14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent interview, the co-founders of Sucker Punch Productions, the studio behind PlayStation 3 exclusive inFamous, have given details about their collaboration with another one of Sony's developers, that is Naughty Dog of the Uncharted series fame. As it seems, Sucker Punch benefited a lot from Naughty Dog's advice regarding the platforming element present in inFamous.
“We got some notes from Naughty Dog when we were three months from releasing inFamous about what frustrated them about the climbing system,” co-founder and producer Brian Fleming told NowGamer. “It’s great because it’s like getting feedback from somebody you trust and respect and you know has your best interests at heart. They’re not trying to [stab you in the back] , they’re saying here’s this piece of information that you can't get from a focus test. Testers don’t understand what it is you're trying to do at the level that someone who spends all day, every day working on Uncharted can.”
Fleming went on to comment on the fact that focus testing was very important too. However, the problem was that, while focus testers could underline issues regarding a game, they were not that good at giving advice on how to solve them. The experience of Naughty Dog with modern day platforming speaks for itself and the studio's input into inFamous must have been very important for the quality of the title.
According to co-founder Chris Zimmerman, the Sucker Punch team had the chance to visit Naughty Dog to see the studio at work and that was another source of valuable insight into game development. Sucker Punch is planning to achieve with inFamous 2 the same level of improvement that is to be found between Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed titles Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. inFamous 2 should arrive in 2011 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.