Last month Firesprite Games announced that it was bringing its first sci-fi horror game Persistence A turning point is 2020, and the release date has been confirmed May 21. This studio, originally developed by veterans of Clear developer of Psygnosis (now SCE Studio Liverpool), released the only PlayStation VR game back in 2018 and out of the pits of VR goggles (so no, that's it no a Nintendo Labo VR topic) on other platforms soon.
Dear colleague more site of Push Square enjoyed the addictive loop like addiction and sci-fi horror, so we're intrigued to see how the game translates to the Nintendo console. Recently we have been interested in asking game director Stuart Tilley how he goes about creating 3D roguelike, the team's thoughts on Nintendo and Lena's VR experiment, and the challenges of introducing Virtual Reality gaming on non-VR platforms.
Nintendo's health: For those who probably don't miss it the release of the original PlayStation VR of The Persistence, tell us a little about the game.
Stuart Tilley, Game Director: Persistence is a sci-fi horror game with what we think is a separate twist: it's a randomly produced game where you have to fight to save a doomed star, where "death is just the beginning". The ship the game you originally played was in the process of creating a colony with not only seven crew members, but with thousands of engram – memories of real people – stored on the ship's computer, for & # 39; s printing & # 39; on arrival. However, something went wrong there, and the computer began to print the corrupt version of the changes that made this fake.
With a ship flying near a black hole, you play as safety officer Zimri Eder, and you have to fight your dreaded way in the boat to repair the ship and somehow return to Earth. Each time Zimri dies, his new image is demolished – it is a way to upgrade and equip it with a new gear and weapon, continuing with every attempt to repair the ship and discover private secrets.
Dead Space It seems like an obvious stepping stone – what other games or media inspired you while developing the game from the beginning?
You are right to say that Dead Space was a huge influence – one of my favorite games of all time – but we were also inspired by the weather A foreigner movies, which play in the sense that exploring the space you should know may be hiding something that will quickly end your existence. A lot of other games have inspired us, too Refined with its amazing ability to contain subtle and fierce gaming techniques, so that Legacy Legacy allowing you to hone your skills with every effort. It's a case of the lives of fans of both sci-fi and horror, to be honest. When we made Wipeout games at the Liverpool station, we always talked about our dream to one day make a game & # 39; s awesome & # 39 ;, so when we get the chance to do The Persistence, we have to combine our two greatest passions.
How close has the team been to putting The Persistence apart from its influences and other games that use standard sci-fi-horror settings? Is this something that you were worried about before settling on the theme and direction of the game?
Throughout our games at Firesprite we are always striving to make sure we add real value to the games we make – be it art or technology. We thought that combining the reality of a roguel-like loog into a full 3D game like Dead Space would create a spectacular package. We also considered this to be relevant to such a great game – which was promoted in VR – as live-die-repeat The loop can give players the opportunity to take regular breaks in action.
We also decided we wanted to have an arsenal of weapons that works differently from other sci-fi games. In Persistence you are often a victim, hiding behind a cover and looking for a safe haven, but weapons are deliberately depleted, and when you equip one, you are empowered to become a "hunter" rather than a hunter, to take the fight with the most controversial changes. The only downside is that these weapons have so little ammo…
The environment produced by the 3D process feels novel in the playground where it sometimes feels like every release is a working fog. Integrating process-generated levels into a 3D game with scripted script moments should be a major design challenge. How long did it take to develop this program and what are some of the challenges you face?
We created the first prototypes as places with just a few rooms so we could prove our travel plans and weapons from scratch. A few months later we got the first version of the technology in operation, producing standardization of rooms, corals and management areas. From that point on, until a few weeks before its release, we never stop drowning in how the levels are produced. As technology developed, we realized that we wanted more from the program to fulfill our desire for standards that feel handmade, even though we work the process. As well as tweaks to plot generation we have invested a lot of time in measuring enemy and object distribution, play regular checks to find the balance of tension, complexity and quiet spaces you expect in a horror FPS horror game.
Before talking about the Switch version directly, tell us a little about the difficulty of translating VR-designed game to non-VR platforms. There's been a lot of talk lately on this topic around Valve & # 39; s Half-Life: Alyx, but we get the impression that it's far from the simple task of successfully re-installing the VR experience on screens that aren't tied to your face.
we wanted to make sure the experience was available across multiple platforms with optimized visual effects and post-processing … we're proud of the result on Nintendo Switch
Persistence is built to be a seamless experience for VR since the launch of the traditional controller, so while this acknowledgment isn't quite as complex as re-launching the game on only motion control applications, it still presents challenges in UI, UX, and animation. Overall our goal has been to maintain the balance of player experience between VR and non-VR types where possible.
For us the biggest challenges were in the areas where players interact with systems and areas that were previously attached to the "look" system, which is based on VR headsets. Another area we had to look at was the compatibility with the UI functional areas – the map interaction and development and so on – so we have to think about it again. Lastly we wanted to make sure the experience was available across multiple platforms with customized viewing and back-up features to suit a particular platform and we are very proud of the outcome at Nintendo Switch.
According to Switch, what are the biggest technical obstacles you face when shipping a game to Nintendo's system?
Switchch is a very good platform to build, but it obviously varies somewhere in the original platform that we developed the game with, so we had to be more ethical as we approached. Taking a memory-like technological model, where it is not as widely available as the original development platform, chunky luxuries such as game audio have taken on the task of making sure it was at the level we were looking for a powerful survival experience.
The UI naturally came up with its own portable mode challenge, and there was a lot of redesign. The text, especially in synthesized languages, so that took some time to settle into the changing screen and still look good. We had a lot of great Nintendo fans in the team and getting controls to feel right with all the strategies we support was important to us – attachments or banned JoyCons, for example, and Pro Controller. We have compared our game to other Switch FPS games, and we think The Persistence has risen to the forefront.
We had a lot of great Nintendo fans in the team and getting controls to feel good with the whole system we supported was important to us
From a technical standpoint, how does the Switch version interact with other platforms? Will it have special stage features?
We learned from all the project work to develop The Persistence on PlayStation 4 VR that you had to do it well so think of other platforms in the future added to this and gave us a great start on Nintendo Switch. We've also upgraded our codebase to do a really good job, so if there are no special features, we feel that the visualization, audio, and gameplay balance are in line with the actual information we made for PlayStation 4.
Like the votes in the VR space, what are your thoughts about Nintendo and Labo's down-to-earth approach?
We think Nintendo and Lena's approach is a great way to get players into the immersive VR world. Making all the kits is a lot of fun, and games allow you to see things from a fresh perspective. Toy-Con garage VR is also a great way to make the game more accessible to the creators who want to breathe there.
Finally, what switch games have you enjoyed recently?
Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart it's been lunchtime at the lounge here on the Firesprite towers. By moving to our team now working remotely, that's obviously a catch, but luckily Animal Crossing we're out to save the day, so we're all enjoying this right now.
Many thanks to Stuart. Persistence is scheduled to arrive at the switch on May 21, and we are looking at pre-game construction in Turnch – looking at what we will hear soon.
Like the sound of this? Play the original PSVR version? Let us know if you want to find someone who is already somewhere with a little comment in the comments below.
