Time Crisis 4: Creating the Guncon 3

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Hello, everyone, this is Takashi Satsukawa, the director of Time Crisis 4.

Today, I would like to discuss our development process in creating Time Crisis 4 and the Guncon 3 controller. Four years have passed since I first came up with the framework of Time Crisis 4. In the autumn of 2003, after the completion of the PS2 version of Time Crisis 3, our development team started to examine what our next big step for the series should be. After kicking around some ideas, we decided to work on a new concept in which the player has full control over their on-screen actions, moving independently through the stage and shooting at enemies with an entirely new Guncon.

In most traditional arcade shooting games such as the previous installments of Time Crisis, players don’t have full control over their movement. Instead, the camera movements are directed precisely by the developer, while enemies show up quickly on the screen. This allows the player to focus on one specific action – shooting. As the basic premise for this type of game has broad appeal and is instantly engaging, we’ll continue to make these games in the future, but wanted to investigate a new path for Time Crisis 4.

The Time Crisis team has been eager to implement a solution for moving and shooting to the series for years now – our development tools allow us to do this in early builds of games – but it was too difficult to implement this feature into a full game using only the Guncon 2 controller. With our next title planned for the PLAYSTATION 3 system, we began work on our next iteration of the Guncon hardware to bring new functionality to the series and allow us to implement our goals for a free-roaming Time Crisis experience. We asked our designer to come up with a few illustrations showing a Guncon with one analog stick. After getting the results, we realized that this was going to be a more intimidating project than we had planned!


Time Crisis 4: Creating the New Guncon #1

Putting our hardware demands on the back-burner for a while, we turned to the software side to try and put together a compelling demonstration for our concept. We worked for a month to create a prototype based on the Time Crisis 3 engine in which two players can move freely around a small square environment and try to shoot each other. We decided to go with a Vs. type game because we didn’t have an appropriate AI solution in place and needed to test it out as quickly as possible. Even though this early prototype only allowed for horizontal aiming, we felt confident enough in the design to move forward with the full game.


Time Crisis 4: Creating the New Guncon #1

As we understood that we would have to implement vertical aiming in our game, we decided to revise our Guncon hardware designs to meet this goal. That was the real jumping-off point for Time Crisis 4, which I will cover in-depth soon in my next entry!


Time Crisis 4: Creating the New Guncon #1

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91 Comments

  • 1st post we want home

  • Two handed gun controllers make me sad….

    Oh, and I hope the LED lights required for the gun to work won’t interfere with my Wii. It’d get annoying to have to redo my setup each time I want to play one or the other.

  • should’ve been wireless.

  • It’s good to see more freedom of movement in the Time Crisis games, hopefully it’ll interest fans of regular FPS games.

    Now I find my self imagining a game that uses the new Guncon controller with a PS Eye for dodging behind things. :)

  • Playstation » Time Crisis 4: Creating the Guncon 3

    […] Peter Dille wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWith our next title planned for the PLAYSTATION 3 system, we began work on our next iteration of the Guncon hardware to bring new functionality to the series and allow us to implement our goals for a free-roaming Time Crisis experience. … […]

  • @ djspinal – way to stay on topic dude… Home doesn’t come out till March. so stop trolling and if you are referring to the Home beta then you’re just one unlucky dude.

    @ XxBigP123xX – you also wanted a high def wireless PSeye. keep dreaming dude.

    *on topic* freedom of movement is a plus for me!!! I’m just excited to see a new time crisis for PS3.

    @ Xoonaka – I totally agree with you dude. the two handed guncon 3 kinda turns me off but that doesn’t totally eradicate my decision of buyin this game.

    @ androvsky – that would be sooo sick if they could implement the guncon 3 with the PSeye. Heads would roll dude. that right there is the future of gaming.

    Peace,
    Lh

  • Will this game support 1080 either natively or through upscaling.
    It is a major concern and highly requested feature for individuals who have HDTVs that only support 1080 and not 720

  • Who wants a guncon 3? We all want a real-life groovitron. Thanks.

  • I’m looking forward to TIme Crisis 4. I miss light gun shooters. Although, I may have to import the Japanes version. I can’t stand the orange color of the new Guncon and I much prefer the japanese Guncon which is black.

  • Love the TimeCrisis series.
    Lookin’ forward to playing the new one.
    Any word on when / if separate GunCons will be available for local 2P and if so, price?

  • Neat! Looks like fun. If it supports 1080 output for 1080i-only TVs I’ll be picking it up.
    If you are allowing movement, have you figured out how that will affect multiplayer? Playing these kinds of games 2 player is much more fun than single player, but allowing movement seems to negate (one screen) multiplayer…

  • Cool. Is it still set for a release this month?

  • only one question… what the heck do i do if i’m a lefty??!! i’m not but i’ve heard a lot of people say they won’t even look at the game unless they come out with a left handed gun or one that can be reversed. if the controller on the front could be switched from side to side it would be nice. aside form that gripe TC4 looks awsome.

    BTW @ Xoonaka – why on earth would you be concerned? the crappy wii system can have up to 2 positions for that led system, not a big deal. grow up.

  • Interesting stuff. I’m very happy to see game developers from all over the world starting to take use of this blog.

  • My only complaint is that it relies on the insanely inaccurate and quirky(read: not good) Wii-style detection with the sensor things. A lot of people still have CRT tv’s, so I think the controller should at least had the capability to function like the old ones too.

    Maybe a switch on it somewhere that lets you switch between standard tracking for CRT tv’s and sensor tracking for LCD and other tv’s.

    The Terminator 2 game for Sega Genesis was insane accurate with the lightgun thing. Wii is quite the opposite. I can aim it away from the tv and it still thinks im aimed somewhere, and vice versa.

  • Time Crisis 4: Creating the Guncon 3 | Play Video Games

    […] post by Takashi Satsukawa […]

  • This will be fun, Ive always been a fan of lightgun games and look forward to Mr. Satsukawa’s next blog post.

  • Does it come in black?

  • I know they can’t sell BLACK GUNS, but why Orange?? They could made it Blue… or white!

    But Orange?!

  • Is this guncon backwards compatible with PS2 and PSX guncon featured games?

    If not, you guys made a huge mistake releasing this controller and game too early.

  • I agree with Odd1 – I’m left-handed, and was looking forward to the game, but this controller is just unplayable for me. I won’t be getting it now I’m afraid. Would it be so difficult to make the handle switchable from side to side? This kind of thing could lose a lot of potential customers…

  • Hey everyone asking about the left handed one, in the prototype picture he is holding it with his left hand, is that not what you guys mean?? Since being right handed I’m not really sure what would make the gun easier to use for you guys. But it’s just something I noticed.

  • this will be awesome for RE Umbrella Chronicles!!

    Do your stuff Sony and bring RE UC to the PS3!!!

  • I love Time Crisis. I’m still not convinced by the new style, part of the fun of light gun games was because of their accuracy and simplicity. The new design takes away both of these.

  • @Odd1

    I just don’t want the two LED sources fighting with each other. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to make their tech pretty close to the Wii’s tech so I only need one sensor bar. It’s better then putting a LED on each corner, I’d say.

  • *off topic*

    Confirmed: Turok demo coming this week to PSN store. (source: ign)

  • hmmm, why isn’t it wireless??

  • the eye games please

  • Personally, I haven’t played a gun controller game since Duck Hunt…. so I’ll be looking forward to testing this out.

    (By the way fellow posters…. Please be on-topic.)

  • This is a game I’m quite interested in… but so little information is available. Hopefully the future blogs on this game will provide a lot more information about the final controller and how it works.
    I’d also be interested in more information about the game itself… I would assume this is only a single player game with no split screen modes… but is there online play?

    So many questions!!!

  • I have both Time Crisis 2 and Time Crisis 3 for PS2. Does Guncon 3 works in these games??

  • THe prototype is sexy because it was black, New one is cool too. I’ll just color it differenty because it’s a bit TOO orange for my taste.

  • Aw, don’t leave me hangin’! It’s like a like blog-opera. :P

  • I haven’t missed a time crisis game yet. I don’t plan on missing this one. I look forward to buying this game :)

  • Does it add in-game Friends List? No? Then who cares.

  • Will I be able to play the old Time Crisis PSone and PS2 games on my PS3 using the Guncon 3?

    If not will you guys be able to repackage all the old Time Crisis games on a Blu Ray with Guncon 3 support or re-release them on the PS Store?

  • cool!!!!!! Hope it comes out after FW 2.0

  • oh, i never knew time crisis 4 for ps3 was free movement. cool concept, i cant wait to see it in action.

  • cool!!!!!! I Want FW 2.00

  • I AM left handed, and I too am concerned about the controller from a lefty’s point of view.

    I have been looking VERY forward to this game, until I looked at the controller and saw the potential lack of lefty support.

    Please, please, tell me I am mistaken, and that there is a way to switch the controller to a “left-handed” configuration!

  • As a lefty, I was kinda sad to see the new gun design. But, it was odd to see the prototype photo with a guy holding the gun in his left had. They have to know this is an issue. Even if they charged a little more for a special “lefty limited edition”, I’d buy it without question.

  • Thats great.. but I WANT IN-GAME XMB!!!!
    FW 2.00… believe…

  • Why is the guncon Orange on the states while in japan it is black?

  • I’m not seeing where this wouldn’t have left hand support.. they have the button on both sides of the gun.. the final orange gun looks like they are going for the same thing on both sides of the gun… If anything I’m sure they have the same options of the clickers being reversed just like my mouse buttons are.

  • ok I did some Esearch and found out what you’re talking about because form the pictures you can’t see it that well

    http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22111.html

    I notice trgger shooting from the second hand control also which will be done with the left. I understand where left handed people would find this awkward.

  • hmm, I have never been interested in Time Crisis, but this looks really good!

  • ps3mods.blogspot.com

    Point Blank for ps3 please!

  •   Time Crisis 4: Creating the Guncon 3 by 67squares

    […] here for full […]

  • If this was wireless. I would’ve been sold! Plus I’m a big fan of TC.
    The wire thing is getting pretty old.

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