Insecticide – Mike Levine

During the 1990s, LucasArts was synonymous with innovation and originality, defining many of the adventure genre conventions we take for granted today. So when former LucasArts designers get back together, people really take notice.

You probably know Telltale Games and Autumn Moon Productions, but there is another group of LucasArts veterans working on an adventure game. Led by Mike Levine, the people at Crackpot Entertainment have worked on such classics as Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road and The Curse of Monkey Island. Now they are ready to unveil their new game Insecticide, a stylish noir detective title set in a world populated entirely by humanoid bugs.

Insecticide is in development for PC and handhelds, though Crackpot Entertainment isn’t yet saying which handheld platform(s). The PC version will initially be a downloadable game released in two separate parts, the first of which will be ready around the end of the year. A combined package will be released through retail channels afterwards.

In this exclusive interview, we ask Mike Levine what the game is about, who is working on it and what kind of gameplay we can expect.

First of all, tell us what kind of game Insecticide is and who the main characters are.

Let me give you the official line first: “Insecticide is a hard-boiled, fast-shooting detective game set in a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race. A murder at the powerful Nectarola soft drink company leads police from the Insecticide Squad on a bug hunt through the city’s seedy underbelly, and into a mystery of epic proportions.

Join Detective Chrys Liszt and partner Roachy Caruthers on the case as they become entangled in a web of crime. It’s an action-adventure in the truest sense of the word, immersing players in cinematic combat levels, as well as a story-based detective investigation.

Use Chrys’ unique insect abilities, a range of creative bug weaponry, and old-fashioned street smarts to solve the case and uncover a shocking secret, ultimately bringing the mighty boot of justice down hard on the city’s infestation of crime.”

So at its heart, it’s a detective-buddy story ­– it just so happens one of the detectives is a young, female insect hybrid (Chrys), and her partner Roachy is an aging, on the cusp of retirement/seen it all, grizzled veteran. Chrys is the lead character, but Roachy will be omnipresent for most of the game.

Your press release says it is an action/adventure. Since that label is used for different types of games, how would you characterize Insecticide‘s gameplay? How is it an action/adventure “in the truest sense of the word”?

Our main goal was to create something fun and compelling. Somehow that simple fact gets lost on too many titles. At Crackpot, we really let the specific IP drive us. Insecticide is inspired by many things, but at its heart it’s a detective thriller, with a healthy dose of sarcasm and comedy mixed in. It’s like Dirty Harry or The French Connection directed by Tim Burton. Television shows like Homicide or The Wire were also a big influence.

Even though it’s a total fantasy, it’s grounded in these reality-based stories. We wanted it to feel real, and one of the keys to that is pacing ­– another thing we don’t see in many games. At LucasArts, and in general in life, we were weened on things like great characters, stories, worlds, etc. With Insecticide, we are attempting to create something very cinematic and story-based.