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Oinkie Juices His Way Into Anarchy Reigns

August 10th, 2011 by

Platinum Games

Filed: Anarchy Reigns, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

History is littered with athletes who have juiced looking to take home the proverbial bacon. In Anarchy Reigns, the juice head really just wants some bacon. Say hello to Oinkie, the newest member of the Anarchy Reigns cast.

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Garuda Transforms Into Anarchy Reigns

August 9th, 2011 by

Platinum Games

Filed: Anarchy Reigns, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

What happens when you don’t lose your mind, just your body? You turn into a transforming, drill-equipped robot hell-bent on total annihilation. You also get a cool name – GARUDA!

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Durga Eviscerates Anarchy Reigns

August 9th, 2011 by

Platinum Games

Filed: Anarchy Reigns, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

It takes a special kind of individual to attach a revolver to one’s leg. Fortunately, Anarchy Reigns has just that crazed individual – DURGA!

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Leo Joins Anarchy Reigns Cast

May 26th, 2011 by

Platinum Games

Filed: Anarchy Reigns, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

Here comes a new challenger! (Can we say that!?) Leo joins the Anarchy Reigns cast!

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Introducing Nikolai

April 20th, 2011 by

Platinum Games

Filed: Anarchy Reigns, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

Welcome Nikolai, the newest member of the Anarchy Reigns cast!

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Last Time Up

December 13th, 2010 by

VANQUISH

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.

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Augmented Reaction Suit System

August 5th, 2010 by

VANQUISH

Filed: Community, Games, PlatinumGames, Vanquish

Hello to everyone reading the blog. I’m Yoshifumi Hattori, and I was in charge of character modeling on Vanquish.

During the production of Bayonetta, I was primarily working on enemy models, but mid-production I was shifted to Mikami’s team. Since I was the only modeler on the team, I have a feeling that I ended up making the player character and enemies at the same time. By the way, Sam’s character was designed by Makoto Tsuchibayashi.

We focused on having lots of volume with the back pieces of Sam’s suit, as well as placing plenty of moving/transforming parts around the suit. These transformations kept changing on me, so we were often deciding on Sam’s design as we were modeling. At first, the entire suit would transform into different shapes, and there was even an idea that a female android “partner” would transform and combine with Sam (I was a fan of that one). As the player would hoist her up, their bodies would change shape in various ways from forming an enormous gun to having the android change into a boomerang and be thrown into the field.

We also had a dog character that survived all the way through the modeling phase. The robotic dog would do various things to support Sam during the game, including combining with Sam’s suit to become a powerful piece of armor.

As you can see, we went through plenty of trial an error, but considering game controls and playability, things sort of “quieted down” to the design you see now. But if you look at the small details of the suit, you can see the remnants of the previous full transformation versions.

The transformation that takes place when the helmet opens up was really well received. I wanted to see where else we could put in these elements, so we ended up with having the weapons transform as well. Johnny (Weapon Designer at PlatinumGames who designed the weapons on Bayonetta and Vanquish) already had some weapons designed, but he created new designs that fit the transforming weapon concept.

So we kept working and adjusting things until the very end, so I hope you give the ARS suit a spin for yourself. I think that you will have a great time!

Until next time!

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Announcing (A Bit Early) a collection of Bayonetta Design Artifacts

January 7th, 2010 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello everyone. Character designer Mari Shimazaki here with some good news.

It has been something like two months since Bayonetta saw release in Japan. For those of you still playing Bayonetta, or those of you taking a little break, we’ve still got more Bayonetta to give you, so stay with us just a bit longer.

Which brings me to today’s announcement.

As Hashimoto-san mentioned on the Xbox Live Park broadcast here in Japan, we are going to put out a book collecting the design materials we used for Bayonetta. Woohoo!

It will be a little while until it’s released, but here are the details:

Bayonetta Design Collection (Temporary Title)
Release Date: Q1 2010 (Planned)
Price: TBD
Publisher: Enterbrain

It’s going to be a really thick book, as we are going to include almost all of the images we’ve used in promoting Bayonetta! (We were unable to get rights clearances for a few of them…)

Japanese gamers will get a chance to see art that we’ve only released in the West (which there were quite a few we made behind the scenes), as well as peeks at unreleased character, enemy, background, and weapon designs. There will also be CG illustrations and some new easter-egg illustrations (that I’m working on right now) amongst others. Overall, there will be more than 500 pieces of content to sink your teeth into! There will also be tons of comments from the development team (which they are working on now) to round out this monster collection! Look forward to it!

Whenever I end up working on one of these expansive books, I always end up feeling like, “This is sad. I have to show off all of these designs that got shot down… And they are from years ago as well.”
Even though I love looking at others people’s stuff… this poses a real dilemna for me.

Well, enough of my grumbling, I’m going to stay focused on working on the book for now, and even though it will be a while until it is in your hands, I hope you all look forward to it.

Well, I guess the world is all wrapped up in Christmas colors now.

How did you all spend the Christmas holidays? December 25 was actually our last work day here at PlatinumGames, but I am sure plenty of us went out drinking after we wrapped up.

Until next time.

More…

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Bayonetta TV Commercial

January 4th, 2010 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PGTV, PlatinumGames

Producer Yusuke Hashimoto here, now with a completely stuffed mail box since all the games I ordered online all showed up the other day. (Strangely enough, my package delivery box was empty though…)

So Bayonetta will be released on 1/5 in North American and 1/8 in Europe and Australia! I hope all of our fans overseas are looking forward to it. It’s been a quick two months since the release in Japan. When I think about the opportunity to expand the borders of the game and have even more people try it out, I can only get excited. So that is why I wanted to write a blog entry about some of the marketing efforts we are partaking in overseas. First up is the TV commercial we will be airing overseas.

The commercial features a soundtrack provided by La Roux, an incredibly popular band in Europe. Compared to the Japanese commercial, it is a much darker, but very cool! For me, this kind of dark commercial hits my personal sweetspot because it fits the game’s atmosphere quite nicely. Actually, for the Japanese MTV Special for Bayonetta, La Roux came in for a chat with MiChi. During filming, the director of the show, Sakuma-san, mentioned that he thought that La Roux were “insane.” We watched one of their music videos, and I had to admit it was pretty cool. What was funny was the we watched the same song that we ended up using in the commercial, “In for the kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix).” When I think about the track, I realized that Bayonetta really has been an incredibly collaborative project, from our cutscene action director Yuji Shimomura’s involvement and on down the line.

Continuing on, I have to mention the Scarborough Fair model that will come as a pre-order bonus for Bayonetta in Europe. At first, I wanted them to make a full set of the four guns, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, or if they could only make one, to include a set of the four dangling accessories to be attached; however, due to a variety of reasons, including cost, we could only make one gun… It is a shame that we couldn’t make four, but I am still happy to see one of the in-game items come to life. Check it out:

By the way, it seems Bioshock 2, coming out next year, is going to have a vinyl record as one of the items in its Western limited edition. (I wanted to do a gold disc or a vinyl LP for Bayonetta as well…) I’m really looking forward to the game, but I am also a huge fan of these sorts of limited editions, ones that are filled with the spirit of those making the game. I wanted to do all sorts of limited edition items for the Japanese release (Bayonetta/Jeanne glasses, Black cat earrings, lipstick, Bayonetta’s brooch clock, a Cheshire stuffed animal, or even a cellphone strap of the Bayonetta doll from the map screen), but as an original title, it is hard to get these sort of things actually made.

I’m always taking applications for manufacturers who want to make products out of things our users would enjoy, so if you think your company is up to the task, get ahold of us here at PlatinumGames. Also, we’d love to hear from our fans about what things they think would make great items, so make sure to get ahold of us and let us know!

That wraps up the PR related stuff, so I thought I would leave you with some of the character designs for the dance-battle-famed Joy.

There really aren’t that many chances to design female characters, especially in the enemy realm, so it was fun to design Joy. Her weapon changes shape in real time, and I tried adding something at its very tip, like something out of an ancient (?) civilization. However, when I designed her, I had no idea her torture attack would end up being anything like THAT…

We’ve seen quite a few users uploading some impressive gameplay videos, and I am looking forward to seeing what kind of videos users overseas come up with. Finally, we’ve got a really cool thing were planning for that may surprise you, so look forward to what’s coming soon!

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The Secrets of Bayonetta’s Models (Updated)

December 4th, 2009 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hi. I’m Kenichiro Yoshimura, Bayonetta’s modeler.

Well… Since Bayonetta is now in everyone’s hands one way or another (released in Japan, and the demo is out worldwide), I thought I would pinpoint a few things on the models I created.

First of all, I wanted to go into the differences between Bayonetta and Jeanne.

Even though the bones (the joints needed to make the model move) are shared between the two, and their bodies share the same basic balance…

bayo_jann01

…Jeanne’s got smaller boobs!

…And a smaller butt, too!

bayo_jann02

If you lay them on top of each other, this is what it looks like.

It also seems like Kamiya-san is partial to Jeanne. I’m with Bayo on this one.

Next up is Sapientia.

sapi01

I took the liberty of throwing in some of the things I like and added a liberal amount of mecha elements that weren’t in the original concept design.

sapi02

These are the exhausts. I airbrushed on some clear blue and some clear orange to give it that distinctive “scorched” look.

sapi03

The wings are a brake and clutch setup. When Bayonetta summons the Infernal Demon Madama Butterfly, this is what the demon uses to take hold of Sapientia. (At least, that is how I justified it in my head.)

sapi04

Part of the head is the command bridge of a warship. There is probably an Applaud at the helm with a crew of Affinities manning the ship. (Again, how I justified it in my head.)

sapi05

There are caution marks around the body. On the wings, it says “NO STEP.” (But you can’t really read it) The wings are structurally weak, so you can’t stand on them. (Another justification off the top of my head.)

sapi06

The writing above the heads on each of its legs has meaning. This one says System-E in our angelic font. System-E is the successor to SEGA’s System 16 arcade board. (Or so Kamiya-san devised…) I guess you could say that our mecha-angel Sapientia is powered by a SEGA arcade board.

UPDATE: Sorry! The thing about System-E is actually mistaken!! System-E is apparently the arcade version of the SEGA Mark III (Master System)! What I meant to say was that written on Sapientia’s head (now pictured above) is SG-1000000, which Kamiya-san’s set up as the theoretical follow-up to SEGA’s SG-1000 game system. Never the less, Sapientia runs on SEGA hardware. (And the legs are on Mark III…)

So now you have an idea of some of the small details that I was particular about putting in. If you pay close attention to these sorts of places when playing the game, you might find even more new details. Bye bye!

(NOTE: Higher resolution versions of the concept art in this post can be found on the PlatinumGames Inc. Flickr Page)

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