Alex Beaty, director of Prime Video's Secret Level Mega Man episode: "I was afraid Capcom would balk, but in the end they loved it"
San Diego Comic-Con Malaga is proving to be a transmedia experience that thousands of visitors from around the world are enjoying, and Gamereactor is on the ground, of course, covering it live. In just a few hundred square metres you can cross paths with the artist of your favourite comic, the creator of that board game you love so much, or the directors of the series and video games that keep you awake at night. In the case of the talk 'Unlocking Secret Level', we have a bit of the last two.
Amazon Prime Video's Secret Level series takes inspiration from video games of all eras to show a different side of them through the high-quality animation of Blur studio, the same people who brought us Netflix's 'Love, Death and Robots'. However, three of those episodes were commissioned to Illusorium, a Spanish animation studio based in Madrid. Originally they were only going to do one (Pac Man), but a last minute change of venue put them in charge of taking over the abandoned production of two more. They were in charge of the Pac Man, Mega Man, and Spelunky episodes.
Alex Beaty, director of the Mega Man episode, spoke at the SDCC Málaga panel alongside Víctor Maldonado, Raúl Rocha, Lucía Martínez Casino, and Emily Dean (director of the Spelunky episode), and talked about the process of creating the episode and the "responsibility" he had on his shoulders with the character, an icon in the history of video games.
"Capcom wanted something more ground-breaking with Mega Man, but they didn't want to touch the essence of Mega Man, his armour and so on. I was worried when I submitted my first designs for the episode, but fortunately they loved it."
The deadlines for the episode were crazy, as the project was handed over to Illusorium, with an accelerated production schedule. Despite this, studio producer Lucia Martinez Casino says both legacy episodes, Spelunky, and Mega Man, were completed within the same six-month timeframe. "With the last-minute changes with the studio, it's really amazing that it all came together," Beaty said. "I was sitting with the sound designer describing the scene to him, because the lighting work wasn't done yet."
And while he's easily recognisable, Mega Man's design in the episode is not taken from any of the franchise's 130-plus games, by his account. Although it's true that there are some shades close to the classics: "Maybe something from Mega Man II and Mega Man V."
How did you like the first season of Secret Level, and what did you think of the Pac Man, Spelunky, and Mega Man episodes?