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Heavy Rain Gameplay Explained
David Cage, writer and director of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain, has released a lengthy video of an entire level from the game, along with detailed commentary about how the game works. He demonstrates how to operate the UI, showing how contextual menus let you control actions, dialog, and even your character's thoughts, while also showcasing how the game's investigatory system works and even a few fighting-related quick-time events. 1Up recently spoke with Cage about his time in the games industry, including his previous work on Indigo Prophecy. They also did a Heavy Rain preview of their own, and spoke briefly about post-launch plans. The game is due out next year for the PS3.
Would someone please enlighten me - what is the rationale behind making platform-exclusive games? Isn't it logical to think that they'd make more money did they release the game for multiple platforms? Or do they just expect that everyone has every console out there plus a PC?
I agree, the graphics are amazing. They did raise a question for me, though.
Should games-graphics attempt to simulate reality, or cinematography? Most seriously graphics-heavy developers seem to have a slightly schizophrenic approach to graphical effects - most especially lighting effects - in that they appear to be striving for reality while simulating cinematography.
A lot of lighting effects seem to be inspired by films - lens-flare, for example - which is great for dazzling entertainment, but drops a layer of abstraction into the immersive simulation by reminding you that you're not there. There's an interesting fuzziness around bright reflections & light-sources in the screenshots here which, while impressive and pretty, look more like something from the silver-screen than the real world. It serves to remind you that it isn't real, which seems at odds with the extraordinary lengths they've gone to in attempting to accurately reproduce realistic environments and facial-modelling.
Again, I think it's gorgeous, but I'll reiterate my question: given the continuous advances in games graphics, what should developers be aiming for? Reality, or cinematography?
Meta will eat itself
Working with Company X on an exclusive title will net you buddy-buddy status. This will open up an entire level of programming & financial support you have no hope of seeing while working on a cross-plat. Additionally, the lessons learned from this support (read: training seminar) can further be carried into other projects that will eventually become cross-platform. Your devs are all the better for it.
Isn't it logical to think that they'd make more money did they release the game for multiple platforms?
Yes it does, but what you could ask yourself is: is that profit bigger than the cost of developing for multiple platforms.
And in this case, you know they thought "No, it isn't".
And you can safely consider they know their job at least a little. Being pros at it and all that.
So your conclusion could be: "Damn! It is indeed expensive to develop for multiple platforms!" (to be more expensive than the great benefit of releasing in multiple platforms.)
And your next step in reasoning might be, for example: "Is it an unavoidable cost? Or are the platforms forcing a "fake" difference."
But you have many other, less paranoid, paths.
Plus, if you are really trying to push the boundaries, it is much easier to do so on a single platform. Developing for multiple platform generally means taking the least common denominator approach, doing only what you can do on all platforms and pushing the boundaries on none of them.
The cake is a pie
The idea is that a platform exclusive game would be sold together with a console system and controllers as part of a discount deal, or even as a launch title. In return for the developer make the title exclusive to the system, they would get additional technical support in order to demonstrate the advanced features of that system. The idea is that shoppers would see TV adverts, walk past a game store, see a large box with the colorful screenshots of the game and want to buy the game. (Examples are like Combat/Air Sea Battle with the Atari 2600), Sonic the Hedgehog with the Sega system, and Super Mario 64 with the Ultra 64.
If a developer aims to target for a large number of different systems, the time spent on cross-development will usually take away time spent on code optimisation and adding extra detail and features.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Actually there are some really incredible PS3 Exclusives coming.
Uncharted 2
God of War 3
Last Guardian (Project TRICO) from Team ICO (best game ever)
Gran Turismo 5
Ratchet and Clank
Heavy Rain
MAG
I'm not overly impressed with MAG, but the rest look absolutely stunning. Last Guardian and Uncharted 2 especially.
No !Bowfinger tag?
Maybe it is just me, but cutscenes are the worst part of a game. When the whole game is pretty much cutscenes, I'm turned off. When I'm playing a game, I want to play not watch a movie. Forcing you to participate in the cutscenes by pressing buttons at the right time makes this even worse.
It all depends on how you perceive enjoyment from a game. Personally, if the story is tight and engaging but linear I'll happy sit through almost any number of cutscences they throw at me. The idea of an "interactive movie" isn't an instant turn-off, it just has to be a good movie.
The problem with Heavy Rain and its type, is how to attract the right audience. Adventure fans may be drawn in with a story, no matter how conceptually linear, but they'll hate the twitch controls. But an action gamer is going to find the notion of any kind of 'game' here to be severely lacking.
But if they pull off the kind of dynamic storytelling they're promising then they may have something on their hands...
Each system has its own set of quirks and capabilities. Few will argue if I say that the PS3 has more horsepower under the hood; if you were to create a game that took full advantage of that, it would not likely run all that well on a 360, forcing you to rewrite a good bit of the game. Conversely, the 360 has an significantly different programming environment, which you could take advantage of to do some amazing stuff. So, in a similar vein, porting from native 360 to PS3 would take a very significant time investment.
Beyond that, I would wager that quite a few people really do own both a 360 and a PS3, especially now that they are starting to come down in price. If that is true, they would not lose all that much money. Even if it is not, I imagine Sony would really love to get some exclusives out to move more units, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they offered a good incentive here or there.