Hi. My name is Tetsuya Sasano, and this is the first time that I’ve ever blogged, either professionally or privately. I was one of the background designers on Vanquish.
While I’ve been involved in creating stage backgrounds on numerous action titles, this is my first time working on a shooter, so I started out by playing many of the famous shooters out on the market.
After this research period, we entered into production, and Mikami-san had a few things he wanted to make sure we accomplished. The one of the most important of these requests was that the game feels good to play. Alongside the concept of having a speed-infused shooter, this element was something that was an absolute must, and it was also the most difficult request Mikami-san made of us.
The background team at first tried to up the visual quality by devoting large portions of memory to polygon and texture data. However, when we tried to add large numbers of enemy troops on to the screen, the game would slow down (as expected?), and it would degrade the feel of the game.
We also wanted to up the intensity of the battlefield by including plenty of allied characters fighting alongside of you, thus there was no choice but to go back to the drawing board on all of the stages so large numbers of these characters could be on screen.
Luckily, we were able to do our best to cut the fat off the stages without dropping the graphical quality, leaving them lean and mean, and making sure that we didn’t do anything to harm the way the game feels. (Of course, each member of the team had to go through hell to make this happen.)
There is literally a mountain of stories regarding how much work it was to get the stages into shape, but we will have to keep them secret for now, because I don’t want to spoil the fun. Hopefully there will be another chance to give you the inside story.
There are quite a few different stages in the game, so I hope you look forward to what we have in store with Vanquish.
You can expect some battles in the dark, like this one pushing through a tunnel section of the colony.
Hi. My name is Hideaki Nakata, and I was in charge of Vanquish’s PS3 Engine as well as overall engine tuning. I thought I would write a blog entry to give you some insight into the system programming on Vanquish.
So what is system programming? It is actually hard to explain, but it is best described as the foundation of the game. To use a car analogy, it is the engine behind things… This is why we use the term game engine as well. Looking at it from the top down, the system programming is everything to do with the game that doesn’t involve actual gameplay (everything other than the code running the player/enemies, etc.). But still, a bit hard to explain exactly…
For the engine powering Vanquish, I tried focusing on all-out quantity. Shinji Mikami, the director of Vanquish, made a number of requests. “I want the game to look unlike anything else out there! I want our battlefields to have the overwhelming feeling of a real battle.” I realized the only way we are going to pull this off is with “quantity.” More and more enemies are going to have to keep appearing, more and more bullets are going to have to fill the air, bigger and bigger explosions are going to have to ring out… We would need an engine that could pull that off while still keeping the characters and backgrounds rich in detail.
While the Vanquish engine is based on work done on Bayonetta, it was for that reason that we had a lot of work to do changing things for this project. For instance, we completely rewrote the renderer, implementing a technique known as “deferred rendering.” I think the new renderer turned out quite well.
We also tuned the title so that if you play Vanquish on the PS3 or the Xbox 360 you should notice little to no differences. Even the developers on the Vanquish team have a hard time telling the two versions apart at a glance… So no matter which console you have, you have nothing to worry about!
Hi. Takeo Kido here again. I was in charge of effects on Vanquish.
For this blog, I thought I would talk a little bit about Boosting in the game.
One of the unique gameplay elements in Vanquish is the main character, Sam, and his ability to boost at high speed across the stage. Our original development name for this feature was simply “sliding.”
During production, it was said that moving across the stage wasn’t fun, and that we needed something both visually appealing, and relevant as a special gameplay element to spice things up. That’s when we came up with the idea…
“Why don’t we modify the big protrusions around the hips like this, then shove some jets out of the back and have him go flying around! That’d be cool. “
“And if we made it so that jets could fly out of multiple directions, it would be a great excuse to have Sam do some really unbelievable actions that would look visually stunning, don’t you think?”
And so it went…
The effects team went to Sam’s modeler, Hattori-san, who did a great job of adding on the little pluses that we were looking for, and the end result is the Boost function you see now. Making games at PlatinumGames is often like this, where the staff start rolling with ideas and don’t stop until they’ve made their way into the game.
Boost may stand out most for its enabling of high speed movement, but it is also integral when Sam is jumping over things, or when he does other, more subtle, quick actions. Moreover, they don’t stand out as much as the jets on his legs, but Sam also has the same jets on his arms, which allow him to put even more force behind his punches. Kind of like a rocket punch where the hand doesn’t go flying off! It looks like something dangerous enough that if he misused the function of the suit, Sam would end up with two dislocated shoulders.
There are tons of these little details in Sam’s ARS suit. If you are into this sort of thing, keep your eyes peeled!
Hello everyone. Thank you all for reading the blog here. My name is Takeo Kido, and I was in charge of the special effects for Vanquish.
Many of you may be wondering what I mean by effects. Simply put, effects can be something in-game that we render to represent explosions, crashes, fragments, smoke, fire, sparks, jets, lighting, bullets, shell casings, missiles, beams, etc. Basically think of something like that, and you are probably thinking about effects.
So now on to the effects in Vanquish.
At the beginning of the project, the director of Vanquish, professing his absolute hatred for crawling along slowly in games, declared, “We aren’t going to let the player get away with hanging out in cover as long as he likes. We are going to force them forwards.” He added, “The enemies are robots. When you kill them, they blow up. We are going to put as many of them on-screen as we possibly can, especially the grunts.” Those words made me feel like we were going to make a game, that graphically-speaking, would be far flashier than the normal human versus human shooters on the market.
We wanted to have maximum amplitude, so when the bullets are flying everywhere, you’d want to say, “Somebody save me!” Explosions would be booming around you, and shrapnel would be flying everywhere. Alright. Let’s just keep it simple and hit them over the head with volume. Let’s make that the calling card for Vanquish’s special effects. At the risk of causing a misunderstanding, we were going with quantity over quality because in the end quantity would be quality. Of course, if we just went simply with quantity the graphics of the game would suffer, and that would mean abject failure, so we had to aim for a baseline quality level and then open the valves.
I figured that it would make things a bit hard on us, but I’d make due. Once the direction we were going to take was decided, actually doing the work would be the easy part, because any time you’d find yourself against a wall, you could just chose the path of more volume.
However, if I just turned off my brain and increased the number of effects carelessly, the graphics and processing would both take a hit and it wouldn’t let us make the kind of action-heavy game that we were after. It would be up to the programmers and designers in charge to show their skill/combined efforts in figuring out how to either make really expressive effects that were ‘cheap’ to compute, or how to get the most out of the processing budget by making scenes as cool as possible.
As a result of all this scheming and planning, we were able to put really substantial effects into Vanquish. It appears that there is tons going on, both small and large, and in reality, there is a ton going on. Things are flying all over the place.
I’m probably the only one interested in this, but I think the shrapnel in Vanquish is really good. The huge slabs of concrete are nice, but I can’t get enough of the small, pulverized shrapnel flying all over the place or the dirty that is floating through the air.
Even when I am watching a movie, I will say, “That’s some nice debris.” Of course, those around me will say, “I have no idea why you are talking about debris.” But I’m living my job, so I see nothing wrong with it!
So there is a glimpse into how we created Vanquish. If you are interested, definitely give it a play, and get wrapped up into the craziness of everything happening around you. If you get used to Vanquish, other shooters are going to seem downright peaceful in comparison. And of course, when you see all of the little individual sparks, if you could think about our work as effects designers, even if only in your imagination, we would be incredibly happy.
Kamiya here, fresh off commenting on the official After Burner Climax blog in the afterglow of happiness that came when I heard news about the digital release. I still can’t believe that they are really going to port the game! It’s great! You may not know, but I’ve been begging for this gem for ages, as I thought After Burner Climax was the simplest and most effective vehicle for showing people what “next-generation” machines can really do. Having these planes flying in crazy environment and taking out entire formations of enemy planes in rapid-fire, is full of spectacle and “gamey-ness” if you ask me. Now put that up in the big screen TV corner of an electronics store, and that would get even grandma and grandpa to stop in their tracks. You don’t need to make things real! The absurd is amazing! With something like that, I could even get my old man, who might have zero interest in games, to beam with pride and say, “That’s some next-gen goodness.”
So the Xbox 360 version will be 800 Microsoft Points, and the PS3 version will be around 900 yen, which makes me wonder if it is OK to be that cheap. I would have bought it even if it was a full priced, packaged release… I’m going to have to unpack my video projector… I’ve been pretty vehement about saying, “PORT IT!” so now I am going to have to put my money where my mouth is and play this game on like a 100 inch screen.
So, since After Burner Climax is one of our brothers-in-Climax so to speak, make sure you pay attention when it is released digitally this spring. And best of luck to everyone working on the title! Oh, and let’s get working on getting Monster Land up on the Virtual Console or XBLA.
Check out the official SEGA After Burner Climax website:
http://sega-afterburner.com/
Wow, I got a little excited and that ended up longer than I thought… Alright, on to the next topic. Last January 30, we held a party for our fans at an authentic Cantonese restaurant on the 39th floor of our office building, the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka. We called the event Platinum Twilight!
32 fans came for the evening and spend some time with the staff here at PlatinumGames. A good time was had by all. Everyone was very well-mannered, and we didn’t get any “delicate” questions (actually, I kind of wish they had asked us more questions…), so it was a really chilled out evening from start to finish. It was nice to hear some much fervent support from so many people, and it made me feel warm and happy that chose a path for my life that included making games.
Having events like this with our fans is something that we did several times during our Clover Studios days, but having it in the very same building as the studio meant that we just had to make an exception to the rule and give the fans a quick tour of the production floor. Even when it is guests working in the industry, we are especially careful about information leaking, so this was the first time that non-studio guests have been show around the inside of the studio. Right now, we are working hard on Vanquish, which at the time had just been announced, but details had not been released, so even I got a bit nervous leading people around and explaining things to them.
We were only about to show people around the studio for a short period of time, but I think that people more or less got a feeling for the fact that one of the important point to the way we make games is breaking down barriers in our office and communicating with each other. I also think they discovered that we really love toys here. People even saw my cluttered desk… At the least, being able to actually talk with the users we normally don’t even get to place a face on was an incredibly important experience which can’t simply be summed up into a few words.
Of course, we are around to create and release interesting games; however, we are not some sort of “game creating machine. Everyone on the staff are each their own person. Just as when you become interested in one of our games, we are interested in the users who play our creations. Things may change depending on the type of game, its scale, or the people behind (or company) it, but I think that I’d like to make games more like they are a folk craft, filled with the warmth of people, rather than some sort of industrial packaged good. I want to keep holding these types of events, so we can share each other’s true dispositions and get a feel for each other’s humanity, instead of persisting in your stock “producer/consumer” relationship.
It was a little bit hard to figure out when the event ended because of how things were run a bit poorly; however, I am very thankful for all of those who took valuable time out of their lives to spend time with us. Thank you so much! To those fans that weren’t selected to be with us, we plan on holding as many events as we can in the future, so definitely enter to attend the next event if you can.
So here are my notes on the event…
l When Bayonetta came out, I played it for 30 hours straight on the day of release! -> I beat Super Mario World the day the SNES came out.
l So that’s the kind of person who wrote those blog entries…
l Valentine’s Day chocolate
l Sorry that the printing on the overseas collector’s editions Scarborough Fair gun is wrong…
l Bayonetta cosplay! Woohoo!
l Hand-made Scarborough Fair guns are awesome.
l I love Resident Evil 2 -> I’m kinda proud that I think we might have been the first kissing scene between two polygonal characters rendered in real-time.
l I like RE2 more than RE1 -> I’m actually a bigger fan of 1. LOL.
l Make a sequel to Bayonetta! -> If schedules work out…
l Make a shooting game! -> I’m not opposed to this…
l Make Viewtiful Joe 3! -> Anyone actually going to play it? LOL
l Sequel to Okami? -> I did have a story for one in my head, but you know…
l My paragons of gaming are God Hand and Vagrant Story -> I, too, am a devotee.
l I like Devil May Cry 2, too. -> WHAT!?
l I want one of the mini-dolls from Bayonetta -> Please keep putting in requests…
l I want one of the Bayonetta love pillows -> Please keep putting in requests…
l I want Bayonetta’s glasses -> Hehehehe…
l The original arcade version of Nemesis (Gradius) is awesome!
l If you live in Juso, you should try the ramen shop near the station. It’s called Yokanise.
l It’s hard to follow Bayonetta’s story -> Sorry bout that…
That wraps it up for the party, but I have one more thing to report in this post. Since Bayonetta game play commentaries seem to be flourishing online, I thought that I, Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya, in my infinite lack of wisdom, would try and make one myself. I gave it a shot on the prologue and here are my results.
I made this by myself at home, so pardon my complete lack of excitement, the poor AV quality, and terrible technique. I am mainly talking about things behind the scenes things like incidents during development, hidden background information, etc. If you are interest, please check the videos out. It’s been more than 3 months since the game came out, so I figure that many of you may be getting close to wrapping up the game, so beware that the videos contain spoilers! I’m not normally the world’s most motivated person, so I’m not sure how long I will continue this (LOL), be have fun nonetheless.
Until next time!
Picture: Our concept designer Ikumi made these for my birthday. She designed the dolls for the game, and then she made these by hand! But instead of making Jeanne, she made Zero…
SEGA Europe and SEGA America can today announce that an online update will be available on Jan 28th for the PlayStation 3 version of BAYONETTA. This online update allows the game to be installed onto the console’s hard drive which significantly decreases the loading times for the game.
The update will automatically be downloaded to PlayStation 3 when users launch BAYONETTA.
BAYONETTA is available now on Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.
Kamiya here. Lately I’ve been listening to the Bayonetta soundtrack while working, but whenever I listen to the music from the latter half of the game, I have some sort of conditioned response to remember being in a nice warm bath, staring back at downtown Osaka (Umeda). It doesn’t leave me in a good mood. Ahhh… The last part of Bayonetta’s development was really brutal, and since I couldn’t go home, using the spa here at our offices in the Umeda Sky Building to wash away the days fatigue was the only thing I really had to look forward to; however, it seems like that left an indelible impression on my psyche. The spa on the 22nd floor has an unbroken view of Umeda, so during the day I would escape the development floor and head up to soak my messed up body in the bath. While soaking, looking out at skyscrapers under the expansive blue sky, it felt so great, like I was in heaven… When I hear the track that plays before you enter Balder’s Room, “Paradiso – Sea of Stars,” or the final track, “The Greatest Jubilee,” I feel completely opposite to the track names themselves; it’s delusional, like I’m getting sucked into hell. Both of the tracks were composed for us by Mr. Rei Kondo… Sorry… They really are good tracks… (LOL)
Speaking of the soundtrack, it isn’t just songs created by PlatinumGames staff. We had the opportunity to work with lots of people outside of the company, which I am really grateful for. From Rei Kondo, to all the staff at GEM Impact, to Hiro-san at SEGA, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I’d love to work together again!
On to the next… A while back Wizard Magazine held an art contest entitled Bayonetta Re-Envisioned, and lots of great works were selected as prize winners. Of course, we had a say in who won, and the staff all looked at all of the entries! The Grand Prize winner was one that I selected personally.
The idea of taking Bayonetta’s design and using that as a starting point for a brand new concept was a rather unusual experiment for a contest, and all of the entries obviously showed a lot of passion, each one amazing in its own right. Because of this, there were works that we weren’t able to include in the contest, but were so good that we just couldn’t get them out of our heads. That is why we would like to point them out and recognize them here on the blog.
First up is a work by Michael Hiscott. Our concept designer Ikumi Nakamura picked this one. The cherry blossom trees in the background mesh well with Bayonetta.
Shimazaki picked a work by Chuan Ju Lee. Bayonetta started with the idea that witches had to be black, but this image boldly threw black right out the window.
Shimazaki also picked another work, this one by Alexander Gordon. It’s fancy, like it could be an illustration in a fairy tale collection.
Next is a work by Brent Patrick Wilson. This one is incredible… It was a design contest for Bayonetta, but Rodin and Jeanne are so prominent that they are the only thing we really noticed.
Actually, this work by Joshua Meeks was the most popular among the team. It looks like it was created with colored pencil on drawing paper (?), but posing Bayonetta in such a dynamic drop kick is the work of no mere amateur.
Finally, we have a work by Randall Louis. The design, expression, and pose got stuck in our heads and we just couldn’t forget it. If there were a CD with this image as its cover, I would buy it without question.
So what do you think? For all the works that we picked up in this post, we are going to send the artists a copy of the Bayonetta soundtrack, which is currently on sale only in Japan! Because of the differences in markets and the such, we aren’t sure if the Bayonetta soundtrack will be released officially overseas; however, this 5 disc set is a gem, filled with what we feel is only the best content, so I think that you will find it enjoyable.
Well, that wraps it up. Until next time!
Picture: A promotional item that will be given out in Germany. Here is a picture of the back…
Picture: It has a Gates of Hell logo. What could be inside?
Picture: A lollipop! Cherry flavored, I think? But it’s got a kick to it. Definitely not that kind of flavor you would encounter in Japan. (LOL)
Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m the head of the PlatinumGames Weapons Development Division (No. of Employees: 1), Muneyuki “Johnny” Kotegawa here.
I’ve seen on the web lately that some fans have been creating Scarborough Fair and All 4 One models. As a member (and leader) of the PlatinumGames Weapons Development Division, I am quite pleased to see these efforts.
I decided to lend my little bit of support by preparing multi-direction and exploded views of the guns in question. Print them out, line them up, and get a taste of how much fun it must be to be Rodin himself. The charms are also included, so I suppose you may want to make these as accessories as well.
So please accept these as a token of my gratitude, and enjoy your lives as witches!
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:
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.
