Horizon Zero Dawn Soundtrack Out Today on Spotify

Good news! The official soundtrack for Horizon Zero Dawn hits Spotify today, available now on PlayStation Music. With its driving tribal rhythms and stirring vocal performances, the Horizon Zero Dawn soundtrack is a huge departure from Guerrilla soundtracks of yesteryear. Listen to the full album here, a week before it’s available anywhere else.

In honor of the soundtrack release, we caught up with the entire composer team – Niels van der Leest, Joris de Man and The Flight – as well as Vocalist Julie Elven and Guerrilla’s Music Supervisor Lucas van Tol, to talk about how this memorable musical collaboration came to pass.

PlayStation.Blog: What inspired this musical collaboration?
Lucas van Tol: When I started working on the music we didn’t have a game to score against, so we decided to focus on Horizon’s three main pillars: machines, tribes, and beautiful nature.

We started with the tribal music. We asked ourselves, “What would a tribe sound like in the future, after they’ve lost most of their culture?” and also “How can we create something that sounds like tribal music, but isn’t necessarily the tribal music we know today?”

PSB: How did you go about answering those questions?
Lucas: Well, we knew we were in way over our heads. So we brought in some outside help, starting with Niels van der Leest.

Niels van der Leest: Lucas and I had actually met a couple of months earlier at a recording session for sound designers. He learned that I studied percussion, so when he contacted me, he asked me to research what the tribal music of Horizon might sound like. In July 2014, I presented my findings to the game director, the writers, and the designers, and they liked it so much they decided to put me on the ‘diegetic’ (in-world) music for the game.

Lucas: So then we had our first composer. However, we also knew that we’d need a certain amount of music in our game, which would require multiple composers.

PSB: How did you find the remaining composers for the project?
Lucas: In late 2014, we approached an old friend of the studio, Joris de Man, with whom we’d worked on Killzone 1, 2, and 3.

Joris de Man: Lucas contacted me and said that they were working on a new game. I was immediately interested because I’d heard that it was going to be different from Killzone, and I was curious to see what they’d been up to. So we had a conversation and he asked me if I wanted to pitch on this job and put some music forward.

The studio set me up with some artwork and a synopsis of what the game was about, and I was quite blown away; the scope was really ambitious, a clear departure from what I’d been used to seeing from Guerrilla.

Lucas: The idea we had back then is that Joris would focus on the ‘beautiful nature’ pillar and Niels would take care of the ‘tribes’ pillar. That meant we still needed someone to cover the ‘machines’ pillar. Which is where The Flight came on board.

PSB: Who, or what, is The Flight?
Alexis Smith: The Flight is a musical duo consisting of Joe Henson and myself. We’re record producers and artist producers and songwriters, but we’ve also done a few games; the last one was Alien Isolation. Through our agent we heard that Guerrilla was looking for additional members on the composing team for their new project. We’d known Joris de Man for a long time, and we thought it’d be fun to work with him. So we got in touch, had a video chat with Lucas, and then did a pitch.

Joe Henson: What Lucas was able to show of the project looked amazing. Coming from the dark, claustrophobic atmosphere of Alien Isolation into the lush, open world of Horizon was incredibly exciting. Although both games belong to the science-fiction genre, they’re almost polar opposites in that respect. Well, apart from both having a strong female lead.

PSB: The E3 2015 trailer theme was the public’s first taste of Horizon’s musical score — how did it come about?
Joris: As Guerrilla was already working on the game, we had to come up with a memorable theme for the game itself, but also for the E3 trailer. Because the composers mostly worked remotely, we would have weekly video chats about where the music was going. During one of those chats I was talking to Lucas, and as he explained what they were going to show in the E3 trailer, the idea for the theme just popped into my head. I told him “Give me a second” and quickly ran upstairs to my studio to put something down on the piano.

PSB: Is that also where vocalist Julie Elven became involved?
Joris: Yes. What I heard in my head was a female voice, and I thought – Aloy is a strong and kind female character, so it would be nice to have a female voice that can be strong and gentle at the same time. I called around to see if I could find this voice, and incidentally a composer friend of mine was actually just working with Julie at the time. He said, I think I’ve got the perfect person for you. We did a little test, and Julie just nailed it instantly.

Julie: It was actually quite funny, because I’d only recently started doing vocal performances for video games. Prior to that, my vocal performances could mostly be heard in trailers and film scores. When Joris contacted me I was actually slated to sing for a video game score by Ian Livingstone the very next day. It was quite spontaneous – Joris turned up and was like, “Hey, I don’t know you but would you be interested in doing this?” And just like that, I was suddenly involved in two different video game scores.

After E3 we worked on more of the music together, especially on the other trailers as well as the cutscenes of the game. Our focus was to give a musical voice to Aloy’s emotions through the singing. Aloy’s story tells us about her search for identity, about great loss, but also about the courage to overcome obstacles and to persevere. These aspects were very present for me personally, and in my vocal work I aimed to express both the vulnerable and lonely as well as the strong and resilient facets of Aloy’s internal world.

PSB:What are your overall thoughts on this collaboration?
Niels: It was a tremendously fun and rewarding experience. Creating a whole new musical history for the world of Horizon Zero Dawn took some research and trial and error, but it worked out great.

Joe: It was also a pleasure to work in a team with the other composers, and with the creatives at Guerilla who were so dedicated to their unique vision. The colors, the machines, the fall and rebirth of mankind; these were all deeply inspiring to us as composers.

Joris: Overall, I feel it’s been an absolute joy to rise to the challenge of plotting Aloy’s journey musically, and to follow the roads less travelled. From bowed dobros and guitars to fujaras, live strings, massive taiko drums and circuit-bended synthesizers, I hope players will enjoy the soundtrack as much as we had making it!

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Nioh Notes: Team Ninja Details Lessons Learned From Development

Today at Game Developers Conference, I gave a presentation discussing the challenges and lessons learned in reintroducing a classic samurai genre to a modern action audience. In my opinion, this would be a tough proposition for any developer.

Target and Approach

Team Ninja was chosen to take over development of Nioh in 2011. By 2014, we had decided to take Nioh in a direction that was different from the original plan and we therefore restarted development.

The first thing I did was to redefine the target audience and a new approach for Nioh. I felt that Team Ninja should not attempt to make a user-friendly action game targeting a wide consumer base, but take an approach that played to the strengths of Team Ninja and develop a quality action game with intense difficulty and challenge, targeting hardcore gamers.

In Nioh, the main protagonist is a sword-wielding samurai, a character and a genre which we know a thing or two about. But our newfound conviction to this approach was not suddenly born from our arrogance or recent achievements.

Rather, the experience of our past failures was the guiding force behind this position. You see, I was the also the director in charge of Ninja Gaiden 3 and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, two projects where I learned very difficult and valuable lessons.

And based on those experiences, I reminded myself from the beginning of Nioh’s development that I should never compromise our core audience and the integrity of our work.

The Demo Process

Developers have to continuously juggle a lot of elements under various constraints, such as budgets, technical issues, and so forth. I think that all developers get to a point where they feel anxious about whether their concepts and direction meet players’ expectations.

So, we decided to reshape the development process by communicating directly with our target audience through game demos. The demos were released several times in the mid-to-late term development where feedback could be utilized; they became a development tool to validate our approach, rather than a promotional tactic for the marketing campaigns.

One thing we learned through this process was the difference between play styles in the East versus the West. Many players in the West were quite positive about the demo, but that was not the case in Japan and Asia.

We realized that this disparity was caused by the cultural differences in how people perceive difficulty and the contrasting ways players navigated through the alpha and beta demos. Interestingly, there were some common opinions — a lack of tutorial elements and desire to improve user performance — that were echoed in both regions.

The realism and authenticity of the samurai armor, as well as the environment design, were overwhelmingly well received in the West. I suppose this is because people here view this world as an exotic setting.

Our Experience with the Demo Process

Gathering information about the players’ experience was not an easy task, since the players who provided their opinions and filled out the official questionnaire were inevitably few in number.

So we also had to obtain information proactively. Through social sites and bulletin boards, we were able to discover positive and negative feedback, which was very useful due to the candid nature of peoples’ opinions in a very “colorful” manner.

The first problem we encountered after researching feedback was that many members of our team became too influenced and affected by the opinions of the players. Some of the team wanted to make the changes in certain ways because players said they wanted it.

For example, there were a measurable amount of opinions asking us to remove the Ki Pulse system. It was ultimately rejected, because we wanted to design tactical battles as a samurai and how players can negotiate their constraints in this game.

Another popular opinion was to create an open-world system. This was also rejected, as we wanted to shorten the load time after death, as well as raise the frequency and density of the battles (it also would have cost a lot of money).

On the other hand, we adopted the feedback regarding the behavior of the camera lock-on feature, because we increased the level of difficulty and wanted to allow the players to control their techniques and focus on their opponents more effectively.

Ultimately, I tried to remind everyone that we are the developers who are creating this game. And by attempting to consider all of those opinions we were not arriving at solid solutions, but rather creating more questions. It was easy to determine whether to incorporate opinions about technical issues or to disregard discernible negative feedback. But it was difficult to make our decisions on subjective elements such as the difficulty settings.

Every time I felt lost, I tried to remind myself of the games’ principal concept of “masocore,” and its target audience — core gamers. To communicate with our fans who played the demo and demonstrate our commitment to them, we regularly disclosed the improvements we planned to make based on survey results.

So that was a small window into our journey with Nioh and the interactive communication we established with our potential fans. I hope this provided you with a better understanding of our creative process and how it ultimately shaped this game.

This user-engagement provided us with an opportunity to reaffirm our direction and gain the confidence to steer boldly forward with our game. As an exercise that was designed to learn more about our fans and gain valuable feedback from them, we ultimately learned a lot about ourselves in the process.

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The Developers of Prey Love When Players Improvise

When asked what games influenced Prey, it can lead to a long and complex answer — with a lot of references that cascade out into yet more references. So, here’s what it would look like from our perspective: Prey is a combination of Dishonored for the systems and simulation, Arx Fatalis for the structure and crafting, and System Shock for the “RPGness” and the mood.

Now, it’s worth noting that Dishonored was influenced by Thief and Deus Ex, which itself was influenced by Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII, etc.

So there you have it. Our influences are Looking Glass and Origin from back in the 90s, but I guess only gamers that are older than 30 have even heard of these companies and their games.

Developers and fans refer to that family of games as “immersive sims.” It’s a style of game that sits at the intersection of two other genres: FPS and RPG.

But what makes the immersive sim more than just “FPS meets RPG” is that the game development philosophy behind it relies a lot on simulation. As many systems and outcomes as possible are simulated and layered on top of each other as opposed to being scripted and isolated from one another.

Arkane has always invested its full energy into this approach to development. To us, games in this genre are more than a game. We believe they have a magical power to both transport people and create emotionally engaging moments where players feel a tremendous amount of creative agency.

For instance, we remember a player having completed one of our missions in Dishonored in the most unexpected way ever. The target was on the third floor, inside an apartment. Instead of infiltrating the building and climbing the stairs to the third floor, the player stayed at street level, threw a grenade, immediately froze time (using Bend Time) as the grenade was still close to him, used Wind Blast on the grenade to propel it through the open window of that apartment on the third floor, which resulted in eliminating the target in no time.

We love this kind of player!

At Arkane, our development methodology consists of:

1.) Creating a believable environment that serves as a playground. This is a combined effort between art direction, writing, and level design. Our goal is for the setting to have a deep sense of place that tells a story on its own, without any exposition. Just by looking at the detail of the world and the set dressing, players should be able to read what happened before they arrived. In addition, the environment is tactically interesting and invites exploration: spaces are interconnected with multiple pathways, there is verticality, objects that can act as cover, and plenty of hiding spots.

2.) Populating the playground with gameplay elements that are simulated and interactive. AI’s (characters) who have behaviors players can learn and exploit, physics objects, traps, doors, computers, etc. For instance, in Dishonored players could learn that deadly swarms of rats seek out corpses. Dragging a body near to where guards patrol can create effective (and darkly hilarious) distraction.

3.) Providing interesting tools to the players. We like to give players not only direct weapons, but also indirect tools that encourage creativity and experimentation with the game and the simulation in general. The GLOO gun in Prey is a good example: players can use it to incapacitate a human, but they can also use it to climb where we (the designers) didn’t plan.

As far as narration goes, we try to tell the story as much as possible through the actions of the player and through optional information that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game: audio communications, overheard conversations, environmental storytelling, player objectives…

All this combined provides the kind of experience that is important to us and our values as gamers.

Raphael Colantonio // Prey Creative Director, Arkane Studios
Ricardo Bare // Prey Lead Designer, Arkane Studios

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Clicker Heroes Mashes Its Way Onto PS4 March 7

Hi everyone! We’re incredibly excited to announce that our idle RPG Clicker Heroes is coming to PS4 on March 7.

Clicker Heroes is part of a relatively new genre of games called “idle games” (sometimes also known as incremental games or clicker games). At their core, idle games are all about exponential growth, and having the game “play for you.” You start out with some amount of resources and you make decisions on how to grow your resources into more resources in the quickest amount of time.

These decisions are not unlike how you might compare pieces of gear or spend stat points in a normal roleplaying game. However, instead of needing to grind for gear or experience by performing tedious work, resources are gained automatically over time based on the decisions you make. By requiring your attention for the most important choices of how to spend your resources, games like Clicker Heroes are great for running in the background of your life.

While Clicker Heroes starts deceptively simple, with only the option to “click” to damage monsters, it quickly evolves into a deep and interesting strategy game. Your choices will juggle several resources such as damage and gold which are critical for increasing how fast you progress. Determining how to maximize your progress for the minimum cost is an important strategy to reach higher and higher zones.

The numbers in Clicker Heroes grow exponentially so there are hundreds of hours of gameplay as all your resources approach infinity. Within the first few hours, you’ll be dealing millions of damage to monsters and acquiring billions of gold. Eventually, you’ll have more gold than the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (which is about 10 raised to the power of 80, last time we checked).

We are incredibly humbled by the passion of our fans and owe you all a massive thank you for not only supporting us through the development of the game but also making great suggestions that shaped Clicker Heroes into what it is today. We would also like to thank our friends at BlitWorks for all their hard work in bringing the game to PlayStation. Without them, this excellent version of the game wouldn’t exist.

Clicker Heroes will be available for free on PlayStation Store starting March 7! We hope you’ll check out the game and we’d love to hear about your experience with it, so feel free to reach out to us in the comments below.

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Injustice 2: A Quick Look at Character Customization

Game Developers Conference in San Francisco saw a new chance to go hands-on with Injustice 2, the brutal DC brawler from Mortal Kombat X developer NetherRealm.

But the biggest takeaways came out of a short demonstration of Injustice 2’s robust RPG-style gear system, which revealed some of the most in-depth character customization I’ve seen in a one-on-one fighting game.

There are two main ways to earn gear: conquering opponents in online and offline modes, or by purchasing Mother Boxes using gold earned from matches.

Gear revolves around four main body parts — head, chest, arms, and legs — plus an “accessory” (think Harley Quinn’s pistols). Most gear you collect will buff at least one of your four base stats: Strength and Ability determine the offensive power of basic attacks and special moves, while Defense and Health dictate how much damage your superhero can absorb.

More exotic effects — resistance to environmental damage, earning XP more quickly — come via “augmentations” found on some higher-tier items. Full gear sets, such as Batman’s kryptonite-infused outfit, are likely to be especially prized because they can grant dramatic bonuses when fully assembled.

After playing dress-up, you can apply shaders to alter your hero’s color schemes in some striking ways. A purple-clad Superman? Why not! I’m expecting to see some seriously creative designs here come May.

Beyond gear, players can further customize their character’s fighting style using a new loadout feature. Want to play a Batarang-heavy Batman build, or emphasize parries? The choice will soon be yours.

Purists can stick with a Tournament mode that reverts all superheroes to their base stats and abilities, while retaining the visual customizations.

Otherwise, the game’s brutal, bone-breaking combat will feel pretty familiar to Mortal Kombat X and Injustice fans. Newcomer Doctor Fate brings sneaky magic spells and high maneuverability, but Black Canary might be my favorite so far — she’s a lightning-fast martial artist who hits like a dump truck. I didn’t have a lot of luck in my limited time with Swamp Thing, thanks to his lumbering wind-up attacks and floaty, gravity-defying jumps.

I definitely enjoyed my time with the new Story mode, which seems to serve up a more cinematic, polished presentation. The plot still focuses on a rogue Superman who, still grieving after the death of Lois Lane in the first game, now plans to wipe out all crime no matter the cost.

So far, so good. I’m ready for May 16! Leave any questions you may have in the comments below.

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PS Plus: Free Games for March 2017

Hello PlayStation Nation — ready to game? This month we have the action-packed Disc Jam and the beautiful Tearaway Unfolded for our PS Plus lineup.

First up, Disc Jam, which is an insanely addicting cross between air hockey and tennis. Players scramble to retrieve and throw a glowing disc while unleashing powerful abilities and defending their end zone. This game is just launching on PlayStation Store but is available to all PlayStation Plus members as part of your membership. It’s a must-have in your collection!

We’ve also lined up the gorgeous Tearaway Unfolded for PS4. Tearaway Unfolded is the expanded retelling of the BAFTA award-winning PlayStation Vita game Tearaway, where you are placed in a magical papery world and tasked with delivering a top-secret message while collecting papercraft models.

Full Lineup

• Disc Jam, PS4
• Tearaway Unfolded, PS4
• Under Night: In-Birth, PS3
• Earth Defense Force 2025, PS3
• Lumo, PS Vita (crossbuy on PS4)
• Severed, PS Vita

Enjoy!

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5 Things You Can Do in The Escapists 2

The Escapists 2 is coming to PS4! Until we return to the day-to-day of prison life, let’s take an early look at a few things you’ll be able to do behind bars…

Dust off the old instruments and get the band together for the departing gig as you play alongside your fellow inmates, providing some much needed relief to the sound of sweet music. Oh yeah, feels good, right? But! Please don’t forget you are meant to be escaping after all, right? …right?

Prison life has never been so good, or should I say “fashionable?” Once you’ve established your mob of inmate pals, go nuts with the criminal amounts of accessories and styles to get across your versions of what “Prison Chic” really is all about. Crazy hairstyles, glasses, facial hair, hats… With such adornments available at your guilty fingertips, would you ever want to leave your cell without looking like a million (stolen) bucks?

Become the ultimate incarcerated deviant as you foil and plot your opponents’ downfalls one by one. “But how,” you ask? That’s up to you! If you are asking for advice, I would recommend such activities as flooding a rivals’ toilet. It’s just an example, though. An example where you accidentally lure in curious prison guards, who happen to stumble across a certain prison cell littered with escape attempt debris!

Generate the ultimate plan of escape alongside your freedom-hungry online friends! Be sure to establish who takes up what role in the crafty plot — who exactly is tasked with keeping an eye out for danger? Who’ll be in charge of providing the muscle if the plan goes west? And of course, who will be the brains behind the operation ensuring all required materials and tools are at hand for the mischievous act?

…Oh, and one more thing; you’ll be able to learn how to speak “dolphin.” See you on the inside, chum!

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