Dev recalls working with David Bowie on Omikron, and the artist's madcap scheme to buy up a load of old satellites and 'relaunch Ziggy Stardust from space'

pcgamer.com:

Music publication Mojo has a new retrospective on Omikron: The Nomad Soul, the 1999 game that marked Davd Cage's directorial debut but is most notable for the involvement of David Bowie. The legendary musician was initially approached in a bid to license some of his older songs but Bowie, ever-keen on where technology was going and sensing the opportunity to make his mark in a new medium, ended up both starring in the game as Boz and writing or co-writing twelve original songs for the soundtrack (some of which would later be reworked for his album Hours).

I know that all sounds incredibly cool, and elements of Omikron undoubtedly are, but let me slightly temper your expectations: It's a very average game, even by David Cage standards. That's not to say it wasn't also massively ambitious, had some great ideas, and of course involved Bowie (if you're interested, it can be had on GOG). Which was mainly because one of the key designers was a massive Bowie nut.

"[David] Cage’s list of bands went Björk, Radiohead, Future Sound Of London, Garbage," Omikron’s senior designer Phil Campbell told MOJO. «I threw Bowie on there because I’d been in the fan club since I was 11: And I knew he would complement the world we were creating.”

Campbell worked for Eidos at the time, which had signed up to Cage's vision and partnered with Quantic Dream to make the game. They initially wangled a meeting with the rock legend just to talk about „licensing his old music“ but Bowie quickly got interested in the game's ideas.

»He loved David Cage’s vision for Omikron," says Campbell. «That you were sucked into this world, the themes of oppression and being awakened, and he loved [art director] Loïc Normand’s visuals. The next meeting he brought Iman and Joe [Duncan Jones]. Then he brought [guitarist and Bowie collaborator] Reeves Gabrels.”

Bowie was sold, and decided to not only write new songs for Omikron but hole up with the developers for two weeks in a Paris apartment. Long known for using