Do you think the art style of Sunset Overdrive will keep it fresh, even when graphics improve elsewhere in the industry?
I think creating stylised graphics is one of our biggest strengths at Insomniac although we have made realistic games before, we tend to do our best when we come back and make stylised projects; it lets us take a more freeform approach to colour palettes, form, animation even audio. It is more timeless, it doesn't age as quickly, and it’s much more fun for our team; we aren’t adhering to any particular
set of rules for what works.
The over-the-shoulder camera operates differently in Sunset Overdrive compared to what we’ve seen in other games recently. Can you tell us about that?
We’ve been in the third-person genre since [Spyro The Dragon], and continued that with Ratchet, too. Even though we went to first person for the Resistance series, third person is definitely a strength of ours. We focus a lot on camera and controls to make sure they feel invisible: when you notice the camera, then it’s a problem. We did a lot of experimentation in this game because the player’s so agile, we noticed if you move the camera in too close, you limit the field of view and you can’t see somewhere you can grind on, or vault from, or bounce off.
The camera is dynamic we pull it back when you’re balancing or grinding, but move it in when you’re boosting to give that impression of speed. It’s a complex challenge, but something we love taking on and it’s super important to get it right in a game like Sunset Overdrive.
Sunset Overdrive seems like a game that takes the tropes of the genre and flips them on their head. Was that your intention with Sunset Overdrive?
We always wanted to present a very unique style and tone for Sunset one that was very different from all these other games that focus on taking themselves very seriously. But we’ve also got a story that runs through the game that is about self discovery, but it’s delivered in a way that we think is fresh because the character is constantly aware that he’s in this situation that they make light of all the time. I hope players find it funny, and compelling, and in some ways, emotionally fulfilling.
Sunset Overdrive is a very busy game what was the biggest challenge in making the visual language accessible, and communicating to the player how the game works?
We failed several times to make traversal work when we were prototyping [Sunset Overdrive], and the challenge was moving away from the mindset of gamers that were used to playing cover shooters, and designers that were used to designing them. Once we began to break that mental barrier on team by prototyping the grinding, getting the speeds correct, looking at how far apart objects should
be we had to make sure it was still fun to kill enemies while you’re moving around. That’s the most important thing for us. It’s a difficult combination of aiming mechanics, subtly of camera movement, enemy behaviour and weapon behaviour that all need to work in concert to make the game fun.
I think creating stylised graphics is one of our biggest strengths at Insomniac although we have made realistic games before, we tend to do our best when we come back and make stylised projects; it lets us take a more freeform approach to colour palettes, form, animation even audio. It is more timeless, it doesn't age as quickly, and it’s much more fun for our team; we aren’t adhering to any particular
set of rules for what works.
The over-the-shoulder camera operates differently in Sunset Overdrive compared to what we’ve seen in other games recently. Can you tell us about that?
We’ve been in the third-person genre since [Spyro The Dragon], and continued that with Ratchet, too. Even though we went to first person for the Resistance series, third person is definitely a strength of ours. We focus a lot on camera and controls to make sure they feel invisible: when you notice the camera, then it’s a problem. We did a lot of experimentation in this game because the player’s so agile, we noticed if you move the camera in too close, you limit the field of view and you can’t see somewhere you can grind on, or vault from, or bounce off.
The camera is dynamic we pull it back when you’re balancing or grinding, but move it in when you’re boosting to give that impression of speed. It’s a complex challenge, but something we love taking on and it’s super important to get it right in a game like Sunset Overdrive.
Sunset Overdrive seems like a game that takes the tropes of the genre and flips them on their head. Was that your intention with Sunset Overdrive?
We always wanted to present a very unique style and tone for Sunset one that was very different from all these other games that focus on taking themselves very seriously. But we’ve also got a story that runs through the game that is about self discovery, but it’s delivered in a way that we think is fresh because the character is constantly aware that he’s in this situation that they make light of all the time. I hope players find it funny, and compelling, and in some ways, emotionally fulfilling.
Sunset Overdrive is a very busy game what was the biggest challenge in making the visual language accessible, and communicating to the player how the game works?
We failed several times to make traversal work when we were prototyping [Sunset Overdrive], and the challenge was moving away from the mindset of gamers that were used to playing cover shooters, and designers that were used to designing them. Once we began to break that mental barrier on team by prototyping the grinding, getting the speeds correct, looking at how far apart objects should
be we had to make sure it was still fun to kill enemies while you’re moving around. That’s the most important thing for us. It’s a difficult combination of aiming mechanics, subtly of camera movement, enemy behaviour and weapon behaviour that all need to work in concert to make the game fun.
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