Interview by Ian Abbott, text by Tracey McGarrigan
After what must be the longest gap in the history of video game sequels, Mel Croucher has begun a very personal journey back to the future, or as he puts it “The Future of the Backer” via a reimagining of his cult art game Deus Ex Machina – the first multimedia video game ever made. We chatted to Mel about his influences, his Kickstarter campaign and about “getting bollocked” by Sir Christopher Lee.
Game Of The Year in 1984, Deus Ex Machina; an interactive movie played in real time to a perfectly synchronized rock music soundtrack created by Mel Croucher and published by Automata UK, was a cradle-to-grave experience for the ZX Spectrum. Founded in 1977, Automata had three rules when creating games; the first rule was that their games were non-violent. The second was that they parodied ordinary games and made players laugh, and the third rule was that they included audio tracks as a bonus to the gameplay. After producing over one hundred computer games, Croucher decided by All Fools Day 1985 it was time to move on and sold Automata for a ten-penny piece. “I thought I would simply wait for technology to advance to a point which would allow me to make the interactive movie I dreamed of. That wait lasted three decades!”
Now, Croucher and the Automata Source team have made his dream a reality and have headed to Kickstarter to get their game Deus Ex Machina 2 into player’s hands. “Since Automata was founded, we have only ever dealt directly with our players and Kickstarter allows us to keep our independence without selling out to banks, advertisers or sponsors” Croucher states on the Deus Ex Machina 2 campaign page. Thirty years ago, despite the technical limitations to his future-vision, Croucher took a risk by challenging conventions and redefining what a game could be. This time, he is not only determined to realise his vision, but wants to get as many players involved as possible to have their say on how it looks and plays. “We believe Kickstarter is the perfect way for you to join in the fun, and we believe it’s the perfect way for us to reach out to you, our genuine test-players from all over the world”.
Imagine if your life was nothing more than some electronic game. Imagine if you knew then what you know now. Imagine if you could replay your little life all over again.
Deus Ex Machina 2 examines birth, death and everything in between, so how has Croucher’s own life and experiences since creating Deus Ex Machina influenced this game? “They have completely influenced the game” explains Mel, “so much so that I've written an entire book about it, which will be bundled with the game for Kickstarter backers. It's called Deus Ex Machina 2: The Best Game You Never Played In Your Life. When I founded Automata, I was already in my middle years, so by the time I released Deus Ex Machina I was practically an old fart compared to the younger people who transformed the industry. Now I guess I'm what is affectionately called a "senior citizen", and in fact I wrote a lot of Deus Ex Machina 2 while in a wheelchair. Mind you that was after an unsuccessful attempt at housebreaking rather than disease. But bits of me are packing up right on schedule, and although I haven't hit the final sequences in the game of senile dementia and all that, I've certainly put all the personal experiences in there since the original game thirty years ago. And yes, all the sex and drugs and rock'n'roll of my more youthful self are in there too.”
Players can expect to battle their way to the womb, fertilize that egg, navigate the birth canal to get born, then focus, crawl, stand, balance, run, jump, learn and obey! Then there’s the battle of adolescence with the hairs and zits followed by the discovery of pleasure, love, pain, guilt and betrayal. Players can also mess around, run away, hide out, suffer under, heal up, sell off, struggle through, knuckle down, tip over, cave in, dance on, exploit power, peddle guilt, bust their bodies, embrace their decline, swallow their pills, lose their minds, dream their dreams and fly!
It’s not just Croucher’s own experiences that have informed Deus Ex Machina 2 as he rattles off an impressive list of sci-fi film influences. “Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels and Terry Gilliam, I suppose”. Croucher also cites the books of Kurt Vonnegut, the fables of Aesop, the conscience of Dickens and the daring of Philip K Dick. “As for cultural influences, I have lived and worked in many cultures and at many levels, and it sounds like I'm up my own arse here but I can assure you that all people share the same hopes and fears and fun and foibles no matter what their cultural background. That's the main reason I made the avatar completely naked and hairless throughout, and with no particular skin colour, and neither completely male nor completely female. I didn't want to include any influences of culture or behaviour, I wanted a universal human. Mind you, in the dance scene, which is definitely played for laughs, I couldn't resist a scattering of Japanese lyrics in the music. But hey, you have to break your own rules once or twice.”
The world of Deus Ex Machina 2 is not dystopian. “It's more like our existing world has been stripped of all the smoke and mirrors, and the mechanics exposed. The fact that the character you play is the result of a mouse-dropping gumming up the works in 1948 is no more fantastic than the original bug (actually a dead moth) found gumming up the works of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator in 1947” describes Croucher as we chat about scientific principles. “I admit I am scientifically unprincipled. In Deus Ex Machina 2, your virtual life-on-rails starts in 1948 and ends in 2048, and once it begins you can't get off. But just as in real life, you can make choices. Essentially, embrace all the good stuff and avoid all the bad stuff. But who does that throughout their entire life? And wouldn't it be fun to see what happens if you break the rules? I don't really believe in chance, only choice. The scenes towards the end of the piece, the huge clockwork old people's home, the flying wheelchairs, don't break any scientific rules, they are more like the result of the drugs on offer. A bit like the 1960s sequence in the game!”
In each sequence, the accompanying music is as vitally important as the graphics to enhancing the player’s experience. “I want to be faithful to the times, so you'll hear traces of big band jazz in the 1940s, old radio themes from the 50s, then ballads, surf music, psychedelia, punk, disco, thrash metal, each one reflecting the age being lived through.” Croucher reveals. “As for the future sequences, I've used a sort of Monty Python Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life theme when you're heading for death, but there is not a shred of audio that's in there which does not add to the mood, the action, the choices. The classical bits and the choirs are used sparingly, and I hope they are among the most powerful and evocative moods. And I allowed myself one Jeff-Beck-impression guitar solo, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic, because I'll never get that chance again and what's the point of being the creator of a game like this if you don't abuse your position just the once. In ‘84, I played all the instruments myself simply because I couldn't afford to hire professionals, and I'm a crap musician really. Can you imagine what it was like in the days before digital editing... literally cutting out the bum notes from an open reel tape with a razor blade.”
Whilst reflecting back to the original game, one of the key roles is that of The Programmer who acts as the narrator. At the top of Croucher’s list for the role in Deus Ex Machina 2 was someone who many consider to have simply the best voice on the planet, Sir Christopher Lee. “I had no contact with him before approaching him, but he took it all very seriously, including bollocking me for my liberties with the Shakespeare. Then, as he warmed towards it, we just seemed to get along. I think one of the reasons was that the role was originally narrated by Jon Pertwee, who was an old mucker of his, and used to live in a flat around the corner from him. Anyway, we spent most of the time gossiping, reminiscing, putting the world to rights, seeing who could grow the silliest facial hair, that sort of thing.” Whilst Lee’s narration ranges from “chilling to deeply moving”, he isn’t the only high profile name to bring his outstanding talents to the project. Ian Dury reprises his role as The Fertilizer thanks to some remixing and remastering of his original brilliant performance, including his kick in the teeth duet against video games that encourage greed and violence. “I brought Ian Dury back from the dead for two reasons. Firstly, I can't think of any other voice who could have done it better: a really warm and honest performance with exactly the right nuances all the way through. Secondly, I already owned the copyright and had paid for the original session, and we were running out of money as usual!” Elsewhere, Joaquim de Almeida is The Defect Police. “Joaquim is simply the Daddy of the Baddies” Croucher tells us. “I mean have you heard his performance, it's terrifying. Although he's starred in Batman and The West Wing and American stuff like that, Joaquim is Portuguese, and some key figures in the Deus Ex Machina production team are also based in Lisbon, like Joaquim. We did all the sessions with me producing via Skype, they were hilarious.”
It’s testimony to Croucher’s unwavering vision and dedication that such a superb cast has been attracted to the project whilst anybody interested in gaming, be they creators or players of games should be genuinely excited by this reimagining. The darkly comic game is a cradle-to-grave roller-coaster of a whole life, with unflinching graphics from the moment sperm meets egg to the agonising indignities of senile dementia, by way of child abuse, embarrassing zits, war crimes, sperms, cops, killer ducks, naughty bits, zimmer frames, hallucinogenic eyewear, dead mice, hermaphrodites, land mines, war crimes, neurons, morons, rock stars, and the greatest voice on the planet as your Narrator. Every section is wildly imaginative and yet also very real.
“For a while, a generation ago, the UK led the world in video game creation and innovation. It may not have been structured or planned, but whatever it was it's back. I believe there are boundless possibilities with home-grown success for video games creators. Now I believe we are right back where we started, at the dawn of a new Golden Age in video games creativity.” If any game is the poster boy for UK video game creation, it’s Deus Ex Machina and though it’s taken over thirty years, we think Mel Croucher is once again, leading a new era of multimedia gaming experiences.
To support getting Deus Ex Machina 2 published, or for more information and exclusive interviews with the cast, visit the Kickstarter page.