 Vicious Cycle then submitted the concept to art company Massive Black Studios to develop initial character sketches . Massive Black 's artists were allowed to use their imagination while developing Fred , but the one stipulation Vicious Cycle made from the beginning was Fred 's head — the developers wanted it to be a liquid @-@ filled jar with the detective 's brain and eyes floating around inside . Massive Black came up with several different versions of Fred , including some with guns , which lead designer Adam Cogan had already decided the game would not include . After receiving the sketches , Vicious Cycle chose several that portrayed Fred with a squat , childlike appearance that retained some of the youthful focus of the scrapped Geo project . The publisher , D3 , decided to present all of the concept art to a test group . To the developers ' surprise , the test group was much more interested in a darker , more intimidating portrayal of Fred than the cartoonish , playful look they had chosen . The developers decided to flesh out the concept and took the chosen sketches back to Massive Black . This time the art came back darker , with similarities to Dirty Harry and The Matrix and The Evil Dead , and a Norman Rockwell @-@ inspired look that would influence the game 's art style towards a more violent theme . 
