A new entry in Sony's "Conversations with Creators" series features the developers of Infamous: Second Son talking about what it meant to develop a next-generation title.
Lead Designer Jaime Griesemer likens a video game as a collaborative story between developer and player, where the developer constructs one part of the story and the player's actions construct the other. Developers have many ways of telling the story, however, whereas the player only has the controller. To that end, the Infamous developers praise the responsiveness and feel of the PlayStation 4 controller. The PS4 controller allows them to occasionally do things to increase the players' connection with the game, like having them put a finger on the touchpad as the in-game character goes through a finger scan rather than simply pressing a button to do the same thing.
Much of what makes a "next-generation" title is under the hood where players will never see it, says the team. Rather than seeing normal maps and shaders, players will hopefully just see rain and puddles.
Infamous: Second Son hits PlayStation 4 next April.