Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Well, this is the last entry for “my blog”…

For this entry, I think I’ll let you in on something that went on behind the scenes, and that is what we originally wanted Vanquish to become.

In our original vision for Vanquish, no one was actually inside Sam’s suit. Instead, it was a remotely operated robot with three different pilots who would take turns controlling the unit from afar.

(These are character designer Makoto Tsuchibayashi’s original designs.)

The robot would change forms according to the pilot in charge, as each pilot had been specially trained in areas such as shooting, melee, or hover and snipe. This single robot was capable of being battle effective in a variety of situations. I thought we could make something interesting out of how these three different pilots interacted with each other, much like Kamen Rider Den-O. This idea died a quick death early in the project, but personally, I still think the idea has its merits.

When making a game, there are plenty of ideas like these that get rejected, but they build up and can end up finding their way back, like in a sequel for instance, so you can never say that an idea is completely out of bounds. I don’t know what I will be making next, but considering how fickle I am, it will probably end up being a game completely different from Vanquish.

Well, until we meet again, in the realm of the video game.

275722 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F12%2F13%2Flast-time-up%2FLast+Time+Up2010-12-13+05%3A42%3A18Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2757 / / Read More

Tagged: Atsushi Inaba, Character Design, Concept Design, Game Design, Makoto Tsuchibayashi, PlatinumGames, Playstation 3, PS3, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, TPS, Xbox 360

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

So everyone, did you get a chance to play the Vanquish demos?

There have actually been two Vanquish demos so far in Japan. The Vanquish Official Demo – Velocity Attack was taken from the campaign mode of the game, while the Vanquish Challenge Mode Demo (currently available in Japan) is part of an unlockable extra mode. We called the stage used in Velocity Attack room number 110, and I have to admit that I forgot what the code name was for the challenge mode room. (I have the habit of being the guy who forgets everything the minute development is over…)

Room 110 is pretty much exactly as you will find it in the game. In the full version of Vanquish, you will have the opening cinematic (the destruction of San Francisco and the infiltration of the colony), as well as the initial entrance into the colony with its baptism by enemy fire.

The stage used in the Vanquish Challenge Mode Demo is actually a map from the actual game, but the enemies that appear are completely different. (Wait until you see the enemy drill robot in the final game, it is awesome!) In the full version, you will get a boss fight pretty soon after this area, and I really love the cutscene that you see at that point. It is quite cool.

Even with the demo version, Vanquish is a game that is a blast to play again and again. I think it will be interesting to see the competition that sprouts up amongst skilled players playing the final version of the game. Vanquish isn’t a game that trails off towards the end, so you can expect a consistent level of quality to the very last bullet. Look forward to it next week!

268510 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F10%2F15%2Fabout-the-demos%2FAbout%C2%A0the%C2%A0Demos2010-10-15+02%3A23%3A12Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2685 / / Read More

Tagged: Challenge Mode, Demo, PlatinumGames, Playstation 3, PS3, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, Velocity Attack, Xbox 360

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Vanquish has four difficulty settings to choose from. One that is surprisingly fun is Casual Automatic mode. Before we started work on it, I can’t say that I had high hopes; however, once we got it up and running, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was wrong. Once you get your target on the enemy, the rest is easy as pie. I’m sure saying it that way makes it sound totally uninteresting, but when you actually give it a shot, the tempo it gives the game play will make you jump up and say, “Woohoo!”

Yet, I still have to say my recommended difficulty is normal. It takes some time to get used to aiming and firing at enemies on your own, but we’ve fine-tuned the aiming controls, so you should be fine. I have a feeling you will be finding yourself in some very pitched battles.

Finally, we have GOD HARD mode. I think our fans will get where this one is going. This mode is only for the chosen few (you can’t select it on your first play through). If you are a bit of a masochist, I think you will have a good time. It is something for our fans to look forward to.

-Shinji Mikami

256154 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F07%2F29%2Fa-different-kind-of-game%2FA+Different+Kind+of%C2%A0Game2010-07-29+01%3A06%3A51Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2561 / / Read More

Tagged: Difficulty Settings, God Hard, Playstation 3, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, Vanquish, Xbox 360

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Vanquish was originally an open battlefield type of game, where the goal was to move around crushing enemy positions; however, once we got started with development, we quickly made the decision to change to a more linear structure. We abandoned the open battlefield and focused on making each stage as visually dense as possible. As a result, I think the graphics in Vanquish are really quite wonderful. It is one of the main points of Vanquish I want to recommend to people. (The only regret is that our decision decreased the amount of times the player uses boosting.)

Of course, arriving there was a struggle. Upping the visual density, increasing the contrast, making the special effects especially eye-catching, throwing tons of enemies on the screen… In an environment where we were doing whatever we pleased, it became pretty obvious that there was no good way of keeping your eye on the prize – the enemies you are targeting. I felt like I was being pin-pricked by the staff talking about how hard it was to see the enemies. Moreover, the enemy character that you see most often, a robot we call a Gorgie, was predominantly white. We had primarily gray backgrounds with white enemies. When you think about it from a realism standpoint, camouflage exists to make things difficult to see, so in that way things make sense, but from a game standpoint, it was not the best idea. I really liked the white enemies, so it took me a long time to come around to the idea of making them red. We also had to limit the number that we could put on screen at once due to hardware limitations. (This had the effect of limiting the huge amount of information we were throwing at the player, so I’m sort of on-board with this one.)

I’ve written quite a bit about it, but our art lead, Naoki Katakai and programmer Ryoichi tend to do whatever they please, and what they came up with was great, and I think our visuals are quite spectacular as a result. Thanks to all the staff that worked so hard on them.

This is the initial conceptual design for the enemy known as a Gorgie. At first, they had white bodies…

But they are red in the final design!

Once we made them red, they became much easier to identify in-game.

254743 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F07%2F22%2Fthe-graphics-of-vanquish%2FThe+Graphics+of%C2%A0Vanquish2010-07-22+00%3A55%3A41Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2547 / / Read More

Tagged: Compromise, Game Design, Gorgies, Graphics, Playstation 3, Red, Robots, Russia, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, Shooter, TPS, Vanquish, White, Xbox 360

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Hello everyone, time for my second blog.

I’m actually not even sure how many of these I have to write…

Anyways, I’ll give it my best shot.

In Vanquish, each territory will have all the voice played in the appropriate language in real-time, so when you are in battle with your enemies, you don’t need to worry about reading subtitles.

When I’m working through a Western game, even one I really enjoy, I don’t have that great a grasp on what is going on and has left me with some unpleasant experiences. (This mainly only happens with shooters though…)

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite voices in the game. I’m really hooked on the English voice for our main character, Sam. He is voiced by an actor named Gideon Emery. He has an incredible smoldering quality to his voice that I find really cool. I hope you all get a chance to listen to his performance.

(www.gideonemery.com)

And don’t worry, we have Japanese voice in as well.

-Shinji Mikami

253412 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F07%2F15%2Fvoice-and-voice-acting%2FVoice+and+Voice%C2%A0Acting2010-07-15+01%3A06%3A14Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2534 / / Read More

Tagged: English, Gideon Emery, Japanese, Playstation 3, Sam, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, TPS, Vanquish, Voice Acting, Xbox 360

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Hi everyone. Vanquish director Shinji Mikami here.

Right now, my new company Tango is having a party to celebrate our first official day of business as a full-fledged studio, and I’m the only one stuck working at the moment.

Anyways, Vanquish… Lots to say about Vanquish…

After I finished up God Hand, I didn’t have a team to work with, so I spent about a year and a half staring out a window. Soon thereafter, I was finally back at work in the studio. Vanquish is my first title after this period of almost running away from being a creator. The design of the game started with my initial desire to make a game like the Japanese animated series Casshern, as well as my desire to challenge myself by making a shooter with an incredible sense of speed and no “slogging through” sections.

At that point in the design the game was a shooter with elements of Casshern (punching/kicking) from time to time, but in the end, we settled into a design that was mainly shooter with rare elements of Casshern. When you actually play the game, you realize that there aren’t that many opportunities to punch or kick in the game, but when you do get the chance, the game really does feel like an action game. Even though it is stylistically a shooter, I would be really happy to have action gamers give the game a chance as well. Thanks to the skill and hard work of the team, the graphics are really incredible in Vanquish. I can whole-heartedly recommend it.

For my next entry, I will go into a bit more detail regarding the inner-workings of Vanquish.

Until then, thanks for reading!

(For more Vanquish screenshots, check out our Flickr!)

252643 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2010%2F07%2F08%2Fthe-vanquish-blog%2FThe+Vanquish%C2%A0Blog2010-07-08+05%3A09%3A11Shinji+Mikamihttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2526 / / Read More

Tagged: Casshern, DARPA, PlatinumGames, Playstation 3, SEGA, Shinji Mikami, Shooter, TPS, Vanquish, Xbox 360