Tributes have been pouring out over the last 48 hours to mark the passing of musician David Bowie, and over the last 24 hours there has been a smattering of tributes from gamers as well. Most of those have come in the form of memories about Omikron: The Nomad Soul, the game where David Bowie appeared as a musician in-game that the player could interact with.
The director on that game was David Cage, who has made a living out of creating games just as unusual as Omikron. But given the circumstances, it was only natural that Cage would offer his thoughts and condolences for Bowie given the two worked together.
Before The Nomad Soul, Cage wasn’t a particularly avid Bowie fan. He’d heard of his work, but his reverence was largely restricted to the most popular of Bowie’s work. When discussions about getting Bowie on-board began, Cage and his team originally were hoping just to license the song “Heroes”. They certainly didn’t dream of giving The Nomad Soul a touch of the glam rocker.
But, according to Cage in a new interview, Bowie had presence that filled any room the musician was in. “But I was not a hardcore fan, I knew his best known titles,” the Quantic Dream director said in a rough translation of an interview with France Info.
“I became a fan of [Bowie] working with him. He was an extraordinary, he had an aura as I had never seen before and as I’ve ever seen since. When he came into a room, he attracted attention.” Cage also described Bowie as the consummate professional, humble and someone who was utterly committed to a vision, rather than someone who wanted to bend things to his will.
Bowie’s curiosity is a running theme throughout his body of work, and its that curiosity that Cage supposedly believed drew the musician to Quantic’s project. It didn’t save The Nomad Soul from being a bit of a mess, but it certainly made the game immensely intriguing, and perhaps that’s what will matter most of all going forward.
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2 responses to “David Cage Became A Fan Of David Bowie Because Of Omikron The Nomad Soul”
*sigh* Im gonna miss Bowie, but we still have his amazing music.
Omikron was a beautiful mess. There was so much about it that was ahead of its time, but there was also so much about it that was unfinished and poorly realised.
Bowie’s presence was a big part of what made it worth the time.
I think if it were remade today, it’d be a hell of a thing.