InFamous Interview

One of Sony’s big games for spring 2009 is Sucker Punch Productions’ Infamous. The open-world superhero game from the Sly Cooper developer appears to be righting the wrongs of previous superhero disappointments. We caught up with Nate Fox, Game Director at Sucker Punch, to find out how the game is developing, his thoughts on enemies, storyline progression, working with the PS3 and if we’ll ever see another Sly Cooper game.

VideoGamer.com: Why did you decide to make Infamous, a brand new idea, and not another Sly Cooper game that your fans were probably expecting?

Nate Fox: When we got done with the third Sly Racoon game, we’d been making these beefy, sneaky, stealthy games, we wanted a change. A big change is to say, well, let’s not be sneaky, let’s break a lot of stuff. Being big graphic novel fans we wanted to make a superhero game, and then it was just a logical progression. What do you need to put in the game to make it feel like you’re going through an origin story of a super hero, which is the coolest part of any super hero story? So we decided to make it open-world. The dominoes fell.

VideoGamer.com: How did you come up with the core idea for the game? Were you influenced by any other titles on the market at the moment?

NF: We were looking at games we thought were cool, and it’s impossible to ignore GTA. Everyone played GTA 3. They think: “This game’s awesome. I wish I could fly.” You want to be a super hero in that world so it feels pretty natural to make that game. Let’s make that game where you get to get new powers, upgrade your powers and interact with people. It’s like manifest destiny. You feel like the game has to be made.

VideoGamer.com: How have you guys handled the storyline? Typically a superhero develops a grudge with a character over a period of time, eventually becoming arch enemies. Is this the same for Infamous?

NF: We’re going to make a modern day superhero game, which gives you the feeling of becoming a superhero. Part of that is powerful, iconic villains. Yes, we have them in the game. I won’t ruin it for you now by telling you about that, but you meet them over the course of the game. The hero is almost only as good as the rogues gallery they fight against. Where’s the Batman without the Joker?

VideoGamer.com: Can you take different paths or will everyone have the same start, middle and end?

NF: There’s a fair amount of choice in the game, mainly in how you choose to interact with the people of the world. Your powers kind of grow based on the choices you make while playing the game. I like to think of it like the Punisher and Batman. The Punisher, when he has to accomplish a mission, he kills everybody. He doesn’t care. He just uses a machine gun and mows them down. Batman doesn’t kill anybody. He’s very thoughtful and surgical in his use of force. We let you have these choices and reward you for making either choice, but have it reflect in how you grow as Cole, the hero of our game.

VideoGamer.com: If you choose to become a darker superhero with a rep for slaughtering enemies, do people in the world look at you differently?

NF: The population has a memory and if they like you, you’ll see it. They’ll take a picture of you on their cell phones, because you’re famous. You have super powers right. This is a real world setting. So if you had super powers all eyes would be on you. If you messed up you’d be condemned, so that’s what you get in the game. Hopefully we’re trying to make a believable experience.

VideoGamer.com: Recent superhero games haven’t been great. We’ve had Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. How is Infamous going to improve on those and be the superhero game everyone wants? Does the fact that you’re not tied to a licence make it easier?

NF: We definitely wanted to make a superhero game and it’s a lot easier to make a superhero game when you start from the ground up saying “what’s going to be a fun set of powers?”. For instance, flying. You want to fly, but when you really can fly it’s boring, because there’s nothing to do and you can hit invisible walls. So it’s really not a good power for a video game. It’s great, the fact that we can invent all of his powers and craft the world around those powers is just fantastic.

VideoGamer.com: In terms of the characters in the game, do you have any well-known voice talent?

NF: We can probably talk to you in a few months. The voice actor you heard for the main character Cole, he’s an actor you wouldn’t know, but his voice is perfect, so we had to cast him. He has this cool dangerous quality to his voice that’s just unparalleled. So we’re really exited to have this guy.

VideoGamer.com: In the game you play as the superhero, but are you a lone figure? Will you have allies?

NF: At Sucker Punch we’re pretty deeply invested in characters and character development. That’s something we really enjoyed in Sly Racoon and we got a lot of positive feedback on. Cole does have a lot of friends in the world. The two most high profile are his buddy Zeik, who is sort of a cross between Fox Mulder and Elvis. So he’s a conspiracy nut, who believed strange powers were real and they were being covered up. In his mind, the fact that these crazy events are going down in Empire City just justifies his world view. He was nobody before this blast devastated the city, but now he can help people out. He’s at home here in the chaos.

Also another character that’s pretty prominent is Cole’s love interest Trish, who lost her sister in the blast that took out a lot of city. She blames Cole for that, so you have to make up with her. Both of them are with you on your adventures.

VideoGamer.com: As a Superhero how do you take missions in the game? I take it there’s not going to be a signal beamed into the sky?

NF: I would love to answer that question in two months time (laughs).

VideoGamer.com: Is this entirely your own engine?

NF: Most of it is the Sucker Punch engine, although we did get some help from Sony. They do some technology sharing, which is fantastic.

VideoGamer.com: This is your first game on PS3. How have you found moving from PS2 to PS3?

NF: It’s nice. As you might imagine, it’s great to have that much more detail in the world. You have a lot more characters running around, particle effects. Everything you want, more, more, more, the hardware can take it. I think you can see it. The graphic quality of the game is really, really strong.

VideoGamer.com: Lots of open world games have a good day/night cycle. Will Infamous have this and does it change anything?

NF: We do have times of day. It creates different moods for the city. Because it’s an open world right, you can run around wherever you want. We do actually have a lot of the city that becomes unlocked over time. You get a huge, huge amount right off the bat. Times of day really help spice things up.

VideoGamer.com: Any plans for multiplayer support?

NF: (Laughs). I would also love to answer that question in two months time.

VideoGamer.com: Any plans for trophies?

NF: Trophies are spectacular, and we’d be suckers not to completely embrace them. It’s like crack, you have to accomplish… the trophy says whatever. Yes, we will have trophies. They are fantastic.

VideoGamer.com: Can you reveal what you might have to do to earn one in the game?

NF: I would hate to ruin the surprise (laughs).

VideoGamer.com: Lots of open-world games seem to get bogged down with collecting items. What’s your view on this?

NF: We’re not really into that so much. Mainly because we want to give you the goods and not have you jump through hoops. The goods, in our mind, is the joy of being able to interact with what we call the crime ecology.

Have you ever walked in a Jungle before?

VideoGamer.com: No.

NF: As you might imagine, a jungle is full of jaguars and snakes and bugs and stuff, and it’s all around you. They are eating each other. It’s not about you. In our world we have this crime ecology where different gangs are fighting, and people are getting mugged. It’s happening whether you’re taking part in it or not. So you walk around and the world is alive. You can spend a lot of time interacting with that. That’s really important to us because that’s the bedrock that we then put our missions into – this world that’s very much alive.

Then the missions that we have, have a very strong beginning, middle and end, where we have big events happen. We want to make you feel like the star, and we want to make sure that if there’s a huge event in the city you’re there for it so the narrative is kind of swirling around you. Our missions are more scripted in nature than Grand Theft Auto.

VideoGamer.com: Are you guys going to have an authentic super hero soundtrack?

NF: I would really, really like to answer this question. I can tell you, we have a really spectacular musician for it, but I can’t say who right now. I’ve not been given the green light to. It’s really cool.

VideoGamer.com: Do you have any plans for a demo pre-release?

NF: We haven’t really figured out if that’s going to happen.

VideoGamer.com: Sucker Punch fans want a new Sly game. Is Sly ever going to come back or are you going down a new route?

NF: Sucker Punch, we only make one game at a time, and we all really focus on it. Right now we’re making Infamous. However, we all really love the Sly franchise and would love to get back to Sly. Right now, in the lifecycle of the PlayStation 3 the people that own them are largely adults. As we get deeper into the lifecycle more kids will have access to them. It makes sense for us to do an adult game or a teen rated game earlier on. I can’t imagine that I won’t make another Sly game in my life. It’s really fun.

VideoGamer.com: Have you looked at the PSP as a platform?

NF: Right now we’re working on the PS3. Not right now we’re not. PSP is pretty exciting. I spend a lot of time on the bus, so it’d be nice to contribute to gamers around the world who also play games on the bus.

VideoGamer.com: Recently Dennis Dyack has said that games shouldn’t be shown until it’s finished or almost finished. His concern is that people judge games on first impressions even if it changes dramatically during development. Are you happy showing your game throughout development?

NF: I don’t know the answer to that. I do know that I’m crazy happy to finally be able to talk about the game to people after working on it for years. It’s exciting to get people’s feedback and to see what’s resonating with people and what’s not. We’re going to ship in spring 2009 and between now and then we’re only going to make the game better. I really value people’s comments. We’re trying to make it as good as possible. I don’t know if it’s good or bad to show it early, but I know I’m really happy that we’re showing it early.

VideoGamer.com: So is it worth people posting on forums if they feel really strongly about something in your game?

NF: Yeah, I completely look at people’s feedback. You want to make a game people want to play.

VideoGamer.com: There’s a different view from certain developers. Some devs seem to have a more closed development whereas others are open to feedback.

NF: I think you need to have a really strong concept of what you’re trying to make. Our core concept is: Infamous is the game that will give you the feeling of becoming a modern day superhero. Anything that supports that statement we’ll do. Anything that doesn’t support that statement, we will cut, just to try and give you this very pure interactive experience. We get a lot of comments like: “I wish there was a simulation where you could raise squirrels in the park as pets.” I would say that probably doesn’t support our statement of becoming a modern day superhero. We can’t do everything. If somebody has a great idea that supports that statement then we’d be nuts not to try and get it in.

VideoGamer.com: Thanks for your time Nate.