Confession time: when
it comes to the 1990s to the present, my history with computer games is spotty
at best. Sure, I’ve played DOOM and some of the other major releases,
and I even taught myself to type with Mario Teaches Typing (it was much
more effective than my high school typing class), but I’m definitely a console
gamer through-and-through. By and large, I prefer the simplicity, immediacy,
and “plug-and-play” vibe of the console experience over computer games.
In addition to
console gaming, one of my other big hobbies is following the rock band KISS.
Not only did I grow up loving their music and plastering their photos all over
my walls, I wrote a book about the band called Encyclopedia of KISS: Music,Personnel, Events and Related Subjects (2016, McFarland Publishers). Unfortunately,
there aren’t many KISS video games. Almost none, in fact. There was the
dreadful, unlicensed pinball sim for the PlayStation called KISS Pinball,
and you can play various KISS songs on Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
But that’s about
it. Or it would be if it weren’t for KISS: Psycho Circus—The Nightmare Child,
released for the PC in 2000 (and ported to the Sega Dreamcast the same year). The
game was published by Gathering of Developers, developed by Third Law
Interactive, and is based on characters from KISS Psycho Circus, a comic
book series published by Image Comics and Todd McFarlane Productions that ran
from 1997 to 2000.
The DOOM-like
first-person-shooter, which was a welcome release as far as this KISS fan is
concerned, puts the four members of a band called Wicked Jester (a riff on Paul
and Gene’s pre-KISS group, Wicked Lester) in a hellish world of hideous
creatures, demons, and circus mutants, including bosses. Beginning as a mere
mortal, the player must battle said baddies to progressively acquire the powers
of The Elder, the supernatural alter-egos of KISS: Demon, Starbearer, Beast
King, and Celestial. There are three
types of weapons you can wield in the game: melee (beast claws, thornblade,
twister and punisher), common (zero cannon, magma cannon, windblade and
scourge), and ultimate (stargaze, galaxion, spirit lance and draco). You can
also grab temporary power-ups and other items, including health and attack and
defense powers. In addition, players should assemble Elder armor comprised of
gauntlets, boots, a belt, a vest, a plate, and a mask. There are four realms to
explore: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth.
A special
Collector’s Edition was released for the PC in a lenticular box, with cover art
from the four 1978 KISS solo albums. The package also included an official VIP
backstage pass and neck chain from the Psycho Circus Tour, a KISS poster signed
by all four band members, a limited version of the game’s official strategy
guide, and a game disc that is signed by each member of the development team.
I recently had the
distinct privilege of catching up with Sverre Kvernmo, the lead designer on KISS:
Psycho Circus—The Nightmare Child. He discussed the development history of
the game, why they made a game based on the comic book instead of the band
itself, his interactions with KISS co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons,
and much more.
BRETT WEISS: How
did this project come about, and how did you get involved? Were you working for
Third Law Interactive?
SVERRE KVERNMO:
Not at the time, no—we founded Third Law as a result of the opportunity to make
Psycho Circus. KISS wanted a video game for their reunion tour,
basically. Who were we to deny them that?
WEISS: Did you
meet and confer with members of KISS during this project? If so, please explain
what that was like.
KVERNMO: Yeah,
Gene Simmons was directly involved, so it was great the few times we met him.
Paul and Gene both showed up during the release party in full battle gear. It was
a bit of a childhood dream seeing them up close like that—they really are
larger than life people!
WEISS: I’ve heard
that Gene Simmons hates video games, that he considers them a waste of time,
and that this is why there are hardly any KISS video games. Do you know if this
is true?
KVERNMO: [Laughs]
First I’ve heard of it! In his defense, he instantly took to Nightmare Child—seeing
the player first-person, wielding a giant battle axe, wading through hordes of
hellions. He’s either very good at faking enthusiasm, or he absolutely loved it
at the time!
At the end of the
day, I’m sure it might have been just a matter of generating more money off the
brand for him, but at the very least, he doesn’t hate them so much that he’d
miss out on a good business opportunity. It was only ever intended as a light
hearted action romp, after all. Not a full-fledged metaverse, as we know some
games today.
WEISS: Why was the
game based on the comic book instead of the band members themselves? I could
see a pretty cool KISS game starring Ace, Gene, Peter and Paul.
KVERNMO: By the
time we decided to make a game, the comics were already part of the media
package tied to the album that reunited the original band members. Also, Todd McFarlane
was an absolute titan at the time, recently having revitalized the Spider-Man
brand, etc.
Cool as KISS is on
their own and in concert, without the adjoined comic books I honestly doubt we
would’ve taken the project, for fear of not being able to bridge the gap
between the two mediums. They just don’t have any natural enemies within their
own well-defined universe.
The comics
basically provided the much-needed art direction, setting, theme, and leeway
for much of the game’s “off stage” content. Just KISS on its own would have
required a much more thorough from-scratch design, which in turn would likely
have had to be green lit every step of the way by the KISS machinery. You kind
of need something with the gravity of, say Iron Maiden’s Eddie, to believably
challenge them to full effect in a prolonged action game.
Expecting a
massive synergic overlap between The KISS Army and gamers in general was
perhaps a big ask in the first place, so yeah—tying the comic book audience
into that equation might have further complicated things, but there just isn’t
an easily available established equal opposite force that the four of them
might tackle, without such a vehicle.
Certainly not KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park! Perhaps Vinnie Vincent? But then, what army
does he lead—ancient Egyptians? [Laughs] This is all unproblematic for the
abstract playing field of something like a pinball machine, but not so much for
a first-person shooter, where you’re largely assumed to need some manner of
motivation to get into it. At least, that’s how we felt at the time we were
considering it.
WEISS: Why did you
decide on creating a first-person shooter as opposed to a beat-’em-up game or
some other genre?
KVERNMO: The first-person
genre was basically still in plasticity, taking shape around those years. The
only common experience the Third Law Interactive team had at the time was
trying to make a contending product—John Romero’s Daikatana.
For whatever
reasons we weren’t able to make that game, we felt pretty strong from years of
work-hours together, that we had a good first-person shooter in us, if we
weren’t, say, trying to keep a linear curve of world-altering progression
going, like that happening off an unbelievable hat-trick like first Wolfenstein
3D, then DOOM, then Quake.
First-person level
designers weren’t easy to come by back then, and we had four that were tried
and tested—if not quite up to Romero’s wet dream of again doubling down on his
latest project. (I mean, you have to at least try right?)
We had very gifted
programmers, one of which had been coding the genre since id made Wolfenstein.
Also, really solid
artists that already knew the FPS production pipeline by heart and had flair to
boot—so the genre for the game was never in question. The FPS iron was still
hot (though in retrospect, cooling), so that’s where we struck.
KISS would be neat
in Mortal Kombat, I suppose, or maybe as outer quadrant gods in some
mystic space-sim.
WEISS: Please
discuss any special challenges you had while creating the game.
KVERNMO:
Hmmm...choice of engine, perhaps. Lithtech ticked all the important boxes for
us—it performed the best during critical game features tests, plus was the most
affordable out of those times’ “big three” license engines. Applying the
benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to argue that the Unreal Engine wouldn’t have
been a better engine to get comfortable with, seeing as that was heading for
world domination, but that’s perhaps more of a personal perspective.
I also regret
agreeing to shut down an unofficial KISS mod that was taking shape at the time.
We should have just left them to it; might even have helped our own game do
better if the mod turned out well. I don’t know what I was thinking—I only got
to where I was due to similar work, so shame on me for not protesting to that
one.
The actual
production of the game happened with few hitches and on time. It was more
challenging to let go of all the nice bells and whistles we might have added if
we spent three-to-six more months on it to really make it shine, than any real
trouble along the way of the game that actually got made. A one-off comic
book leading up to the game’s beginning was an early wish-list item we had to
drop.
WEISS: Do you
remember what KISS songs were used during the game and how they were used
KVERNMO: Of
course! But bar one stroke of inspiration for how “God Gave Rock and Roll to
You” was used, the band’s music really didn’t add as much as it might have and
felt a bit tacked on with bad glue. The KISS machinery feared the game would be
considered/hacked-into an “unofficial KISS compilation album” (which would’ve
cost a LOT more than the game budget) if we were given full-length songs to
distribute, so instead we were basically given 10 second snippets from 10 songs
the team picked together. I mean, the snippets are great, and it does add to
the experience, but yeah, more could have been done there. In a way it was good,
though, since it gave our inhouse “synthwave” composer more creative freedom,
without having to worry about butting heads with KISS all day.
Personally, I
picked “Unholy” as my only must-have, was happy to see “Black Diamond” also go
in but was a little skeptical of the “Love Gun” pick, thinking it might be too
cringy and fourth-wall breaching (considering it’s in a run-and-gun game), but
it worked out fine.
WEISS: Anything
else you care to share about working on KISS: Psycho Circus?
KVERNMO: I really
wanted the Spaceman character to do a full five-minute guitar solo in airborne
ecstasy after picking up his ultimate weapon toward the end of his episode. I
never told anyone on the team about it, but that’s what I secretly wanted.
Smoke machines, lightning balls, laser spotlights, and glowing cosmic vistas.
The full Ace Frehley experience!
