Ever since lead Dispatch writer Pierre Shorette went on the record as saying “we definitely cut some sex scenes” and teased that we may “get to see those one day”, the game’s fanbase has held its breath in bated anticipation. But it’s not happening.
I spoke to Shorette and Dispatch game director Nick Herman recently and they told me that while there were once plans for a sex scene involving your chosen love interest in the game, the actual scenes themselves “never tangibly existed”. As in, there’s nothing to reinstate.
“Let’s curb this here, Pierre,” said Herman.
Shorette nodded as if in agreement, then said: “The reality is we’re definitely going to put those sex scenes in.”
“God damnit,” said Herman in response.
Shorette laughed; if it wasn’t clear, that was a joke.
The duo explained that the problem arose when people found code in Dispatch for an event the team didn’t build out. “They could see that we had booleans for ‘if someone was going to spend the night’ or ‘which love interest was going to spend the night’,” Herman said. The love interests in the game being Blonde Blazer and Invisigal.
Shorette continued: “So after the party, that was the point in the story where that would happen.” The party occurs in Episode 6, so relatively near the end of the eight-episode season, and it’s a wonderful scene – one of my favourites in the game.
It raises the question of why the studio decided against developing the sex scenes any further, and the answer is much simpler than you might think: “Money,” Herman and Shorette said almost at exactly the same time.
“It was just money,” Herman went on. “That whole scene was like double or triple the length; the whole party was almost an entire episode at Robert’s apartment. And scoping: we probably pulled like 80 pages out of this game. It was a lot of writing that had to get cut to be condensed down into something that we could produce.
“We probably pulled like 80 pages out of this game”
“So just to say it: those scenes were never storyboarded. They didn’t go into animation. So people say ‘release them’: they never tangibly existed.”
“Everything that got made, shipped,” Shorette added. “We wanted to put it in, we just ran out of money is what it really came down to. So you can blame the video game industry, not us. If people believed in us, we could have made it.”
Shorette was referring to the several years of rejection Dispatch faced as AdHoc pitched the game to publishers and tried to get it to release – a twisting, turning saga I’ve written about in more detail in a Making Of-style Dispatch interview. Now, of course, the game is a big success, having sold 2m copies and counting.
A limited budget meant Dispatch also couldn’t deliver the breadth of choice some players wanted as far as romance options were concerned. You can’t, for example, pursue a romance with any of the characters in the Z-team you lead, which is probably a good thing as far as HR is concerned.
It was while talking about a possible sequel and the expectations players will have for it, and for the characters in it, that Shorette said: “And want to have sex with.”
“Good lord,” said Herman again in response.
“We should put out a-” Shorette said, before being interrupted by Herman, who added: “-place where everyone can just have sex with everyone.”
Shorette continued: “We’ll make a Date Everything. But it has to be non-canon because it’s so messy – that’s the problem. You can’t have a Date Everything because we have to take those seriously as relationships, not just treat this as like some fuck party.
“When you look at the relationships that we had, they’re very specific and important to the story in terms of the type of characters they are. Robert is a guy that on the one hand has it together and can be supportive to someone like [Invisigal], but then also needs fucking help, you know? Which is perfect for Blazer.
“Malevola,” he added, referencing the tall and muscled red demon woman who wears a tight top and tight denim shorts: “if we threw Malevola in there, everyone would just fuck Malevola. Demon Cindy Crawford. Muscle Mommy. It would be easy mode.”
The success and general applause for Dispatch – former Witcher 3 developer Konrad Tomaszkiewicz said Dispatch was his game of the year – have meant people are now clamouring for a second season of the game. And it sounds very much like a Dispatch Season 2 will happen. However, with success comes expectation and, as Shorette said, “A lot of pressure. It’ll be about what it’s not as much as what it is.”