Saw (video Game) - Development

Development

Prior to the release of Saw III, Twisted Pictures and Brash Entertainment announced they were planning to create a game based on the Saw property. Although no release was confirmed, they stated that the game would most likely release alongside Saw IV. Originally, Brash was going to develop the game and co-publish it with Twisted Pictures, the producers of all of the Saw films. The game's plot was originally to follow that of the first Saw film, with the player assuming control of various characters in Jigsaw's traps, but this was later changed as development progressed.

After the initial announcement, there were no updates from Brash. The only form of news came from a teaser site for the game, which was removed as the game moved further into production. The game resurfaced at the Game Developers Conference 2008, on January 22, where a teaser trailer was played. The trailer showed franchise staple Billy the Puppet preaching to reporters about their wasted lives. Brash confirmed that Zombie Studios had taken over development of the game, and Brash would publish. The trailer briefly showed some gameplay elements from one of the traps featured in the game. After the trailer, Brash confirmed that the game would utilize the Unreal Engine 3 and be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows platforms. A poster for the game which depicted an amorphous gamepad in a pool of blood was released soon after at the 2008 Comic Con convention. The tagline "Dying To Play?" was coined by Brash for the poster. The development team brought in James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the creators of the first Saw film, to design new traps and write a new storyline for the game.

On November 14, 2008, Brash Entertainment held a press conference announcing that they would be ceasing operations due to financial difficulties. Since Brash Entertainment was publishing the game with Twisted Pictures, the game itself may have been left in "possible state of limbo". Considering that the game was far into production, the owners of the Saw brand, Lions Gate, considered publishing the game themselves. The idea was soon rejected, as Lions Gate is primarily a film company and has no experience in the video game industry. Konami picked the game up for distribution/development on February 6, 2009, after almost four months of uncertainty regarding the game's fate. The game, now under control of Konami, was redesigned to be a spiritual successor to Konami's other survival horror franchise, Silent Hill. While key elements were retained, Konami did have a large influence in the development of the game. While full cast involvement was initially planned, the only cast member to reprise their role from the films was Tobin Bell as The Jigsaw Killer. Other cast members were replaced with other actors prominent in the video game voice-over industry. Earl Alexander, known for being the voice of Louis in Left 4 Dead, replaced Danny Glover as the voice of protagonist David Tapp. Rather than Saw icon Shawnee Smith, Jen Taylor voiced Amanda Young. Taylor is the second Left 4 Dead voice actor to be cast for Saw, and is better known as the voice of Cortana in the Halo series. Other cast members include David Scully as new character Oswald McGullicuty and Kahn Doan as new character Melissa Sing. Konami plans to use Saw for its visual intensity rather than traditional psychological terror.