in the story and how far have you been able to add your own ideas?

Usually, the author first writes and then the illustrators work from his creation. In this case, the order was reversed! Appaloosa had many of the game elements already in place. They knew the sort of exciting events and interactions that game-players wanted, and had designed many thrilling events for Ecco to face and overcome. But they had no idea how to link them all into an over-arching story! It was my job to provide this.

3. Have there been any of your ideas taken out and what were they?

I gave a little more detail in the time travel scenario.There were some more cycles of victory for Ecco to achieve before restoring the right timeline. But I am pleased they kept the overall structure very nicely.

4. Did you have influence on the actual level and game design?

After seeing my story, Appaloosa designers felt inspired to add some entirely new game elements. So we worked back and forth, creatively.

5. How much time did it take you to write the storybook?

Not very long at all. This one was easy because I already knew the world of dolphins pretty well... and it helped that it was fun!

6. Is there any possibility to read through your storybook for the game, or at least through some of it?

A lot of it was taken down as notes as we talked about the story in person, so there is not an explicit story written down in detail in text.

Maybe someday, if the game is a hit and there is public demand. After dealing with Kevin Costner's version of THE POSTMAN, I have been cautious about such things! (See: http://www.davidbrin.com/)

7. In the game the relationship between dolphins and humans is a hot spot. Though we actually hardly see any humans, only some of them in the intro. Did you try to add humans to the actual game?

It was decided early on to downplay the presence of humans onscreen. They are important to dolphin-human civilization, of course! That relationship is damaged by the Foe and Ecco must repair it.

8. "Ecco: Defender of the Future" doesn't continue the storyline of the old SEGA Ecco games. Do you know anything about if Appaloosa actually wanted to continue the old storyline?

Maybe they like mine better? ;-) Perhaps Ecco III will have en even better story, by an even better writer? Hm? Impossible! ;-)

9. The old Ecco games were supposed to have a third a sequel in the 90ties which never appeared, do you know anything about that? Perhaps did somebody at Appaloosa (like Ed Annunziata) talk about that?

I know nothing about that

10. and last but not least: Do you know anything about a sequel for "Ecco: Defender of the Future" and on which console it might be or who would write the storyline for it (perhaps you? :)

The current Dreamcast situation makes things difficult to predict. Everybody write to Microsoft! ;-)

... I guess we leave the last comment as it is ;P (Everyone write to Nintendo ;)

Thanks again, Mr Brin, for this great interview!