Secrets, Space-Suits, and Lunar Loneliness: Why Pragmata’s Leading Man Had to Grieve in Silence
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Pragmata star David Menkin reveals the 'lonely mourning' of working on Capcom's top-secret moon shooter for years without being able to tell his own family. It's a raw look at the human cost of gaming's obsession with secrecy and the isolated reality of modern voice acting.
Right, so apparently Capcom thinks we’re all remarkably good at keeping secrets, but I reckon they’ve met their match in David Menkin. You know that feeling when you’ve cast a spell that’s so volatile you can’t even tell your apprentice why the tower is glowing purple? That’s essentially been Menkin’s life for the last few years.
We’ve been waiting for Pragmata since—bloody hell, was it really 2020? I remember sitting there watching the PS5 reveal, seeing a cat in a spacesuit and a little girl hitching a ride on an astronaut, and thinking, 'Well, that’s either a masterpiece or someone’s been nibbling on the wrong kind of digital mushrooms.' Six years later, the game is finally landing on our hard drives, and it turns out the bloke playing the lead character, Hugh, has been carrying a heavier burden than a level-one wizard with a bag full of cursed loot.
I’ve been tinkering with the details of Menkin’s experience, and it’s wilder than it first appeared. Imagine working on a project for eighteen months—a project that’s essentially become your entire life—and then having to sit on a curb in London with a bouquet of 'thank you' flowers from the studio, unable to tell a soul why you’re holding them. He calls it 'mourning,' and honestly, I get it. In this industry, we’re so obsessed with NDAs and 'top secret' marketing beats that we forget there’s a human being on the other side of the mic who just wants to tell their brother they’re playing a moon-bound hero.
Menkin’s story is a fascinating peek behind the curtain of how modern AAA games are stitched together. He’s Hugh, an astronaut surviving a robot apocalypse on a lunar base with a childlike android named Diana strapped to his back. It sounds like the kind of high-stakes sci-fi we usually see from Capcom, but the process of making it was surprisingly isolated.
Here’s the kicker: Menkin and Grace Saif, who plays Diana, were never actually in the same room. They built that entire core relationship—the emotional heartbeat of the game—in total isolation. Menkin would record his lines, then Saif would come in later and work off his recordings. It’s like trying to have a conversation through a time-portal where you can only hear echoes of the future. He likened it to acting against a tennis ball in a blockbuster film, which makes you realize that 'the magic of games' is often just a lot of talented people being very good at pretending they aren't alone in a padded box.
Now, I’m always a bit skeptical when corporate PR tries to sell us on the 'emotional journey' of development, but Menkin seems genuinely chuffed—and a bit relieved—to finally be out of the shadows. He’s a self-confessed space geek who’s played Neil Armstrong more times than I’ve accidentally deleted my save files. He knows so much about the moon that he was terrified to even post a picture of the actual moon during the Artemis 2 mission, fearing the Capcom ninjas might think he was leaking game assets. That’s the level of paranoia these contracts breed, mate. It’s a bit mental, isn't it?
But what does this mean for us, the lot actually playing the thing? It suggests that Pragmata isn't just another corridor shooter. If an actor like Menkin—who’s voiced everyone from Malos in Xenoblade to Barnabus in Final Fantasy XVI—feels this project was uniquely taxing, there’s likely some genuine narrative meat on these bones. Capcom took their sweet time with this one (originally slated for 2022, remember?), and while I’m usually the first to roll my eyes at 'revolutionary' delays, I reckon the extra years were spent ensuring Hugh and Diana’s relationship didn’t feel like a series of disjointed soundbites.
There’s a bit of a silver lining here for the future of the industry, too. Menkin mentioned that Capcom actually brought them in for a table read—a rarity in game dev. Even if they recorded separately later, they at least started on the same page. It’s a small step toward treating game acting with the same respect as film or stage, and I’m all for it.
Now that the game is finally out in the wild, Menkin has been dropping subtle hints on social media—posting R.E.M.’s 'Man on the Moon' like a man finally stepping out of a digital witness protection program. It’s a reminder that behind every 'new IP' and every polished trailer, there’s a bloke who’s been 'shrugging glacially' at his nephew’s questions for two years.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Pragmata. It’s got the weirdness, it’s got the pedigree, and it clearly has a cast that’s poured their literal souls into it. Just do me a favor: if you see an actor looking lost with a bunch of flowers on a London staircase, maybe give them a nod. They might just be saving the world in a reality you haven't been invited to yet.
Tags: Pragmata, Capcom, Voice Acting, Game Development
Original article: Polygon