Insomniac’s Jacinda Chew reveals that Lizard can “communicate with Peter” in his smaller form, but his larger one has “lost all humanity.”

While Venom and Kraven have hogged headlines for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as its newest villains, Lizard, the alter-ego of Dr Curt Connors, also plays a big part. As in the initial gameplay reveal, Peter needs him to help his friend Harry Osborn. In a new PlayStation Blog post, Insomniac Games discussed bringing Lizard to life, starting with referencing the comics.

As senior art director Jacinda Chew revealed, “The first thing we always do when we look at a Marvel character is reference the comics. And then, from there, we collaborate with Marvel to put our spin on it. It can come from the gameplay, or because of the narrative.”

Interestingly, Lizard appears in two forms – a smaller version and the massive dino-like beast wreaking havoc. The former is “human-sized. He’s also able to communicate with Peter. But our version of Lizard – he’s leaner, meaner, bigger and greener, in all ways. He’s not wearing clothing, and he’s lost all humanity. So, we’re not able to communicate with him. That’s a really big difference.”

The developer spent extensive time getting Lizard’s skin right, emphasizing its sheen. “We looked at a lot of lizard skin for research. The thing about lizards in real life – their skin’s actually really dry. Most people who looked at our Lizard kept initially saying ‘he’s not slimy enough.’ But I think it’s a nod to what people expect a lizard to look like – he’s got that lizard skin, but it’s actually much shinier than what you’d see on a real lizard,” said Chew.

“We gave him spikes, too. For design references, I tried to look at real-life lizards that looked a bit more prehistoric, because some lizards can look kind of soft and cute. I was looking at spikier, more snake-like, more aggressive references. We also wanted eyes that look more like animal eyes. If you look at cats, their pupils grow at night. We made those kinds of eyes for him – when light hits his eyes, they look smaller, and his eyes react to light. We did a lot of research on how to make that happen in real-time on the PS5.”

The PS5 also helped to realistically capture his muscles, as Insomniac looked at “real animal or real human actors and seeing how those muscles deform and running simulations. I think it’s incredible that we’re able to do this at this point in developing video games, but it’s also somewhat subtle, because you may not always notice that difference until we disable all the muscle simulations.” Other impressive details include using a program to simulate his shed skin and how it interacts with elements like wind.

As for his movement, Chew said, “Lizards move very low to the ground – it’s not very intimidating. In the comics, Lizard is more bipedal and upright, so more human. We had to thread that needle – he’s bipedal but still has to maintain some of that lizard look, so he’s got that curved back. The idea behind his movement is that he moves at a speed that feels fast but heavy. The animation team deserves a lot of credit for conveying that strength and power and speed.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20th for PS5. Check out the official TV spot here, which sees Miles and Peter fighting Venom.