Guerrilla Games: The Effort Needed to Make a Next-Gen Title has Quadrupled, PS4’s Architecture is “a Lot More Normal”

When Killzone: Shadow Fall releases next month along with the PlayStation 4, it’ll be a move that’s been in the works for a few years now, as Lead Designer Eric Boltjes explained to VG247:

We knew pretty early on that we wanted to be a launch title. We knew it was inevitable that there was going to be a new platform, so quite early on – about two and a half years ago – we said ‘You know, we want to be a launch title. We want to be on the next-gen console.’

The reason for that is that Killzone is all about the graphics and gameplay, obviously [laughs]. But being able to do that on a new platform was just an amazing chance, I mean, we really wanted to get in there and we wanted to get in early.

Getting Shadow Fall ready in time for the PS4 launch wasn’t an easy task, however, as Eric continued by saying, “The really scary part is, all the tools and all the stuff we developed previously had to go out of the window. We had to re-do everything. We had the engine that we were rebuilding to fit next-gen – you know, the new architecture all that sort of stuff – all the assets had to be re-done, weapons had to be re-done and the animation systems had to be rebuilt. It was a lot like leaving your save data for something new and scary.”

After talking about how the PS4’s architecture is “a lot more normal” and allows for easier development with more memory, hard drive space, and processing power, Boltjes discussed the manpower needed for their next-gen title:

It’s also a lot more demanding, because the production effort needed just to make a next-gen title now is not doubled; It’s quadrupled. That’s because everything needs to look that much better. It takes a lot more people, and that takes a lot more communication. So it does it make things a lot more easier from a technical standpoint, but from a professional standpoint it makes things a lot harder.

Are you surprised that it takes so many people to create a next-gen title? Let us know in the comments below.

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