Roland Fauster, manager of the German PlayStation.Blog, recently spoke to VooFoo Studios‘ Technology Director, Mark Williams, about his work on the excellent PS3 pool game, Hustle Kings.

Programming is maths and, in Hustle Kings, you’ve had to calculate friction, respect natural laws of spin and momentum, and have all these balls clashing with each other in chaotic order. Who explained the physics and to you, Stephen Hawking?

Haha, well yes, you are right: programming is maths. Unfortunately, they don’t teach you the equations for moving balls around a pool table in school. However, for most things a bit of imagination and intuition can help to combine several basic rules of maths and physics to do things that actually look quite clever.

For the really difficult stuff, we have to rely on other people’s work and, luckily for us, one guy by the name of Wayland Marlow spent years researching exactly how billiard balls react with one another and with the table. We use his research extensively in Hustle Kings to get the motion of the balls as close to real life as possible.

Are you aiming to simulate reality or to gain the most entertaining gaming experience?

I think it’s always very important to concentrate on the gaming experience first and foremost. There is no point in having a realistic game if it is no fun to play. Of course, much of the time, realism and fun complement one another.

Sometimes, you have to stray away from reality for the purposes of the game – after all, why make a game when you can do exactly the same things in real life? As an obvious example, we provide the option to use an aiming assistant in Hustle Kings, showing the path of the ball – it’s far from realistic but really helps beginners get into the game and makes it much more accessible to a wider audience.

Does Hustle Kings only appeal to cue sport enthusiasts or does it have wider appeal?

The popularity of pool and snooker has created a market for games like Hustle Kings, and I do feel that our audience is even wider than that. Hustle Kings is very ‘pick up and play’ so appeals to the most casual of gamers, and it is very accessible, allowing even novice pool players to get into the game quickly.

At the same time, the realistic physics and competitive AI provide for an enjoyable and challenging experience for the more hardcore gamers, as well as pro pool and snooker players. From the outset, we wanted to ensure we could offer something to everyone and I think we’ve achieved that.

Why did you decide to release Hustle Kings via PlayStation Store and does it have the scope to become a full Blu-ray Disc release?

We never felt there was ever any need for Hustle Kings to be a full-priced game. If you take the DLC into account, there is a huge amount on offer there: plenty of game modes, including all of the popular pool variants; snooker; trickshots; bonus games; and several high quality pool halls.

If we did a full priced game, we wouldn’t be able to offer much more, but it would cost more. The reason Hustle Kings is cheaper than a full priced game is not because there is less of a game there, but simply because we don’t have the overheads of packaging and distribution to contend with – I do strongly believe that for this reason, digital distribution is the way of the future.

Every project has a beginning and an end. How long do you think will you continue to support the community with DLC and Patches?

We have always listened to the community for feedback, and will continue to do so. We intend to support Hustle Kings with additional content, DLC, patches and so on for as long as there is demand for it. There are active Hustle Kings forums on our website, where we welcome suggestions. We have many more ideas to enhance Hustle Kings, so watch this space.

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You’ve seen the debut trailer for BioShock Infinite. You’ve read Creative Director Ken Levine’s thoughts on expanding the award-winning formula of BioShock from the murky depths of Rapture to the soaring heights of Columbia. You’ve even bookmarked the 10 Things You Should Know About BioShock Infinite article on IrrationalGames.com.

What’s left? Watching 10 uninterrupted minutes of BioShock Infinite gameplay video, of course. Get to it!

Irrational Games’ Ken Levine was good enough to return to the PlayStation.Blog.EU and answer more questions about BioShock Infinite’s gameplay. While nitty-gritty details such as control layouts and the weapon arsenals are still over the horizon — the game isn’t due out until 2012, after all — Levine was able to shed light on a host of topics including the rollercoaster ride that is Sky-Line combat, long-range sniping in Columbia’s broad vistas, and how the mysterious companion Elizabeth makes for a potent partner.

Sid Shuman: How does BioShock Infinite build on and evolve the classic gameplay of BioShock? What were your broad goals?

Ken Levine, Creative Director, BioShock Infinite: Players had access to a lot of different tools in BioShock, but the game’s deliberately claustrophobic environments and relatively low enemy counts meant that a lot of combat encounters ended up playing out in similar ways. There were plenty of opportunities for players to make fuller use of their toolset, but it was also possible to just take the path of least resistance much of the time–which usually meant Electro-Bolt and shotgun.

In BioShock Infinite, we want the range of combat encounters to live up to the diverse toolset of weapons and powers. There are, of course, those small scale BioShock-esque interiors. But there are also the breathtaking, expansive outdoor locations you would expect in a huge floating city. Instead of just fighting a few enemies at once, you could be facing more than a dozen. Area effect weapons matter because you might face many enemies at once, and crowd control abilities matter because there are crowds to control.

SS: How do the crowds of enemies change BioShock Infinite’s combat style and pacing?

KL: There’s a famous saying: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” That’s kind of how it was in the original BioShock. You walked down a tight, restricted corridor with Electrobolt in one hand and a shotgun in the other, and that was an effective way to deal with most of the enemies. There are obviously going to be some different weapons in BioShock Infinite, and also more weapons. You’re not going to be restricted to just the eight weapons of your radial.

One of the reasons we wanted to really expand the scale of the environment and the number of enemies was to create situations where certain tools would have clear strengths and weaknesses based upon what you were up against. There is no perfect combination or an ideal set of tools, and there’s going to be a larger variety of weapons and powers. We wanted to show that even familiar weapons like the shotgun are not always the right tool for the job. And the sniper rifle–unlike BioShock’s crossbow–actually has a specific function because of the extreme scale of our environments.

(more…)

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Two lives, two fates, one legendary journey: the time is drawing nearer for you to experience the brand new cinematic adventure from Ninja Theory, the creators of Heavenly Sword. ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West features an original tale co-written by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), dramatic cutscenes co-directed by Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and a haunting musical score composed by Nitin Sawhney.

Now you can find out everything you need to know about this epic journey by posing your questions to the game’s star and co-director, Andy Serkis. To get in on the action all you need to do is head over to the official PlayStation Forums and post your questions, or simply submit them via a blog comment. As always, the best ones will be chosen.

Check back to eu.playstation.com in the coming weeks to see if your questions were chosen and embark on a journey to the West.

Don’t forget to download the demo for ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West from PlayStation Store today to get a taste of the action.

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Following last week’s post introducing the companions you’ll be able to roam with in Fallout: New Vegas, Bethesda sent me this video offering insight into the game’s story.

I’m a total sucker for two video game distractions: looting and poker. I don’t know what this says about me, other than that I’m going to be a very sleepy young man for a few weeks after Fallout: New Vegas is released.

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While I wasn’t able to attend Tokyo Game Show this year, I was able to get some questions out to Fumito Ueda, creator of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, which is coming to PlayStation 3 in 2011.

Here’s the trailer shown at TGS, in case you missed it, and thanks to all the people that helped me come up with questions via Twitter and Facebook earlier in the week.

Since you announced The Last Guardian at E3 last year you have been fairly quiet. What have you been up to?

We’ve been working on the final concept for the game over the past year, and I’m pleased to say that we have now locked that down and we’ve moved into full production. We learned from our experiences on ICO and Shadow of the Colossus that doing Research & Development at the same time as making the game slows down the process, so we decided to spend more time on R&D up front, testing out technologies and mechanics, before moving into full production. I’m glad to say that, right now, we’re in crunch mode.

What are you able to reveal at TGS that our readers didn’t already know?

Two new pieces of information are that the beast is officially called Trico and that the game is coming out in time for Christmas 2011.

What are you trying to show us with this new trailer?

The last trailer we released sparked internet rumours of a sad ending, because of the arrows stuck in Trico’s back, and with people remembering the endings of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. We wanted to neutralise any assumption of the direction of the game. In addition, we wanted to show a bit more of the emotional attachment between the boy and Trico. The relationship between these two is core to the game experience.

What about the relationship between the hero and Trico – where does the balance of power lie?

The simple answer is it’s very similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors. There will be times when Trico is paper, the boy is rock and the enemy is scissors. It’s a triangular relationship where strength is relative to the situation. For example, as you’ll see in the video, Trico can’t squeeze into small places and the boy can’t climb to high places, so they help each other out.

How would you compare the boy’s relationship with Trico in the Last Guardian to Wander’s relationship with Agro in Shadow of the Colossus?

In Shadow of the Colossus, people really liked the relationship between the two. The difference lies in the fact that Agro and Wander already had an established bond, whereas the relationship between Trico and the boy is new, and it develops throughout the game.

Compared to Agro, who was a fully grown, tamed character, Trico is wilder, almost adolescent, and this comes through in his expressive personality which adds humour to the game.

How did it feel to revisit ICO and Shadow of the Colossus?

This is something I’ve always wanted to revisit on PS3 and I’m very happy to be able to accomplish this with even higher production values. I’m delighted with how it has turned out. Unfortunately, unlike the movie industry, videogames sometimes get forgotten when people move onto the next generation, so this is a great opportunity to makes these games accessible to both fans of the series and to a new audience.

What convinced you to support stereoscopic 3D with the new versions of ICO and SOTC and what does this add to the experience.

I’d first like to clarify that 3D is not essential to enjoy these experience – the HD element in itself brings a lot of life to the games. However, 3D will bring even more.

Both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were designed with a huge depth of field in mind, demonstrated through the vast landscapes. Although 3D technology wasn’t at the point that it is now, it was certainly something we considered. Now that the technology allows it, it gives the product even more ‘juice’ so to speak. I’ve already experienced this throughout the trial build and was overwhelmed with the results.

That’s how much the 3D element brings to the title.

And finally, what are your strongest influences?

There are so many things; it’s hard to pick just one. But most importantly, I’m always thinking about creating a game that I’d want to play but that doesn’t currently exist – I want to make that happen.

As a creator, I think that developing a truly immersive experience and creating a believable reality even within a fictional world is very important and unique to the interactive nature of gaming.

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