In 1999, the enduring New York rap group Wu-Tang Clan launched their very first online game, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Fashion. Now, 25 years later, the Wu have returned with a brand new recreation venture known as Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. Introduced concurrently at Summer time Recreation Fest and on the opening efficiency of the group’s farewell tour, Rise of the Deceiver is a part of the apotheosis of one of many biggest rap teams of all time.
The Verge had the chance to talk to the sport’s builders at Brass Lion Leisure about working with a few of rap’s residing legends on a venture that’s each the top of an period in rap historical past and the start of one thing new.
Rise of the Deceiver is an motion co-op recreation during which gamers, imbued with powers bestowed upon them by the legendary members of the Wu-Tang Clan, combat in opposition to invaders that want to corrupt their residence. It’s been in growth for 3 years, and began as a companion piece to Angel of Mud, a film produced by Ghostface Killah and directed by The RZA.
“What we did is we leaned into components of that script that labored actually, rather well from an interactive perspective, and made a companion piece to it,” mentioned Bryna Dabby Smith co-founder and CEO of Brass Lion Leisure.
In keeping with Dabby Smith, the driving ethos behind Rise of the Deceiver is actually, “do it for the tradition.” Whereas there have been quite a few hip-hop-centric video video games through the years, only a few of them deal with the artistry, historical past, and tradition of the style past utilizing it as set dressing. “We needed to create one thing the place it was constructed from the bottom up,” Dabby Smith mentioned. “It was by the tradition, for the tradition, and really representing what [Wu-Tang Clan] put on the market by way of the years.”
And for the sport’s soundtrack, which contains music from all through the group’s 30-plus 12 months historical past, it actually was constructed from the bottom up.
“For us, the therapy of the music was a very large deal,” mentioned Dabby Smith. It’s not simply snippets of “C.R.E.A.M” or “Defend Ya Neck” enjoying throughout cutscenes. She talked about how their sound crew created a dynamic music system.
“So if you are enjoying the sport, the music is reacting to what you’re doing and it’s utterly distinctive to your enjoying expertise.” Moreover, gamers will expertise Wu-Tang’s discography in methods they’ve by no means heard earlier than.
“It’s not simply the normal songs that you simply’ve heard. It’s remix variations. It’s orchestral variations,” Dabby Smith mentioned. There are even completely new tracks within the recreation that incorporate Wu-Tang samples to make one thing distinctive however nonetheless acquainted to followers’ ears.
“Hip-hop is a syncretic artwork kind. It takes items of issues which have existed elsewhere and mashes them collectively in distinctive methods,” mentioned Evan Narcisse, a former online game journalist who labored as a author on the venture. “We’re doing the identical factor.”
Rise of the Deceiver is supposed to attraction to every kind of online game followers, not simply 30-something hip-hop heads. There’s one thing for everybody. And when you are a 30-something hip-hop head, this recreation might be a love letter to one of many biggest musical acts in a technology.
“The Wu Tang Clan are bigger than life,” mentioned Narcisse. ”They’re superheroes, they usually deserve a world that speaks that legacy.”