Beenox's first solo attempt at Activision's Spider-Man series, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, featured no-less than four separate Spidey universes ('Amazing', 'Ultimate', '2099', and even 'Noir') when it was released last year. Seemingly in an attempt to make the varieties sound less like a product line, the studio has now whittled that roster down to just two universes in the follow-up, Spider-Man: Edge of Time. 'Amazing' and '2099' Spider-Men now take centre-stage across converging timelines featuring cause-and-effect scenarios. We spoke with Associate Producer, Dennis Bernardo to find out more...
One of the things I noticed in Shattered Dimensions was the way that the different Spider-Men interacted. It was sometimes a little confusing understanding how they were separate and connected, and it's possible that a story such as in Edge of Time could create paradoxes and confuse players. How do you make sure that the story stays cohesive?
In the story, this scientist goes back in time, and the way he does that is by creating a gateway. Once he does that, the two timelines - Amazing Spider-Man and 2099 - become linked, so they're kind of running in parallel now. Anything that Amazing Spider-Man does in his timeline directly affects anything in the future. Spider-Man 2099 will see that instantly. That sort of thing is what gets your mind past the notion that in 90 years, someone could fix it. It doesn't work that way because the timelines are directly linked. That's how we explain that possible paradox.
How tightly does the cause-and-effect gameplay work with the story and scripting? How much will we be able to change the world in 2099?
The scripted story stuff - the big beats we want you to hit - are going to be a bit more scripted, where you have to do one thing to progress the story and then it immediately transitions to the next Spider-Man. There are going to be options later on in the game where you may or may not do something in the past and you might see a different effect in the future.
Will these affect gameplay or progression, or simply bonus content?
Most of the time it's not going to affect the story directly because we want to tell this specific story and hit all the different elements linearly.
How tired are you of answering questions about open-worlds?
I'll answer them as long as people keep asking them!
I don't think anyone would ask if it hadn't already been done so well. You've gone in a different direction for both of these games - how do you ensure that the player still feels like they can use Spider-Man's abilities to their fullest extent?
Since the game takes place in the large scientific building, we're able to create pretty much any environment we want to. In Shattered Dimensions you saw a large variety of different environments and that's something we also want to push for this game as well, and not just have it set in one repetitive environment or anything like that. We want to push the different stuff Spider-Man is able to do and the different environments that he's able to exist in.
Of course, Spider-Man has unique powers, but Spider-Man 2099 is slightly different again - how do you ensure that each Spider-Man's powers feel distinct when they have such a similar base power set?
We really tried to tailor the abilities of each Spider-Man to reflect what they do in the comics. Amazing, in the early comics, he used to make these shapes with his webs. It's not something you see much in the newer comics but it's definitely something he can do and used to do, and it's one of the ways we wanted to push the difference between the two Spider-Men. He makes these weapons; he likes to use long-range attacks a little bit more; he uses web shots. Spider-Man 2099, on the other hand, has these claws, so he's more of a melee fighter. That's something we introduced in Shattered Dimensions but we want to push further with this game, specifically with the two moves we wanted to add - the evade move and the ghost decoy. Decoy plays into melee fighting - in 2099 you'll tend to get swarmed a 
lot, so you can drop the ghost decoy and jump out of there, get behind them, and keep on attacking them.
Obviously there's been a lot of different Spider-Men throughout the years. We saw a lot of them in Shattered Dimensions. Why choose 2099 above all others to work with the Amazing Spider-Man?
When we started with the idea for this game we wanted to do something with time travel, and really push this cause-and-effect gameplay to the forefront. And so when we looked at Spider-Man, these are the only two who have ever existed side-by-side in the same timeline. Spider-Man 2099 exists in this universe that's a possible future for Amazing's timeline, so they're the only two that can really make this work.
Is there a link to Shattered Dimensions at all?
Not at all. We started development on this game a little before Shattered Dimensions was finished. We had the idea; we had what we wanted to do well before we saw Shattered Dimensions through to the end, so we wanted to make this a different game and offer something new to the fans.
So in this narrative, it's the first time Amazing's become aware of 2099, and the first time each of them have had to deal with someone as smart-alecky as they are?
Exactly. These two are very much Spider-Men, in the sense that they still like to make jokes, but they're their own separate personality; they are different people. 2099's a little bit older, and hasn't been Spider-Man as long as Amazing Spider-Man has. And then, on the converse, Amazing is a little younger but more experienced. He thinks he's the hero and he knows how to do things, and 2099, as he's a little older, thinks he's wiser. At the beginning, they do clash a little bit and kind of don't trust each other, but they know they have to work together, so there's a bit of tension there. As they progress and overcome adversity and challenges, they trust each other a bit more and do things for each other and at the end become really good friends.
It definitely seems very fiction-appropriate. Peter David is a great addition, knowing the character so well...
Exactly. He was at the top of our list when we were looking for writers - he's written time travel stories, he's written Amazing Spider-Man and 2099, and so he really knows these characters and how they could interact together - and of course their differences. We were very excited to bring him in and have him flesh out the story.
With him involved does the audience become a little more specific? It seems a lot more targeted at people who are very familiar with Spider-Man, and maybe aware of the characters for a very long time...
Having the authentic writer helps that, as well as having the authentic Spider-Man voices. Josh Keaton and Christopher Daniel-Barnes know Spider-Man. Sometimes they'll ad-lib and add stuff that we didn't even write, and we'll think it's cool and keep it in. There are people that know the
character really well behind the scenes, that people who know Spider-Man well [as a franchise] will notice and appreciate. At the same it's really relevant to other people who may not know that. It's still funny, they can pick up on these jokes and references, and think 'That's somebody I want to learn more about.' It's stuff like that. We wanted to bring something new to Spider-Man fans but also introduce people to a lot more old Spider-Man that they may not know.
It seems to trade a lot on narrative...
We really wanted to push the story and the interaction between these two Spider-Men. The history of Spider-Man is a very heavy thing and we want to make sure people know we understand that. We're focusing heavily on making sure we get it right.
TVG would like to thank Associate Producer, Dennis Bernardo for taking the time to speak with us about Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which is due for release on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and 3DS in the autumn.