Linger in Shadows Hits PSN Today!

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Hey all – I’m back again, and I hope you’ve had a chance to read my recent post on Linger in Shadows from last Saturday. Linger releases today on PSN for $2.99, so I wanted to answer some questions that popped up, as well as give a little insight as to how you go about exploring and interacting with Linger.

First things first … I know I haven’t gotten back to folks on the comments, but I have been busy working on finishing the PSP download version of Everyday Shooter, but I promise I’ll chime in and respond to some of the questions and comments here.


When you actually play through Linger in Shadows there are a bunch of things to think about as you explore. Roam through the timeline both forward and backward. Look beyond the frame of the picture as you see it. There are things hidden that you can play with, unlock, and even get Trophies for if you find them. You’ll want to utilize all aspects of the SIXAXIS or the DualShock3.

Right now you may be thinking, “What in the world is he talking about?” But once you jump into the experience, you’ll start to realize what I’m talking about. I don’t want to explain it too much and give it away.

Screenshot_13

Also, there are even hints both through audio cues, visual effects, and the DualShock3 if you have that controller as well. If you miss something critical, it winds back, and you are given a hint, too. We added these hints because we want you to enjoy it and not get too frustrated.

Ok, onto Trophies. The reason for including Trophies is that we wanted to reward the player for exploring. The more exploration beyond the basics, the more you get. A lot of these are reflected through “greets.” For those of you who don’t know what greets are, they come from the demoscene. Demo groups put in call outs, or greets, to friends or other groups whose work they really respect. It is kind of like liner notes on a record album. It’s a tradition of the art form that I think is cool, and it exposes you to other demoscene groups that you should check out.

Another thing to think about is that Trophies don’t have to be the traditional “You Killed XXX enemies” or “Beat time of blah” sort of thing. They can be explored as part of ideas, philosophy, mocking the traditional idea of Trophies, or for very unique approaches to playing the game, art, or whatever. I think we’ll start to see Trophies awarded for a lot of different things moving forward as people think about them as being more than just a bullet point.

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I hope I answered some of your questions. I probably created more questions than I answered, but then again, I hope I can address some of those in the comments. I think that once you get your hands on Linger in Shadows and explore the experience today, it will start to make a lot more sense.

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229 Comments

22 Author Replies

  • Nice, but what happend to the PJM patch, i was really looking forward to it ;(

  • Enjoyed LiS…

    Can Sony divulge how much $ (percentage or total) is going back INTO the Demoscene scene for this?

    • I doubt they would. Financial info is pretty confidential. It\’d be impossible right now anyway as the game has just been released and still has plenty of time to earn more capitol.

  • Can’t wait to try this out this weekend!

  • @149: So Tekken went to the 360 you haven’t lost it -_-. Its not like it was completely taken away from the PS3 its just being put to mulitplatform. So with all do respect get over it please.

    In regards to the game I was actually extremely suprised. I would have to say that it was worth the money and I did really enjoy it. I also got all of the trophies which is cool and loved that you implemented them. The game was something different and original which is nice to see, and not to mention how cheap it was too. I would recommend this game to people who don’t mind playing a game outside of the box.

    Very well made game and I sincerely enjoyed it. I hope you make more of these types of games in the future.

  • How about developing a demo authoring tool and releasing it to the public?

    Like Moppi|Demopaja, or even better Farbrausch Werkkzeug1.

    http://moppi.inside.org/demopaja/
    http://www.farb-rausch.com/productions.php

  • Wow, this really was a game. lol sweet.

  • I remember seeing this at Breakout 2008 (demoscene event) in Germany this spring and I’m exited to finally see this on PSN.

    Great work Sony and Plastic! Being an old demoscene guy on the Amiga I HAD to buy this :D

  • Got the 100% trophies…Fairly simple and straight forward “demo”

    Thouroughly enjoyed it…
    Can’t wait for “Pink”

  • Screw Sony, I can’t buy it in Lithuania

  • A beautiful thing, and only two quid.

    Lovely. More of this kind of toy please.

  • Hey Rusty,

    Just finished “playing” it, and come to the conclusion it was one of the best experiences I’ve had on the PS3. Although a little short, that was expected but going through and experimenting with the time-shifting and searching for things… I had a great time! Hope to see more of this “interactive art” in the future.

    • Thanks SChitthammer! I\’ll be honest I wasn\’t sure how many people would get/like it. With respones we\’ve been getting it will make it easier to start even more projects like this in the future.

      Cheers

      Rusty

  • If there are any Trophy whores out there this is a must buy. When I bought it I didn’t even realise it had them until 1 bronze and 5 silver trophies popped up at the end of the first go.

  • Great “demo”… and don’t forget the music….in surround sound, just wow!!!!

    Still hunting a few trophies but that just adds to the fun.

    Had forgotten all about the demoscene,, takes me back……….

  • the awesomely detailed cat convinced me!

  • I love this sort of thing, I understand why you cannot call it a game…I have all of the PSEye “programs” as well and enjoy hopping on Tori-Emaki or Mesmerize every now and then just to enjoy the artwork and interactivity. I have been looking forward to LitS and had to download it day one. I can’t wait to explore and see what all it has to offer…plus I just got my new Sony KDL46V4100 LCD TV last night as well.

  • This is a fun game. I got the first 5 or 6 trophies the first time I played. I was surprised at how fast I caught on.

  • this is prototipe for shadow of colosus 2? is fun game! good

    • Nope, it is its own thing. The ICO team has their next big thing going, and in general they are not keen on someone else working on their ideas.

  • I had my doubts about this, but at 2.99 it’s probably worth it. I mean it can’t be worse than QORE.

  • okay, so i’ve found a couple logos, but have NO idea how to get the trophies =/ any help?

    just tell me what to click so not to spoil the locations for anyone

    • Just use your eyes to unlock the prize ;)

      Sorry for being nebulous, but like you said, I don\’t want to give anything away for people.

  • 208 :

    How did you found the greetings?

  • Hi,

    Just wanted to say thank you to Sony for letting things like these on the PSN. A very pleasant surprise! I love the demo scene ^_^, dabbled a little in it myself for the MSX computer too :).

  • Hi there I really liked this “demo” I wish to see more those. Excellent job.
    I have really hart time to find “Greetings To Farbrausch” can somebody please help. thats the last one I need to complete.

  • All I have to say it please offer more like this in the future. What a unique experience. It’s weird as hell, but that’s what makes it art. It is definitely something different, and that is why I enjoyed it.

  • I’m up to 24% of the trophies, still not sure what I did to earn them. :)
    Interesting product though, it was definately worth my $3.00

  • No offense or whatever to the creators and other people who worked on this game/art experience but this is just my opinion.

    Likes:
    -The graphics did look pretty awesome
    -I kind of liked how the controls worked
    -That it only cost $2.99
    -Having Trophies

    Dislikes:
    -I didn’t like the cat and dog…i don’t know what it was but i didn’t like the way they looked. Was like someone took a real life picture and tried to paint an animal on it
    -Using the Sixaxis gets annoying at times
    -That the PSN store made me spend $5 just to buy a $2.99 game…so now i’m stuck with $2.01 in my wallet…WTF happened to just being able to pay for what you needed to pay for instead of them being greedy B’s and making us have a limit.
    -The game being only 7 minutes long…but i guess you get what you pay for.
    -Not explaining ANYTHING that was going on in the game…mean if i hadn’t read the blog where the guy was saying what was essentially going on then i’d really be like WTF!?!

    So the moral of the story is that i wish i had my $5 back. But now i won’t fall for the same mistake if they ever decide to make another one. Sorry again but that’s just how i feel about it.

    • I\’m sorry you didn\’t like it, but I knew that it was going to have very diverse reaction to what it was.

      The cat and the dog are realtime geometry and procedural shaders. Everything in it is realtime, it isn\’t a movie.

  • oh my god, i was amazed on what you guys did for linger in shadows… the whole time, i was lost from all the art-work and designs.. you guys have really out did yourself… but i have a question will there be more of this linger of shadows? the end of the art interaction, it feel like there sopose to be more stuff…. well anyways, i wanted to put my 50 cent in, cause this artwork interaction design is great… keep up the good work peeps… i know its long hours of none sleep… but i wanted to say thanks for doing it for us..

  • I been exploring & watching this thing 8 times and still I can’t find “Greetings To Farbrausch” I guess I’ll do it 9th time then. If somebody have a information about this greeting Please let me know.

  • HEY RUSTY!

    You need to listen to me for one second. I love this project and have waited a while for linger in shadows’ release. i actually got to play the demoscene through once, which was awesome. but now every time i play this title, it freezes on me at the exact same moment everytime. 5 mins and 16 seconds to be precise! either way, i had an issue with the title screen not appearing as well. so you need to respond these issues immediately or you will have angry customers on your hands!

    PLEASE RESPOND ASAP!

    thanks,
    jimm

    • jimm,
      This is the first time I have heard of anything like this. :S

      I\’ll start looking into it. Just wondering what model is your PS3? Please don\’t read anything into this, I\’m just looking at all possible factors (albeit this should NOT be one). Also did you upgrade your harddrive?

      Cheers

      Rusty

    • Jimm,
      I\’ve never heard of this happening, so I\’ll have to look see if we can figure out what is up.

      Just weondering what model PS3 you have. This should not be an issue, but I\’m just being thorough on info.

      Cheers

      Rusty

      PS If this show up as a multiple post I\’m sorry, having some wierdness on my end with the page updating.

  • My sisters are WTF, but I enjoyed it. She keeps on asking if its a game and wont shut up about it. I still misses the hidden parts and got one of the wierd circle block when you press square. Dont know what it is (yet).

    Great, I loved it! Im going to try it again. Im so going to get the next whateverthisis you make.

    Just for the bad. For the
    I noticed some tearing on my 1080P. The normal guy dont notice such a thing. This “thing” is not normal. xD

    Maybe I’m missing something, but I wanted to travel in time without stopping it.

    Good luck whit the next project. Hoping it will be just as wierd, but making more sense.

  • Thanks for putting so much work into this, guys. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Somehow, the whole experience felt both cohesive and disjointed at the same time. I guess that’s what makes collaborative efforts like this so interesting.

    Again, I really enjoyed the whole experience and am very much looking forward to ”Into The Pink”.

  • Downloaded it last night and completed all the trophies. Only took me two times through. I do wish it was longer or had more to explore, but hey “leave ’em wanting more”. Looking forward to more projects like this. For some reason it made me remember exploring Myst. I guess it was just the weird and artistic atmosphere of the “game”. Anywho, Great Job! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

  • Nice work, I enjoyed it.

    I have some questions… did you used assembly in some part too? did you used both SPE and RSX for processing?

    thanks

    • I hope will Michal jump in as well for this one. The team is using both the RSX and SPE\’s to achieve the visuals for the game.

      Noww for the assembly part I\’ll leave that to Michal. My problem is I haven\’t done coding that wennt into a game since 1993 and then it was X86 assembly. :o

      Rusty

  • Guys, gotta say I’m impressed.

    I’d give it a 9/10, and I deduct one point only because I feel it could have been longer and more involved. I like thes the dark atmosphere to it though.

    An idea: I know these guys have jobs but why not temporarily hire some of them (the ones who do small time PHP stuff like Rusty said in the interview) to make a really great game. I’d be willing to pay much more for a longer and more detailed version with the trophies and the screenshot ability and more old-skool demo stuff (as I like those demos as well).

    Even though I play Bad Company almost exclusively, I’ll buy and play (to kind of rest my mind) games like PJE, PJM, Echochrome and Linger In The Shadows (might as well include Intelligent Qube and Ghost In The Shell for PSone).

    I had fallen out of the demo scene (my favorite being Anthrox’s Xmas demo for the SNES) for a while but this is getting me back into it.

    Glad to hear you have more in the hopper and just keep surprising us. I mean stuff like this is part of the reason I shun Microsoft crap, it offers nothing innovative or new.

    One last thing: All your stuff like this should have trophies and screen shot ability, my new desktop is a Linger screenshot. People like features and stuff like this, not just linear game play. It’s value added to any game purchase. And please update Jeopardy’s questions or release an add-on for it, as I like this game as well.

    • The screenshot feature was one of the cool things in this game that I think would be great in all sorts of other titles as well. I\’m glad someone else out there noticed this.

  • HEY RUSTY

    jimm again here!

    I thought it might have to do with maybe the 60 gig launch system I have, but I never experience any issues before. I had played it on a standard def tv and it worked fine, but when I played it on my 1080p it freezes every time. Also, yes I did upgrade the hard drive to a 250gb Fujitsu hard drive. I thought this could be a cause as well, but like I said no issues till this game was played on my hi-def. Hopefully you can patch this issue!

    Please respond asap!

    thanks,
    jimm

    • Just wondering, have you tried it at 720p? I ran it consistantly at 1080p while we were developing it so… I don\’t know. We will look into this and see what we can figure out.

      Rusty

  • Just want to tell You guys- thank you! That experience was possible only on Playstation.

  • I bought this on Thursday and by golly gee wiz it’s fantastic. I hope to see more experimental art games like this!

  • HEY RUSTY,

    jimm again here!

    I am happy to say that I found the issue with the freezing situation and it was has suspected. it will start freezing only at 1080p and it’s always at 5 mins and 16 secs into the demoscene. I tried 1080i and all below including 720p and it ran perfectly. So, I hope this helps you guys find a solution or patch for this issue.

    Thanks for the help!

    jimm

  • Rusty,

    First of all let me thank you and Plastic for one of my favorite digital experiences in my life. Few experiences stand out so much. Just off the top of my head the game Portal and Shadow of the Colossus stick out as other fantastic gaming experiences for me.

    At first I didn’t get it. Interactive art? By the end of it I was hooked. I got all the trophies and it was awesome.

    If you release anything so unique like this you’ll definately be getting my money.

    Can we expect anything else from you and Plastic in the near future?

  • Heh, I got all the trophies in about less than an hour after I downloaded the game. It was a great experience and great fun, thanks allot Plastic! =)

    I was expecting it a more real demo, you know with classic effects (and sure, it does a some of those now and then) — but after I began “playing” the “demo”, I must say I was positively surprised. What a great idea!

    But I don’t get the story. Is assume there is one? =) Is the female status a real woman turned into stone? Why does the robot break the dog? Why is the dog attacked by the shadow, and not the cat and panda? Is it because the cat is just observing and the panda is sleeping? Is the dog on its way over to the status because it was it’s previous friend? I’m a but clueless =)

  • I would like to add that I loved the screenshot thing. Now I have tons of amazing linger in shadows wallpapers of views that I most enjoyed =D

    cheers

  • Also the analog fast forward and reverse button usage. I’ve always wanted the PS3’s video player to work like that — way more useful that how they’re currently operated.

    In Linger in Shadows, it works as a great effect when the sound is slowed down to stop =)

  • I had to stop by real quick to say how impressed I am with LiS. I’ll admit I was pretty confused when it started up but I quickly figured out what I had to do. Once adjusted to what was expected of me I was even more impressed. The whole package was just put together so well. Certainly one of the cooler offerings on the PSN and I hope to see more things like this in the future.

  • Before you buy, this game takes about 6 minutes to complete. It has a low replayability as the colors in the game are dark, and dreary and kind of make you want to puke whatever bad trip giving drugs the developers (Artists) were on. Ask your friends who bought this what they think, i give it a 3/10 as a value, and a 1/10 for effort. Sorry, no hard feelings. You stand to make millions and we will have this on our hard drives doing nothing.

  • i can’t wait to try this out

  • I can’t seem to finish this, it freezes on me on the same spot right when that mechanical creature is coming out of the hole. Sometimes i get a little further than before but it always freezes on me about the same spot. I have the 60 gig launch system , i have not upgraded and only seem to have problems with with linger ;(

  • I really enjoyed the offering. I am now working on collecting the trophies.

  • #243: You’re wrong. It takes 6 minutes plus end titles to watch the demo. It takes much longer to play the game — half an hour or more. I have my doubts that you got all the trophies in only 6 minutes the first time you played the game. The game has about the same replayability as most other linear games, but it has nothing to do with its colours; on the contrary they serve the game’s atmosphere great and the graphics generally look very nice and definitely original. It’s a short game, but I think the price makes up for it. I’d say it’s definitely worth the buy, and all in all I would rate it above average.

    I think you need a little hint: Press X when you Linger, after you’ve Watched the fine artwork.

  • Well I bought the game, its tripy, but I like it. Hard to find the other trophies thou. And how do i put smilie faces in my comments? Im new to this blog thing.

  • I just played some of this and its very interesting, although I can only play it for awhile before I get a bad headache and dizziness.

    But its great to see original content like this in art form. Looking forward to see what you guys do next.

  • Hi,
    I like that Art-game all trophys found! :-)
    Hope we see Into the Pink also on PSN!
    I made the PS3 themes Linger in Shadows and Into the Pink, for Plastic Team. I asked Michal Staniszewski for publishing my themes in PSN store but he can´t do anything. I hope you can help me with my artwork to publish it in PSN store for free! If you want i also can make some premium themes stuff. Sorry about my english, i am from austria.
    Please send my more infos about my problem.
    Cheers Mawen

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