007 First Light: “We had a million possibilities with the universe of James Bond” [interview]

Have you met Barbara Broccoli, who was still recently The Bond Temple Guardian before letting go of Amazon against a tidy sum ?
Sorry but I can’t talk about it. Let us focus on our relationship with MGM and Amazon.

OK… We give you directives? Perhaps about certain things that you are not allowed to do in the game?
There is obviously a huge unofficial catalog of things to do and not to do (Laughter.) Our approach was to immerse ourselves in movies, books and all the media Bond that we were able to find. From there, we created a character model but also a kind of DNA of our leap, with his desires, his needs, his personality. What motivates it, why is it there? And what should he still learn? Each film or series of films is different from this point of view, knowing that each leap is a product of its time. And afterwards, we must observe what is unchanging in 007, like his imprudence, his energy, his self -confidence and a lot of diagrams that cross the franchise.

And our game having as a hero a young leap, who is still looking for his marks in the corridors of the MI6, we had very interesting discussions internally on the innate qualities of the character. We approached him by very carefully analyzing his personality, to which he is confronted and, therefore, the world in which he lives. A large part of our work therefore consisted in appropriating its fundamental values, then discussing the best way to play with it.

How long did it take to reach a vision of the character that suits everyone?
About six months, it was quite quick to agree. We had a million possibilities with this universe, but it was always clear that we wanted to tell a story about the transition to adulthood, on the transformation of Bond. It felt like it was an opportunity to do something different and really fun. But afterwards, lots of questions arise: what do we do with it? What is a James Bond who does not yet have his double zero? And how much is his youth a determining factor in his personality? One could imagine that by aging, by winning in maturity, he could become aware of the consequences of his actions and the price to pay. But at 26?

And as you say, he is not yet a double zero agent, so he has technically not the license to kill …
Yes, we took some liberties (Laughter.) In our world, it is not the double zero status that gives it the license to kill. We play with tropes and expectations around James Bond. It is a very narrative game but the gameplay requires a lot of action, so the character will have the permit to kill very quickly.

Have you paid special attention to the first time that Bond kills someone?
Obviously. It is very important because it is then that everything changes for a budding agent. It moves from a normal world to a dangerous, cold, bloody universe … and at the same time overexciting.

Precisely, how to create a whole world for this new James Bond without copying films or books? What seemed fundamental to you?
I will take an example: the MI6 and the Q la lab are both very strange places and brilliant entry doors on the world of leap and espionage. I wanted the MI6 to have this fun, exciting, magical side. We ask ourselves a thousand questions when we think about this place: when was it built? Is he on the surface or underground? How much did it cost? And was it built at the same time as anything else to hide its existence? We had to find the in -between between a realistic, credible universe, and something slightly more “fantastic” – in the sense bigger than life.

And concerning the countries we visit, it is a question of surprising. Make the player discover an unexpected city or a familiar place but which actually hides something else. And the contrast is essential: alternating between cold and hot, poverty and wealth, narrowness and space …