Insomniac Games talks creating Sunset City and side content in Sunset Overdrive
Sunset Overdrive will be out later this fall exclusively for the Xbox One, and it is featuring one of the more intriguing, colorful worlds an open-world game has ever been set in before. But how exactly was this metropolis of style, color and mayhem created?
The original version of what Sunset City looked like was something that didn't resonate like developers at Insomniac wanted it to, so they ended up going back to the drawing board and coming up with a fresh, new idea of what Sunset Overdrive's city would look like.Insomniac Games Community Manager Brandon Winfrey explained what they did from there.
"We had a game jam and one of our designers actually took it upon himself to create a diorama representing how he feltSunset should be built. It was kind of this crazy urban environment that was built with multiple levels and almost a mash up of nature and man made elements.
"This neo-Tokyo, tech and concrete vibe infected the team when you took that core idea and fleshed it out throughout the entire city. Now when you play, you can see different vertical plains in the environment and we like to think of these as small playgrounds. If you're in a higher one and you fall off, you'll simply be in the playground below it. It's very stair-like.
"We don't want to punish you for falling, so you're only just a few bouncees from the next level. However, that doesn't mean there isn't difficulty involved. We like the think of the street as a beginner's level and it's actually mostly grinds, bouncees and all that jazz. The higher up you go, the more you're going to have to combo your traversal and utilize your wall-run in order to get around," Winfrey said.
Moving on from how the city was built and how it now plays, Winfrey talked about the types of side missions players will have to complete as well as the rewards that players who succeed will be given.
"For a lot of the side quests in Sunset Overdrive, you're going to be helping out other characters around the world. They're surviving just like you so you give them a hand. But this is the awesomepacolypse so it's usually in an outrageous way, plus with each of these you're going to get more narrative.
"They either give you more back story on Fizzco or you can explore characters in various factions. But if you're morally opposed to story telling, you're going to get rewards like cash, amps and vanity items as well," Winfrey said.
E3 2014 will certainly reveal more fun facts about Sunset Overdrive, including a special world premiere that was confirmed for Microsoft's E3 press conference this coming Monday. Our money is betting on a co-op, multiplayer reveal, but we'll all have to tune in to find out.
http://www.examiner.com/article/insomniac-games-talks-creating-sunset-city-and-side-content-sunset-overdrive
