Over on the Rockstar website, they have posted an awesome news article on their research into the new and upcoming Max Payne title, Max Payne 3. In this article, they explain and showcase their research that is currently going on and inspiring levels and art assets within the game.
The game is set over in São Paulo, Brazil – so of course the research that the team is doing is taking place over there. To quote the dev team –
Escaping the traumatic events of Max Payne 2 and all of the corruption, betrayal, peril and pain of his existence as an NYPD detective, Max Payne breaks south – way south, to São Paulo, Brazil where he takes up a new gig working private security for a wealthy local family in Max Payne 3. As one might imagine, amidst the volatile disparity of towering wealth and profound, desperate poverty in São Paulo, this new job turns out to be not quite as cushy as hoped…
In addition to all of the intense technical development and meticulous game design being poured into Max Payne 3 to create an advanced and cutting-edge action-shooter gameplay experience – as always, painstaking effort has also been made by our development teams and internal Rockstar Research department to ensure that the vibe and presentation of São Paulo – touchstones like Paulistano culture, police, weaponry and other elements that will not only contribute to the game’s single-player narrative, but also the single and multiplayer environments and characters – are as authentic as possible.
Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be offering a glimpse into just some of the behind-the-scenes research and production design done over the course of Max Payne 3’s development, from information and asset-gathering trips down to São Paulo, to local casting for pedestrian types in all the game’s levels, to extensive study of municipal law-enforcement wings, weaponry and much more.
I wish I could go down to São Paulo for “research” every once in a while. Here are some photo’s that the development team have shared pertaining to their research.
Be sure to check out their news article here for all of the information.