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inFAMOUS: Interview with Bruce Oberg
Interview with Co-lead founder of Sucker Puch and designer of InFAMOUS, Bruce Oberg.
- What were the challenges of developing on the Playstation 3 for the first time?
Well, it was very challenging for us to fully understand and exploit the technology used in the Playstation 3 and because we haven’t any experience with a pixel-shader-based game we had to learn a lot. Another challenge, that goes almost without saying is, that this is an open environment game. It’s immensely complicated; all these interweaving systems: bringing the environment in, streaming, basically a no-load universe. It's a profound difference in the way you have to structure your technology.
- If you have to put a number of it; how much of the CELL processor is being used for the game?
I would say about 50%-60% percent of it, which is really not bad at all. The PS3 has a lot of memory and the processors are able to process an immense amount of calculations per second.
- Why did you choose electricity as source of Cole’s power?
We’ve experimented a lot with other power like fire, water or even telekinesis, but after brainstorming about electricity we got all excited of the possibilities of this blue devastating power. It was love at first sight. The constraint of “just electricity” ends up being hugely helpful to the brainstorming process, kind of opposite of what you might expect.
- Was it hard to find enough abilities based on, the only source/weapon, electricity?
Well actually it wasn’t hard at all. We have a very creative team with crazy ideas. Have you seen how cool it looks when Cole is air-gliding those electricity cables? It’s incredible fun to do and that is what we wanted to make… a FUN game.
- Plenty of developers are trying to deliver ‘the living city-concept’. Can you tell us more about how your actions will affect your environment?
Cole has a karma meter that can swing from good to evil and back again. People in the street react to his current state appropriately (e.g. running away screaming if Cole is very evil). If you destroy a guy’s car in a fire fight, that guy will remember it and perhaps he won’t help you later in the game. In addition, Cole’s powers grow in different ways based on his karma. “Good” upgrades to his powers are more precise and controllable, while “evil” upgrades are more chaotic and crazy. Also, many of the things you do in Empire City are permanent. If you decide to blow up a police station, it won’t be around later when you need help from the cops. Our goal here was to make the players choices and play style mean something beyond a high score.
- What were the challenges of developing on the Playstation 3 for the first time?
Well, it was very challenging for us to fully understand and exploit the technology used in the Playstation 3 and because we haven’t any experience with a pixel-shader-based game we had to learn a lot. Another challenge, that goes almost without saying is, that this is an open environment game. It’s immensely complicated; all these interweaving systems: bringing the environment in, streaming, basically a no-load universe. It's a profound difference in the way you have to structure your technology.
- If you have to put a number of it; how much of the CELL processor is being used for the game?
I would say about 50%-60% percent of it, which is really not bad at all. The PS3 has a lot of memory and the processors are able to process an immense amount of calculations per second.
- Why did you choose electricity as source of Cole’s power?
We’ve experimented a lot with other power like fire, water or even telekinesis, but after brainstorming about electricity we got all excited of the possibilities of this blue devastating power. It was love at first sight. The constraint of “just electricity” ends up being hugely helpful to the brainstorming process, kind of opposite of what you might expect.
- Was it hard to find enough abilities based on, the only source/weapon, electricity?
Well actually it wasn’t hard at all. We have a very creative team with crazy ideas. Have you seen how cool it looks when Cole is air-gliding those electricity cables? It’s incredible fun to do and that is what we wanted to make… a FUN game.
- Plenty of developers are trying to deliver ‘the living city-concept’. Can you tell us more about how your actions will affect your environment?
Cole has a karma meter that can swing from good to evil and back again. People in the street react to his current state appropriately (e.g. running away screaming if Cole is very evil). If you destroy a guy’s car in a fire fight, that guy will remember it and perhaps he won’t help you later in the game. In addition, Cole’s powers grow in different ways based on his karma. “Good” upgrades to his powers are more precise and controllable, while “evil” upgrades are more chaotic and crazy. Also, many of the things you do in Empire City are permanent. If you decide to blow up a police station, it won’t be around later when you need help from the cops. Our goal here was to make the players choices and play style mean something beyond a high score.
- How is it working with Sony Studios? Did you get enough support of them?
We always worked for Sony and we are incredible happy with them. They give is all the freedom we need and challenged us to make our games better and pushes us making better games. They really know what they are doing…
- More developers chose to go multiplatform this generation. How comes Sucker Punch decided to stay with Sony?
As a PS3-only studio, we’ve had the chance to focus on and extract a lot of the power that the platform offers, which sort of feels like a luxury at times. I’ve said this in your previous question but the SPU’s are simply amazing. Of the things we could move onto the SPUs, we’ll get about half of them there in this generation of our technology—occlusion, rendering, particle systems, etc. But there’s much more we can move, it’s just a matter of time until we do so, and I can’t wait to make games with our next generation engine!
- Any DLC coming our way in the future? Of are you guys already busy with a next game?
Right know I have to say no. Everybody is taking a vacation after working on InFAMOUS for the past three and a half year. So we’ll see, maybe!
- Prototype was looking a bit similar to InFamous, but it is a long time ago we’ve heard something more about that game. Do you think they are afraid because InFAMOUS is more than just good looks?
(laugh) In the beginning we were quite surprised of seeing another developer making a “similar” game than ours, but hey… every developer wants to make a great and fun game. And I really hope that Prototype will be a good game, I love game with superheroes.
- And finally, can you pitch your game to someone who’s never heard of it before in 50 words.
InFamous takes a realistic, modern-day look at super heroes -- it's not set in a fantasy world, it's set in our world. What would happen if you suddenly found yourself with super powers? How would your friends react? What would the public think of you? Those are the issues that inFamous explores all while offering a dynamic, open-world environment.
Thank you for your time and good luck with the game! :D
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