Last month, a group of roughly 35 journalists from around the world came to visit Quantic Dream. Following our first presentation of Heavy Rain in Leipzig in August, we wanted to be able to share our passion for the game and reveal in particular how such a massive project comes to life. When you play a game such as this, it is difficult to really understand how much effort goes into its production. Our hope was that through such a visit, we might be able to educate gamers a bit more on how a game is crafted and how important artistic direction is to ensure a consistent experience from the first to the last minute.

Following a quick tour of our studio, David Cage, Quantic’s CEO and creative director on Heavy Rain, gathered media in our motion capture studio located on the ground floor of our building. We had decided to present them the complete production process, from game design and initial concept art up until the final integration of all elements within one scene in real-time. The presentation lasted roughly two hours, in particular because we had prepared a number of making-of type videos and real-time code on PS3 illustrating the different steps of 3D set production, actor casting, 3D character creation, and Virtual Actor performance. At the end, we explored together a never before shown scene of the game live on PLAYSTATION 3 in which all elements had been put together.

I think the most fascinating aspect of Heavy Rain is the fact that more than 250 people are contributing to its making, all of which are working under the artistic supervision of David Cage, His attention to detail is really fascinating…I am sitting in the back of our studio while he is passionately talking about our project. More than anyone else in the team, Heavy Rain is his baby. For the past two and a half years, I can clearly feel how proud he is to show how his vision is coming to life.

For the end of the tour, we had prepared a little surprise for our guests: to practice live on stage and become a Virtual Actor in the game. We equipped two journalists with body suits and reflectors. The stage had been dressed with set elements: a door, two chairs, one table, a cupboard. David briefed the two journalists on the scene, explaining to each of them what their role were, the starting point of the scene, and what they were supposed to say and play.

Once fully equipped the two casually entered the stage. The rest of the crowd had assembled around the set, in a similar casual fashion. However, when David started to use his firm directing voice to ask for silence and pronounced the first syllabus of the typical movie-style check-up words “ready to roll. Rolling and….ACTION” we virtually felt the attention of our journalists-turned-actors spinning from vaguely alert to 100% focused. The crowd was holding its breath, as all assembled immediately sensed the change. David had decided to shoot the scene in three distinct steps. The first shot was repeated twice as David gave more direction to its actors after initial takes. The second and third shots however were played exactly how David had envisioned them. Our actors were “in their roles” and did actually play quite professionally. A big round of applause followed the last “…and CUT” words of David at the end of the third shot.

This concluded the presentation and the rest of the tour was spent answering interviews or casually discussing with the journalists what they had seen before.

When the game was unveiled at Games Convention in Leipzig, we were obviously delighted at what a great response we received. With the event that day, we wanted to take the unique opportunity to let journalists and gamers around the world take a look behind the scenes at how Heavy Rain is made. It is a very special feeling to see at the precise moment when everything comes together and is being assembled to create what we believe will be a unique interactive experience. We hope that we were able to communicate how much innovation and artistic effort goes into its production and look forward to showing you more of the actual game in the coming months.

Guillaume de Fondaumière, the co-CEO of Quantic Dream and Executive Producer of Heavy Rain wanted to share with readers of the PlayStation.Blog his feelings when revealing the title to a huge audience for the first time. As Heavy Rain is a deeper, more emotionally-tied game than we’re used to seeing – it’s actually a good fit. Also, we have a trailer to share with you that you may not have seen.

Take it away, Guillaume!

Leipzig Games Convention Day 1:

Here we are, finally unveiling Heavy Rain to the world after almost two years of hard work on the title. A first showing is always a very special moment, one that gets your heart pounding like the first time you are in love: Will the public react positively? Will it say “Yes, this is what I was waiting for, can’t wait to see more?”

The setting for the initial public announcement of the game could not have been better: David Reeves’s GC Leipzig keynote speech on Wednesday when all important European PlayStation announcements are made.

A first pleasant surprise: spontaneously, when David Reeves pronounces for the first time the words Heavy Rain, the hundreds of journalists attending start applauding, eager to finally see the title. We did not suspect such anticipation. The tension is palpable when David Cage enters the stage and the crowd claps hands again to welcome him. My hands are sweating, from where I am, I see our pre-teaser in pre-roll on one monitor. The time has come, the video is broadcast… and for the third time, the crowd applauds and cheers, visibly satisfied. The moment David Cage, myself and the whole team had been anxiously anticipating for weeks is now over. You can watch the video for yourself below.

A first impression is always very important and I think this one was quite positive. David and I are now anxiously awaiting the next two days, when we will be showing live code to the press. We know this will be the real thing, the real test…

Leipzig Games Convention, Days 2 & 3

The first look at the behind-closed-doors Heavy Rain press schedule for the next 48 hours makes me slightly shiver: 16 presentations of 45 minutes are planned for almost 320 journalists. This is going to be a marathon… While David Cage will be giving an introductory speech and commentary on the demo, I will be playing it. It is live code, I have no safety net. The male character is driven by AI and the two walkthroughs chosen to present what Heavy Rain is imply that I don’t lose the other – female – character half way through the demo…

At the end of the first run through a surprise awaits us: the journalists applaud the presentation, something I had never seen in the past 15 years of my career. Heavy Rain is a very different game, an emotional experience that sucks players and any audience attending a playthrough in. After all, this might be 16 long, but rewarding, presentations!

At 2 pm, the tension slightly raises for us when Shuhei Yoshida, head SCE of Worldwide Studios, and Michael Denny, VP of SCEE Worldwide Studios enter the room. The presentation goes well, we are even rewarded with an additional applause session half way through our demo.

On the following day, despite having gone to bed early, David and I are starting to feel some fatigue and back pain. During the first presentation, I realize my hands are shaking right from the beginning and for the first time, I am loosing the female character during a fight sequence at the end of the demo. David’s speech is less fluid at the start of the second one, but thankfully we regain confidence at the end of this presentation thanks to an unusually long and warm round of applause. The six following presentations all go without hiccups. To pump us up, Alex, Charlotte and Grégory from SCE PR are feeding us regularly with press quotes: Heavy Rain seems to be receiving an exceptional response from the international press. This helps us concentrate on our next presentation and gives us the confidence to always deliver the same level of presentation, hour after hour. When we finally leave the Leipzig convention center at close to 7 pm, we are extremely tired but also very happy.

David Cage and I will certainly remember this Games Convention in Leipzig for quite a few years!

So, it’s been hectic today – the stand is looking great, and we’ve had a lot of attention. I type I’m sitting in the Buzz! bus, an area laid out in the shape of a large camper-style van with satellites on the top. There are bench seats and plasmas with room for 8 people, all playing Quiz TV. I seem to get challenged by pretty much everyone who stops by the bus, but I have to turn them down as I’d just win every time (actually, in both the games I’ve played today I came last!).

Buzz himself is walking around greeting people, waving and generally being friendly. It seems everyone is enjoying having their photo taken with him.

Most impressive is the part of the Buzz! area which is set up like an actual quiz show. Eight lecterrns are in place, where people can come up and play against each other with a real host, behind them is a huge screen, laid out quiz show style, very Buzz! and very cool.

There are grassy areas where people are sitting, or lying down playing Buzz! Brainbender, and Master quiz, and even a pinboard with pictures of people getting their Buzz! faces on. Happily, all the games seem to be going down really well – a big convention like this is a pretty perfect way of showcasing the social fun of gaming and quizzing.

Thanks Lee – Team MotorStorm is next!

Day 1
We’ve arrived for the first day at The Leipzig Game Convention and I’ve been blown away by the PlayStation stand – even though I say so myself it’s the best thing here and considerably bigger than the other stands. Within the stand, the LittleBigPlanet area is buzzing – we’ve got 25 pods with the game on and they’ve been full all day long. We’ve had a crowd before we let the public in, so we’re expecting some queues. THERE IS a special 3 pod area set up for Danny, Jim and Craig (the designers from Media Molecule) to show off the Create mode from LittleBigPlanet. They’ve been doing an awesome job at showing just how crazy this part of the game is.

I’m sure some people saw the Sony press conference where I was demonstrating the game – I was interrupted by a famous comedian from Germany (although I’d not seen him before) and he did a good job at making my presentation more ‘entertaining’. Apparently he asked me my name and my response was ‘hello’ – perhaps I need to brush up on my basic German.

The main thing to report is that the game is very popular indeed! Whenever we do a demo, people start playing and creating they don’t seem to want to leave! Everywhere you look around the LittleBigPlanet area you’ll see people laughing as they’re playing, which for me, is the best thing ever.

Day 2
Uh Oh! The public have arrived! It’s much more busy than yesterday, the guys from Media Molecule are working their socks off demoing constantly. There are over one hundred seats available to play the game from and every one is occupied – plus there’s a queue.

Once again, everyone is really enjoying themselves. The level we’ve chose to demo is the construction site from the Metropolis theme and it’s pretty tricky, people seem to be loving the challenge, and there is plenty of laughter as SackBoy gets it wrong on numerous occasions!

Danny, Jim and Craig are looking exhausted!!! I would be too after demoing non-stop for 2 days! They’re talking about getting an early night, which I can’t say is surprising, however I’m going to take a look around the rest of the show – some of the booth babes are demonstrating some really interesting games…

I saw the SackBoy on the side of the tower block last night – it looks ace! LittleBigPlanet is absolutely everywhere, our team in Germany have done an incredible job.

It was also good to see Rag Doll Kung Fu being demonstrated today! That was the original concept behind LittleBigPlanet believe it or not! Look for it on PSN soon!

Thanks, Pete! Still more to come from Leipzig !

Today was the first time ever that we showed the online version of the game, hands-on, to anyone outside of the SCEE family and I have to admit, it was quite nerve-wracking. We’ve worked on this online portion for over two years and putting your baby out there is not an easy thing. I am very happy to say though that today could not have gone better and we got some really good responses from all of the journalists we showed the game to.

There is something almost magic about seeing people playing the online game for the first time and more importantly, seeing them really get into it! Some of the journalists were so into the game that they almost forgot to ask questions for their articles! Lots of smiles and lots of good feedback as well.

That is another good part of today; listening to dedicated gamers and hearing what they do not like as well. We are still at a point in the project where we can change and tweak specific aspects of the game so getting this kind of feedback from our audience (even though they might be journalists ;) ) is a tremendous help to getting this project done and out the door.

One more day of Leipzig remains and then it’s onto the Public Beta which is coming soon! Getting even more feedback and putting our game to the test once more. It is a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to getting the whole world to get a glimpse of Killzone 2 Online Multiplayer…

Thanks Eric – more to come!

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune PS3 Bundle with 160GB PS3 System

The 160GB PS3 system announced at the GC will be available here as part of a new limited-edition bundle that includes the hardware, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune game, a PLAYSTATION Network voucher for PAIN, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller. We’re hearing from a lot of you that more PS3 storage space is important, particularly since the launch of our video delivery service, and this new model delivers more memory and a whole lot of content packed-in. The 160GB PS3 has all of the same functionality as the new 80GB PS3 that’s popping up on retailer shelves now, but obviously has twice the HDD space, so you can build levels to your heart’s content in LittleBigPlanet, download a ton of videos, and still have room for your entire music collection. The Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune 160GB PS3 bundle launches in November for $499.99 (MSRP).

New PSP Entertainment Packs with updated PSP (PSP-3000)

We also unveiled at Leipzig an updated PSP system (PSP-3000), which we’ll be offering here initially through the previously announced Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP Entertainment Pack and a new PSP 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack. I’m personally excited about the 4GB Memory bundle because we’re including a – you guessed it – 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, which is the biggest Memory Stick we’ve ever bundled with a PSP. Similar to the new PS3 model, this PSP bundle is the result of the current consumer usage model – where more and more of you are finding that extra memory space is crucial. Check out the press release here for more details on what’s included in the bundles.

The new PSP retains the size and features of the current, slimmed-down PSP (PSP-2000), while incorporating some hardware updates:

• The LCD screen will have a wider color gamut and higher contrast ratio to deliver deeper, more vibrant colors, as well as anti-reflection technology so you can see the screen more clearly when playing outdoors. As you all know, the PSP’s screen is a key strength of the hardware, and this update adds an absolutely dazzling LCD screen to the handheld.
• A built-in microphone allows for Skype calls and multi-player gaming communication directly from the hardware – eliminating the need for attaching a separate headset.

Similar to our firmware updates, the new PSP is simply an opportunity to evolve the platform with the newest technology without adding to the cost of the system. The PSP Entertainment Packs will continue to be $199.99 (MSRP), and later this year we’ll release a standalone, updated PSP in a PSP Core Pack, which remains at $169.99 (MSRP).

PS3 Wireless Keypad

Lastly, we’ve announced a new Wireless Keypad for PS3 that will make text communications and Web browsing much easier. The Wireless Keypad snaps onto the top of a SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller and comes with some cool features, including a mode that turns the main key area into a touch pad (similar to a touch pad on a Laptop computer). Once in this mode, you can slide your finger on this area to move the cursor on the screen and tap to enter. There will be two short cut buttons on the Keypad that will enable users to jump directly to the XMB’s “Friends” icon and the “Message Box” during gameplay. The Wireless Keypad will launch in late November.

Last but not least, the Wireless Keypad is a Bluetooth device that can not only be used with the PS3 system but with any other Bluetooth enabled device that has Keyboard functionality. You will be able to use it with your smart phones and other portable devices that are equipped with Bluetooth. With the PS3 system, it can be paired and charged seamlessly just by connecting them with a USB cable.

That’s all for now on the hardware front. You’ll see much more on the games shown at GC in Leipzig in the coming days.