PlayStation Blog » Ryan Hamlyn

LAIR Score Now On iTunes!

Ryan Hamlyn — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:47:46 +0000

Hello, it’s Ryan again and I have some exciting news about Lair’s music.

First, it was announced last week that the soundtrack for Lair received a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Video Game Award nomination for best Original Score! Hopefully some of you have now unlocked and experienced all of the high-fidelity surround sound music in the Concert Hall within the game’s Extras, and can agree with the nomination. If you haven’t listened to the music in the Concert Hall, you’re really missing out—it’s fantastic in showcasing all of the nuances that John Debney so masterfully weaved into the score.

And second, for those of you that would like to be able to listen to the music outside of the game, we now have Lair’s official soundtrack available on Apple iTunes! Just search for “John Debney Lair” in the iTunes store and it should come right up. I think it’s amazing how different the music sounds outside of the game setting and how well it works on its own, and yet how reminiscent of the game it is and how much it adds to the gameplay experience. Happy listening, and hope you enjoy! (BTW, we’d love to hear about your favorite tracks, so please post comments below letting us know…)

Lair Update

Ryan Hamlyn — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:41:49 +0000

Wow, even I didn’t see this one coming! Due to an extra step in QA testing to enhance the community features in the game, the release of LAIR, originally set for August 14th, has changed to September 4, 2007. Natural challenges that arose while finalizing the offline game to include key online features – such as leaderboards and medal systems – have led to the difficult choice of pushing back the release date. We appreciate everyone’s excitement and patience for the game and look forward to its release on September 4.

Lair Dev is Complete, Aug 14 Release Set!

Ryan Hamlyn — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:20:08 +0000

Given all the content and interest here on Lair, I figured you guys would also be interested to hear that the North American version of Lair has completed its development and is now in manufacturing! That means that we are on track for our August 14 release date. It goes without saying that we’re eager to get this out to those of you that have been waiting so patiently (or not!) for it to arrive. Considering the new PS3 price and now Lair, hopefully there’s even more of a reason to scoop up a PS3 if you haven’t already!

For us, there’s still a bit of work to do, as we have localization to finish up for Europe, Japan, Korea, and more, which will all hopefully follow very soon. Once those are out, our leaderboards will truly be global, and then we can see once and for all who the best Lair players are out there! The gauntlet has been thrown, and North American players are getting Lair first, so don’t give that advantage away…

We also have some great updates for the official Lair site that will be live soon, so keep an eye out for those …

Lair Nears the Finish Line, Full Speed Ahead!

Ryan Hamlyn — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:00:13 +0000

Hey everyone, I’m Ryan Hamlyn, I’m the associate producer for Lair. It’s been a long haul—almost 2 years for me, and even longer for some of the team over at our developer, Factor 5—but putting the finishing touches on the game and now seeing all our work culminate into a finished product is very exciting.

I’ve spent every free moment I’ve had lately playing this game, looking for bugs and places to add polish. And yeah, I know I’m biased, but I have to say, the more I play this game the more fun I’m having, which certainly speaks to the depth we’re achieving with the gameplay. Plus we’re getting screenshots like this one of our Spiderwasp boss above, and the game is just looking gorgeous. I love the sense of scale that you get in this shot, and that the Spiderwasp itself has so much detail. In order to get this guy in the game, Factor 5 created a physical model (or maquette), had it scanned to the nth detail and then worked from the scans to get it modeled and textured digitally. A long process to say the least, but the results were worth it and speak for themselves… and wait until you see it move! In fact, you won’t have to wait much longer, as Lair is set to launch on Aug. 14th. In the meantime, you can whet your appetite with some brand new videos and other cool content that’s on our recently updated official Lair site.