It’s rare for Canada to play itself in games. It’s even rarer for Canada to play itself in big-budget games.
That’s why Canadians were excited to see North Vancouver featured so prominently in gameplay footage from the next PlayStation blockbuster, developer Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine. Not only does it give an oft-unseen representation of Canada in gaming, but it also pays tribute to Wolverine’s Canadian roots.
And while Insomniac is an American developer based in Burbank, California, a veteran Canadian artist has been spearheading the studio’s Canadian representation in Marvel’s Wolverine. Enter Gavin Goulden, senior art director who’s worked on the likes of Irrational’s BioShock Infinite and Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive and Marvel’s Spider-Man series. The Halifax native now lives in Vancouver, giving him a personal connection to Canucklehead’s latest gaming adventure.
MobileSyrup sat down with Goulden to learn more about the journey to bring Canada to life in Marvel’s Wolverine, the differences of working on Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, how his art has evolved across several games and the advancement of technology, and more.
Gavin Goulden: My day-to-day work is really focusing on the team to make sure that we have a consistent visual style on the project. So part of that is fulfilling the player fantasy and having that in every aspect of the game. But it’s also working with a team of leads and a team of artists to make sure that we’re delivering the highest quality we possibly can.
Wolverine and Jean Grey fight the Reavers by the North Vancouver sulphur piles.
Goulden: As everyone knows, Wolverine is Canadian — possibly the most famous Canadian superhero there is, though Wolverine will never call himself a hero. But we felt it was really important to have him in his home country. So when we picked Vancouver, it’s a little different than what comic fans might be used to, but we also knew that we could do Canada justice because Canada rarely gets to play itself. Vancouver, especially, doesn’t get to play itself, so usually it’ll be New York or something like that. But it’s very rare that Vancouver is Vancouver, and being able to represent that was extremely important.
And honestly, it was a cool opportunity to be able to give a place that I love justice. We did a lot of research. It’s kind of in my backyard, so it’s not a ton of research I need to do, but wanting to show like the sulphur pile, which is an iconic landmark in Vancouver… It also gave us room to have a fantastical version of Vancouver, too. And then also, as you’ve seen, getting the Squamish signs, the Sea-to-Sky Highway, and having that be a familiar yet cool Marvel experience, too.
Goulden: It was essentially, “How can we place Wolverine in a location that would support the more brutal combat?” So not wanting to be downtown and slicing through a bunch of people and causing chaos in that way. But it’s also a good segue, as you saw in the gameplay trailer, of going from a location to a motorcycle ride. So that location geographically fit the gameplay beats that we wanted to set up.
Goulden: Wanting to pay respect to a very beautiful location in the world. Part of it’s also breaking a stereotype. Again, since you rarely get to see the city itself or the location itself. So getting to see the authentic version of it might help maybe inspire people to come pay a visit. You can even do that drive in real life. I do it all the time. So hopefully, [we’ll] get some people in to see how beautiful it is in real life.
One of the Squamish signs in Marvel’s Wolverine.
Goulden: The wording on the signage, driving up the Sea-to-Sky Highway, is very authentic to British Columbia. Since the Olympics when we added the Squamish translations of the words. So having that small detail, if people can pick up on that, I feel super happy about it. It’s a very, very specific detail that is important to me.
Goulden: A lot of it is conveying the emotion and the gameplay beats that you want in the game. So art really serves gameplay in that way, and trying to sell how you’re intended to feel in cinematics and when you’re in the fight. So in order to make that happen, we do a lot of pre-planning, a lot of concept work, colour scripts, mood boards, stuff like that, to get people all on the same page. That’s really the main thing: getting everybody looking at the same thing and wanting the same goal. So throughout the project, you have to hit all those beats, then also make sure that everything’s consistent so that one mission doesn’t look wildly different from the other and that it’s a very balanced, cohesive feeling project.
Marvel’s Wolverine is a lot grittier than Insomniac’s Spider-Man games.
Goulden: Totally. While they share the same universe, 1048, and they are kind of based in the same world, so to speak, Wolverine is a much more gritty, brutal, violent character. The world he belongs in is violent, and he’s a violent weapon, so to speak. So that contrast between him and Spider-Man was super important. I’d also say that Spider-Man is my childhood hero, but Wolverine is the hero of my adolescence. So being able to kind of translate that in my career has been a really cool experience. Because you’re going from the “Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man” to the living weapon of Wolverine. And I think we showed that difference through brutal combat, being very ferocious and stuff like that is super important and a great opportunity between the two.
