Do read on:

Jeff Rubenstein, PlayStation.Blog: After seeing this game over the past few months, it seems that the title “Lego Batman 2” really sells the game short…

Matthew Ellison, TT Games: This is a sequel to the first game (Lego Batman: The Videogame), and that’s a key point for us. We’ve learned lessons with the first game and when we wanted to make Lego Batman 2, the idea of bringing in Superman and other Justice League characters just seemed like a great way to improve what is an original story. The story basically has Batman, Superman, and Robin teaming up to take on Lex Luthor and the Joker, so we’re bringing all these characters together and the different relationships that they have is something that we’ve loved getting to work with. Batman and Superman are in the story throughout, but we have these other Justice League characters who play a part towards the end of the story.

PSB: Beyond the breadth of characters, which is a common thread in Lego games, this seems to be the most ambitious Lego game from a design perspective.

TTG:The Gotham City hub is on a different scale to anything we’ve ever done in the past. To be able to create a Lego version of Gotham City — which is still quite a dreary, dark place — we’ve been able to put a Lego spin on it that gives it a different feel to previous representations of Gotham City. Hopefully we’ll surprise people with that once they play it.

PSB: Of course people will be eager to try out Batman, with his plethora of tools, or Superman, who can fly. Who’s the sleeper character that people should be looking out for?

TTG: The Flash is one that instantly jumps to mind. He’s got super speed, naturally, and it’s really, really cool to run around, especially in the hub where you realize how quickly he’s moving, jumping around and collecting studs at super speed. Green Lantern seems to be very popular among the people we’ve shown him so far. Any green Lego you find in the game, he’s the only character that can interact with that Lego, so that’s unique to him. And he can build objects that no other character can build thanks to his ring. Cyborg is another one that’s pretty cool. Much like Superman’s heat vision, he’s got laser eyes, and he can climb up magnetic walls. And there’s a number of flying characters as well. Flying’s quite cool in the game.

PSB: This is your second PS Vita game, with a third in development (Lego The Lord of the Rings). What have you learned from Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 that you’re applying in these next two announced PS Vita titles?

TTG: We have been learning very quickly on Vita. Harry Potter was a very good learning experience, because whenever a new platform comes out it takes some time to get the grips on how to get the most out of it. Just simply from a development point of view, learning all the tricks and how to optimize things and get the best results does take a little bit of time and can’t be, or is rarely, done the first time. The guys at TT Fusion make our handheld games, so all the tips and tricks to get the graphics looking sharper and so on have been learned from previous titles so we’re able to put together a higher quality game, and enhance it further as we move forward working with the platform.

The other thing with Vita is it has a few extra features. We’re using “near” functionality, we also have front touchscreen and rear touchscreen for targeting, like Batman’s Batarang, for example.

PSB: How are you using “near”? Do you mind elaborating?

TTG: The way the feature works is that when in game you can go up to the Batcomputer in the Batcave and choose an item or character that you have unlocked and set it as a gift. Anyone that then goes to that geographical location can obtain the gift.

PSB: We put a note out on Twitter asking for some questions, and we had a couple of funny ones — one reader thanked you for not including “Bat nipples” on the costume – not a fan of the Joel Schumacher movie, I guess.

TTG: To that point, with the character designs, we do work closely with DC. The character outfits, a lot of those decisions will come from talking to DC and how they want characters to appear. We also obviously work very closely with Lego, so where there’s a Lego toy available, we’ll use their design for the toy wherever possible. The idea behind that is simply when kids have the mini-figs in the toy set, they like to see the toys come to life in the video games.

PSB: The other question that came through on Twitter — by about 90% of the respondents — is how similar is the PS Vita version to the PS3 version?

TTG: There are quite a few differences between the PS3 and the PS Vita version. The things that are the same are the story, which is told through cutscenes primarily, and those cutscenes are shared between the versions. The other things that are the same, more or less, are the levels. There is one level in the console game which doesn’t appear on the handheld due to technical limitations. The console game does have the big Gotham City hub, while the handheld has the Batcave hub, but the thing that the handheld game does have is the JLA mode, which is basically bonus missions. There are five bonus missions, and each one is divided into eight different rounds where you take control of a different Justice League character. You’ll either have to have a big fight with a series of enemies, or have to cross some platforms or just get into a different mode. So there’ll be sort of challenges that make up this Justice League mode, and that seems to be something that’ll be very popular.

PSB:You’ve done quite a few of these games – what have you found that people want in a Lego game?

TTG: I think the thing that people want most is, working with the different IPs people love to see how the stories are told through Lego. Our games are very much character driven, I think, and the personalities of those characters and how they interact with each other. For example, the relationship between Superman and Batman in the game. Superman is quite brash and arrogant and Batman doesn’t want any of Superman’s help, and a lot of the humor comes from that relationship and how they interact with each other. I think people like seeing that in our games.

Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes ships for PS3 and PS Vita today. The Vita version will be available for download later today on the PlayStation Store. Of note, the Vita version of the game will feature ad hoc multiplayer support for the campaign, and couch co-op on PS3.

The creators of Heavy Rain didn’t come empty handed to this year’s Game Developers Conference. The celebrated studio debuted a powerful new video called “Kara” to show off their new animation and performance-capture technology. If you’ve seen Kara, then you know that the results speak for themselves. Rendered in real time on PS3 hardware, Kara chronicled the activation of a self-aware synthetic organism, but this making-of feature is impressive in its own right as it shows how Quantic Dream assembled several different performances to create a seamless, believable virtual character. The future is now, you guys.

Once you’ve watched the video feature, let us know what you think in the comments! And as a reminder: Kara is absolutely, positively not Quantic Dream’s next game.

Intrigued by the game’s cryptic presentation and strong emphasis on player choice, I spoke with Director Michal Staniszewski to learn more about his inspirations. If Datura intrigues you, be sure to tune into this Thursday’s PlayStation Blogcast for another segment discussing this enigmatic PSN title. And if you have questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.

Sid Shuman, PlayStation.Blog: First off, what’s the significance of the name “Datura”?
Michal Staniszewski, director, Datura: It’s named after the flower, the ambivalence of the flower. Because it’s very pretty from one side and poisonous from another. People have these daturas on their balconies and gardens, because they love the way they look, but they need to be very cautious not to touch them.

PSB: So how does that ambivalence roll into the choices you make in the game?
MS: The choices are not straightforward: It’s not good vs evil, but more like complete opposites. The decisions are generally not right in your face; you may not even notice that you made a decision.

PSB: What element did you settle on first? Move? The choices? The concept of being in a forest?
MS: The first thing was the hand. When I was first examining the PS Move motion controller, and I thought it would be cool to make a virtual reality-type game you could play at home. Then I started thinking about choices, something nonlinear. And the forest came from a quotation from Dante (“I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightfoward pathway had been lost…”), which ruminates on what happens when you die.

PSB: The scene in the ambulance at the beginning of the game — was I dying?
MS: Well, that depends on your interpretation. Some people think they’re dying or dreaming. We wanted to pose a question to the player — what happens when you die? There are a lot of people on this planet and they have completely different beliefs about that. What we would like to propose with Datura is something completely different, so it’s more for you to interpret. It’s more personal.

What we would like to achieve with Datura is to create discussion. During our internal playtests, after finishing the game, people were talking with each other about it — about their experiences and how they differed. We discovered that each playtester had a different experience with it, which was very interesting. We heard a lot of people saying, “that completely changes my point of view on the game!” It’s very ripe for interpretation.

PSB: Were there any films or TV shows that influenced Datura? I detect a Twin Peaks influence…
MS: Oh, tons [laughs]. I’ve watched almost everything from David Lynch from the very beginning. But there have been a ton of sources of inspiration. I like to influence my brain from a lot of different sources.

There are two main schools of artistic expression. An artist might not influenced by anything; if he has a pure mind, he can discover new paths that other people didn’t see. But there’s another path, where you absorb a lot of different things and try to mix up something new. I don’t know where I fall, exactly. But yes, David Lynch was definitely an influence.

PSB: I would be tempted to describe Datura as a mystery game. Is that accurate?
MS: It might be, it’s part of the interpretation. Some people are describing it as an old-school adventure game and others are describing it as an experience. They turned it on, experienced it, turned it off and then talked about it and shared their thoughts. It’s like going to a good movie, one that touches you, and you talk about it on the way out. “What did you think about this part?”

PSB: Some are comparing the game to Myst. Was Myst an influence?
MS: [laughs] Actually, to be honest, I haven’t played Myst. I had an Amiga for a long, long time and they never released Myst for it. I know what Myst is, I’ve read the reviews and watched videos. For Datura, we originally started with the idea of static, pre-rendered environments with paths you chose. But that was very limited. Myst was a milestone for games, but we shouldn’t try to go back. Free movement is much more immersive.

PSB: I noticed butterflies and insects flying around in the environments. What’s their significance?
MS: Another symbol of the game’s ambivalence, the opposites — the butterflies being bright, the bugs being dark. The choices you make influence the environment. We didn’t want to make it too straightforward; when you go deeply into the game, if you make darker decisions, the forest will collapse and change into a dark woods. If you make other decisions, the forest will become brighter.

So when the game’s creators dropped into San Francisco last week for Game Developers Conference, I jumped at the chance to speak with them.

In this conversation (shared with IGN’s Ryan Clements – look for his story soon at Vita.IGN.com), Game Director Keiichiro Toyama and Art Director Yoshiaki Yamaguchi talk about the game’s original platform (not PS Vita!), why they avoided an overly Japanese aesthetic, and the surprising inspiration for its unique gravity-based gameplay.

Ryan Clements, IGN: How did you get started on the project? What are your roots in the industry?

Keiichiro Toyama, Japan Studio: I was studying art as a student. I joined Konami as a graphic artist and become director on Silent Hill, and then joined Sony and worked on Siren: Blood Curse.

Jeff Rubenstein, PS Blog: The tonality between Silent Hill and Siren is so different than Gravity Rush. Did you get sick of scaring people? Or were there different emotions that you wanted to explore besides fear?

JS: Originally, the reason I was working on horror games was not by choice. The company asked me to make horror games because they were popular. I enjoyed it to some extent. But with advanced technologies, HD and the like, making horror games with a limited audience isn’t really cost efficient. You need more money to make big games like that, and so it was becoming challenging.

So I thought, I just wanna make something that I wanted to make when I was a student studying art. So that’s how I changed direction.

IGN: So is this a game you thought about a long time ago, and you’re finally getting a chance to make it, or is it something that you came up with after you left Konami?

JS: Before I joined Konami, I already had this idea, but it wasn’t too specific. I didn’t have any idea about manipulating gravity back then. But I had an idea of a girl floating in the air…

PSB: In my 30 years of gaming, Gravity Daze is the only game I’ve ever imported from Japan – [Personal note: Gravity Daze is all in Japanese, and I’d recommend waiting for the English version here]. The friend that sent over the game included an art book that contained a lot of different variations on the main character, Kat. How did you settle on her final appearance?

JS: The main character was the most difficult thing to lock down, so we thought a lot about it. If we made something completely Japanese, then it would be only acceptable to Japanese users, and we’ll lose audience in other territories. So we avoided that. We also wanted to make a female protagonist, but we thought that in other territories there are not so many female lead characters. But Lara Croft is pretty well accepted, and we thought that the reason she was is probably because she is exotic and serious. So we wanted Kat to have that exotic feel, and even though she’s tiny, we wanted to make her powerful and strong. Like a ninja: small, but agile. By adding that, we finally fixed the character design.

PSB: I played a few hours of Gravity Daze – until my inability to read Japanese hindered me a bit. I felt that when you hovered in the air, and then picked a direction and shot off, it reminded me of Descent, where you’re in space and you can go in any direction. Then there are parts where you can levitate items and hurl them, not unlike Cole in the inFAMOUS games. What were your gameplay influences?

JS: The game I was most influenced by was Crackdown. I really liked the aspect of unlocking skills and becoming more powerful, and achieving a higher level of freedom as you become more powerful. Plus the open-world setting. I enjoyed moving in that game.

IGN: Was that open world setting decided right from the start, before the art came into place, or did that come later?

JS: It wasn’t decided at the beginning. We took a lot of different approaches. I requested not just falling vertically, but also horizontally. And we thought that an open world works better with that. This world is based in gravity, so it matches that the level becomes big not just vertically, but horizontally as well, so you can fall and travel in any direction.

PSB: How did you decide which of PS Vita’s new inputs (touch screen, six axis gyroscopes) to use with Gravity Rush?

JS: Originally, we were making the game for PS3. We came across PS Vita along the way. We played around with it, and thought it was perfect for the game, and so we switched to PS Vita.

PSB: How have you and the team reacted to the really good critical reception (38/40 in Famitsu) in Japan?

JS: We had mixed feelings, actually. We achieved something that’s unique and brand new, and we feel that should get good reviews. But at the same time, this game a little niche… so we thought it was interesting that we got such high scores.

We’ve still got a couple more months until gamers here in North America will get to explore Kat’s world. Gravity Rush floats over to this contintent on June 12 of this year.

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You’re in the big time now, baby. Game Developers Conference is where the brightest talent comes to shine….and we’ve lined up said talent for exclusive GDC interviews you won’t find anywhere else. Want to know more about Quantic Dream’s new tech demo “Kara”? Our exclusive interview with Director David Cage will give full new details. Want to hear what thatgamecompany thinks of early Journey reviews? President and Co-founder Kellee Santiago reveals all. Or perhaps you’re more interested in upcoming PSN stunner Dyad ? We even delve into the future of PlayStation’s digital strategy with our first interview with Senior Director of PlayStation Digital Platforms Jack Buser, and a check-in with Drinkbox Studios, creators of PS Vita’s highly reviewed launch title Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack.

It’s a big show with big, big talent. What are you waiting for?

The Cast

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

And just to be extra clear: No, “Kara” is not Quantic Dream’s next game.

Director David Cage was on-hand at GDC to debut the new video to the press, and his presentation touched on the origins of “Kara” — we’ve selected a few choice quotes below. Check back tomorrow to hear our full interview with Cage on the Official PlayStation Blogcast. It’s one interview you won’t want to miss!

After Heavy Rain, we wanted to push the envelope in terms of quality, starting with the visuals. We wanted to improve many things — things that were not possible with the Heavy Rain engine. So we had to develop a new engine from scratch.

We also wanted to improve the quality of the acting. With Heavy Rain, we did what many games do — split performances, recording a voice on one side and a body animation on the other, putting everything together and crossing your fingers that you get a consistent performance. It worked okay for Heavy Rain, but you lose a lot of a performance by splitting into two and rebuilding it artificially.

We wanted to do what Avatar did by having one full performance where we capture everything at the same time. And we wanted to demonstrate these new performance capture techniques and the new engine before going into production, so we developed a short showcase that would allow us to test these ideas and technologies. This is how “Kara” was created.

“Kara” is not our next game. It’s not the character, it’s not the world, it’s not the story. …We do things in a very strange way here, things that have nothing to do with the games we make. But I think that’s a part of the DNA of the studio, and hopefully something that people like about us – they never know what they’re going to get!

Heavy Rain – The Casting

The first game we got ahold of here at GDC is upcoming PS Vita musical platformer Sound Shapes. The game is best seen (and heard), so we present here Jason deGroot of Queasy Games. In this video, deGroot takes you on a tour through a never-before-seen level, as well as sharing the in-game tutorial, so you know exactly what you’ll be seeing when you load up Sound Shapes for the first time.

So when do you get to play Sound Shapes on your own personal Vita? The Queasy Games team doesn’t yet have a release date, but they confirmed that a pre-release demo is in the making. We’ll keep you posted.

Next week during GDC, PixelJunk is collaborating with Super7 to host a FREE GDC Kickoff party in San Francisco. You can expect:

• A public preview of PixelJunk 4am available to play for anyone not going to GDC!
• Super7’s INSERT COIN COLLECTION T-shirt range launch.
• Prizes for the ‘best jam sessions’ on 4am.
• Free drinks, music, giveaways & fun!

PixelJunk 4am Art & Music Director DJ Baiyon will be on hand to deliver a performance at 6pm to kick things off, followed by free play for everyone. Attendance is free, so if you’re unable to make GDC but still want to checkout PixelJunk 4am, come down and say “Hi” to us.

Where: Super7 Store, 1427 Haight St (@ Masonic)
When: Tuesday March 6th @ 6pm
RSVP on Facebook

Even if you can’t make the party, here are some great details and images of PixelJunk 4am:

Do you have a PlayStation Move? You may be pleased to know that someone is experimenting with it to unleash its full potential. Being indie means you can experiment. You can take risks. Push hardware to new limits (do things no-one else has had the courage to try yet). :D With PixelJunk 4am, we’re entering unknown territory. Want to take a ride with us?

So orthodox music games tell the player what to do. It has them dancing to its musical demands *insert evil laughter*. We’ve created the exact opposite of that. Our players tell the music what to do. This is why we call 4am more of an instrument than a game. In fact, you’re not even really a player anymore. You’re a performer!

And that PlayStation Move you’ve got? Well you’ve never been able to use it like this before. There’s no pointers, no shooting, no ‘waggling’ mini-games. This is an instrument built from the ground-up to fully utilize the PlayStation Move hardware. Using all 3 spacial axes (X, Y & Z plus one more axis for twist), the accelerometer & the gyro, we’ve built a Virtual Canvas in space for you. Your PlayStation Move is then tracked through space using a vibrant palette of changing sphere colours. Imagine an intricate Audio Canvas floating in space that you can use to paint and craft music on.

The PlayStation Network has also never been used like this before. We are essentially empowering PSN with its very own radio broadcasting station. And the artists that will fill the waves will be you! Anytime you play, you will be streaming live on PSN for anyone to tune in and listen to.

“But how do I tune in”? “What if I don’t have a PlayStation Move?” We’ve got you covered! A FREE Viewer will be available to EVERYONE, downloadable through PSN. You can use it to stream any live performances currently happening worldwide. Follow your favorite performers, leave it running as live background music at parties or just enjoy the visuals powered by the PS3 SPU’s brute force. Nothing in 4am is a one-way street though. As a viewer, we want you to feed back into performances and let them know if you like what you’re hearing. You could even change a performer’s mind about what they’ll play next if they suddenly have a crowd to please.

Social networking worlds will also be feeding back into 4am unlike anything before. We’re giving people the tools to promote their performances using Facebook & Twitter from inside 4am. And again, as nothing is a one-way street, any activity around your tweets or posts in the social world have effects back inside 4am increasing your popularity within the game world too.

Every single owner of a PlayStation Move should be sitting up and paying attention. PixelJunk 4am is like nothing you’ll have played before. We’re blurring the lines of what can be called a “game” or an “instrument” using this hardware. PixelJunk 4am will be out in Spring this year. Exploring new territory is fun, so we hope you’ll join us there too. And for everyone else? Download the free Viewer, and turn up the phat bass. :)