PSLS: How does the SMART Free-running System work?
RH: Basically, if you hold down the SMART button while you’re moving, that’s you signalling to the game that you just want to get over, around or under whatever is in your way and you want it to happen fast. So we take all the guess work out of worrying about exactly when to press the jump button, or when to hit the crouch button to slide under an obstacle. All of this is so you can focus on what’s REALLY important: shooting at the enemy and staying alive.
However, if you’re the type of player who doesn’t want to take any shortcuts, you can still do all the jumps and climbs and slides yourself with well timed presses of the sprint, jump and crouch buttons. If you do it yourself, in some cases you’ll find you’re actually more efficient as you move through the world and you can even find some paths that the SMART button alone would never bring you to.
PSLS: Obviously, early in the design process, there are a lot of ideas floating around, many of which never get put into the game. Can you name some of the thrown away ideas or features, that you initially wanted to put into the game?
RH: We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: it broke our hearts to not have playable female characters in the game. But it was the right thing for us to do because we want players to have alot of choices when it comes to designing their characters. If we’d added female models, we’d have had to cut in half the number of assets we planned to make as each would need a male and a female version. It would have doubled our animation requirements, which in turn would have meant cutting some other features as well.
PSLS: While playing the single player component, how easy is it to jump into an online match?
RH: It’s super easy! You can pretty much do it any time, so definitely feel free to start out playing the story campaigns in single player if you like. That’s totally cool. In fact, if you do that, we’ll monitor your progress, and as you become better at the game, we’ll point out when we think you’re ready to go online.
PSLS: For a member of Splash Damage, what is the must-have snack?
RH: CAEK NOM NOM! Sorry, that’s an inside joke. We love our cake here at Splash.
PSLS: Finally, will we be seeing anything for Brink at this year’s E3? Will you announce an exact release date?
RH: I’m afraid I’ll have to be coy here. All I’ll say is that we can’t wait to show you guys more Brink!
PlayStation LifeStyle would like to thank Richard Ham for his time, and wishes him and his team the best of luck with the rest of development. Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle for more PlayStation news, reviews and interviews.
