With Gravity Rush releasing in June, I wanted to share how the artwork of this game came together as well as how the style of “Bande Dessinee” influenced the title’s art direction.

Gravity Rush incorporates the theme of Bande Dessinee (BD), a popular Franco-Belgian comic book art style. There are various types of BD style and they can be perceived in many ways. We first approached an element of BD we thought would fit well into the pre-existing game art. One of the differences between realistic expression and schematic expression represented by BD is that BD exaggerates the information that author wants to convey to the audience. By doing so, it conveys more of the accurate information that the author wants to be recognized.

While considering the gravity mechanic in the game, we brainstormed with these elements in mind. If a player can move around freely, the level should not only be big horizontally, but also vertically. Therefore, we designed the city with multiple levels of layers and structures.

Additionally, the line drawing method was used to exaggerate buildings and allow them to be more easily recognized. The color of the sky was also enhanced to give additional sensory information to the players.

The direction we chose to use for the game’s graphics conveys the necessary information with exaggeration that matches the player’s sensation. Taking that into consideration, we also wanted to use line drawings, the characteristic of BD and the simulation of beautiful air effects. I think the broader the game art expression becomes, the more interactive a game becomes.

Another important factor is the concept of a “living background.” This is the idea of bringing the game world itself to life so that users can actually ‘feel’ it. Basically, players can interact with certain objects in the game and they can actually get into the scenery within the remote background. Environmental background is not a piece of a picture, but it actually exists within the game, and we can use that background with our gameplay. That was our ultimate goal. By combining the unique art style of BD and the idea of living background, we created a sensation that could only be brought to life with a video game.

As a special treat, I am happy to share this concept movie that we created during the early stages of Gravity Rush’s development.

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Anyone that has received a PSN message informing them that a friend of theirs has poked an otter with a stick will be delighted to hear that Frobisher Says! is now available to all PS Vita owners for free.

If you don’t know what Frobisher Says! Is all about, here’s an introduction from developer Ricky Haggett from Honeyslug:

Frobisher Says is a surreal party game, where players must obey the whims of a strange little man called Frobisher, who is terribly spoilt and entirely used to getting his own way. He’s terribly demanding and a bit frightening if crossed, but his orders are often quite whimsical – he might insist on players doing things like “poke an otter with a stick”, “deliver my pudding on a toy train”, or “smile at some ladies (but not at the badgers!)”. He might even ask them to prise open all the clams in his spaghetti marinara – despite the fact that he doesn’t even like clams.

The game showcases all of the features of the Vita – from front and rear touch, to motion, camera, and face-detection, as well as traditional controls. It’s designed specifically to be played with up to 8 friends, but you can play alone for high scores too, if you don’t have any friends.

There are over 50 games, each with a unique art style – we worked with a large and diverse art team from all kinds of backgrounds, from comic books to pixel art, collage to medical illustration – so that as the games change, the art does too, spiraling players down into Frobisher’s crazy, confusing world.

Frobisher Says! will be available to download on PS Vita with today’s PlayStation Store update, and it’s free. A DLC pack featuring 15 brand-new mini-games will also be released on May 2nd priced just €1.99/£1.59.

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Developing new and inventive missions for the Bonus Challenge Tower was something our talented Design team at Netherrealm Studios jumped at. It allowed us to not only come up with unique and innovative scenarios that took advantage of the numerous PS Vita features (such as the touchscreen and the accelerometer), but also a long-awaited opportunity to create challenges based around the DLC characters that released after the launch of the PS3 version. Yes, that means Freddy Krueger missions!

With Mortal Kombat finally emerging Friday on PS Vita game card and via PSN, our designers at NetherRealm Studios wanted to share some of their favorite missions from the all-new Challenge Tower. We hope you guys have just as much fun playing through these missions as we had making them.

Brian Lebaron — Designer, Mortal Kombat for PS Vita

1. Missions 39 and 96: “Figure It Out”
These missions are really fun! We give the player very little info on how to pass the mission hence the “Figure It Out” title. We just drop the player into an event and the player must use the different PS Vita functionality to figure out how to get past the events or to a goal.

2. Missions 8, 36, 52, 80, and 138: “Juggle”
In these missions, you have a few missile launchers on the bottom of the screen and the player must keep the falling character from hitting the ground. It was a lot of fun tweaking the gravity and finding the sweet spot to make these really enjoyable. In one of the juggle missions you have to juggle a fat Baraka; gravity was a bit heavier for him, unlike juggling a mini Sektor.

3. Mission 50: “My Baby”
This one was an inside joke on the team for years and I decided to create a mission around it. It’s really fun: Sheeva leaves her baby and you must shoot missiles at a horde of zombies trying to get to her baby.

4. Mission 108: “Don’t Call me Yellow”
The goal is simple – you must use Reptile’s invisibility to survive for six seconds without being hit by a very angry Sektor.

5. Mission 34: “Isn’t it Marvelous”
You’ll have to wait to see why I love this mission.

Derek Kirtzic – Designer, Mortal Kombat for PS Vita

1. Mission 96: “Figure it Out II”
I really like this mission because it’s nothing like any of the other Tower missions. It has a platformer feel to it and it will take people a while to figure out.

2. Mission 84: “Arrow Pong”
Arrow pong is one of my favorite missions because the arrow progressively gets faster and faster and if you make one mistake, you have to start over. It also teaches the player the timing you need to reflect a projectile.

3. Mission 114: “Kentoichi”
This mission reminds me of the old West: 3, 2, 1 draw! Be careful to not draw too early or you’re dead.

4. Mission 51: “My Children”
This mission is unique because you start off as Freddy Krueger and you have to resurrect zombies to fight for you. I like this mission because you have to avoid Sonya’s attacks while trying to resurrect a zombie– or multiple zombies, based on how good you are.

5. Mission 117: “Kintaro Time”
In Kintaro time you play as Kintaro against four Earthrealm warriors. I have personally played this mission a dozen times just because it’s fun to play as the ultra-powerful Kintaro and use his moves against the game’s AI. There is a little learning curve to playing as Kintaro, too – it’s basically learning a whole new character.

If you’ve picked up the game already, what’s your favorite new Challenge Tower mission? Let us know in the comments!

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We at Nihilistic Software are excited to finally be able to pull the wraps off Multiplayer for Resistance: Burning Skies, coming 30 May for PlayStation Vita.

In addition to its all new single player campaign, Burning Skies features an online (via Wi-Fi) multiplayer in which you and up to seven of your friends can compete over the PlayStation Network! We know you’ve all been asking about multiplayer in Burning Skies, so please enjoy the first look at it in this new trailer.

When designing Resistance: Burning Skies, our goal was to bring the high-quality console experience to a handheld, and thanks to the power of the Vita, we’ve ended up with an unprecedented mobile FPS experience. Experience the Dual Analog Sticks for precision aiming, Touch screen interactivity for precise and quick Secondary Weapon fires, and portable Online connectivity.

We’ve just featured something in NYC event showing off some of the cool things we’re doing with online:

• 8 player multiplayer – small games feature intense 2 vs. 2 combat and large games going all the way up to 4 on 4 action. Choose between Quick Match: a fast and easy way to get up and playing immediately or Party with Friends: use the Vita’s cross-game Party application and Party up with friends to join private matches and take advantage of Party with voice chat.

• Rank Up! – Killing enemies and winning matches is the easiest way to earn XP and Rank Up. Be rewarded with bonus XP for your daring feats of skill. For Example, you may find yourself well rewarded for killing multiple enemies with a skilled grenade toss. Unlock all your favorite weapons and upgrades from the story campaign as you Rank up.

• Modify & customize your weapons – Upgrades you purchase can be slotted and unslotted from weapons at will, with some even giving your weapons a distinctive visual look. Purchase upgrades for weapons that best suit your personal playstyle. For example, the fan favorite Bullseye can be upgraded with Explosive Tag – which gives your Bullseye Tags and extra explosive kick. But keep in mind if you’re killed, your enemies may pick up your upgraded weapons and use them against you.

Online play in Resistance: Burning Skies will feature three game modes – Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and a very unique third mode which we’ll be revealing next week. There will be six playable maps, taking you everywhere from the streets of Staten Island to the docks of Bayonne. You’ll be able to vote prior to each match, allowing you to take the battle between the humans and Chimera to a variety of locales from the game.

Connect with the PlayStation community via Wi-Fi and 3G through social features including leaderboards and “near”, PlayStation Vita’s location based service. Through “near”, Resistance: Burning Skies introduces a new social perk awarding players valuable XP multipliers to carry into multiplayer battle.

Stay tuned for more details.

Resistance: Burning Skies will be available from 30 May. See you online!

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Developing Mortal Kombat for PS Vita was an incredibly rewarding experience for the team here at NetherRealm Studios. The ability to utilize the numerous new features available on PS Vita was a very gratifying mission, and we are delivering the best possible on-the-go fighting experience for fans.

Our design team jumped at the opportunity to devise 150 new Challenge Tower missions that incorporate the DLC characters (like Freddy Krueger!), while also integrating the front touchscreen and accelerometer in ways that made sense and enhanced the complete Mortal Kombat experience.

The artists enjoyed creating some excellent new costumes (still to be revealed!), as well as re-creating an iconic MKII arena that integrates the rear camera that will give players the ability to literally Fight Anywhere.

Our programmers worked diligently to make sure the players’ experience of Mortal Kombat on PS Vita was pristine and up to NetherRealm standards: fine tuning controls (while adding new controls, such as touchcreen Fatalities and X-Rays!) and displaying gameplay at a smooth 60 frames per second.

With all of these features, two new exclusive modes (Test Your Balance and Test Your Slice) and both ad-hoc (local) and WiFi (intrastructure) Versus mode options, we had an amazing time this past weekend at PAX East 2012 showing Mortal Kombat for PS Vita to fans. We had quite a few fans come back and bring their friends to show them the new features—and to challenge them to some old-fashioned 1 vs 1 Kombat. It definitely made all of the work and love we put into this version of Mortal Kombat worth it.

This new trailer definitely captures the spirit of what we were trying to do with Mortal Kombat for PS Vita. Give it a watch and let us know what you think in the comments!

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