Game director of inFamous explains his take on how to make a superhero game work
Nate Fox, game director of the upcoming sandbox-style superhero game, inFamous, was interviewed by 1up about what he thought the workings of a good superhero game should be. I hope the guys making that upcoming Superman game are listening…
Nate Fox, game director of the upcoming sandbox-style superhero game, inFamous, was interviewed by 1up about what he thought the workings of a good superhero game should be.
He expressed his opinion that the most important element was to work the hero’s abilities into the game world. Case in point, certain super heroes with razor sharp claws that can’t cut down a wooden fence. This obviously can’t stand if game immersion or the believability of the world is to be considered at all.
On inFamous itself, Sucker Punch Productions had an opportunity to tailor make the hero and the world to each other. Fox explained that they chose the ability to shoot lightning because shooting things in a third person shooter was pretty intuitive (I believe his exact words were “works really freaking well”). The same applied with the main character’s penchant to scale nearby buildings and jump across rooftops.
Equally important to choosing abilities that work well for a video game was to choose abilities that are fun to explore as players.
“We’re building the world around his powers and his powers around what’s fun to do in the world,” he said.
As a point of interest, when asked about what elements of the game he especially liked, Fox answered,
Just this afternoon while playing the game, I pissed off a bunch of people, and they banded together into a mob and tried to stone me to death. Ultimately it didn’t end well for them, but I admired their courage. Did I mention you can play as a good or evil character?
I like his mindset. Will be trying this game when it comes out sometime next year.
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