Last month, TikGames announced that are working on a Chucky, a "downright gory" stealth-action game, where players take control of the killer doll.

We had plenty of questions after the announcement and had a chance to get some answers from Adrian Ludley, creative director at TikGames. Topic covered include working with Universal, the possibility of a playable Tiffany in the game, and Brad Dourif.

Jonathan: There are plenty of franchises that TikGames probably looked at when planning the next project. What made TikGames decide on the Chucky license?

Adrian: A lot of us are fans of his movies. Actually, a few of the guys were young enough to have seen the movies as kids and they were entirely freaked out by Chucky back then. When we found out that the license was available, we jumped on it. He’s a classic horror movie monster, and we had a vision for what a game based on the movie that gave us nightmares could be.

Jonathan: Did you have a tech demo to show Universal prior to asking for the license? What was their reaction?

Adrian: We didn’t have a tech demo, but what we did have was, like I said before, a clear vision of what the game could be. We’d already seen all the movies, we understood Chucky (as much as one can understand a psychotic serial killer doll), and we had a lot of experience making games. We were on the same page as Universal almost immediately and the more we talked, the more excited everybody was to make this game a reality.

Jonathan: Has Universal given you any restrictions as to what you can or cannot do with the Chucky character?

Adrian: Not any specific ones. When you’re working with a license, you obviously need to stick with what the license is all about. We’re not going to make a Chucky game where he’s a perfect little angel who’s competing in a spelling bee and shoots rainbows out of his eyes. Chucky’s going to be as stealthy, conniving, and deadly as he was in the movies.

Jonathan: Obviously, you guys are horror fans. How excited were you when you Universal agreed to give you the license? Was it a difficult process?

Adrian: The scale goes up to 11, and even then, we were at a 12. It wasn’t a difficult process at all. The folks at Universal are great and really easy to work with.

Jonathan: Chucky will feature an original storyline. How did the story idea come about and who is responsible for writing it? Does the story take place after the events of the last film or are you taking Chucky back to the beginning?

Adrian: It was written internally. It’s based on the Chucky universe, and doesn’t specifically follow any specific script from the movies, but you’ll see people and places from the movies. It’s not canon by any means, and it doesn’t happen before or after the events in the movies. Rather, it’s kind of a separate excursion through the Chucky universe.

Jonathan: The press release already stated that this would be a "downright gory experience". Was there any kind of worry from Universal about negative press or public reaction to what players will be able to do in this game? Is that going to have any effect on how the game is developed or was staying true to the spirit of the films the most important for Universal?

Adrian: We’re working closely with Universal to make sure both sides have the same expectations for any kind of violence and gore in the game. The films were rated R, and some of those scenes of Chucky killing people, or even the different ways Chucky met his end, weren’t exactly family-friendly viewing.

Jonathan: Just to verify, this title is being developed with the full expectation of receiving an M rating?

Adrian: Absolutely. R-rated movies should not get E-rated games.

Jonathan: At this time, are you planning on this being a single player-only game or is there a multi-player component?

Adrian: At this time, it’s a single-player game. People playing the game are going to want to be Chucky, so we’re focusing our efforts on making sure that every minute they spend as Chucky is going to be killer.

Jonathan: We've already had some of our readers ask this, so we're assuming that you'll hear this quite a bit. Does the license allow you to have Tiffany in the game? Will she be a playable character?

Adrian: I can’t comment on the specifics of the license, but wouldn’t it be cool to play as Tiffany? She (Jennifer Tilly included) was my second-favorite character in the movies.

Jonathan: Is the technology used to develop Chucky in-house or have you licensed a third party engine?

Adrian: We’re using Vicious Engine 2.

Jonathan: Is Brad Dourif already on board to voice Chucky in the game or is that still being worked on?

Adrian: Oh man, I’d love to have Brad Dourif working on this game. He’s an amazing actor and a staple of the horror genre, but at the moment, we don’t have him lined up to voice Chucky in the game.

 

I wanted some additional clarity on Brad Dourif because a previous TikGames comment to Giant Bomb suggested that he may not be in the game. Do they already have someone voicing Chucky? Have they already reached out to Brad Dourif and he passed?

According to Amar Gavhane, the marketing manger at TikGames, they currently have a temporary voice in place for Chucky and have not yet locked someone in for final voice acting. They have not gotten in touch with Brad Dourif (but we told them this is a MUST for Chucky fans), so it is still possible that he could contribute to the game.

I want to thank Amar and Adrian at TikGames for taking the time out to talk to us. As you can tell from the interview, they are still very early in the development process, but we hope to have Chucky artwork and screenshots, as well as more gameplay details in the near future.