My name is Steve Hunt and I’m really excited to be able to talk about my PSN game Beat Hazard Ultra and how I wrote the game from scratch on my own, in my bedroom.

About the Game

Beat Hazard Ultra is a twin stick arcade shooter that is entirely powered by YOUR music! Just copy some music on to your PS3 hard drive, or use the built in songs choose a track, and be dazzled by the eye-bleeding visuals and enjoy blasting away enemy ships to the sound of your favourite pumping tunes.

Everything you see in the game is dictated by the music in some way, from the firepower of your ship to the number and patterns of enemies coming at you. Each track produces a unique (but, most importantly, repeatable) level.

In addition to Standard play, Ultra has plenty of cool gameplay features to keep you busy, including Boss Rush and Survival modes, 23 perks to unlock and 42 in-game challenges that award 14 trophies. There are also three awesome tactical weapons: Micro Missiles, Reflect Shield and Ultra Beam to unlock & upgrade, turning you into a mean music-driven badass.

Beat Hazard Ultra is designed to be a real ‘in yo face’ experience. It doesn’t pull any punches as the visuals pump and pulse to the music. However, you’ll be glad to know you can turn this down if you need too. But if you’re in the party mood you can turn the visuals up to 200% for the most intense action you can get.

And if you’re feeling like a challenge, you can jump online and play either co-op or head to head. Online play is crazy! Watching two powered up ships on Suicidal mode with 200% visuals is completely mental.

About me and the Development for PS3

This game was written from scratch by just me, in my bedroom. I started writing games when I was 14 back in the 8-bit days. After graduating from university, I spent 15 years working as a designer and programmer for bigger studios such as D.I.D, Rage Games and, most recently, Juice Games and THQ. Although I enjoyed working with the big guys I always wanted to go back to bedroom coding and working for myself. I got the push I needed to go Indie two years ago when I was made redundant. That was when Beat Hazard was born and, due to its success, I’ve not looked back since.

I’ve always been a massive PlayStation fanboy (I even had a Net Yaroze back in the day, anyone remember that?). I was ecstatic when Sony approved Beat Hazard Ultra for release on PSN last year. Once I’d finished jumping around and started to think of the challenge ahead, I suddenly realised I might have bitten off more than I could chew. Attempting to write a console game from scratch is a huge challenge and I knew I had a lot of work ahead.

And a massive challenge it was! However, as with any big project, I just broke it down and took it a day at a time. With the help of the awesome support guys at Sony, six months later here it is – Beat Hazard Ultra running on the PS3! I can’t tell you how rewarding that feels!

In that time I’ve learnt many new skills, from writing a renderer on the PS3, to coding a Digital Signal Processor which runs asynchronously on the PlayStation SPUs and is used to analyse the music in real time.

I get many emails from budding game designers and programmers asking about going Indie. Well here you go – even one guy can write a game for PSN, and it’s all there for you if you have the time and dedication to go for it. I hope Beat Hazard inspires more Indie guys out there.

Beat Hazard Ultra should be out this September. I really hope you enjoy the game.

I’ll be hanging out here on the blog to answer any question about Ultra or its development process. You can also email me here, or follow me on Twitter here. Join the Ultra facebook fan page here or check out my website here.

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It’s always a pleasure to speak with Ken Levine, creative director for the award-winnging BioShock and the upcoming dystopian epic BioShock Infinite. Ken’s been good enough to drop by the PlayStation.Blog before, bringing news of PlayStation Move support as well as an upcoming PS Vita BioShock game, but we’ve never been able to immortalize him in crisp HD video.

Until now. In Rey‘s lovingly produced video feature, Levine touches on the origins of Songbird, the enigmatic guardian of Columbia who jealously seeks ownership of a supernaturally gifted girl named Elizabeth. “There’s a lot of mystery around Songbird, and I think people will be surprised by his relationship with Elizabeth — it’s a complicated relationship that has elements of light and elements of darkness.” He also muses on the PlayStation Move motion controller and Killzone 3‘s much-praised FPS implementation, as well as PS3 gaming as a whole. “I think the platform is really hitting its stride right now,” he told me. “The exclusives have been great and it’s been a really interesting platform to watch develop.”

PlayStation.Blog: How is work proceeding with the PS3 version of BioShock Infinite?

Ken Levine, President and Creative Director, Irrational Games: Look, I’m not blowing smoke here. We were Xbox-exclusive for the original game, and now we have something to demonstrate to the PlayStation 3 audience. We love the platform. I have three PS3s at my house. It’s a great game system and I love the kinds of games that are coming out on PSN.

The PS3 has a different architecture than we had encountered before, but because we helped port BioShock to the PS3, we’ve become very familiar with the platform. And we have a new engine for BioShock Infinite, so we started the game knowing we’d be on PS3. We started thinking about how to leverage the multiple cores from the start, so we’re in a much better place this time on PS3.

PSB: Are you working anything into BioShock Infinite that you wanted to include in the original game but couldn’t?

Levine: Combat, for one. In the original BioShock, we gave people this huge tool set but never demanded that they use it. We want to expand the player’s gaming vocabulary — I think that’s one missed opportunity with the original BioShock.

So now we have these traditional BioShock spaces, but also big, expansive areas where enemies are hundreds of yards away. You’re fighting one guy, or 15 guys, so crowd control becomes meaningful. Long-range weapons like sniper rifles become very meaningful.

PSB: What’s been the most challenging aspect of creating BioShock Infinite?

Levine:With this game we got behind this idea of building this relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. We’re really focused on a relationship that is earned, a relationship that is believable. Our focus is, what forms a bond between two people? Making sacrifices for each other — that will build a relationship very quickly. Not just, “these two people are drawn together because they’re attractive.” The same way that in BioShock, I didn’t want Atlas to betray the character so much as the gamer. When Andrew Ryan tells you that you’ve been manipulated the whole time, you think, “Screw you, man!” In the same way, I want the player to build this relationship with Elizabeth in BioShock Infinite. That’s the challenge of what we’re doing.

PSB: Replayability is a major concern for single-player-focused games. Have you been thinking about ways to encourage replay, maybe a New Game Plus mode? Is that up for debate?

Levine: I’ll just say that yes, we do think a lot about this topic. I can’t talk about what we’re thinking specifically. If we’re going to do it, we want to find a BioShock way to do it. People will see more as time goes on.

PSB: Are you intrigued about any gaming applications for stereoscopic 3D?

Levine: For me, it’s all about having something interesting to say with it. I’m never interested in technology in terms of checking a box. We didn’t do multiplayer for BioShock because we thought we would be checking a box if we did. Anything we do has to be unique, interesting, and be appropriate for the game.

So we’re thinking about that stuff now. So if we have that, then that’s a road we may go down.

PSB: What’s your secret for building mystique and mystery in a game like BioShock Infinite?

Levine: I think it’s an issue of detail, of the creators not being satisfied until they really understand their worlds, which takes time to develop. Some creators carry these things in their heads for a long time, or have had a lot of time to make a lot of mistakes.

It’s about consistency, having a consistent aesthetic. It’s difficult. It requires that you not be satisfied with any old thing. It’s the difference between some guy making a crappy action film versus the Coen brothers. They care about the details, they care about the consistency from frame to frame. Each Coen brothers movie feels like a full world. Look at A Serious Man versus True Grit versus Miller’s Crossing. They’re such different worlds, but they’re so rich. There’s no magic formula: It comes down to sweating all the details.

PSB: Based on your Tweets, you’re pretty positive on PS Vita. What do you like about the concept?

Levine: I’m a gamer, right? I like playing games on iPad… but deep down I want that level of control. What’s cool about PS Vita is that it seems to have all the benefits of an iPad-type device with the touchscreen and motion controls. But it has dual analog sticks….and I love shooters. You can finally play a shooter, a real shooter, on a handheld. Seriously, that’s a hole in my soul right now. Now I’ll have something I can play real shooters on, and that’s really important to me. It’s awesome.

I Tweeted a while ago that it did everything but make me an omelet. It sort of has everything and the kitchen sink in it, which is great as a gamer.

PSB: Andrew Ryan thought free enterprise was the solution to the world’s problems; the citizens of Columbia seem to think it’s purity. What does Ken Levine think?

Levine: [laughs] I don’t like to say what I think. It would just get in the way of what the games are saying. I love that some people play BioShock and think that I’m an Objectivist, or that I’m a rabid anti-capitalist. I don’t really Tweet much about politics, not because I don’t have opinions but because we make games that touch on politics.

If you’ve played the games, I think you can probably suss where I’m at. We tend to make games about characters caught between larger forces. They’re just trying to get by, and they’re surrounded by ideologies and incredibly powerful people. I think a lot of people feel that way. I sure do. I have strong feelings about this or that…but the only thing, politically, that I come out about is gay marriage, which I feel so strongly about. People should be able to marry who the hell they want, and it affects so many people that I care about. I’d rather not have a career than not talk about that.

In general, I get very nervous when people are absolutely certain about anything.

PSB: Are you looking forward to UNCHARTED 3? Are you a fan of the series?

Levine: Yeah, of course! How can you not be an UNCHARTED fan? They’ve managed to make characters that are so appealing, you just love being around them. There aren’t a lot of interesting characters in video games, and that’s why Amy and Evan and their team are so good at what they do. The technology is so competent, the controls feel responsive, the characters are great…how can you not love UNCHARTED?

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When we first heard about the opportunity to not only work with Wizards of the Coast but on the Dungeons and Dragons property itself, well let’s just say that the nerdgasm around the studio was at an all-time high. We went with Action-RPG as the genre based off of studio competency, market trends and general interest (basically, we thought it was cool and knew we can do a good job of it.) We knew that this the best fit for our first D&D game.

We wanted to make the game as accessible as possible, just let players play, harkening back to the ‘old school’ days of gaming. You should be able to play alone, call a buddy over and play locally or jump online and find a party of adventurers to group with. There are definitely development issues with balancing and performance having a downloadable game that is fully featured but we felt strongly about the usability of the game. Besides, isn’t that what D&D is about, freedom of play?

It was also important to us that the player has a persistent character without restrictions that he/she can continually develop whether they were playing alone or with others. No playing as a “henchman” or sidekick; the XP you get is yours, the loot you grab you keep. Much like the pen and paper D&D game, your character is yours to do whatever you want with. We started going through all of the D&D materials we can get our hands on and we set up a few pen and paper campaigns in the studio. We looked at D&D’s current rule set as well as older ones and found that the 4th edition rule lends itself closer to video gaming than any other. We chose to use the 4th edition rules as a starting point for all of our systems. The first task was then to re-create the system digitally. Although it is a huge task to take the rule set and re-make it for a video game, that was not the biggest challenge. The bigger challenge was to take the system and tune, tweak and re-design it to support an action RPG title.

For the action component, the “moment to moment” gameplay, needed to be fun and as with any action title out there worth their weight that means making the action satisfying. We started at the root. 1 player, 1 enemy. First is making the hit and react, then make that satisfying. Then we boarded out with multiple ranges with multiple attack types (swords, arrows, spells, etc.) After that comes the real fun – hordes and multiplayer.

One of the biggest part of the D&D experience is character development. So we started laying out the 4th edition rules against the overall playtime we were going to have. Very early on we decided to concentrate on the first 10 levels of the 30 level characters within the rule set. Pen and paper campaign can take a long time to play through and even though “time” is accelerated in a video game, we need to have a good character development curve to pace out all the abilities and powers that a player would earn. This was by far the longest part of the gameplay development process – the balancing. These RPG systems all rely on the moment to moment action components to determine what the frequency of XP acquisition is through the DPS (damage per second) so that a proper flow to the action/RPG experience can be set.

The other big part of the role playing experience is the narrative. The narrative is arguably the most important part of the pen and paper experience and it is equally important here. It is the context to your actions, the “why?” As with any great fantasy story we needed a great villain. This villain needed to be hated by the player motivating them to continue on, yet cool in his/her ruthlessness. Someone you wanted to face and best. And thus, Rezlus, the High Cleric of the Zhentarim was born. With Rezlus comes his… wait for it… evil plan to conquer the Dalelands and specifically, Daggerdale. The history of Daggerdale and the Zhentarim black network was a perfect backdrop for the game. Rezlus’ plan plays on the events of Daggerdale’s bloody past that fans of D&D will surely recognize.

So we have fun and satisfying action, a deep robust role playing system plus a good story. Now comes the hard part, making them work seamlessly together throughout the entire play experience…

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We’re excited to bring you the latest dev diary in the Resistance 3 PlayStation Blog Dev Diary series. This one focuses on bringing back some of the classic Resistance: Fall of Man gameplay like the weapon wheel and the great heritage that Ratchet & Clank has provided the Resistance franchise. If you missed out on the previous dev diaries, you can catch up with these two links here and here.

There is a ton of exciting news about Resistance 3 these days. There’s much more to come, with preview build coverage from many outlets coming very soon, and next week, we will be staging a Resistance 3 panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 21st at 5 p.m. in Room 7AB.

Go behind the scenes with Marcus Smith (Creative Director), Kevin Grow (Animation Director), Grant Hollis (Art Director), and voice actors Robin Atkin Downes (Joseph Capelli) and Crispin Freeman (Charlie Tent) from the cast and discover the secrets behind Insomniac’s vision of a post-apocalyptic 50′s era. Attendees will be able to ask their burning questions in an exclusive Q&A session and might – just might – get a first look at a brand-new way for you to resist with your friends.

Can’t make it to Comic-Con? Don’t fret, Geoff Keighley and the gang at Gametrailers TV will be bringing you tons of new Resistance 3 content with a full episode shot on location at Insomniac‘s Burbank studio on the night of Thursday, July 21st on Spike TV. We’re stoked to show you brand new single-player gameplay, a brand new multiplayer objective mode, as well as brand new interviews with the team!

That’s all for now – we’ve got tons to come, so to keep up with the latest news, previews and footage on Resistance 3, be sure to follow Insomniac Games on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, or join the conversation on MyResistance.Net.

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We are working hard here at Insomniac HQ, putting the finishing touches on Resistance 3 in time for our early September release date. We were happy with all of our fantastic comments on the first video in our Dev Diary series in co-operation with the PlayStation Blog, which focused on environments and storyline. Many of you immediately asked “when is the next one coming?” I’m happy to answer that the latest video is now available! It focuses on Resistance 3′s vicious new Chimeran enemies and the significant artificial intelligence improvements we’re making, including enhanced group tactics.

We hope to continue to bring these to you every couple of weeks as we head up to Resistance 3‘s September 7th launch. If you haven’t already, head to your favorite game retailer and pre-order your copy of Resistance 3 to get access to unique bonus items. That’s all for now, hope you enjoy the dev diary, and I’ll try to answer your questions in the comments!

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