According to producer Keiji Inafune, Dead Rising was originally conceived as a sequel to the game Shadow of Rome to continue an initiative set out by Capcom to "decipher the North American market". The original plan was to scrap the stealth elements featured in Shadow of Rome and focus more on over-the-top violence, but due to a desire to make something different while retaining that concept, the game's story, setting and time period were morphed into what Dead Rising became.