A Message From Executive Producer, Jonathan Knight





Hello Everyone!

Thanks for visiting dantesinferno.com.  We hope you’ll continue to do so as the site develops.  We plan to add lots of updates and new information about the project as the team moves through production.  Our goal is to share with you our passion for both the video game, and also for the great work of literature on which it is based.

The big idea behind the project was essentially to adapt part one of The Divine Comedy (commonly known as “Dante’s Inferno”) for a big, over-the-top, action adventure video game.  The themes of death, sin, eternal damnation, and the medieval vision of Hell and its punishments made for extremely compelling game material.  The location was perfect.  And the core narrative of the poem—a guy pursuing his true love through the kingdoms of the afterlife—had all the makings of an epic story.

Written in the early 1300’s by the Florentine poet/politician Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of western literature.  In Dante’s masterpiece, we find three major innovations.  First, he writes in the common language of the Italian people, as opposed to Latin, making his work accessible to the public at large.  Second, he casts himself as the central character in the poem, mixing fiction and biography in a completely unique way (the character of Beatrice is based upon Beatrice Portinari, Dante’s real-life unrequited love).  Third, and most importantly, he synthesizes medieval folklore, contemporary Florentine politics, Catholic dogma, biblical references, and ancient mythologies into one powerful unified vision that becomes the definitive world view of the afterlife.

It is basically impossible to overstate the influence of The Divine Comedy on western culture.  He literally maps hell, and gives us the concept of the nine circles of hell and the seven deadly sins of purgatory (neither of which are found in the bible).  Throughout the centuries, some of the world’s greatest artists, composers, authors and filmmakers have treated and adapted the “Inferno” to their medium of choice.  (For example, the great sculptor Rodin spent years studying the poem while creating the “Gates of Hell,” and his great statue known as “The Thinker” is actually a depiction of Dante contemplating hell.)  For our project, we wanted to continue humbly in that tradition, and give the poem an outlet in today’s most exciting entertainment medium: video games.

We’ve approached the adaptation seriously, particularly the setting and characters, which are described by Dante in incredible, imaginative detail.  We’ve taken some liberties with the story, to create a narrative that has enough drama, conflict, and fighting to make for an exciting action game.  It’s obviously not the same as curling up with the original 14,000 lines of Italian poetry, but we expect it to be a fun way to experience the fundamentals of the poem that we think Dante himself would have appreciated :)  

As we move forward, we hope you’ll be compelled to learn more about both the game and the original poem itself.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Knight
Executive Producer & Creative Director
Dante’s Inferno

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