Resident Evil

Summary	Plot	Gameplay	Development	Marketing	Reception	Credits	Gallery	Translation errors	Further notes

American PlayStation cover of the game, designed by comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

Resident Evil was developed from 1994 to 1996 by "Team Horror", a Capcom development team largely consisting of newcomers within Planning Room 2, a studio that would later become Capcom Production Studio 4. The game was produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, director of 1989's Sweet Home, who desired a horror game similar to it that would achieve what the Famicom could not. The game was directed by Shinji Mikami, who had previously directed Capcom's Disney tie-in games, especially Goof Troop for the Super Nintendo/Famicom Beneath him was a team of "planners" who made a variety of decisions on how the general design of the game was to fit, from proposing map and item designs to developing the game's backstory. This team consisted of Hideki Kamiya, Hiroki Katō, Kazunori Kadoi, Koji Oda, Satoshi Murata, Kenichi Iwao, Yasuyuki Saga, Kazuhiro Aoyama, Takashi Nakaya and Masaaki Yamada. Many of these planners joined the team half-way into development, including Saga and Kamiya, due to development exceeding initial expectations.

At least three beta builds were in circulation for media events, dated 4 August and 4 October 1995, and 31 January 1996. The first two would become available online by Hidden Palace.

Programming

Pre-production and development of the game's engine took up the first year of Resident Evil's 27 month development, with was initially expected to only take 18–24 months; this was in large part due to the developers testing out the PlayStation for six months and hitting obstacles where their ideas were too elaborate, having never worked with a 32-bit system before. While during the first few months the game was considered for the Super Famicom, production was quickly changed to Sony's new PlayStation, which Capcom had interest in.

The Zombies in the lab's central cloister were made naked to hide the low polygon count.

The actual look of the game went through considerable adjustment due to problems with loading. The initial plan was for the game to have a high polygon count, with the player and several AI partners moving through fully 3D environments in a first-person perspective, utilising the emerging motion-capture technology. This proposal caused considerable strain on the PlayStation, so it was decided it be toned down. To save space, the 3D environments designed for the game were left out of the disc, replaced with 2D renderings from certain viewpoints to give a cinematic feeling. With the technology they had available, the developers could only create room environments with a maximum of eight still images. As consequence, the Entrance Hall, the staircases and the dining hall were split into upper and lower rooms.

While it was technically possible now for a plentiful cast of characters using limited AI in the same room, character interactions were rare and often took place in empty rooms to allow for higher-poly models, with rooms offering only a limited number of Zombies for the same reason. For the Laboratory stage, Planner Hideki Kamiya oversaw the creation of the "Naked Zombies", which would have a lower polygon count than those in the Mansion as there was no need to emulate clothing, but even this only allowed the player and four Zombies to appear at once. As the CD-ROM used by the PlayStation did not allow for an especially fast loading time, it was decided door-opening animations be used every time the player explores a new room to mask this. Finally, the motion capture idea was abandoned due to concerns the available technology was too complex and sluggish, and so traditional animation for the cast was used instead.

In terms of gameplay, considerable change was made from mid-production. Taking inspiration from Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress, it was intended for each enemy to have several attacks and could be outright avoided by the player tricking the enemy AI. A further idea to use traps to kill enemies was studied, but it was decided there was not enough time to add this mechanic. A similar mechanic involved luring Zombies towards landmines they would stand on and explode. Another mechanic related to Zombies being able to follow the player between rooms, forcing them to barricade doors. This mechanic was likely dropped due to the console problems they faced.

During late production, the auto-aiming function was disabled and the numbers of ink ribbons found by the player were reduced. Capcom also planned to eliminate the "fourth-dimensional" item boxes for the North American version (meaning that any item the player stored in one item box could not be retrieved in another), but they were restored for the released version of the game in North America.

Story

Story-writing for the game can overall be defined in two stages - the early project created by Mikami and a team of Planners, and the latter story largely created by Kenichi Iwao in co-ordination with Yasuyuki Saga. Iwao himself worked on both stories, though it went through considerable alteration when he took over writing duties.

Mikami's story

While Capcom's leadership desired a video game similar to Sweet Home, as it was a film tie-in, its story and cast could not be re-used. This gave Mikami a degree of freedom in the first six months of pre-production, with the only real starting point being that it took place within a mansion. Mikami had little interest in a long, complex storyline, seeing a story as only "better than nothing". At the time, a story was more typical of RPGs, with other genres being light on plot with much explained at the start or in a manual. Accounts differ as to how large the story actually was under Mikami, with Iwao suggesting Mikami's claim of a 40-page script with flowcharts was inaccurately and referring to his later work.

The general story involved a team of four characters named Beam Mercurio, Jill, Gelzer and Dewey, who would investigate a mansion inhabited by paranormal monsters created by an evil scientist, and search for a good scientist as their overall goal. Over time ideas changed as to who these four characters were, with one idea being they were civilian survivors of a plane crash, but later in development this became four cybernetically enhanced special forces operators.

Capcom's executives were dismissive of Mikami's idea for the game having repeatedly asked for more work to be done. Iwao himself was also equally opposed to the story which he part wrote to Mikami's specifications, seeing it as invoking too many Rockman elements and other ideas not in keeping with horror. Ultimately, Okamoto placed Iwao in charge.

Iwao's story

Iwao worked from the ground-up in creating a horror story using available materials while new ideas were brought in to replace the Rockman ideas like cybernetic enhancement. By the middle of 1995, the cast was expanded considerably, and Iwao worked on the names with Kamiya. Beam became "Chris Redfield", a combination of ideas by Iwao and Kamiya, who originally gave him that name. Kamiya gave Jill the surname of "Morrison" in reference to Jim Morrison of The Doors, but Iwao changed this to "Valentine" in reference to Bobby Valentine, manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team. Gelzer was soon replaced with Barry Burton, who took on his story role as the traitor but was of a radically different design. Joseph Frost was named as a reference to "Joseph Joestar" from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The mad scientist villain was re-worked into Albert Wesker, to be revealed as part of the Tyrant Project staff. Iwao named him because it sounded formal. The Bravo Team was also created as a means of addition additional exposition before killing them off, but due to time constraints this was drawn down to them being in many cases found already dead.

The developers loved the Wesker character, and plans were drawn to reveal his survival in future titles so he could be re-used. The paranormal concepts were replaced with biotechnology, with monsters now mutants created by the retroviral t-Virus. These experiments were now part of a wider bioweapons project by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. Chris' script was nearly-finished in August 1995 when the game appeared at V-Jump Fest, and while a separate Jill story may have been in planning stages by then, as Famitsu's article on the game mentioned two protagonists, there was nothing to show for it at the time, only being partially written in the October build.

A number of files were created for the game to tell more details of the plot, written by both Iwao and Saga, who exchanged notes. One file, the "Trevor Memoirs", was ultimately cut late in development, existing as late as the January trial edition. Saga petitioned for its removal, concerned that the story depicted in the file contradicted elements shown in the game. Mikami would say in interviews however that he had it removed for revealing too much of the game's plot. This file was written by Saga with some ideas from Iwao, it chronicled the demise of George, Jessica and Lisa Trevor, also introducing the character of Oswell E. Spencer.

Design

Characters

Early version of the cast when cybernetic enhancements was the design theme.

As said earlier, one of the initial proposals was that the cast be cybernetically enhanced, but was later rejected in Iwao's version of the story to make things more akin to the real-world. There was some degree of infighting over the designs of Jill, with some members of the team preferring to portray her as a cute sidekick character typical of Japanese storytelling. Ultimately, this was reversed, and Rebecca Chambers was created to take over that role.

Enemies

As with the game's story, the design of the game was also liberal. When Zombies were decided as the main enemy, it was considered there be greater variety in them, including child Zombies. Mikami put a stop to this, finding it morally reprehensible to direct a game where the player could kill children.

Environments

Designs for the environments were segregated by map, with the planners and event staff working sequentially on "Mansion 1", followed by "Mansion 2", "Mansion 3" and then "Mansion 4". "Mansion 2" was cut out of the game entirely when event director Kazuhiro Aoyama was working on the traps. Planner Hideki Kamiya was hired after this cut, and was made responsible for the designs of "Mansion 4", at least one of which he recalls was discarded by Mikami immediately after being drawn. The Spencer Mansion's 1F and 2F levels as seen in the released game were completed in time for the V Jump Festival in August 1995.

Outside the Mansion is the courtyard, familiar to players by its fountains. Iwao is known to have tackled the courtyard map in his job as Planner. His design was much larger than in the finished game, and included a cemetery.

Sound

A Japanese dub was initially envisioned by Capcom, as the game itself was being developed on the belief it would only be released in Japan. This was cut out due to concerns about the quality of the actors, with Mikami saying in interviews "they were really lame". Elements of the Japanese dub were released on disc 2 of the BIO HAZARD SYMPHONY Op. 91: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT album, as well as the BIO HAZARD Complete Disc which came with BIOHAZARD Director's Cut DualShock Ver.

Outside of the Japanese, only an English dub was commissioned, using actors readily available in Japan who could be hired quickly. Actors were given a translated script to work on which was not localised to read naturally. Voice director Lynn Harris, herself the voice of Rebecca, was tasked with giving a slow and clear performance so players not misunderstand the dialogue. As the Japanese developers themselves did not speak English, they were not aware it was also of low quality. Mikami considered soon after that further recording not take place in Japan.

On the insistence of Fujiwara, to help sell the game Capcom negotiated with the agent of up-and-coming singer Fumitaka Fuchigami to get his music in the game. The decision was unpopular with the developers, but the songs "Yume de Owarasenai" and "Kōri no manazashi" made it into the initial Japanese release. These would be replaced for the international release, however.

Live-action

A scene from the uncut intro sequence, showing Chris smoking a cigarette

Main article: Resident Evil live-action cutscene production

To go with the cinematic feel of the game, Mikami pushed for a live-action shooting of the opening and several ending cutscenes, written by Iwao as if any other cutscene. Several Americans resident in Tokyo were hired for the project, based entirely on their availability rather than any professional talent. Those who were not also booked as the voice actors were then dubbed over after their scenes. The opening sequence was filmed outside at the bank of the Tama river, which led to problems with the Jill actress, a teenage girl named "Inezh" in the credits, becoming distressed over the large number of mosquitoes.

The finished product was released in a variety of forms as the game was released and re-released internationally. Some versions of the game kept the opening in black-and-white while others had colour. The sequence was also cut heavily in some releases, condensing Joseph Frost's death and footage of the Cerberuses being shot. A shot of "Charlie", the Chris Redfield actor, smoking was also cut out in some releases. Despite these tweaks, the game was still released on the PlayStation as one of the first games to receive the mature rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

Title change

When Capcom began plans to release BIO HAZARD internationally, new setbacks were reached. Chris Kramer, then the Director of Communications, discovered that another video game as well as a band were already using the name "Biohazard" in the United States. It was decided that the name be kept in Japan, but with a new, uniform title for international release. A competition was held by the developers, who had earlier picked "BIO HAZARD" out of 100-200 ideas. "Resident Evil" was the winning idea for the international name, and was submitted to the marketing team. While Kramer didn't like the title, he could think of no other ideas, and the name stuck.

Interviewed by GamesRadar, Chris Kramer said:

"I thought it was super-cheesy; can't remember what I felt was a better alternative, probably something stupid about zombies – but the rest of the marketing crew loved it and were ultimately able to convince Capcom Japan and Mikami-san that the name fit."