MindsEye Developer Describes Its Cinematic Approach

MindsEye is the debut title from developer Build A Rocket Boy, a studio co-headed by former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies. MindsEye follows former special ops soldier Jacob Diaz as he wrestles with the titular neural implant that has clouded his memories and perception. As Jacob makes his way through the futurism-inspired setting of Redrock City, where big tech and intrusive government oversight vie for power and control over the population, he will uncover deeper truths about his past and the forces at play behind the scenes.

Game Rant recently spoke with developers about the focus on integrating high-quality cinematics into MindsEye‘s story and action-packed gameplay. They discussed the various techniques used to produce extremely realistic scenes and how these work to elevate the immersion factor and create memorable moments that are seamlessly woven into the title’s overall experience.

“Near Future Americana” MindsEye Director Leslie Benzies Gives an Overview of Redrock City

MindsEye director Leslie Benzies gives an overview of Redrock, a futuristic, technologically advanced city in the middle of a desert.

MindsEye Devs On Its Use and Integration of Cinematic Elements

Creating Genuine Characters and Emotional Scenes for MindsEye

Breaking down how they went about planning MindsEye‘s cinematic components, studio members outlined that the process “began with a strong narrative foundation. We then worked closely with the writing team to fully understand the emotional beats and storytelling goals of each character and scene. From there, we moved into pre-visualization, using storyboards to plan camera angles, composition, and pacing.” They added that they “didn’t want the scenes to be just about big, dramatic moments, but about subtle facial expressions and body language too.”

A major factor in realizing this vision for MindsEye was making use of modern performance procedures and cutting-edge technology to create greater levels of believability and realism:

“One of the core aspects was our commitment to full performance capture. We brought in talented actors who were fully scanned to replicate their likenesses and create digital doubles inside the game with the goal of ensuring that every emotion was captured authentically. This approach allowed us to maintain the integrity of each performance, preserving every subtle expression, gesture, and vocal nuance in sync. It created an authentic, emotionally charged experience where character interactions felt genuine and immersive.”

The developers also highlighted the other methods employed to achieve even more layers of high-end presentation and fidelity, combined with the robust performance captures depicted with Unreal Engine 5:

“We leveraged the power of Unreal Engine 5, which allowed us to achieve cinematic quality in real-time. Our team used every inch of computing power available to run complex cinematic sequences in real-time, including cinematic cameras, VFX, animations, audio, lighting and post-effects. All to enhance the storytelling while we stayed true to the game.”

Lastly, they noted that everything was further extensively finely tuned during post-production: “The teams worked tirelessly to refine the finish and quality level of the cinematics, ensuring that every cinematic felt impactful and polished. It was a collaborative effort between engineering, animators, artists, designers, and audio, all pushing towards a unified creative cinematic vision.”

With the lengths that Build A Rocket Boy has gone to and the level of attention paid to nailing every detail and inflection, MindsEye aims to deliver fans incredibly realistic cinematics that don’t distract or feel disconnected, but instead function as natural extensions of the world and characters. It promises a highly polished experience that best uses top-of-the-line techniques to produce an engaging story that keeps pace with its dynamic gameplay mechanics.