Developer's Studio: Travis Williams and PAIN
by Jem Alexander 
{ Jun 27th 2007 at 8:00AM }
The PlayStation.Blog's "Inside the Developer's Studio" feature continues in its run up to E3. On the 25th we saw Cory Barlog (possibly our favourite developer, simply because his surname is so close to Balrog) discuss God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP. Twice. Yesterday it was Travis Williams' turn as he gives us some pre-E3 insight into PAIN, the upcoming PSN title.
When asked what the developers of PAIN are doing on the PS3 that can't be done on any other consoles, Williams waxes lyrical on the virtues of the PSN and how it allows a direct dialogue between audience and developer. He says "there's a level of interaction with the game players that we couldn't achieve until now. We've got cool ideas, but I'm really looking forward to see how other people play PAIN."
Speaking of cool ideas, Williams says that they're interested in developing new characters for the game before it is released. So if you have any thoughts on characters you'd like to inflict pain on by shooting them out of a giant slingshot, post a comment on the PlayStation.Blog post and, you never know, you might see it in the final version.
Interestingly, the game Williams would most like to sit down in front of for an hour is Killzone 2. Apparently he's heard "it looks AMAZING". There's the pre-E3 hype we're looking for. Our own Andrew Yoon will be at the Killzone 2 official presentation, so we'll keep you updated over the E3 period. Check out the PlayStation.Blog to see all of Williams' responses to the, seemingly extended, question list.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ahhnuld @ Jun 27th 2007 9:36AM
Jem is truuuuuuly outrageous truly truly truly outrageous woah YEAH!
Jem is truuuuuuly outrageous truly truly truly outrageous woah YEAH!
http://trulyoutrageous.ytmnd.com/
Stef Geiger @ Jun 27th 2007 9:42AM
What's he talking about with this "PSN allows gamers to interact with developers"? I don't understand how the PSN (which to my knowledge right now only provides us with internet multiplayer and the PS Store) allows us to communicate with developers. Sure, sites like this and playstation.blog do, but they have nothing to do with the PSN. Someone help me out here.
Pugboy @ Jun 27th 2007 9:47AM
New characters to inflict pain upon? MMMMMmmmmm........THAT'S EASY!!!
Bush and Cheney
manic @ Jun 27th 2007 11:07AM
@ TheSh0wstopper
I'm sure they'll drop the nukes at 11th July after showing some Killzone 2 footage at the 10th!
They'll need to market the hell out of this game. But then again, Killzone 1 did manage to sell 2 million copies which is pretty damn good.
Andy @ Jun 27th 2007 12:21PM
It sold 2 million. Wow. Congrats to them.
If they make $40 on every game sold that is 80 million dollars or 0.8 billion!
Stef Geiger @ Jun 27th 2007 12:43PM
Andy, 80 million is 0.08 Billion. 0.8 Billion would be 800 million.
Anyway, I hate to be the pessimist, but I don't think we should get our hopes too high for Killzone 2 - it was shown privately at GDC in March and while no one was allowed to talk about it, the guys at IGN unofficially said that it was pretty disappointing, and the graphics aren't anything special, and certainly aren't anywhere as close as the E3 2005 trailer. Now, four months will have passed by the time they show us at E3, but I'm doubtful that they've managed to make THAT much progress...
(here's hoping though!)
Andy @ Jun 27th 2007 2:40PM
Dammit. I should have payed more attention in math class. Doesn't pain look like the characters that disney/pixar use in there movies? (I love the style)
Naaiif @ Jun 27th 2007 3:26PM
The showstopper, they'll be showing KZ 2 at the official Sony Conference as well, they'll probably show a 2 minute trailer for it, wow everyone, and then the later presentation will be an in depth analysis of the game. Showing you gameplay etc.