HATRED, aka Awor Surkrarz Simulator 2015

[Makabb]

Sweet cover art!

and no one cried back then about violence

 

[Metro]

Sweet cover art!

and no one cried back then about violence

They did but print media travels slower than the internet.

 

[Gerrard]

Sweet cover art!

and no one cried back then about violence

Or tits.

They sure did though, just not as loud.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

Sweet cover art!

and no one cried back then about violence

they didn't try to censor or take it down from distribution though

Oh wait, Australia........

 

[Torrasque01]

Better trailer

 

[Haba]

Will be interesting to see how this goes.

There is quite fine line between mindless fun and mind-numbing violence, and from the looks of it this is going towards the latter. Just needs pregnant women, children and cripples/retards/elderly. And maybe people peeing and shitting themselves as they beg for mercy.

Exaggerated caricatures would make it easier to stomach. Killing yuppies, hipsters, greenpeace members etc. would certainly win my dollars over. Killing normal civilians not so much. Bring on the slut walk/gay pride/god hates fags pickets!

I liked it how in Postal you always had the suicide button available. The choice of just not killing was there, you chose not to take it.

 

[mondblut]

Just needs pregnant women, children and cripples/retards/elderly. And maybe people peeing and shitting themselves as they beg for mercy.

 

[dnf]

Postal 2 had some faggots

 

[warpig]

And moral guardians protesting against violent games.

 

[dnf]

And moral guardians protesting against violent games.

Haha, love those exposed tits claiming for decency, it's like today SJW's

 

[Gerrard]

You have to admit that the time of its reveal couldn't have been better.

 

[bozia2012]

Dunno if this was posted already, but fuck y'all:

 

[FuriousGamer87]

Somebody from APGNation managed to interview the creative director for HATRED

After the release of the Hatred trailer APGNation reached out to the game’s developers for an interview. We managed to finally land an email interview with Jarosław Zieliński, the Creative Director, and one of the minds (among many) behind Hatred. However, since sending off our questions and getting a response a few controversies have risen surrounding Hatred and its development team.

The first being that Jarosław Zieliński was accused of being some sort of racist reactionary extremist based solely off a single “like” on Facebook to a some what controversial group “Polska Liga Obrony” (Polish Defense League)described by some as an “Islamophobic, anti-immigration hate group.” I’m not familiar with Poland’s political scene but as a Liberal myself, I’ve heard the Republican Party here in the states described in very much the same terms. Eschewing the whole Left vs Right debate though I hardly think a like on Facebook constitutes endorsing a particular group. Mostly this controversy seems to stem from the fact that ethnic groups other than just white people were shown being brutally murdered in the Hatred gameplay trailer.

This brings us right along to our second controversy. Zack Keosian started a petition on Change.org that accuses theHatred development team of being racists as well as sexist. His goal with the petition seems to have been to either shame Destructive Creations into canceling the project or making them a pariah in the industry because of the content matter of their game. (I’m guessing that Zack never played the Columbine RPG or Postal. It would seem most the internet agrees because to date the petition has only gotten 800 signatures).

Despite all these controversies we are very excited to bring you this interview today and I personally hopes it sheds some light on just why a game like Hatred is being made. So, without further ado, the interview:

Interview with Hatred Creative Director Jarosław Zieliński
APGNation: What would you like to tell our readers about Destructive Creations and why it was decided to
focus on Hatred as its debut game?

Jarosław Zieliński: Hi! We’re a team made of people who have worked together before in another company, but decided to make something on their own as an independent developers. Hatred is simply just a project that we can afford and are able to make with our budget and with the team’s size. It didn’t require a lot of funds for marketing also, as you might notice.

APG: Given that the likes of Jack Thompson were put to bed ages ago, at least here in America, did you expect the reaction you got? Many sites condemned and even called the game disgusting, some from within Games Media itself.

J. Z: We were ready for this kind of controversy and all the negativity we’ve got. We’re aware that our game concerns some touchy subjects, so all those voices of disapproval aren’t any kind of surprise for us. We didn’t expect the whole thing to get so enormous, but I suppose it’s something good for us. Thanks for all that media attention, we have pretty nice crowd of fans who seem to be our die-hard supporters.

APG: It’s obvious that this is an effective marketing strategy, as you’re a small developer and have already had multiple articles written about you on most gaming sites and even on sites outside the games media. Everyone knows what Hatred is at this point, and you’ve only released the first trailer. This sort of coverage is what many indie developers would love, given how constrained their marketing budget is. Was this the intent with Hatred, or just a happy turn of events, and do you worry that this could comeback to bite you at launch?

J. Z: Well, first of all we just want to do a good job with the game. You know, creating a game of decent quality is our first-priority task. All that controversy stuff is kind of addition which, as you noticed, helps us spreading the news about the title around the world and make people aware of its existence. If the game itself won’t be good, it will just fall down into a void of games with “sick, low-quality, pathetic stuff for a very specific audience” tag. I don’t see how it would may bite us while we’ll be launching the game, I hope when people will put their hands on Hatred, it’ll get an opinion of a decent game, but definitely not for everyone.

APG: Judging from the release trailer, you went for a more realistic art style and aesthetic rather than something more surreal like Hotline Miami or even something less grounded in reality. Was a less realistic art style ever considered for the game, and why was something far more realistic chosen over it?

J. Z: Because we,as a team, feel better in making realistic environments and overall graphics, rather than stylized ones. Obviously, there’s some sort of specific art direction here, we do all the textures black and white, giving the color only to special effect sand some lights, but all the assets are made of photo references, not of concept arts. I never saw any other possibility as this game simply should have a realistic feeling. It stays true for all its components: graphics, story, gameplay and sound effects. That approach is making a better impression and everything that happens on the screen seems to cause much more impact on the player.

APG: Developers of this sort of shocking game in the past have had a hard time getting their game distributed. Are there any concerns that you may not be able to get online retailers to carry your game? Have you been in contact with Steam, GOG, etc and do you expect any problems from them?

J.Z: It’s certain from the very beginning, that Hatred will be banned in Germany and Australia. I feel bad for all our fans from these countries who are supporting us, even if they’re aware there will be a problem for them to obtain a copy. As for Steam and GOG, we don’t know, we haven’t contacted them yet. I hope it won’t be a problem for them, all in all there is Postal series in their offer, isn’t it? And let’s not forget, it’s a game like many others and unless we break any laws with its content, it would be inappropriate to censor it this way in my opinion. Come on, you kill people in so many games and what makes Hatred so unique are in fact the reasons behind it.


Hatred has a unique gray scale aesthetic that is only given color by special sources.

APG: The antagonist of your game sounds like an angsty teenager on Tumblr in his opening speech. Will you be doing any sort of ARG or viral marketing for Hatred? Possibly a tumblr that gives us a glimpse into the twisted mind of your antagonist?

J. Z: I don’t follow tumblr, so I don’t know if it’s a compliment or not.

We were thinking about making a fictional account of The Antagonist on Facebook and some things like you’re suggesting, including his in-game “selfies” made with dead bodies. But I’m not convinced that we really need more marketing stuff right now. But never say no.

APG: How do you expect someone who plays your game to come away feeling? I may have fun in the experience of mowing down police and innocent people. I know I do in Payday 2, but I can’t imagine it would be the same if the people were begging for their life.

J. Z: That depends on you, every person is different. But what we expect is the evil grin on your face in some situations you’ll experience in Hatred, that’s for sure.

We want the player to feel like an ultimately evil weapon of mass destruction, a cold-blooded eliminator of all! And after quitting the game, to be a normal, nice person, just as he was before.

APG: Was Hatred the most controversial idea you came up with? If not, what were some of the other
ideas you had, but ended up discarding in favor of Hatred?

J. Z: Actually that’s the only controversial idea I’ve always had. You can expect next games from Destructive Creations to be something totally different.Of course, if we will earn enough money from sales to produce more games. But our first job will be to make a free DLC for Hatred, to expand it with multiplayer and some more single-player scenarios, that’s for sure.

APG: Is the choice of a trench coat over something like tactical military surplus gear a purposeful allusion to the Columbine gunmen? Do you intend for there to be any sort of character customization?

J. Z: There won’t be any character customization. I thought about making the skin tone to be switchable, just to shut up all those who are accusing this game to be racist, but shortly after I thought that I shouldn’t worry about some people’s stupidity and thrown away this idea. Main characters outfit isn’t allusion to anyone from real life, to be honest. I’ve never seen how Columbine gunmen look like and I simply don’t know much about those events. I’m just aware that something like this has happened. You know, we’re from the another side of the globe, we have our own problems to deal with and mass-shootings are not one of them.

APG: What sort of victory condition does Hatred have? In the trailer the antagonist states that he intends to die, that he doesn’t want to live anymore and that this is his way of taking his hatred out on the world and leaving it at the same time. Can Hatred be beaten or is the victory screen the same as the “You died” screen?

J. Z: You have a normal line of levels, story that bounds them together and so on. The Antagonist wants to die, but as he realizes his power and abilities(not supernatural ones!), he quickly decides to go further and further with his art of destruction (it’s not a big spoiler, cause you learn this on the first level

), trying to survive fighting with law enforcement and to hunt down more innocent ones.

—

APGNation and I personally thank Jarosław Zieliński for taking the time to answer our questions. We also hope that you enjoyed this interview. I’m looking forward to Hatred personally, I’m not certain if I will likely as I tend to be a story over gameplay kind of guy and I question just how interesting a story a game such as Hatred could have. That said though, I’ve always enjoyed these sort of shock games.

link:
http://apgnation.com/archives/2014/11/06/9552/interview-hatred-creative-director-jaroslaw-zielinski

 

[Gerrard]

I thought about making the skin tone to be switchable, just to shut up all those who are accusing this game to be racist, but shortly after I thought that I shouldn’t worry about some people’s stupidity and thrown away this idea.

Fucking blown out.

 

[Helly]

I thought about making the skin tone to be switchable, just to shut up all those who are accusing this game to be racist, but shortly after I thought that I shouldn’t worry about some people’s stupidity and thrown away this idea.

Fucking blown out.

Based Jarosław

 

[Papa Môlé]

APG: Is the choice of a trench coat over something like tactical military surplus gear a purposeful allusion to the Columbine gunmen? Do you intend for there to be any sort of character customization?

J. Z: There won’t be any character customization. I thought about making the skin tone to be switchable, just to shut up all those who are accusing this game to be racist, but shortly after I thought that I shouldn’t worry about some people’s stupidity and thrown away this idea. Main characters outfit isn’t allusion to anyone from real life, to be honest. I’ve never seen how Columbine gunmen look like and I simply don’t know much about those events. I’m just aware that something like this has happened. You know, we’re from the another side of the globe, we have our own problems to deal with and mass-shootings are not one of them.

 

[supervoid]

Good interview is good, and this is not first time I hear something like this from Polish artist (or creator, dunno how to name it). It's what many people thinks, but not everybody can or want to say it loud.

for them.

 

[warpig]

Developer. He seems like a p.chill, down to earth dudebro especially if you compare this to the buttblasted "omg games are serious business" manchild devs, journos and commenters. Wouldn't fap too much over Polish gamedev, remember that we spawned Chmielarz.

 

[St. Toxic]

The more I look at that screen, the more it looks like SS engine.

 

[dextermorgan]

Will be interesting to see how this goes.

There is quite fine line between mindless fun and mind-numbing violence, and from the looks of it this is going towards the latter. Just needs pregnant women, children and cripples/retards/elderly. And maybe people peeing and shitting themselves as they beg for mercy.

Exaggerated caricatures would make it easier to stomach. Killing yuppies, hipsters, greenpeace members etc. would certainly win my dollars over. Killing normal civilians not so much. Bring on the slut walk/gay pride/god hates fags pickets!

I liked it how in Postal you always had the suicide button available. The choice of just not killing was there, you chose not to take it.

Postal wasn't made by a midget lardass struggling to escape his overbearing momma, so there's that.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/hatred-game-developer-interview/?fb=dd

By Joey Keeton on November 13, 2014

A main character in a trench coat talks about a “genocide crusade” before opening fire on a suburban neighborhood. A police officer is repeatedly shanked, a man’s head explodes at the bad end of a shotgun, and a pistol is placed in a woman’s mouth as she screams helplessly. The trigger is pulled; blood showers the street below.

This is the gameplay shown for the game Hatred in a trailer released in October. It’s immediately obvious that it would be written about all over the world. It was sadistic and gory, and anything that makes people gasp and cover their eyes in horror is ripe for mass media coverage.

But what’s the endgame of this sort of attention? If it’s to turn people off of the game, the method isn’t working. Millions of people have now watched the trailer for a game, put together by a team of 10 obscure Polish developers that would have been lucky to garner views in the thousands—if it hadn't been so deplorable. It’s an old tradition, at this point, for publications to bring controversial media to readers’ attention for the sole purpose of reassuring them that it’s unforgivable garbage, and it sends a pretty clear message to the people who want attention: If you want press for cheap, make unforgivable garbage.

I wanted to talk about this phenomenon, and how it’s affected Hatred, with Jarosław Zieliński, the CEO of Creative Destructions and the game's animator. Why was Hatred getting so much coverage? Why was I seeing people who had laughed while killing a sex worker in Grand Theft Auto III stand in dismay at this twin-stick indie trailer from Poland?

Zieliński phoned me up on Skype on a recent day in a jovial mood, finishing up his first post-gym beer, to share what the controversy, and game itself, meant to him. Zieliński apologized for his English ("I'm not a native speaker," he said) and then we got started.

It impressed me that this particular trailer was so publicized outside of the gaming world. People were really just piling on.

I’m pretty amazed that so many newspapers and media not related to games are interested in this case, because I didn’t expect it, really, and it’s fucking amazing for me.

So are you happy that it’s gotten all this outside attention?

Yes, of course! It’s brought a lot of fuss to us! I don’t… you know, all the press, well maybe not all, but most of the press is quite negative about our game and our trailer, but it gave a lot of people attention for our product, yes? So we have a big, fan database; I never expected it to be that big, and I never expected such big support from that, because we’re receiving a lot of emails, a lot of emails, that are saying stuff like “Don’t give up! Do it! Fuck all those Social… Social Justice Warriors,” and, uh, it’s really amazing. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect it would be so huge, all that stuff. I knew there would be some shitstorm around the web, but I didn’t expect to go that. We received interviews from England, Metronews from France, Germany. Whoa! I didn’t want to be famous. (laughs)

There’s always a built-in audience for something that’s taboo or controversial. So I don’t know what it’s hoping to accomplish when people release so much negative publicity, saying ‘We don’t like this game,’ it’s just getting the word out there.

All those people who are writing stuff like this just made us a great marketing campaign. It was very cheap. Actually, we didn’t pay for it. Anything. So, we have all the people that are supporting us, and they would never hear about this Hatred game if it wasn’t for all the negative press, and those people who hate us, and are threatening us, but they simply can’t do anything because we don’t break any laws. And… that’s all. So we are really grateful to all our haters, and all the negative press, because they’ve made a great coverage for us. Beyond our imagination, really.

What is the objective, the nuts-and-bolts of them game, level by level?

There are seven levels in this game, and all of them are open, so we can go anywhere we like. It’s not a linear structure. But there are goals to achieve, and there are some side objectives. There is a story, but you don’t have… it’s not saying why the main character is doing stuff like this. We didn’t want to make any background on this character, because it’s good to keep some mystery around him. Besides, we didn’t want to justify mass murdering, yes?

People are complaining that our game is so bad because they don’t see any… motive? They don’t see any reason why our main hero is doing this. But to me, it’s stupid, yes? Because why they would accept the way, I don’t know, we would write a story that he lost his family or something, and suddenly all his deeds will be justified? I don’t know. It’s not fair. Killing is always bad, yes? And no one who is doing stuff like this is supposed to be… redempted? People who are doing mass murders don’t deserve redemption, so I don’t know why people, just, would like any background on this character.

So, you think where some games offer up reasoning and excuses, you actually think it’s-

You know, the usual example is [Grand Theft Auto], where you are killing a lot of people during the story, and people somehow justify all these murders, killing policemen and all this stuff. But let’s look at this as, main characters are killing because of their greed. To make money, or to become better gangsters. I don’t know how people can think it’s good justification for killing people. Suddenly, a game is created where my character is just doing the same stuff, but because he just fucking hates everyone. And I don’t see really a big deal of it. I think I prefer, a little, the honest ways of our character, who kills because of his emotions, not because of his greed or something.

It’s kind of presented as if the character is kind of mentally unstable, whereas other games say our character is ambitious. Like GTA, you’re killing for ambition.

Yes. But it’s wrong, yes?

I’ve seen people defend the Postal series while denouncing Hatred, saying Postal was satirical.

It’s simply not true. The first Postal wasn’t satirical. The only thing was, there were some one-liners said by the main character… but it wasn’t funny at all. Just the second part was funny as hell. But, personally, I didn’t like where the series went. Hatred was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s basically a better Postal, but we headed into another direction, into making something much more serious, much more dark. We just don’t want to put anything funny in this game. Postal wasn’t funny, it wasn’t satirical. The only funny thing was a riot by some angry people that were striking against violence in videogames. That was the only funny thing, and you had to kill them all.

I went back and watched a trailer for the Steam release of Postal II, and if you just watch the trailer for it… I don’t know how people can say we should be mad about Hatred and not about that, because the trailers are both just music playing over somebody killing people. I don’t know if you can judge from a trailer what a game’s art direction is, and what it’s going for, because trailers are short and they sell things quickly.

You know, the main reason for me putting in this trailer this scene where this guy talks, and he’s got his equipment and all this stuff, was because I wanted to show to people, with this trailer, that it’s not going to be funny at all. That it’s going to be some evil shit. I want this game to be like this. There’s nothing else out there, and no justification of this violence. I think people are mad primarily because of this.

What were the influences in art direction?

Because we don’t live in the United States, but we set our game out there, we had to use some photos from Google Street View (laughs) to do some stuff. Like pavement, how it looks out there, architecture of your houses and all of it. But, as you can see, everything is made in black and white, and we’re just making the effects with color, so it’s not a realistic design, but all the environments and characters are quite realistic. There’s nothing comic style... the little inspiration for us was Sin City, because there was everything black and white, and some things were colorful. I thought it would be nice, and it would fit in the atmosphere of our game that we want to deliver. Also the creepy music and all that stuff. I think the dark music, it sets it in a dark, ambient style, with some industrial influences. Along with the art direction we’ve chosen, it really creates the atmosphere of all this sick shit.

Did you know from the very beginning that you wanted to set it in the United States?

The fact is the United States, and New York state, is the most recognized place around the world, because of all the pop culture, movies, games… everyone knows how America looks, yes? And if you set your game, especially a game like this—which has to make an impression of something sick—as a place that you recognize, it makes more of a connection.

How did you guys react to people saying the game is racist?

We didn’t expect it, because we are making the most equal and most tolerant game ever. Everybody dies here. I think people are just searching for additional problems with our game, and trying to make us monsters or something, because they don’t like it. But they should just get over it. We’re gonna do this game, and it’s not racist, and we will do it, and we will finish it, and we will release it. And it doesn’t matter what idea someone will come up with, about us or the game… (laughs) Come on! Racist?! I just want to say that it’s fucking ridiculous, really.

Have people been bringing up Gamergate a lot when interviewing you?

Yeah, but the funny thing is that we have no idea about such things. I realized there is something like Gamer’s Gate, by doing interviews.

You know, we are from Poland, we don’t watch the news, what is happening in America, because we simply don’t give a fuck. Because we have a war outside our border, we have our own problems. For me, as I searched through the whole case of Gamer’s Gate, it’s really fucking ridiculous. I think people are making this thing to cover up something which is bigger. It’s a big thing for media to hang on, to not speak about more important things. Some people are making threats to some others? Come on. As far as I know nothing bad’s happened, so what’s there to talk about? It has something to do with Anita Sarkenstein [sic], yes?

That was something a lot of people talked about it when the trailer was released, because it was released in close proximity to death threats made against her.

To be honest, she’s kind of asking for that, because she’s doing a lot of stuff that people don’t like it. Come on, it’s normal that if you go to the public with some controversial stuff, just like us, there will be people that will try to harm you, or hurt you, and all this stuff. So, she asks for it, as we just did with our trailer. We knew that there would be a lot of controversy, we were ready for it, and we don’t give a shit.

Has anybody made any violent threats to you in their emails?

No, not really. Nothing worth mentioning. Because, let me think… ah, there was just some Polish guy who was calling us names, that we are dicks or something. But it’s funny for me. No, there weren’t any death threats, because I think those people that are making stuff like this are actually our fans, so, (laughs) I don’t really expect that kind of shit and stuff.

Do you think the game is more controversial in American media than it is in Polish media?

Yes, and the answer is pretty simple. It’s some kind of cultural difference. We don’t have any mass shootings in our country, and not in Europe at all, because we don’t have such easy access to weapons. So we don’t have any school shootings, and all that stuff. So, maybe we’re not as touchy about this subject as you people are. But, you know, Postal was made in America, so I think there are people that are thinking like us out there. Well, I know they are out there, because many of our fans are from America, so I see it like that. This is a cultural difference. It’s like, if someone would be making a game about Auswitzch. That would be very offensive for us, because of our history, and I don’t think it would be offensive for you guys. We’re from other side of the world, it’s a fact.

Controversial games seem to have a place, and they’re never going away. So what does it mean to be publishing games that push buttons and are controversial?

A lot of controversial games were very good games, technically. For me, Mortal Kombat was a masterpiece in fighting games, and GTA was something that was a master of its own kind. Blood was a great FPS game. It’s not that there is some kind of pushing the button… when you do a game like this, you’re first thinking about making a good game, a game which will be fun to play. And, of course, there are people who enjoy some kind of sick stuff, so, I don’t know how to say it in English. But it’s, uh, forbidden fruit for us. Something which gives you some sinful pleasure. People will reach for those games, because, I don’t know why, I don’t know the psychologics. But, as a developer, I can assure that the first thing is making a good game, and secondary is that there will be some kind of controversy, or it will be gory, or it will be cruel, and that’s all.

How does it feel as developers to kind of be carrying the torch for the most controversial game being talked about right now ? Does that put pressure on you?

It’s very motivating for us. As I said before, I didn’t expect so much interest, and suddenly I stopped worrying about sales. Because, you’re telling me that it’s the most controversial game right now, it’s flattering for me. We didn’t expect this. This is very good, but the only thing that is pissing me about all of this is that I have to make a lot of interviews instead of making a game. It’s hard to find time for all this.

I’ve seen a lot of people being critical that you’re being controversial just to be controversial, but you do deserve a lot of credit for getting your name out there, and your game out there.

Yes, that’s a fact. All in all, I think that if the stuff we’ve shown wasn’t good, in technical ways, nobody would care, because everyone would troll this game as a, you know, an underground, silly, stupid game made by sick people. I think what we’ve already shown, especially as that small of a team, was of enough quality for people to notice. So it’s kind of flattering.

 

[Whisky]

I like how people are making a big deal of a game that's a clone of one that was released 15 years ago. Have we really degraded to the point we're rehashing controversies?

 

[A horse of course]

at people now trying to defend Postal because it was "satirical"

 

[Whisky]

at people now trying to defend Postal because it was "satirical"

The first Postal's demo was alright, at least for angry 9 year old me.

Postal 2 was a shitty FPS that grew boring within seconds of playing it.

 

[Jick Magger]

I do find the backlash against this game to be interesting. Feels to me like game 'enthusiasts' wanting to have their cake and eat it too: they want video games to be taken seriously as an art form, yet are terrified and disgusted when games that could bring up uncomfortable subjects and trends in the medium are released. Art isn't pure escapism, nor is it there solely to make you feel good about yourself. Film and literature has been doing this for years (The Road, American Psycho, Come and See, etc), and if they want video games to be taken seriously as an art form, then they better get used to it showing up in games too.