2 OLD 4 GAMING DELUXE EDITION
PlayStation Vita:Year One The unofficial story of the PlayStation Vita’s launch and first year
Sandeep Rai 001
002
Playstation Vita: Year One
The Story 006 Before Vita 008 The NGP 010 Building the Hype 012 The First Cracks 016 Failure to Launch 020 Go West 024 Year One
005
1
n the 1980s nobody expected Sony to become a major player in the video game industry. The video game crash in the early 1980s destroyed most of the US video game companies but the industry was reinvigorated by Nintendo. By the end of the decade, Nintendo dominated the home console market with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the portable games market with the Gameboy. Sony was arguably the biggest consumer electronics brand in the world, famous for the Walkman and their range of TV sets. Sony attempted to partner with Nintendo to release a CD-based system compatible with Super Nintendo games, but Nintendo snubbed and embarrassed Sony publicly by partnering instead with Philips. This was the start
I
In the 1980s nobody expected Sony to become a major player in the video game industry 006
1980s–2010
Before Vita
of Sony’s drive to challenge Nintendo’s domination of the video game market with the release of the PlayStation in 1994. The Game Boy and Game Boy Advance were two of the most successful video game machines ever released, selling 119 million units and 81 million units respectively. But Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in 2003 sent a shockwave in the industry. The PlayStation had significantly outsold the Nintendo 64 (N64) with its reputation for being a device for mature gamers. Nintendo was already seen as more difficult for third-party developers and publishers to work with, so Sony’s friendly approach to working with developers led to more third-party games on their system. Where the N64 cartridge-based system was restrictive in terms of capacity and ability, the PlayStation allowed games of better graphics, sound and complexity to run and with cheaper disc manufacturing costs. Continuing into the PlayStation 2 generation, Sony had already secured brand loyalty and continued to maintain good relationships with developers and publishers that meant many big name games were exclusive to the PlayStation 2, despite the console being less powerful
Playstation Vita: Year One
Some of Sony’s pre-Vita machines, from top to bottom: the PlayStation 1; the PlayStation Portable; and the PSP Go
Before Vita
than Nintendo’s GameCube. The PSP was an extension of the design and mantra that led to the PlayStation 2’s (PS2) success. More powerful than the Game Boy Advance, with mature games and with the ability to play music, watch movies and surf the internet. Nintendo was caught off guard by the announcement. Their own (seemingly knee-jerk reaction) announcement of the Nintendo DS in November 2003 could not assuage the rumours that Nintendo would no longer rule handheld gaming. In 2004, the PSP was revealed. The sleek, black system with a large, colourful screen made Nintendo’s plastic grey DS look even more childish. Where Nintendo showcased mini-games to justify the existence of the touch screen on the DS, Sony showed games from popular PlayStation franchises like Metal Gear and Wipeout. Although the PSP was announced earlier, Nintendo launched the DS in Japan and North America in 2004, whereas the PSP only launched in Japan in December 2004 and 2005 in North America and Europe. Both systems sold well at launch but despite the positive buzz surrounding the PSP, the DS exceeded the first week sales of the PSP. It was the first indication that the Nintendo DS might not be as doomed as first expected. The PSP went on to sell over 80 million units, making it one of the bestselling video game systems of all time. The DS sold considerably more with over 150 million units, but the sales of the PSP were enough for Sony to justify launching another handheld – the PlayStation Vita.
007
2
JANUARY 2011
The NGP
ollowing months of rumours and speculation, Sony announced the successor to the PSP. The system, codenamed the Next Generation Portable (NGP), was revealed at an event in Tokyo in January 2011. It featured a 5 inch organic light emitting display (OLED), multi-touch front screen, back touch pad, motion sensors, front and back cameras and, most importantly from a gaming perspective, dual analog sticks. The NGP would use small game cartridges, dropping support for the PSP’s universal media disc (UMD) format. Sony showed off its biggest franchises like Uncharted, Killzone, Wipeout, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance running
on the device and third-parties showed off tech demos of popular games like Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid 4. NGP games would even support trophies – a fan favourite feature on the PlayStation 3 where players earn virtual trophies for achieving objectives in games. The reception was positive. The PSP had very few games being released towards the end of its life so a new Sony
008
Playstation Vita: Year One
F
The announcement proudly showed off the NGP‘s sleek design, and the range of games shown gave a hint of the machine‘s power
handheld that could play first-person shooters with 2 analog sticks, replicating the console experience, was exciting. Media outlets praised not only the stylish and comfortable design, but also the tech inside the system. The low power, high performance ARM Cortex A9 processor meant that the NGP was significantly more powerful than current smartphones and tablets but used similar architecture allowing ease of development. With the variety of control inputs, it seemed like Sony were appealing to both the core gaming audience and those that play touch screen games on mobile devices. The NGP was designed to compete with both the 3DS and smartphones. There was apprehension on whether it could truly compete with mobile devices but it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the NGP would outperform the 3DS. The dual analog sticks were a particularly important addition. The Call of Duty series was the best selling gaming franchise at the time with millions of copies sold of each game released since Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare. The promise of a Call of Duty game being playable on a handheld with dual analog sticks was exciting for gamers and the wider industry. This feature had been requested since the PSP had been revealed and PSP fans were excited that Sony was finally launching a device that could deliver the console gaming experience on-the-go that had been promised of the PSP. Nintendo had officially announced the 3DS just six months earlier. The glasses-free 3D system with two screens also had a generally positive reception at its reveal. However, the announcement of the NGP just a month before the 3DS launch took the wind out of Nintendo’s sails. Suddenly the 3DS looked more like a device for children, except parents were told that children under 6 years of age could damage their eyes by playing games in 3D. Coupled with a launch library lacking Nintendo’s biggest franchises, resulted in the 3DS launch sales underperforming globally compared to its predecessor, the DS. The stage seemed to be set for Nintendo to lose its crown as the king of handheld gaming.
The stage seemed to be set for Nintendo to lose its crown as the king of handheld gaming
The NGP
009
Interviews 034 Honeyslug 046 Grapefrukt 050 Queasy Games 054 Fun Bits Interactive 070 Limited Run Games 074 Tarsier Studios 088 Sony Studio Liverpool 100 Evolution Studios
Showcase
033
INTERVIEW
074
Dave Mervik, Henrik Larsson, Asger Kristiansen, Sebastian Bastian Claesson, Matthew Compher & Jonas Steinick Berlin Tarsier Studios
Playstation Vita: Year One
Developing the next entry in a popular gaming series can be daunting but Swedish developers, Tarsier Studios, rose to the challenge and created one of the best games to be released on the Vita - LittleBigPlanet PS Vita. Six members of their team agreed to share some of their memories and experiences from developing the game. What was more exciting at the time: developing a game in the series of one of Sony’s biggest franchises or developing a game for Sony’s brand new handheld? DAVE ‘MERV’ MERVIK, WRITER How can you possibly rank those two things?! If I had to pick, then I think it’d have to be working on LBP. I’d fallen head over heels for the game from the start but had no idea that Tarsier was working on the latest instalment, since it was all still very much under wraps. When I came over to meet everyone and sign my contract, there was such a weird atmosphere in the room and I didn’t know why! Obviously it all became clear afterwards, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I’d been to find a company that I already admired, working on a game I adored. The voice in my head started straight away ‘Ok, you’ve had all your good luck for the year, something really bad has to happen now!’ HENRIK ‘HENKE’ LARSSON, ART LEAD At the time I was most excited to do something with the PS Vita. We had already worked with the LBP franchise together with Media Molecule for a couple of years. ASGER KRISTIANSEN, LEVEL DESIGN For me is was mostly getting a chance to work on a game in a series of which I was such a huge fan. That said, getting an early hands on, as well as trying to figure out the Vita specific design challenges, was also a lot of fun. SEBASTIAN BASTIAN ‘SEBBO’ CLAESSON, 3D ART Most exciting for me was that this time we were the main creators, the motherbrains! We could freak out a lot more and let our own style fuse together with the Sackboy universe.
We were the motherbrains, and could freak out a lot more and let our own style fuse together with the Sackboy universe
Tarsier Studios
075
MATTHEW ‘MATT’ COMPHER, LEVEL DESIGN For me personally, it was the opportunity to work on the LittleBigPlanet franchise. I actually came from the LittleBigPlanet community, spending my nights and weekends creating levels and games in the provided in-game editor. I was initially given a short-term contract to develop LittleBigPlanet PS Vita as a level designer, given my experience with the game to that point. It was a metaphorical foot in the door for working in the games industry. Thanks, LittleBigPlanet!
From my other interviews, it seems like Sony were iterating frequently on the design of the Vita. What challenges did this bring to developing the game? HENKE Being flexible and running with new iterations is something that becomes second nature in games development. While it’s a bit more challenging, it’s usually not a big deal as long as you have enough time left in the project to handle some re-planning. MATT This definitely posed a challenge, as we weren’t really sure what the PS Vita was capable of at the time, nor what sorts of gameplay would be proven fun. It was largely throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. As the functionality of the PS Vita was finalised, things started to come together, and we eventually arrived at what you see in the shipped title. Implementing rear-touch puzzles and gameplay, I recall being particularly challenging because there’s an inherent lack of accuracy.
We weren’t sure what the Vita was capable of, nor what would be fun – it was largely throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks Does the team remember the first time they saw or held the final Vita model? What were the reactions and thoughts? HENKE The first time I saw the Vita was when it was still in it’s prototype form, which means it was a pile of circuit boards and cables lying on someone’s desk. While you could pick it up, you would never have called that pile a ‘handheld’ device. It was really cool at that time to
076
Playstation Vita: Year One
think how it made the current generation of handheld hardware look way weaker. MATT I think the first time I actually held the final model was when I bought my own! The development models we used are slightly different from the retail model, although functionally the same. ASGER I thought it looked really slick and felt surprisingly well constructed. Considering the somewhat dodgy development Vitas we used to make the game, the actual shipping model of the system felt like proper high-end piece of tech.
It looked really slick and surprisingly well constructed considering our somewhat dodgy development Vitas What was the inspiration for the story of LBP Vita? MERV The initial idea came from a very simple place. I saw a poster for a circus on my morning ride to work and the idea stuck. I actually hate circuses, but the old-style carnival mythology is so cool. It felt like a really nice wrapping for an LBP story, because it lets you keep it as irreverent as ever, but also bringing a bit more ‘weird’ to the mix too, and, of course, as much darkness as we could get away with! The characters that Sackboy meets and the worlds were so unique and out there. What was the inspiration for the design of the characters, levels and worlds? MATT I can’t speak to the specifics, but our concept artists, creative director, and narrative director did some amazing work coming up with these characters. Our narrative director actually voiced one of the characters! JONAS STEINICK BERLIN, CONCEPT ART We took inspiration from vintage toys, old puppets and marionettes, old stop motion animation, special effects in old b-movies, animatronics, early 20th century circus and freak shows, Skrotnisse, Ghibli movies, taxidermy animals, 80s horror and sci-fi movies.
Tarsier Studios
077
What are your proudest memories of the development or launch of the game? MERV For me it was the VO (voice over) recording sessions, where I helped direct the voice actors, including Stephen Fry himself! We were so lucky to get such good voice actors and it was an honour to be involved with their performance of my first proper script. When it came to the Stephen Fry sessions, I was nervous as all hell, but it turns out Stephen Fry is already highly experienced at being Stephen Fry, so luckily he needed very little direction from me. He did, however, give me a grammar lesson at one point, where he corrected a sentence that contained a split infinitive. So it was day filled with both pride and shame! The other cool thing is that the one thing I made as a level designer made it into the final game. I actually joined Tarsier as a Level Designer and did that for the first 7 months before moving over to being the story person. In that 7 months, I made a ‘hall of mirrors’ motif that the others really enjoyed, and so put it into the main game. They grew to hate this motif, however, as it caused so many irritating bugs but by this point they couldn’t bring themselves to kill my darling. ASGER That we managed to make such a high quality game, seeing how rocky some of the development was. HENKE I think being allowed to carry the ‘Community Torch’ that is the LBP Community forward was an honour. Even something like doing an internal game-jam with community developers was amazing. Having them come over and show them the new game we were making and letting them get their hands on early builds was really exciting. It’s a unique experience that can only happen when you’re working on a loved franchise with fans all over the world. SEBBO When I first played the final game. During the production I was mainly stuck in my creative bubble and never had any playthroughs (since I worked on the costumes). But when I first tested the game I was surprised at how good it was, then I felt very proud over our team and what we had put together. MATT For me personally it was when we secretly made a replacement level for a level we didn’t like. I can’t even remember what the original level was, but it was in the Coaster Valley theme of the game. For some reason, it didn’t feel up to our quality standards, but we had no more time to try something else. A few of the LBP-community designers started messing about after-hours on a crazy idea for a vehicle level, and we put together a little showcase. The leads liked the concept, so we quickly created a full level – and that’s how the 3-wheeled, wallriding tricycle level was born!
078
Playstation Vita: Year One
When our next publisher delivery came along, we pulled a switcheroo and replaced the old level with the new, and everyone was pleasantly surprised. I’m particularly proud of this, as it turned out to be a fan-favorite, and one of our most ambitious levels in the game. By the time LBP launched, the Vita was already getting negative press from many gaming sites. Was there any concern at the time about the impact this would have on LBP? MATT Oh sure, but the only thing we could do was try to make the best game possible. I think we all believed we had something special, so we tended to be more hopeful than concerned. MERV All we can ever do is make the best game possible and hope that the players find their way to it. If you start fretting over hardware and what people may or may not think about it, you’re then going to risk basing creative decisions on business factors, which may be financially sensible, but doesn’t make for the most exciting choices. For us, the hardware was really impressive and gave us all sorts of new avenues to explore, which is exactly how we felt when it came to making Statik for the PSVR. I prefer to think about all the cool things we can do, rather than worry about audience share and money. I guess that’s why I’m a writer and not a successful business person!
It was such a big undertaking, we were still a relatively unproven studio and we had to deliver a full game HENKE I
don’t recall any worries about this at the time. Around this time we were really getting the hang of working with the Vita and were very confident in what could be made with it. SEBBO Of course it was sad to see that the game almost disappeared between the cushions (as we say here in Sweden!), but it’s still fun that the ones who discovered the game seem to like it. That is always the most important thing in the end (for me anyway, maybe not for the publishers!).
Tarsier Studios
079
Concept art from the production of Tarsier Studios’ LittleBigPlanet PS Vita
080
Playstation Vita: Year One
Tarsier Studios
081
6 years on and LittleBigPlanet Vita is still one of the highest rated games on the Vita. How does that make you guys feel? How did it make you feel at the time? ASGER Proud and very proud. MERV That people actually liked it was really quite something. I mean, we’re not talking about some unknown game with no personality and zero fanbase, this is LBP! It was such a big undertaking for us and, despite having worked on LBP assets and such in the past, we were still a relatively unproven studio and we had to deliver a full game. Luckily it was such a crazy, complicated development process, there was very little time to sit back and reflect on things like that. Only when it came close to release day did we start hyperventilating about what reviewers and the LBP community would think of it. Getting such a positive response was just unbelievable. HENKE I think that’s an achievement and milestone we need to remember and be proud of. Especially considering it was the fourth game in a series released within a few years time, and how well the Create mode was received by fans considering it being a portable platform is really amazing. SEBBO I am still very proud and have the game framed on my wall at home.
At the time, we were mostly just happy to have the title shipped – it was hard to contextualise how well we’d actually done MATT Obviously it makes us feel validated that our efforts were worth it. At the time, we were mostly just happy to have the title shipped and out-the-door. For many of us, it was the first title we’d worked on, so it was hard to contextualise how well we’d actually done. I like to believe that the game’s success opened the door for future projects. Sadly, we didn’t work on any other PS Vita titles, but it’s nice knowing we left out own little mark on the platform!
082
Playstation Vita: Year One
At what point in its development did you realise that you were creating a game that would be this special and memorable? MERV I’m not sure you ever really do realise something like that, because you live in a weird bubble for so long and it becomes hard to look at something from the outside. Only when it comes out and people play it do you get any sense of how you’ve done. Still, there were times during development where we got a little encouragement that we weren’t veering completely off course. Like when we had a whole bunch of players from the LBP community come over for a weekendlong game jam in the studio. I’m not sure any of them slept, and the whole building smelled like warm meat, Red Bull and Cheez Doodles on Monday morning! The stuff they had created though was just amazing, and they had some great feedback for us too, so that was a huge injection of energy for the whole team at just the right time.
I’m certain there’s still creators churning out levels – I know first-hand how talented some of the hobby-creators can be ASGER When
the cutscenes and voice acting started approaching their final state. This is when the overall experience really started to coalesce, and the fact that we were actually making a ‘real’ product became clear. MATT Heh, I don’t think that point ever actually happened! It’s so hard to know how well a game will be received when we’ve worked on it for years; the best thing to do is just try to make the best game in that moment, and hope that players appreciated it. Add to that the fact that we were iterating things pretty late in development, it was pretty stressful (and exciting)! I think that moment of realisation came after development was finished. The game had a great reception from the LBP creator community. Do you know how many levels have been created by fans and does the team have any particular favourite fan created levels? MERV I’ve no idea where the level count has got up to, but there is one
Tarsier Studios
083
level that has always stuck in my mind. It’s called 2D/3D by a creator known as SlurmMacKenzie, and I was just bowled over by that level. It’s one of those ideas that you wish you’d thought of first, but in the absence of that, I was at least lucky enough to play it. ASGER I don’t know what the tally is at at this point, but I expected people to be impressed by the Creation Tools. They were highly influenced by having a good handful of community creators as part of the development team.
Maybe we could do a special edition like they did with the original Star Wars – that went really well! MATT Oh man, it’s been a long time since I’ve looked up community levels, but I’m certain there’s still many dedicated creators still churning out levels to this day. I used to be a community creator, so I know first-hand how talented some of the hobby-creators out there can be. Unfortunately, after 5 years of being a community creator and several years working on LBP PS Vita, DLC for LBP2, and finally LBP3, I burned myself out on the LittleBigPlanet franchise. While not actively involved anymore, LittleBigPlanet will always hold a special place in my heart. I’m confident that LBP PS Vita ignited the passion for making games and levels in fans out there, and maybe they’ll follow that passion into the games industry. Hopefully.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently with the game? MERV Yeah, this was my first proper game writing job and so there are all sorts of things I’d do differently now. For one, I’d try to make the script shorter and funnier. I’m still proud of what I tried to do with it, but it’s just so overwritten in places and it still makes me cringe when I hear it. After LBP Vita came out, we did the DC Comics pack for LBP2 and I had the chance to rectify some of those mistakes and ease the pain a little, but I’m not sure it’ll ever be enough. Maybe we could do a Special Edition like they did with the original Star Wars – that went really well!
084
Playstation Vita: Year One
ASGER I
would have loved if the system could have supported Online Create. This was one of my favourite aspects of LBP on the PS3, and I was really sad, when the programmers told us it wouldn’t happen on Vita. SEBBO As an artist you always look back at old games with love, but also a lot of thoughts about what could be done better! HENKE I don’t think it was possible to do it, but it would have been a dream to make all existing LBP content retroactively playable on the Vita as well. Imagine the millions of levels from LBP and LBP2 playable at launch. Not many games launch with millions of user-made levels. MATT As is the case with any game, I wish we had more time. There’s always something that could’ve been done better, or things that could have been more polished. We had high expectations for what we wanted to create with LBP PS Vita, and while we weren’t able to hit everything, I strongly believe the quality of the final title reflects those high standards. I will say that during development things get cut. It’s a sad reality of game development. We had a lot of cool ideas that, for one reason or another, got left behind. The result is a more cohesive, polished game overall, but coming from being a community creator, it was a difficult adjustment to make. If we tried to squeeze everything in, there wouldn’t have been time to really make the best of the best content shine. Were any sacrifices made in developing the game for Vita? HENKE In game development there’s always sacrifices, that’s the nature of iterative development. Some things have to be down-prioritised when you figure new things out and learn from the development process. I remember a really cool theme that we had to remove from the game very late in development for technical reasons, that was really sad. MATT I don’t know if I’d call them sacrifices, but coming from making content for LittleBigPlanet 2 (on the PS3), we had to take a different approach at times. It has a smaller screen. There was now touch functionality. While still powerful, the PS Vita wasn’t quite as powerful as a PS3. The code gurus at Double Eleven did a fantastic job porting the LittleBigPlanet engine to the PS Vita, but there’s no denying the game was originally meant to run on a different console. It was just a matter of condensing things down to what was most important. We had to break some habits, and be clever at times in how we achieve an idea. Thankfully, we had a lot of support for improving some of the creation tools. In the end, despite being on a handheld
Tarsier Studios
085
device, I actually preferred working in the LBP PS Vita editor over the LBP2 editor. There were so many new features added to the Vita version, for example the memoriser, touch controls, mini-games and taking pictures of items in the real world to use in the game. What features were you most proud of and why? ASGER I think some of the editor touch shortcuts were part of my favourite additions. Most of them were pretty minor and simple, but they helped making creating very speedy and intuitive.
LBP gave us loads of confidence and when went independent, we had a better sense of what we were capable of HENKE Frankly
the simplest one – the camera features. Being able to take a photo of something, and seconds later have that thing appear in your own game or level unleashes such potential with the community. It’s not necessarily used to create the coolest gameplay or the most advanced game logic, but it lets you personalize something like you never could before. Anyone could get started with taking a photo and removing the background to get your own creation in the game looking awesome. MATT I’d say the memorizer was a game-changer. For me anyways. I remember way back in LittleBigPlanet 2 trying to abuse the score system to try and save a measly 8 bits of data between levels. It was hacky, and ugly, and not fun to work with. Then I find out we’re creating a little tool to store data, and I was ecstatic! While it was originally intended for use across different levels, we found we were using it within a single level to just make life easier. It’s not the flashiest, or most exciting, feature for players, but as a content creator if was a really nice addition to the tool bag. What was the impact of developing LBP Vita on Tarsier Studios? MERV At its simplest, it showed that we could complete an entire
086
Playstation Vita: Year One
development cycle and, more importantly, that the end result would feel pretty good. That gave us loads of confidence going forward and, ultimately, when we decided to go independent, we had a better sense of what we were capable of. LBP PS Vita turns 6 this year, what would you like the game to be remembered for and what would you want people to say when they talk about the game today? ASGER I once saw someone in a review say “LBP PS Vita is The Empire Strikes Back of the LittleBigPlanet series”. Remembering it this way, I think is very flattering. MATT I get a little giddy any time I see someone mention it as their favourite LittleBigPlanet game. I think players were pleasantly surprised at how Tarsier Studios was able to put their own spin on LittleBigPlanet while retaining the core character of the franchise. It was definitely different from past games, but at the same time relatable. If there’s one thing I want the game to be remembered for, it’s as a standalone game. Some are quick to call it a port, and while the engine itself was ported, it was an entirely original game in an existing franchise. We put our own little Tarsier spin on things, and I think players appreciated that. We were a relatively young studio, with lots of new people, and what we wanted most was to make games with our unique Tarsier identity. Sony gave us a great opportunity, and I believe it opened the door for us to work on the original games that would follow. MERV I hope people would see that we gave LBP PS Vita our best shot, and didn’t just churn something out to tick a box. That game means so much to so many people, not least all of us here, and I hope that it still comes through in the finished product, so that all those wildly committed creators out there feel as though we’ve shown LBP the love and respect it truly deserves.
Tarsier Studios
087
108
Playstation Vita: Year One
Library 110 Gravity Rush 114 MotorStorm RC 118 Escape Plan 122 FIFA Football 124 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified 128 Sound Shapes 132 LittleBigPlanet PS Vita 136 Need for Speed: Most Wanted 140 Persona 4 Golden 144 WipEout 2048 150 Unit 13 154 Virtua Tennis 4 158 Super Stardust Delta 160 Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack 162 Uncharted: Golden Abyss 166 Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward 170 Resistance: Burning Skies 172 Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation 174 Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale 176 Release list 180 Inventory 182 Timeline 109
Released August 2012 Developer Queasy Games Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment
SOUND SHAPES WAS ONE OF THE most unique games to launch in the Vita’s first year – aminimalist, musical platformer where the music was created by objects in the environment and you, the player. The objective of each level was simple: control a sticky ball, move through single screen areas and get to the end of the level avoiding obstacles while navigating some tricky platforms. Everything in the game had its own sound, from the crackling of ice falling apart beneath you to missiles flying across the screen. In addition to the environment, collectable coins added to the sound of the levels. The coins were dispersed on the screen like notes on a music sheet, creating recurring beats and notes as they were collected to form the soundtrack of the level. Even movement and jumps needed to follow the timing and beat of the level to evade the deadly obstructions, meaning players were not just listening to music, they were part of the music creation and evolution.
128
Playstation Vita: Year One
RETROSPECTIVE
Sound Shapes
Sound Shapes was one of the most unique games to launch in the Vita’s first year Sound Shapes started as a collaboration between video game developer, Jonathan Mak, and musician Shaw-Han Liem. Mak had previously developed the game Everyday Shooter for the PlayStation 3 and Playstation Portable. Together, they experimented with the idea of fusing music with art andmade a series of prototype games until they landed on the musical platformer Sound Shapes. Mak and Liem originally pitched the game to Sony for the PS3, but Sony suggested it should be made for their upcoming handheld. Sound Shapes was revealed to the public at E3 2011 where it wowed fans and the media with its beautiful and varied visuals and creative blend of music and platforming gameplay – it was originally planned to be a launch game for the Vita but was pushed back with no explanation and at E3 2012, Sony finallyrevealed that Sound Shapes would be launching for both the Vita and PS3 in August 2012. The core game contained 20 levels split into 5 albums – each album had its own graphical theme and sound that resulted from a collaboration between artists and musicians. The musical loops were written by famous musicians such
Sound Shapes
as Beck, deadmau5, Jim Guthrie and I am Robot and Proud while famous artists such as Superbrothers, PixelJam and Pyramid Attack created the stages and objects within them. Each album stood out for its unique sound and style - for example ‘Hello World’ had you travel through a calm and beautiful world of nature, climbing and jumping on trees and flowers; ‘Corporeal’ was themed around escaping a grey and brown office; ‘D-cade’ was a homage to old school arcade games with upbeat electronic loops, and ‘Cities’ was memorable for Beck’s recognisable vocals and its dance beat set to a war-torn city with missiles exploding and fire everywhere. Playing through each album was such a different experience not just due to the graphics and music –some levels emphasised puzzle solving, some revolved around tricky platforming and some focused on the perfect timing of jumps and movement. Those 20 levels were a perfect balance between artistic visuals, arresting music and challenging (at times) platforming. A common thread between all the levels was that red was bad. Touching anything red resulted in an instant death (fortunately, very little progress
129
would be lost between each death as checkpoints were littered throughout each level). One of the few criticisms of the game was that it could be finished in several hours and that each level could be beaten in just a few minutes. Some levels were tougher than others, but it was not an especially difficult game. Online leaderboards were also present – competing with friends and players around the world for the fastest level completion time gave players an incentive to replay levels. The core single player game was only part of the Sound Shapes package. Once those 20 levels had been completed, two new modes were unlocked – Beat School challenged players to listen to different combinations of beats and recreate them by placing notes on the correct spot on the screen, while Death Mode was made up of 20 single screen levels based on environments from the main game – players had to collect the specified number of coins in fast-paced levels, full of deadly obstacles and within a demanding time limit. Death Mode provided the difficulty that was missing from the main game. Completing all 20 levels was a gruelling experience full of frustration but also provided a strong
The Edit Mode meant there was potentially endless content available
130
sense of achievement. The core game may have felt too short but there was potentially endless content available from the Edit Mode. Players could create platforming levels with their own beats and musical loops and using objects unlocked in the core game –stages could be uploaded and shared with players around the world. Thousands of levels were created andit didn’t matter whether they were created on the Playstation 3 or Vita, all levels were available for players of both platforms. Impressively, levels were still being uploaded 6 years after the game’s release. There were some excellent user created levels, although discovering them wasn’t easy, especially in the first few months after release when so many levels were being created and uploaded at the same time. In March 2013, the game received an update that included curated albums called Milkcrates. The Milkcrates were made up of a selection of user created levels that were particularly impressive or followed a common theme – each Milkcrate also had a director’s commentary explaining why the levels were chosen. 22 Milkcrates were created, including curation from the game’s developer, Queasy Games, Shuhei Yoshida (President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment) and websites such asGamestop and The Verge. That same update in March 2013 also brought another hugely requested feature – downloadable user created levels (prior to the update, user created levels could only be played while online). Thousands of levels were now available to download and play on-the-go.
Playstation Vita: Year One
There was a huge amount of downloadable content added to the game following its release. Most were new musical instruments and sounds to use as part of creating levels; however a new album was released in 2013 called the Car Mini-Album. This album had three levels where you drive a car as it flips and jumps around fast-paced platforming levels to heavy metal musical loops. Sound Shapes was ported to the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and was available for the system’s launch in November 2013 – itwas a cross-buy game allowing purchasers of the Vita or PS3 version to automatically have the game available to play on the PS4. in September 2015, it joined Playstation Plus’ Instant Game Collection meaning Plus subscribers on all three systems could download the game for free. Sound Shapes received very positive
Sound Shapes
reviews, obtaining 84% on Metacritic, making it the 7th highest reviewed Vita game from 2012. It was praised for its beautiful art, straightforward gameplay, inventive levels, the intuitive creator mode and of course the music. Sound Shapes won the 2012 Game Critics Awards for best mobile/handheld game, and was declared 2012 E3 Game of Show by 1up.com. It also won Best Song and Best Mobile game at the Spike Video Game Awards.The most common criticism was around the short length of the single player campaign. It’s not possible to know how many copies were sold, but Sony made sure it was a compelling purchase with its cheap price point, cross-buy (allowing purchasers to own both versions after buying one), cross-save (allowing player progress to be shared between systems) and having user created content available to players on all three systems. During an interview with Gamespot, JonathanMak talked about why he felt the game worked so well on the Vita: “As we started working with it (the Vita) we realised it was the perfect fit. If you think about Sound Shapes the way you play it and edit, there’s these two sides to it. The Vita is the same thing. It’s got these controls and the touch screen. It’s got these two sides. The new school and the old school. That really fit with our game. One control scheme for each area. If you’re making a musical instrument you really want it to be as tactile as possible and the touch screen is really good for that, but if you’re making a traditional video game, like a platformer, playing with a touch screen is just not the same.”
131
53 physical and 31 digital games were released for the Vita in 2012 in Europe and North America, including brand new titles, like Unit 13 and Sound Shapes, as well as ports of popular games such as Jet Set Radio and the Metal Gear Solid series LIBRARY
Physical releases
Hot Shots Golf World Invitational
ModNation Racers: Road Trip
BlazBlue: Continuum Ben 10: Galactic Shift EXTEND Racing
FIFA Soccer
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Dungeon Hunter: Alliance
Asphalt: Injection
Rayman Origins
Michael Jackson The Experience HD
F1 2011
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
Wipeout 2048
Little Deviants
176
Playstation Vita: Year One
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Touch My Katamari
Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Army Corps of Hell
Dynasty Warriors NEXT
Unit 13
MLB 12: The Show
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Ridge Racer
Reality Fighters
Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted
Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention
Mortal Kombat
Resistance: Burning Skies
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Gravity Rush
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Madden NFL 13
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita
Library
177
INVENTORY
Vita island There were seven variant models of the Vita 1000 produced before it was discontinued in 2013 1 Black 2 Hatsune Miku White Limited Edition 3 Cosmic Red 4 Sapphire Blue 5 Crystal White 6 Toukiden Onigara Limited Edition 7 Soul Sacrifice Limited Edition
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
180
Playstation Vita: Year One
Coming soon
PlayStation Vita: Year Two
187
The PlayStation Vita was labelled a failure within weeks of its launch, and there were many reasons for this. Even before it was released, the gaming media’s expectation was doom and gloom for Sony’s second handheld system. The predictions turned out to be correct, but there wasn’t just one reason for the Vita failing to set the gaming world on fire. In this book, you will learn the story of the system’s launch and first year, told from a historical perspective. Also inside are in-depth retrospectives of some of the games that had the biggest impact – positive and negative – as well as interviews with developers offering fascinating insight into making games for the Vita. 188
Playstation Vita: Year One