cliffbo
05-23-2007, 03:12 PM
PlayStation Network: Full Event Coverage
[UPDATED] Sony's ready to let us share everything you need to know about PlayStation Network - detailed coverage including Home, LittleBigPlanet & SingStar!
http://games.kikizo.com/media/psn_feature_may07/psn_may07_350.jpg
View & Post comments on this article
By Kikizo Staff
Sony is holding an event in America to unveil its latest and greatest plans for PlayStation Network - but a couple of weeks ago, SCEE invited us to its secret 3Rooms hideout in London to check out the full PSN exposé in advance, and meet with the creators of all the big titles to look forward to...
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200705/061_p1.asp
The first thing players do in a demo of LittleBigPlanet we played - the same predefined level that was used to debut the game back at GDC - is customise their character with quirky and bizarre as Halloween outfits or bits of snorkel gear. The customisation is one aspect that was emphasised here more than had been revealed at the game's previous showing.
The Media Molecule guys say not everything is what it seems in LBP
Customisation works using the same kind of user-friendly tools (with Square and d-pad) that we saw at GDC to design the levels themselves - and you can be as creative as you want. Why put a cardboard box on your character's head when you can go ahead and draw a silly face on the box as well?
You can move your character's arms and head around and also 'emote' him using the d-pad, which is amusing to look at. "We don't ever want this game to be a complicated, level building customisation game," Pete Smith, Senior Producer on LBP, told us. "It's really easy to use." And it's just as easy in-game as well, as four players co-operate through a level (whether designed by Media Molecule, themselves, or another user and uploaded through the network). Although players will inevitably get stuck at times, much to the frustration of the three better players (thankfully the build we played had a debugging option to warp lagging players ahead!), playing through is simple with the basic functions of jumping about and grabbing onto things (objects, fabrics, the other players) - something you can pick up in seconds, and the physics-based world you play around in feels natural and compelling.
The world itself is charming - and not always as it seems. Because there's this physical, tangible feeling to the world, Media Molecule has had fun experimenting with materials and textures, but the impact is not just visual: "One of the things we're trying to do is, although everything is made of materials, it's not made in the material you would expect - we've got trees with branches made of metal or cloth - and this is a recurring theme." And although the material texture work throughout the levels is detailed and realistic, they're not what you may be expecting when you leap onto it, which can lead to some interesting emergent play scenarios.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
It's a shame that only some dull placeholder music was in this build, because we loved the funky, inspirational track from GDC, so we hope there's plenty more where that came from chaps.
But be warned: while LittleBigPlanet is easy to pick up and play, pulling off the co-operative tricks like that skateboard finale with your team mates, as seen at GDC, is not always as easy as it looks - even for the game's senior producer! We can't help but wonder if their on-stage demo from a couple of months back might have been pre-recorded? Hey, it's cooler than being pre-rendered.
LittleBigPlanet has buckets of potential, though. Our demonstration and hands-on time barely scratched the surface of the delights that are going to be possible as players get to grips with level building, customisation, sharing their creations with the networked community, and seeing where things go next.
So, how far has the Home concept come along since the baldy-kept secret that was its announcement back at GDC? Well, the Beta trial is running internally, and, if our impressions of it and revelations made to us by Pete Edward from Sony's London Studio are anything to go by, there's a lot more to Home than initially thought - and when it launches, it will be just the beginning. Time for some housewarming...
"Ultimately, we can ban a PS3 from ever going online again - but that's a pretty hardcore punishment to make on somebody."
As we all know by now, every user who registers for Home will be given a 'standard apartment' to use as their own private space, the likes of which we've seen in screenshots, and is still remarkably beautiful by anyone's standards - but it's the 'upgraded' apartments people are really going to be wanting. Players can position all manner of funky and stylish furniture around and all the objects in the world run with real time physics, so you can experiment with how you plonk stuff around. Pete even hurled a huge plasma HDTV down the stairs to make his point - we loved that the clips that were playing on the TV continued throughout the ordeal!
We checked out how easy it is to decorate your new apartment with your own photos, by taking a picture on a camera phone and then taking the Memory Stick from the out and inserting it into PS3 - the framed photo was on the wall within seconds, which was pretty cool. "It doesn't take too much imagination to see how far you could go with this, if you're out on a Friday night with your friends and embarrassing antics ensue, it's going to be easy to remind them of what went on," Pete told us.
It got our warped minds thinking about something, too. We asked Pete about the controversial questions arising after Home's announcement back at GDC, concerning the use of, shall we say, artistically expressive photos to decorate your apartment and then even inviting unsuspecting guests into your place.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
"The first thing to be aware of is that, in order to get into somebody's apartment, you have to have been invited or you invited them to join your friends list, and accepted that invitation. You then have to invite them to come to your apartment and they have to accept that invitation. So you can't 'drag' people into your apartment as such. However, if you're in someone's apartment and you feel like you've been subjected to behaviour or material that you feel is unsuitable and that you feel they should be reprimanded for, you are able to make a complaint against that person. And depending on the severity of the 'crime' that person has committed, we do have the ability to take various steps in terms of banning people from the service. Ultimately, we can ban a PS3 from ever going online again - but that's a pretty hardcore punishment to make on somebody, but it's also a good disincentive to mess around too much."
"Having said that, we want to give people the feeling like they're in an area that is their own area, and that they've got a certain amount of liberty between consenting adults to just kind of have a bit of a laugh in their own private apartment. We don't want people to feel like they're being constantly monitored, or that all of their behaviour is going to be under the microscope. It's just finding that balance really.
We can stream and cache full HD content to the be PS3 hard drive to be replayed either in your apartment or in one of those private screening rooms - you can then turn that into a full screen display and invite people to see it with you - it's a pretty rich environment.
Elsewhere on the 'world map' of Home - essentially the user's method of navigating around - we find areas for specific game publishers, for specific games, and there will be specific genre areas too, according to Edward. Thirdparty publishers have the ability to produce their own 'presence' in Home as well.
"This is very much a first pass at this map. We're also going to be producing some very powerful search tools, so you'll not only be able to search through all your friends within this environment, but also so that you're able to search for the specific kinds of games or interest areas that you're into, that kind of thing."
"The idea of user-to-user auctions, is certainly something that we intend to put in."
But will users be able to earn money or buy and sell stuff, like they can in Second Life? "Ultimately, that is something that is on the cards. Not on day one, not for a while, but yes - the idea of user-to-user auctions, is certainly something that we intend to put in. And also that ties in very heavily with the idea of user-created content and tools, to create that content. And that's something that we're working very hard on in terms of being able to customise your character, design and ultimately build from scratch your own dream apartment, but also tools that will allow you to create and design smaller items that you could potentially market as well. There's also going to be the option for users to use their own scripting, for the particularly technical users to allow Java mini-games and stuff like that, to be created in your home space and maybe build up your bank of Java mini-games for example."
"What's interesting is that Home is the only service where you can just walk up to somebody, and get into a conversation with them. Any other online console service requires you to have played a game against somebody, before you can have any kind of chat with them or get them onto your friends list for example, so you can approach anyone and chat with them, find out if you have anything in common - and you can get on each other's friends list, without having played MotorStorm with them previously, which is quite a big step in turning this from just a game networking service, into a social networking service."
A lot of thought has gone into communication within Home - there's a predefined dictionary of phrases, greetings and contextual replies for ease of use, and because the meanings of such predefined dialogue is known by the system, this sort of conversation can automatically be translated into the many different languages supported by the system - so basically, you can finally chat up cute Japanese girls within in your apartment without learning any effort whatsoever! Of course, users can use the full on-screen keyboard - or plug in a virtual USB keyboard - to say their own stuff, in addition to the 'quick chat' options.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
Sounds interesting, but will Sony ever open up access outside of the PS3, perhaps on the PC? "The intention is that we will allow connectivity with Home from, for instance, mobile devices, like mobile phone or your PSP. Potentially, there could be the ability to connect with the Home service via other platforms as well."
"As time goes on, the content and the feature set is going to get more sophisticated - that's the beauty of a product that doesn't come on a disc."
And how far can you go in getting the real dream apartment? "At the moment it's just a case of you can upgrade from one kind of apartment to another kind of apartment - at the moment are three. But we're working on tools that will enable you to design and then build your own apartment from kind of building blocks, if you like. Home is an evolving service; right now some of the functionality is relatively limited, and it's a case of choosing from pre-configured options to make things easy for the user. As time goes on, and as the user created content side of things, as the developer and publisher side of things develops as well, the content and the feature set is going to get more and more sophisticated. What the user, and publishers, are able to do within the environment, will become much more sophisticated as time goes on - and that's the beauty of a product that doesn't come on a single disc release."
Another title to get its first proper showing at SCEE's recent event was the quirky Snakeball. It may be one of the lower-profile of the Sony's upcoming PSN titles, but it looks like this 'Nokia Snake'-inspired action game could well be a surprise hit.
Duncan Macintosh, designer and 3D artist from Snakeball creators Gamoola, and Tinka Town, creative director and producer and co-owner from friendly Norway-based development outfit Ravn Studio, which was hired to undertake development work for Snakeball on PS3, were both on hand to tell us all about their PSN title.
"We call it sports arcade as a genre," says Duncan. "You control a hoversnake all over this ambient disco floor, collecting these coloured balls that make you longer and longer."
Players can choose from a variety of Snakeball riders - and if you want something more personal, you can map your own face onto a rider with the new PlayStation Eye camera.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
Duncan told us: "We're really happy with the game mechanics we've built into Snakeball and the rewarding feeling players will get - it's really a whole lot more than just the basic Snake that people have played on their mobile phones. What differs us is we have a 'goal' in the arena; you have to deposit the length of the snake you've built up in the goal, but it might be strategically smarter to get as long as possible first - say 20 balls - because it is a lot easier to die the longer you hold out."
A variety of game modes are on offer: feed the snake to make it grow as long as possible in one-player mode; take on the fiendish defences of each arena in Challenge Mode; or battle up to eight other Snakeballers from around the world in Online Mode.
"We wanted to make a simpler game, the sort of game we knew we would like to play, but really polished up for the PlayStation Network on PS3 - you don't need huge resources for a good concept."
The collaboration between Sony, Gamoola and Ravn Studio has been great, Tinka explained. "You can really be creative in a smaller team... we think Snakeball is a lot of fun."
Based on our time with the game it seems pretty obvious that Snakeball is really simple pick-up-and-play fun, and could have a dangerously addictive, highly competitive edge to it just like its mobile phone heritage. Snakeball will show up in the PlayStation Store this summer.
[UPDATED] Sony's ready to let us share everything you need to know about PlayStation Network - detailed coverage including Home, LittleBigPlanet & SingStar!
http://games.kikizo.com/media/psn_feature_may07/psn_may07_350.jpg
View & Post comments on this article
By Kikizo Staff
Sony is holding an event in America to unveil its latest and greatest plans for PlayStation Network - but a couple of weeks ago, SCEE invited us to its secret 3Rooms hideout in London to check out the full PSN exposé in advance, and meet with the creators of all the big titles to look forward to...
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200705/061_p1.asp
The first thing players do in a demo of LittleBigPlanet we played - the same predefined level that was used to debut the game back at GDC - is customise their character with quirky and bizarre as Halloween outfits or bits of snorkel gear. The customisation is one aspect that was emphasised here more than had been revealed at the game's previous showing.
The Media Molecule guys say not everything is what it seems in LBP
Customisation works using the same kind of user-friendly tools (with Square and d-pad) that we saw at GDC to design the levels themselves - and you can be as creative as you want. Why put a cardboard box on your character's head when you can go ahead and draw a silly face on the box as well?
You can move your character's arms and head around and also 'emote' him using the d-pad, which is amusing to look at. "We don't ever want this game to be a complicated, level building customisation game," Pete Smith, Senior Producer on LBP, told us. "It's really easy to use." And it's just as easy in-game as well, as four players co-operate through a level (whether designed by Media Molecule, themselves, or another user and uploaded through the network). Although players will inevitably get stuck at times, much to the frustration of the three better players (thankfully the build we played had a debugging option to warp lagging players ahead!), playing through is simple with the basic functions of jumping about and grabbing onto things (objects, fabrics, the other players) - something you can pick up in seconds, and the physics-based world you play around in feels natural and compelling.
The world itself is charming - and not always as it seems. Because there's this physical, tangible feeling to the world, Media Molecule has had fun experimenting with materials and textures, but the impact is not just visual: "One of the things we're trying to do is, although everything is made of materials, it's not made in the material you would expect - we've got trees with branches made of metal or cloth - and this is a recurring theme." And although the material texture work throughout the levels is detailed and realistic, they're not what you may be expecting when you leap onto it, which can lead to some interesting emergent play scenarios.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
It's a shame that only some dull placeholder music was in this build, because we loved the funky, inspirational track from GDC, so we hope there's plenty more where that came from chaps.
But be warned: while LittleBigPlanet is easy to pick up and play, pulling off the co-operative tricks like that skateboard finale with your team mates, as seen at GDC, is not always as easy as it looks - even for the game's senior producer! We can't help but wonder if their on-stage demo from a couple of months back might have been pre-recorded? Hey, it's cooler than being pre-rendered.
LittleBigPlanet has buckets of potential, though. Our demonstration and hands-on time barely scratched the surface of the delights that are going to be possible as players get to grips with level building, customisation, sharing their creations with the networked community, and seeing where things go next.
So, how far has the Home concept come along since the baldy-kept secret that was its announcement back at GDC? Well, the Beta trial is running internally, and, if our impressions of it and revelations made to us by Pete Edward from Sony's London Studio are anything to go by, there's a lot more to Home than initially thought - and when it launches, it will be just the beginning. Time for some housewarming...
"Ultimately, we can ban a PS3 from ever going online again - but that's a pretty hardcore punishment to make on somebody."
As we all know by now, every user who registers for Home will be given a 'standard apartment' to use as their own private space, the likes of which we've seen in screenshots, and is still remarkably beautiful by anyone's standards - but it's the 'upgraded' apartments people are really going to be wanting. Players can position all manner of funky and stylish furniture around and all the objects in the world run with real time physics, so you can experiment with how you plonk stuff around. Pete even hurled a huge plasma HDTV down the stairs to make his point - we loved that the clips that were playing on the TV continued throughout the ordeal!
We checked out how easy it is to decorate your new apartment with your own photos, by taking a picture on a camera phone and then taking the Memory Stick from the out and inserting it into PS3 - the framed photo was on the wall within seconds, which was pretty cool. "It doesn't take too much imagination to see how far you could go with this, if you're out on a Friday night with your friends and embarrassing antics ensue, it's going to be easy to remind them of what went on," Pete told us.
It got our warped minds thinking about something, too. We asked Pete about the controversial questions arising after Home's announcement back at GDC, concerning the use of, shall we say, artistically expressive photos to decorate your apartment and then even inviting unsuspecting guests into your place.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
"The first thing to be aware of is that, in order to get into somebody's apartment, you have to have been invited or you invited them to join your friends list, and accepted that invitation. You then have to invite them to come to your apartment and they have to accept that invitation. So you can't 'drag' people into your apartment as such. However, if you're in someone's apartment and you feel like you've been subjected to behaviour or material that you feel is unsuitable and that you feel they should be reprimanded for, you are able to make a complaint against that person. And depending on the severity of the 'crime' that person has committed, we do have the ability to take various steps in terms of banning people from the service. Ultimately, we can ban a PS3 from ever going online again - but that's a pretty hardcore punishment to make on somebody, but it's also a good disincentive to mess around too much."
"Having said that, we want to give people the feeling like they're in an area that is their own area, and that they've got a certain amount of liberty between consenting adults to just kind of have a bit of a laugh in their own private apartment. We don't want people to feel like they're being constantly monitored, or that all of their behaviour is going to be under the microscope. It's just finding that balance really.
We can stream and cache full HD content to the be PS3 hard drive to be replayed either in your apartment or in one of those private screening rooms - you can then turn that into a full screen display and invite people to see it with you - it's a pretty rich environment.
Elsewhere on the 'world map' of Home - essentially the user's method of navigating around - we find areas for specific game publishers, for specific games, and there will be specific genre areas too, according to Edward. Thirdparty publishers have the ability to produce their own 'presence' in Home as well.
"This is very much a first pass at this map. We're also going to be producing some very powerful search tools, so you'll not only be able to search through all your friends within this environment, but also so that you're able to search for the specific kinds of games or interest areas that you're into, that kind of thing."
"The idea of user-to-user auctions, is certainly something that we intend to put in."
But will users be able to earn money or buy and sell stuff, like they can in Second Life? "Ultimately, that is something that is on the cards. Not on day one, not for a while, but yes - the idea of user-to-user auctions, is certainly something that we intend to put in. And also that ties in very heavily with the idea of user-created content and tools, to create that content. And that's something that we're working very hard on in terms of being able to customise your character, design and ultimately build from scratch your own dream apartment, but also tools that will allow you to create and design smaller items that you could potentially market as well. There's also going to be the option for users to use their own scripting, for the particularly technical users to allow Java mini-games and stuff like that, to be created in your home space and maybe build up your bank of Java mini-games for example."
"What's interesting is that Home is the only service where you can just walk up to somebody, and get into a conversation with them. Any other online console service requires you to have played a game against somebody, before you can have any kind of chat with them or get them onto your friends list for example, so you can approach anyone and chat with them, find out if you have anything in common - and you can get on each other's friends list, without having played MotorStorm with them previously, which is quite a big step in turning this from just a game networking service, into a social networking service."
A lot of thought has gone into communication within Home - there's a predefined dictionary of phrases, greetings and contextual replies for ease of use, and because the meanings of such predefined dialogue is known by the system, this sort of conversation can automatically be translated into the many different languages supported by the system - so basically, you can finally chat up cute Japanese girls within in your apartment without learning any effort whatsoever! Of course, users can use the full on-screen keyboard - or plug in a virtual USB keyboard - to say their own stuff, in addition to the 'quick chat' options.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
Sounds interesting, but will Sony ever open up access outside of the PS3, perhaps on the PC? "The intention is that we will allow connectivity with Home from, for instance, mobile devices, like mobile phone or your PSP. Potentially, there could be the ability to connect with the Home service via other platforms as well."
"As time goes on, the content and the feature set is going to get more sophisticated - that's the beauty of a product that doesn't come on a disc."
And how far can you go in getting the real dream apartment? "At the moment it's just a case of you can upgrade from one kind of apartment to another kind of apartment - at the moment are three. But we're working on tools that will enable you to design and then build your own apartment from kind of building blocks, if you like. Home is an evolving service; right now some of the functionality is relatively limited, and it's a case of choosing from pre-configured options to make things easy for the user. As time goes on, and as the user created content side of things, as the developer and publisher side of things develops as well, the content and the feature set is going to get more and more sophisticated. What the user, and publishers, are able to do within the environment, will become much more sophisticated as time goes on - and that's the beauty of a product that doesn't come on a single disc release."
Another title to get its first proper showing at SCEE's recent event was the quirky Snakeball. It may be one of the lower-profile of the Sony's upcoming PSN titles, but it looks like this 'Nokia Snake'-inspired action game could well be a surprise hit.
Duncan Macintosh, designer and 3D artist from Snakeball creators Gamoola, and Tinka Town, creative director and producer and co-owner from friendly Norway-based development outfit Ravn Studio, which was hired to undertake development work for Snakeball on PS3, were both on hand to tell us all about their PSN title.
"We call it sports arcade as a genre," says Duncan. "You control a hoversnake all over this ambient disco floor, collecting these coloured balls that make you longer and longer."
Players can choose from a variety of Snakeball riders - and if you want something more personal, you can map your own face onto a rider with the new PlayStation Eye camera.
P L E A S E V I S I T O U R S P O N S O R :
Duncan told us: "We're really happy with the game mechanics we've built into Snakeball and the rewarding feeling players will get - it's really a whole lot more than just the basic Snake that people have played on their mobile phones. What differs us is we have a 'goal' in the arena; you have to deposit the length of the snake you've built up in the goal, but it might be strategically smarter to get as long as possible first - say 20 balls - because it is a lot easier to die the longer you hold out."
A variety of game modes are on offer: feed the snake to make it grow as long as possible in one-player mode; take on the fiendish defences of each arena in Challenge Mode; or battle up to eight other Snakeballers from around the world in Online Mode.
"We wanted to make a simpler game, the sort of game we knew we would like to play, but really polished up for the PlayStation Network on PS3 - you don't need huge resources for a good concept."
The collaboration between Sony, Gamoola and Ravn Studio has been great, Tinka explained. "You can really be creative in a smaller team... we think Snakeball is a lot of fun."
Based on our time with the game it seems pretty obvious that Snakeball is really simple pick-up-and-play fun, and could have a dangerously addictive, highly competitive edge to it just like its mobile phone heritage. Snakeball will show up in the PlayStation Store this summer.