High Impact Games on “The Future of the PSP”

Next on IGN’s creature feature is High Impact Games, folks behind the PSP hit title Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Unlike Ready at Dawn, however, High Impact (or H.I.G. for short) liked to spin things a little differently this time and shipped off each question to different members of their hard-hitting machine who can actually answer them. But remember, it’s just the answers to these six questions we’re interested in:

• What have you learned from PSP?
• How do you approach PSP development?
• How tough are the budgets on PSP games?
• What can Sony could do for developers?
• What features of PSP need to be pushed?
• What is the future of PSP?

Atsuko Kubota, Art Director and who’s done something new with her hair, said that the PSP has taught them how a little handheld gaming device could push pretty polygons out to a little, widescreen…well, screen. She speaks of taking a different approach to art by emphasizing color, silhouette definitions, clear textures, exaggerated animations, more horizontal environments, and more charcoal sketches here and lesser chiseling there.

Carl Grande, Project Manager, said that his antiquity doesn’t mean that his team cannot involve themselves in multiple games and multiple systems. It just means that their approach to PSP development is nothing different than system development. It’s a review of what’s fun and entertaining, a balance of time and creativity, and a compromise of concept against feasibility.

Roberto Rodriguez, High Impact Games’s very shy prez, said that there are irregularities in the development costs for PSP titles. He believes that most publishers haven’t been more generous with PSP development support. From his hiding place at the cupboard, he encourages all publishers to increase their budgets for the portable “PS2 handheld”, so he can buy a bigger tree house and hide in it.

Lead Engine Programmer Jason Skiles couldn’t be any more happy to lick the mouse say that Sony has already been giving them the support they need. Now we could leave him to do… whatever it is he does. But dropping into the equally odd pair of designers Avery Bennet and Ken Strickland, we’re forced to believe that inter-connectivity is something that should be more focused on for the PSP.

Lead Artist Lloyd Murphy, a man of few words, just says that the PSP’s future is massive. Definition: people buy all sorts of accessories (screen-magnifiers, hard cases, keyboards) for the consarned thing, just short of a roof and four wheels. It may not fit on their back-pocket anymore, but they could probably drive it home afterwards.

Next on IGN’s creature feature is High Impact Games, folks behind the PSP hit title Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Unlike Ready at Dawn, however, High Impact (or H.I.G. for short) liked to spin things a little differently this time and shipped off each question to different members of their hard-hitting machine who can actually answer them. But remember, it’s just the answers to these six questions we’re interested in:

• What have you learned from PSP?
• How do you approach PSP development?
• How tough are the budgets on PSP games?
• What can Sony could do for developers?
• What features of PSP need to be pushed?
• What is the future of PSP?

Atsuko Kubota, Art Director and who’s done something new with her hair, said that the PSP has taught them how a little handheld gaming device could push pretty polygons out to a little, widescreen…well, screen. She speaks of taking a different approach to art by emphasizing color, silhouette definitions, clear textures, exaggerated animations, more horizontal environments, and more charcoal sketches here and lesser chiseling there.

Carl Grande, Project Manager, said that his antiquity doesn’t mean that his team cannot involve themselves in multiple games and multiple systems. It just means that their approach to PSP development is nothing different than system development. It’s a review of what’s fun and entertaining, a balance of time and creativity, and a compromise of concept against feasibility.

Roberto Rodriguez, High Impact Games’s very shy prez, said that there are irregularities in the development costs for PSP titles. He believes that most publishers haven’t been more generous with PSP development support. From his hiding place at the cupboard, he encourages all publishers to increase their budgets for the portable “PS2 handheld”, so he can buy a bigger tree house and hide in it.

Lead Engine Programmer Jason Skiles couldn’t be any more happy to lick the mouse say that Sony has already been giving them the support they need. Now we could leave him to do… whatever it is he does. But dropping into the equally odd pair of designers Avery Bennet and Ken Strickland, we’re forced to believe that inter-connectivity is something that should be more focused on for the PSP.

Lead Artist Lloyd Murphy, a man of few words, just says that the PSP’s future is massive. Definition: people buy all sorts of accessories (screen-magnifiers, hard cases, keyboards) for the consarned thing, just short of a roof and four wheels. It may not fit on their back-pocket anymore, but they could probably drive it home afterwards.