TechTV101 Chats with PS3's "inFamous" Producer and Game Director

A massive explosion rips through six square blocks of Empire City!! annihilating everything and everyone in its path. Everyone, that is, except for one man: Cole MacGrath not only survived the blast, he’s been transformed by it.We asked the Producer Of The game Brian Fleming and also the Game Director Nate Fox, some questions that YOU Gamers wanted to know about the game! Here's what they said...

Brian Fleming

Producer & Co-Founder

Sucker Punch Productions

How has the make-up of Sucker Punch changed during development of inFamous?

The game has a much bigger scope, much more content, so much more detail than anything we’ve ever tried before… It’s borderline crazy for a team of sixty people to try to build a game like this, but we have always valued being a smaller sized team because it keeps us nimble. I never thought I’d say “nimble” about a sixty person team, but it still feels that way! So many new specialized positions for this title: high detail character artists, full-time lighting, a team of 2 guys just detailing out the climbing system across a city’s worth of buildings. But in the end, I think inFamous is very much going to be a game with similar strengths to our previous work… Excellent controller feel during gameplay, strong storyline, and incredibly detailed/interactive environments… It’s who we are!

Why just electricity? Was there a temptation to go full-on elemental, to include fire and water powers?

We never entertained fire and water powers for Cole, though we did entertain those for enemies at one brainstorming meeting—though we never could really work out how water or earth might really work out. At the beginning, we started off with a blank slate, and just prototyped… We tried all sorts of powers in the first year of the development cycle—always looking for things which gave us the feeling of being powerful, had cool impact on the environment, and which gave lots of good gameplay opportunities. Electricity had some very encouraging initial prototypes and that got us excited, so we started more focused brainstorming there. We found great relationships between the hero powers, and the city itself. And then things got rolling—you start simulating the power system of the city and you end up with a super model for influence and control on neighbourhoods. Healing peds like a defibrillator happens and things start to make even more sense. It just sort of snowballed from there. The constraint of “just electricity” ends up being hugely helpful to the brainstorming process, kind of opposite of what you might expect.

Can you name examples of the comics/movies/TV shows that inspired the premise of inFamous?

Egads, how long do you have? If you forced me to pick a few big ones, I’d say Batman Begins (early on) and the more recent Dark Knight movie certainly connected for a lot of us. For print, I’d point first at Brian Woods’ work, especially DMZ, as something we talked about a bunch when trying to imagine the world of Empire City. We’d already begun development of the title when the Heroes TV show started airing, and we constantly talked about how it portrayed ordinary people as heroes… You didn’t need a spandex suit to be a super-hero. That was encouraging and inspiring, too…

Can you tell me more about how the blackout in Seattle had some effect on the concept of the game – is this true? Can you relay that story for our readers?

On December 14^th, 2006 a huge rainstorm hit the Pacific Northwest, followed by 70+ MPH winds… Besides putting a serious dent in the Sucker Punch holiday party that year, the storm knocked out a huge amount of the electrical power infrastructure. Our offices were in one of the 5 square blocks that had power the whole time, but many employees had no electricity at home for days and days. The first day it’s sort of an adventure; you eat the ice cream melting in the freezer, and enjoy the candles. But then you see the police take over the only working gas station and turn away the public. Streetlights and signals are off for a week. Most folks don’t have a generator so they endure 40 degree nights, or bring their baby and wife to the office to stay warm.

So this all happens a year into the development of inFamous… We happen to be creating a fictional world which doesn’t just have a power outage; it has a law enforcement vacuum, and some actual destruction from a bomb blast. Now let it drag on for weeks and weeks. More than anything the blackout helped us imagine the world of Empire City much more vividly.

What are the real-world inspirations behind the city’s design?

Super hero comics and movies were the principal inspiration—and super heroes are so closely linked to city life, it seemed obvious from the beginning that we were talking big-city locales…. We looked to New York for some of the architecture and design elements, it’s kind of the god-father of super hero cities… But we certainly aren’t trying to make New York, we looked at a ton of international cities (Tokyo, Montreal come to mind), and always looked for cityscapes which had really excellent climbing related architecture as well—we knew from the beginning that Cole was going to use the city like a 3D jungle gym. I remember our game director, Nate, kept bringing in all these photo reference pieces from Kowloon, which were crazy complex and detailed—telling us all “This is what we gotta make!!”

Can you explain how the customisation of Cole works in the game? Every player, we assume, is imbued with electric powers – how, then, can one character differentiate from the next?

I’m going to have to pass on this one—I see our PR folks are about to electrocute me with their powers if I spill.

Has the release of GTA IV affected the way you create your open world? Did you see that title and go: ‘Okay, let’s add this so that we keep ahead of the times’?

Not especially. Clearly GTA IV is the big dog of open world games, and we’d be stupid if we didn’t play it, study it and learn. But the big differences in inFamous – the totally explorable, climbable, and detailed environment, the simulated city and crime ecology, discovering and mastering your powers, the decisions you make to save or destroy… Those were in place long before GTA IV shipped.

How long would it take a player to travel from one side of Empire City to the other?

Well that will depend on the method you use to traverse it! Is this the beginning of the game? If yes then it’s essentially impossible… Not only are bridges out but the power grid is down in most places and you’d never survive the journey -- even if you could make it across the bridges. By the end of the storyline, your journey will of course be possible… You’ll have acquired powers which enhance your navigation through the world, there’s trains running around the city you can hop rides on, etc.

Are there advantages to being under the Sony umbrella? Do you have an open dialogue with other developers within the PS3 community?

Without question there are advantages – the largest of which is the amazing team at Sony America who produces our titles. They’ve been amazing partners over the last 10 years and have always supported and challenged us to make our games better. We trust our publisher—something that seems quite rare.

We also have been fortunate to have a close and open relationship with the teams at Naughty Dog and Insomniac, two amazing teams whose ability to make excellent titles always inspires us. We trade tools, approaches and offer advice to each other. It’s another great part of our gig.

Can you talk a little bit about developing on the PS3 for inFamous? How can you build upon it in future?

We’ve enjoyed the PS3 development experience. 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 previous interviews but the SPUs 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, ect. 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!

Have you cast any voice actors for the project?

As I write this we’re 24 hours from our second major recording session. Casting voice actors who capture the vibe of a character in the game is a surprisingly difficult part of the process. I know for one of the bosses on the game, who has a small-ish overall line count, we listened to between 70 and 100 auditions for that role. Actors from Seattle, Portland, LA and New York did readings for the part. We cast an actor, had them record the part, and then decided we didn’t like it, so pitched it and tried the process again. Hopefully the results will show up in the final game!

Additionally, we try very hard to schedule our recording sessions with multiple actors in the booth at once. So if Cole is talking to his friend Zeke about how much they miss pizza delivery ever since the blast – we put both those guys in the booth and record it as a conversation. If you listen to a lot of game audio, you can tell they recorded the halves of the conversation in isolation – and it has a subtle but very important effect on the quality of the performances.

The moral choices you make in the game – how much of an effect does it have on the outcome of the story, or indeed the tasks you’re handed by the game? Is it just a case of watching a different ending FMV, or have you tackled it in a new way?

(Answer redacted by a sharp-eyed marketing team member who points out that this is being revealed at a later date)

What types of tasks can players engage in outside of the main story?

Beyond the main story, we’ve built a sort of crime eco-system constantly running in Empire City. It’ll offer up lots of heroic and not-so-heroic opportunities to the player. Will you save those pedestrians being rounded up by the Reapers? Or will you blow the whole lot to smithereens? Want to help the few remaining cops retake their police station and try to establish some order? These choices are yours!

We’re almost sorry to ask, but have you played Crackdown on the 360? That game had quite a cool mechanic for scaling buildings – how do you feel inFamous compares with its equivalent system?

Don’t apologize, it’s a common connection. I think people hear superheroes in a modern setting and they connect the two. And for the record Crackdown was a fun if under-appreciated game that many of us played and liked!

Cole’s climbing and exploration abilities are one part scaling buildings athletically and gracefully, and one part vertical duck and cover combat. It’s empowering, fluid and works everywhere you think it should… Want to climb that drain pipe, leap to the windows and then off the building onto the nearby streetlight? That should be effortless…. We’re trying to give a complete sense of freedom to the player, while trying to make things feel believable and grounded enough that it seems entirely possible. And the fact that you can use your powers while climbing means you can use poles and structures for cover and to get better firing angles. All together you’re looking at the most core mechanics of the entire game—movement and using your powers—so things better work pretty well!

Nate Fox

Game Director

Sucker Punch Productions

Cole isn’t alone in the game; can you talk about his companions and their role?

Like any good superhero story Cole is surrounded by a supporting cast of bad-asses. Zeke’s the best friend who sometimes helps out in the field (AKA- the Sidekick). Trish is the love interest, she runs all around town helping out as a guerrilla medic. And finally there’s Moya, Cole’s mysterious source for Intel.

How hard has it been to give the player so much power but still provide a challenge in the game?

Since we’re trying to give Players the feeling of becoming a modern day superhero it sort of demands a full slate of amped-up powers. To provide a challenge we’ve crafted a large Rogue’s Gallery of equally gifted enemies. After all, powerful iconic villains are a must for any superhero experience.

If Cole can be good or evil how do you define the ‘bad’ guys?

Anyone trying to kill Cole or his buddies is the enemy. It’s pretty simple really, Cole’s on quest that allows him the flexibility to be either selfless or selfish, good or evil… and anyone that tries to keep him from his goal is gonna get a lightning bolt to the face.

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.

What’s different about developing your game now compared to developing something when the PS3 launched?

It took a while to get our new streaming engine up and running, but now that it’s here “life is good”. It’s easy to create elaborate cinematic missions packed with a variety of enemies. And since it’s a sandbox game you end up getting all this spontaneous interaction between systems.

How is development coming along? When can we expect to see the finished product?

The game's coming along pretty well and we're right on target for a release in Spring 2009, and it's fun to play. I guess that's the big thing, isn't it?

What will set your title apart from other games of its genre?

Our hero, Cole, has powers that are designed from the ground up to work well in the context of a videogame. For example, he can shoot lighting bolts out of his hands -- why? Because shooting in videogames works really freaking well. Same with being able to climb everywhere in the world and jump between buildings -- it's fun to do! This is our core strategy in crafting our superhero -- we're building the world around his powers and his powers around what's fun to do in the world.

How have things panned out since we talked six months ago? When do you anticipate the game hitting the shelves?

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how much has been built, changed, and improved over the last six months. Virtually every aspect of the game is better, runs faster, and of course there’s tons more to do in Empire City. Development cycles, especially for new projects like inFamous, are really strange… At least the first half of the project feels like total darkness, trying things which fail, working in a toolset that has bugs, and the game is always missing the feature you need. Then sometime, in our case about 8 months before the end – things start coming together. Each day is more fun, you get more work done, and the game starts to really get good. We are making the game better every single day, and will continue polishing and improving an awful lot before we finish! You should see inFamous on store shelves this Spring!

We understand that Cole’s powers will centre on electricity. Can you tell us what went into this decision and why electricity.

You know it was one of the strong candidates from the beginning for us… Clearly it wasn’t our only idea though, so we did what we always do—which is start trying things… We prototyped some electricity powers, and of course some other powers too… And started playing with them—in test worlds, in combat… After our first couple rounds of prototyping, electricity is visually strong, and playing strong, so we start doing focused brainstorming around that – and then the really good stuff starts coming up—hey, we can use it to revive dead guys on the street! Oh yeah, we can power up dead machinery… Hey, the entire city electric grid can be simulated, we can use that! And when you hit that stage—where brainstorming meetings are turning out great, usable ideas, that’s when you know you’re onto something.

It’s been a while since we heard about any of the enemy types. Can you describe any to us just to help add some colour to the feature?

Well, there’s all sorts of enemies, as you probably expect… You’ve seen the Reaper gang, but not their leader… You’ve probably also not seen all the different unit types in the Reaper gang either, so let me assure you that the grunts with guns, and the taller, teleporting elites, those are just two of four unit types of that one gang... And of course the boss of the reapers, we haven’t talked about her yet… We’ll talk more about the other gangs as we get a bit closer to launch too, so stay tuned!

Has Cole developed a surname yet?

MacGrath... We drew from his back story, and looked at lots of Irish Clan history, mottos, and crests and picked MacGrath because we liked the fit. The crest includes a Maltese Cross indicating the family was dedicated to healing, and also battle axes indicating the family was often involved in battles. It’s not like his crest is a part of the game, but there was a lot of care taken, even at this level. Salus in fide!

Can you give us two-line bio of each of his sidekick characters and briefly outline an example of how each will help you during gameplay?

I think helpers is probably the wrong way to look at the cast – they’re involved, important, but independent of Cole. Well so far, we’ve introduced Zeke, conspiracy theorist, survivalist and blood brother with Cole. He’ll fight alongside you at times, but you know, Zeke’s his own man, so don’t expect that to be super common. Trish is Cole’s on-again/off-again girlfriend, a med-student, and one who can really sharpen the point of some of Cole’s moral dilemmas in the game. Moya is the law, she’s outside the Quarantined parts of Empire City, but has decent intelligence reports, and strikes a deal with Cole to clear his name if he keeps his end of the bargain.

How do you make both the good and evil paths through the game rewarding? In Bioshock, it felt like there was a slight imbalance where it was more rewarding to do good than bad – is this something you’re addressing? Will you get different endings depending on your morals?

I think of it less of separate paths, more of appropriate experiences and responses… We try to give you a little taste of what it’s like to be famous, or infamous… It’s not like in one ending the city blows to smithereens and in the other it becomes a utopia… That “fork the story” is not what holds our interest as storytellers… What we like is the little stuff, the people passing you on the street and taking your picture, or ganging up on you to try to exact revenge… The endings can indeed be, but that’s not really the point we’re trying to make…

What’s the latest on multiplayer and online play? Co-op is really ‘in’ at the mo – will it be supported?

Nope, sorry…

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