Push Square Interviews Seth Killian on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

by d3v on November 24th, 2012 at 8:26 pm

PlayStation news site Push Square recently had the chance to interview Seth Killian on his experience with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In the interview, Seth talks about having to adapt due to coming in to the project at such a late stage. He also talks about balancing the game’s cast and how he had to learn to factor in things that he’d never dealt with in traditional 2D fighters. Other topics discussed include character selection and dealing with leaks. We’ve shared some excerpts from the interview below.

PS: You obviously weren’t involved with the game at the start of development, so what were your first impressions when you finally did get your hands on it?

SK: Oh, I was worried about all sorts of things. I’ve wanted to make a game like this for a long time, I really like the game type, and obviously Sony is one of the few companies that has the characters to pull it off – but I was concerned about the way the controls were mapped. I was like, “Why doesn’t my Square button do the same attack with every character?” And I was also like, “Is my Super attack over here, or is it on L2? Oh no, that’s taunt.” So, I had a learning process to get there, but once I understood the inside of the game, I started to appreciate the decisions that the team had made.

PS: You mentioned that you’ve been involved in balancing the game. How do you go about balancing a game like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, or any fighting game for that matter?

SK: You start by playing it a lot. So, you play a lot, and you try to watch as many good people as you can. Obviously, the beta was very helpful for us. But then this game has some very interesting elements in terms of balance. There are two things that I haven’t really dealt with before. The first is the super meter. Of course, you build a super meter in Capcom games as well, and the way certain moves build them matters, but not to the same degree as here. With super attacks being the only way you can score in the game, they matter hugely. So, you can really affect a character’s chances by turning up their AP gain or turning it down.

The other thing that was new to me was the sheer size of the play space. It really makes a difference in terms of the directionality of the attacks. So, for example, some characters are strong on a horizontal plane, while others are very proficient at vertical attacks. As such, this game has been all about balancing in a traditional sense – the moves, damage, and AP gain – but also, the character’s types of attack. We needed to constantly ask ourselves, “Where does this character need to be on-screen in respect to the others in order to take full advantage of his moves?” I’ve got to say, that’s been a really interesting aspect of making this game. Space control is one of the things I love most in video games, so I’ve been really excited about working on that.

PS: How did the leaks affect the game’s promotional plans? What was the feeling inside the studio when the news broke?

SK: Well, I think we had multiple leaks actually. The feeling probably started with irritation, and then it elevates from there. The problem with leaks, though, is that for every real leak, you get three or four fake leaks as well, or people suggesting things that aren’t actually the case. So that’s always hard, because that really muddies the waters.

You can read the rest of the interview over at Push Square.

Mike Arthur

Just remember, anything he said should be taken with a grain of salt since he is paid to promote the game.
- Rohan Mayers
  
  I have been seeing people saying that a lot lately about him. Were people saying that too when he was at Capcom? Or are people just upset at him? Is PlayStation All-Stars bad? I have not played it. I am not trying to attack you but I am curious because I have been seeing people trying to qualify or discredit his comments yet he was worshiped at Capcom.
  - Mike Arthur
    
    He did the same thing at Capcom for their fighters, but it wasn’t nearly as transparent as it is here. He seems to go out of his way to butter up people to the game, when the game itself lacks any real depth that he goes on about.
    - Rohan Mayers
      
      Ok, thanks. I see it as him trying to market the game by creating excitement and wonder. I think Sony hired him mainly for his relationship to the FGC and knows that he speaks with authority and from experience. Well like you said, he is paid to butter up
    - http://www.facebook.com/thomas.manson Thomas Manson
      
      True, but when Seth was working for Capcom, at least at first, he didn’t have to fake the excitement. “Wow, I’m working for CAPCOM!” It was easy to sing the praises, because he had been playing and loving their games for over a decade. Getting to be their personal PR tool is like a dream come true. Of course, as time went on, you could tell that started to change, too. His excitement faded. He moved on. Problem is, he didn’t take the excitement with him.
      - http://twitter.com/durden77 Russell Ayers
        
        What makes people think he isn’t genuinely excited about this game? He’s always seemed like the type that has really, wanted to expand the FGC, and I think he truly believes this game could.
        
        PSAS has a lot of mechanics and depth about it that are more similar to traditional fighting games than something like Smash. In an accessible party setting, I really think it does have the potential to be a game that new players can get excited about in a way that many of us get excited about fighting games. Even if they only stick with PSAS that’s great, but after digging into a game like PSAS they might move on to something like Marvel.
        
        I’m not trying to say this has as much depth as Street Fighter or anything like that, but I think that many people are just assuming this game is ass with no depth at all, when they haven’t looked at it for more than a couple of minutes. It’s actually kind of an exciting game, if there wasn’t so much judge-it-by-it’s-cover negativity.
        
        Seth has been a huge part of our community for so long, and has always seemed to genuinely want to keep the FGC healthy. Yet even so, people always have tried to put words in Seth’s mouth, and I feel like it’s still happening now. Basically saying, “I don’t agree with the game you made so you can’t be excited about it.”
        
        And also, keep in mind at Capcom he was purely for PR. Basically just going around saying what Capcom asked him to at big points, and being an information drone. Where as here, he actually contributed to the game. It’d be pretty easy to get excited about something like this that not only he helped make, but he actually thinks the game he helped made is exciting.
        
        And yeh, like others have said. People are acting like he’s parading the game around like it’s the next Street Fighter. But all he talks about are basic reasons why he likes the game and why he thinks it has potential, which is…. what you should talk about if you have a game you worked on and enjoyed.
    - Moribund Cadaver
      
      Nothing he’s saying here is buttering anyone up. It’s purely shop talk about game balancing.
      
      Besides, with this kind of attitude, nobody who ever actually works on or with a game will be “trusted”. Unless they’re an indie developer of course. Those guys fight the man.
- http://twitter.com/MortalKomment MortalKomment
  
  Ad hominem fallacy. Look it up, son.
- d3v
  
  Technically however, he did actually work on the game since his position at Sony Santa Monica actually involves game development now and not just PR.
nicanor76

i didn’t see him say it’s the best game ever or anything, just talk about balancing. He’s just talking about his job, don’t read too much into it…
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goforbrokehub

seth left capcom for this game.. lol
- Moribund Cadaver
  
  No, Seth left Capcom for a position as an overall producer at Santa Monica. This game was in development long before he arrived at Santa Monica.
  
  Besides, PSABR is actually a pretty damned good game. Zombie FG players may glaze over at the sight of anything visually similar to Smash Bros, but you can’t help those people.
kamstarworld

It’s not a bad game to me it didn’t have all the depth that people exclaim… But its just as fun and as brainless as super smash… That seemed like a weird idea at first but now its an icon… My only concern is Seth and his team severely over-power 1 character versus another due to his popularity. And during the beta he did not fail me with Kratos getting level 3 so easily and sweet tooth it being nearly impossible… I’m willing to give it another chance
- http://twitter.com/MortalKomment MortalKomment
  
  It is WAY too early to say this game is lacking depth.
  - kamstarworld
    
    Why is that? Its not marvel vs. capcom? It has a 1 track combo system that leads to linear possibilities
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOLW5ONF3TOMIFS7BS3SDZB2TI Matt L

So Seth is going to invest time polishing this turd? Okay then…
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