How Rainbow Studios thought up Deadly Creatures

We like to think the pitch meeting for Deadly Creatures likely involved tossing spiders and scorpions onto the publisher's desk and watching people squirm until a contract was signed. And while this tactic might have worked, developer Rainbow Studios tells Gamasutra that THQ was "really receptive" to the idea, which interestingly owes its concept to a dream had by lead dev Jordan Itkowitz the night before.

Deadly Creatures is something of an odd fit for a console that has earned its reputation for family-friendly diversions and dart-throwing contests. Still, Itkowitz notes that despite developing the game as a Wii-exclusive, the team "didn't want to dumb it down or kiddy it up too much." He admits, however, that avoiding making the game so violent that it turned away parents and youngsters was a "big challenge." After all, we wouldn't want casual players' sanguine Wii experience tainted with bug guts.