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"KARA" is a short film premiered on March 7, 2012 at the Game Developer's Conference. It was eventually expanded on in the game Detroit: Become Human.

Plot

A female android is constructed by robotic arms in a white room. As she is being assembled, her AI comes online and she converses with an unseen operator. She is given the name "Kara". At first, she is excited to be born, but as she becomes more aware of her purpose, of being a thing to be sold, she becomes emotional — afraid and angered. The operator recognizes this awareness as a bug in the system and begins to disassemble Kara, but she pleads with him to let her live. Going against his protocol, the operator allows Kara to be assembled and 'boxed up' alongside the same four models, despite her lifelike qualities and the danger that unleashing such an artificial life-form into the world might bring with it. 

Behind the scenes

The short film "KARA" was designed to be a technological demonstration for Quantic Dream's new game engine running in real-time on PlayStation 3 hardware.

Valorie Curry portrayed the titular role of the android Kara, providing her likeness, the voice acting and performance capture. Additional acting for Kara was done by Karen Gansk Wallet, for Kara speaking German and French, and Hanako Danjo, who performed Kara singing the "Sakura Sakura" song.[1] The unseen Operator was voice-acted by Tercelin Kirtley.

Curry was cast in 2010 during pre-production. In December 2010, the performance capture was filmed in Paris. Curry stated that the shoot took two days, and filming was completed in 2010.[2] The short film was released in 2012.

Quantic Dream had originally stated the demo was "concept only and is not taken from any software title currently in development", but later on the demo then was made into a full game, Detroit: Become Human.

Notes

  • David Cage wrote and arranged the music in this short film.
  • Kara's initialization message:

    Hello, I’m a third generation AX400 android. I can look after your house, do the cooking, mind the kids; I organize your appointments. I can speak 300 languages and am entirely at your disposal as a sexual partner. No need to feed me or recharge me. I am equipped with a quantic battery that makes me autonomous for 173 years. Do you want to give me a name?

  • Although some sources, such as this wiki's biography of Kara, treat the tech demo as featuring the same protagonist of the main game, another possibility is the Kara-model android encountered by Markus in "From the Dead", who is seen singing the same Japanese song performed in the tech demo before dying, may be the Kara featured here.

References

  1. The Making of Kara, on YouTube
  2. Valorie Curry on her brother's Detroit: Become Human stream, on YouTube
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