MindsEye, developed by Build a Rocket Boy, is a look into the “near future Americana” of the fictional Redrock City. Players will find a city run by many technology advancements from AI to robots, one that serves as the focal point of a conflict between Big Tech in Marco Silva and Big Government in mayor Shiva Vega.MindsEyeplayers, as protagonist Jacob Diaz, find themselves (and all their friends in the city) caught in this conflict.
For Redrock City to fill like a city, it needs big names and faces that help define thenarrative elements ofMindsEye. For Game Rant Advance, we spoke with Build a Rocket Boy about a few of the characters players will meet and what they each bring to the game.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Step Into the Shoes of Jacob Diaz
Q: How predetermined is Jacob as a character?
A:You live inside Jacob’s experiences according to the story you’re following. When we first meet Jacob at the start of theMindsEye story, he’s a person who is haunted by his past and doesn’t fully recollect what has happened to him. Throughout the course of his journey, he pieces his fractured memories together as the player learns about these past events and their consequences. This initially makes him feel like he doesn’t have agency over his life, and as we progress through the narrative, he gains insight into not just what happened in his past, but also that his future mission is critical for humanity. I think this journey of self-actualization is highly relevant today, especially in how we interact with and use technology–seemingly for our own benefit–without always considering its broader impact on us as individuals and as a society
Q: Can you tell us about Jacob’s neural implant? What’s his “relationship” with it like exactly?
A:Jacob received the implant in the military – a reward for his excellence in service – but what appeared to be a gift turned out to be a nightmare when an attack on the electronic device it controlled turned out to have life-changing consequences for him.
Jacob’s implant allows him to control hispaired drone companion, which can go places he cannot and therefore access places he wouldn’t be able to get to and fly into danger, protecting his physical body. It has a number of functions that will Jacob as he fights off the enemy and also adds an extra layer of strategy to missions.
Face the Dual Threat of Marco Silva and Shiva Vega
Q: What can you tell us about the antagonists—Marco Silva and Shiva Vega—and their role and relationships with Redrock?
A: Mindseye takes place in a world that is a version of this one; as such, it explores characters with whom we can identify–a highly intelligent, binary-thinking tech billionaire who thinks he knows what’s best for the world, a populist politician with no real unity to her policies other than that they are all somehow designed to profit her personally.
Q: Marco represents technology, and Shiva represents politics. What was the draw in having this represented by two different antagonists instead of just one?
A:The second story trailer introduces players toRedrock City, a super-heated near-future desert metropolis, where technology is king. We get a glimpse of its immersive influence – consumer robots carry out most manual tasks and an algorithm connects all-seeing devices. The city itself is a living experiment in the existential potential of man and machine.
We meet intriguing characters, including Marco Silva, the eccentric tech genius and founder of Silva Industries, who wants to change the course of human evolution. We’re also introduced to Shiva Vega, Redrock’s power-hungry Mayor, whose apparent ambition is to make Redrock the safest city in the world and to gain even greater control of its citizens.
The volatile relationship between Silva and Veg –Big Tech and Government–is poised to impact the future of Redrock and its inhabitants as the personal power struggle for the robots back end systems ratchet up, ultimately only putting the city itself in danger.
Seb, Burt, and Charlie
Q: Can you tell us more about Seb and the role he plays in the overall game?
A:Compassionate and personable, Seb was Jacob’s younger neighbor in childhood. A big fan of Marco Silva, Seb came to Redrock to join Silva Corp and worked his way up to being a facilities manager. He is keen to impress and naive, both vulnerabilities that Jacob is able to exploit, as Seb offers him somewhere to stay and, more importantly, gets him a job at Silva Corp.
Q: What can you tell us about the performance behind the actors of Charlie and Burt? What made them a perfect fit for these characters?
A:Charlie is played by Taylor Carter, who was able to bring a friendly likability to the role, making her sympathetic. She and Jacob build a believable friendship. She has the right combination of confidence and vulnerability, which means we care about her when she appears to be in peril.
Burt is played by Elias Toufexis, who is an actor well-versed in playing military characters from roles invideo games like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklistand Splinter Cell: Conviction. He was really able to embrace a severely flawed and extremely dangerous personality, and at the same time treat the role with a certain sense of subtlety and humor which makes Burt one of the most watchable characters in the game.
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