Hey everyone! I’m excited to announce that A Short Hike is coming to PS4 this fall! A Short Hike is a little exploration game about climbing up a mountain.

In it, you guide a bird named Claire up to the peak, freely exploring the mountainside and helping other folk along the way.

I started working on the game after going on a few road trips along the west coast, hitting up as many hiking spots and natural landmarks as we could. I really fell in love with hiking, and I started to wonder if I could capture that experience as a video game.

There were some specific moments I wanted to capture, such as the moment of respite upon reaching the summit, and surveying the landscape from a new perspective. But generally, I wanted to try and recreate the peaceful meditative feeling you get as you explore the world around you.

To help create a sense of freedom, I tried to design the game as a tiny open world. I wanted to encourage exploring the road less travelled, and have your curiosity be rewarded. This meant I had to design around the player going the exact opposite of the obvious route, and have the game’s pacing still feel good!

This led to the creation of a variety of mini-games to discover on the off-paths and break up the hiking. After adding in fishing, boating, and (a form of) volleyball, the game was starting to feel a little more like a little summer getaway – a love letter to those breezy summer days without anything to do and all the time in the world.

For the most part, I’ve been working on A Short Hike by myself. Between the programming, design, art, and testing… I’ve had my hands full! One thing I found difficult was the writing. Although the game is light on story, I did want it to be meaningful to me, and I wanted to touch on some of the fears or worries I have.

In a previous project, I had hit a creative block with the writing, and I really struggled with putting something together I was happy with. So for A Short Hike, I tried to take a more improvisational approach. Once I started writing dialogue the same way I chat with my friends over text, it came much more naturally, and helped me find a voice for the game.

Since I was doing most of the art myself, I took the opportunity to experiment with the style. I was interested in trying to create a 3D game where the pixels are a core part of the aesthetic, the way retro 2D games often are. While 2D games have been refining pixel art for decades, 3D games have been working to hide pixels as much as possible. I wanted to see if I could make a beautiful (and readable) 3D world using as few pixels as possible.

This is Hideki Kamiya, Chief Game Designer at PlatinumGames and creative director of Sol Cresta.

Did you all enjoy the new Sol Cresta trailer? Some of you may be thinking, “A sequel to Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta in this day and age? And from PlatinumGames? And it’s not an April Fools joke after all?”

To explain a bit for those who may not know, Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta were released in the 80s by a game company called Nihon Bussan, better known as Nichibutsu. Both games were vertically scrolling shooters that included a play mechanic where you docked with friendly ships.

At a time when shooting games where you fought alone were the norm, aggressive gameplay that made your ship more powerful as you docked with allies had gamer kids burning with excitement back then, and both games took a place in gaming history. Of course, I was one of those gamer kids and experienced the fever in real time.

Sol Cresta itself is a “free-form docking and shooting” game that PlatinumGames will release, and it bridges the gap of 36 years since the release of Terra Cresta in 1985 as the official sequel and next entry in the Cresta Series.

But just how did this miraculous project come to be? Well, I’d like to tell you the secret of the birth of Sol Cresta.

Starting with Bayonetta and continuing with titles like Anarchy Reigns, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Wonderful 101, Nier: Automata, and Astral Chain, PlatinumGames has been fortunate to have the titles we’ve released receive acclaim for the “action feel,” and we’ve come to be known as “the studio that makes action games.”

However, as a studio we want to make all kinds of fun games, not just action games.

Since I was a kid, I played and had fond memories of a lot of games; shooting games (although these days this tends to mean FPS), adventure games, RPGs, and more. Eventually I thought, “I want to make games too,” and that dream came true when I became a game designer.

Moon Cresta ©2014 HAMSTER Co.

Terra Cresta ©2014 HAMSTER Co.

But as times changed, technology advanced, and the player base grew, the very nature of games and the corresponding trends changed a lot and having become a creator myself, I was involved with large-scale projects centered around 3D visuals and gameplay. Before I knew it, the kind of games I knew as a kid—the simple, almost primitive yet packed with fun “classic games”—had disappeared from the mainstream market.

This is getting into production talk, but it is no simple task to launch a game project in a genre that’s not mainstream. Furthermore, in my position it’s also my duty to develop the company’s flagship titles. But even while buried by my workload day in and day out, I never forgot the way I felt when I first dreamed of making games, and if only o

Hi there, we’re Alientrap Games and today we’re here to share our upcoming game Wytchwood with you! If you’re a fan of fairy tales (the Grimm kind), collecting newt eyes to craft hexes and cursing the living daylights out of shady villains, then read on! 

Made a deal with suspicious black goats lately? Finding it hard to get out of certain magical contracts? Nothing to worry about! In Wytchwood you take the role of a rickety old witch caught up in a dark pact she can’t remember making. You’ll travel the lands and uncover a rich narrative filled with a colorful cast of characters inspired by classic fables. A weeping maiden awaits the return of her lost love, a brutish bear loves nothing more than to knock some heads together, and a feline trickster in a smart pair of boots is plaguing the local market with her deceptions. Only with your magic and sharp wit will you be able to right these wrongs. Maybe with enough good deeds, that pesky billy goat hanging around your house will finally leave you alone! 

Even with all these evils running about unchecked, Wytchwood is fundamentally a chill game where exploration and collecting spell ingredients play a huge part of the experience. As the wicked witch of the swamp, you get to put on your hat- or in this case- your trusty cauldron, and go out into the world to discover what the lush environments hold for you. From the sunny forest, to the gloomy swamp and snow blown mountaintop, each area contains its own unique critters, plants and monsters. If you’re quick enough, maybe you’ll even snare that weird chicken legged fish that’s running around down by the docks! 

What’s a witch without her trusty grimoire? In Wytchwood, crafting potions and spells play a key role in unraveling the mysteries of the world. Did that pumpkin just… move? Crafting a Snagvine spell will be sure to hold it still. That cat seems awfully hungry! Maybe it will give you a special something if you can sate its appetite with a treat. Sometimes, an especially tricky problem will call upon you to dig deep and make something with a little more punch to it. Raising the dead takes more than a little elbow grease, after all. 

Bringing justice to the world and punishing evil doers is no easy feat, but with the right tools and attitude, you might just be the witch for the job! We hope you enjoyed this small peak at Wytchwood. Stay tuned for more news as we get closer to release. Wytchwood is being published by Whitethorn Games and will be coming to the PS4 and PS5 in Fall of 2021. 

It’s cliche at this point to say that making games is hard. Of course it’s hard. It’s in many ways even harder to make a game entirely by yourself. But you know what’s really hard? Maintaining your focus and passion on one project for years at a time.

As I’ve said countless times before, Axiom Verge is both my hobby and my job. It puts food on the table and keeps a roof over our heads. But I’m lucky that it’s also what I would be doing even if I wasn’t making a living from it. For that to be true, and to stay true, I’ve got to push the boundaries of what I’m creating. It would be hard for me to maintain my passion for game development if I were just creating a new map layout and new weapons for Axiom Verge and calling it a sequel.

Play Video

So I decided to push myself and try something ambitious. I’ve talked a little in the past about some of the technical challenges of making Axiom Verge 2, particularly the earth-like sloping terrain and the intelligent enemies, but I’ve never revealed the biggest challenge and most distinctive feature of Axiom Verge 2…until now.

Here’s the big reveal: Axiom Verge 2 is two worlds in one. Behind the overworld map that I’ve been showing this entire time, there is another interconnected breach world in an alternate dimension. I’ve hinted about this in an early trailer, where the drone goes through some mysterious portal, but I’ve kept this secret for a while.

So first things first, what is the breach? Well, if you’ve played Axiom Verge 1, you may recall a cutscene with this image:

The breach, on the right, is a region of space, long thought to be unpassable, that at first kept the denizens of Sudra safe from the outside universe. [Minor spoiler alert imminent!] In Axiom Verge, someone named Athetos was able to traverse the breach and use a breach attractor to keep Sudra trapped. Hijinks ensue.

I first decided to include the breach in Axiom Verge 2 in some form around 2016. It took a while for the two worlds idea to gel. At first I considered just having one piece of land elevated above the other.  After toying around with a few approaches, I decided that approaching the breach as an additional dimension could unleash a huge range of opportunities for non-linear exploration.

In Axiom Verge 2, you’ll have the ability to enter and exit the breach and discover how that world is connected to the ove

Last October, we launched Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, our very first online multiplayer project as a studio, which expanded the gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima into a supernatural world inspired by Japanese mythology. And to say that your support and enthusiasm blew our wildest expectations out of the water is an understatement. We have loved seeing reactions and photo mode shares for the past 10 months, and have lost plenty of sleep staying up late to watch teams streaming their Raid progress. Thank you to everyone who’s played so far! 

With just two weeks to go until Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, we wanted to talk about what’s next for Legends*. As always, just like all Legends content, every update detailed below will be available at no additional charge to owners of any version of Ghost of Tsushima on PS4 or PS5, with no Director’s Cut purchase required. Players on PS4 and PS5 will also be able to play together seamlessly, and progression in Legends carries over regardless of which console you’re playing on. 

Play Video

First, today we’re excited to reveal Rivals, an all-new mode coming to Ghost of Tsushima: Legends on September 3 (including new Trophies and cosmetics!). In Rivals, two teams of two will compete to defeat waves of enemies. With each defeated foe, you’ll collect Magatama that you can use to harm the other team. For example, you can spend Magatama on Shades to block your opponents’ purchases, Curses (health drain, exploding bodies, etc), Hwacha fire, and more. Once you’ve spent enough Magatama, you’ll unlock Final Stand waves. Complete these before the opposing team to win!

Second, at the same time Rivals launches, we’ll be releasing the Gear Mastery system.

This is a new expansion of the progression systems and rewards for Legends. Players who’ve earned 110-level gear will now be able to bind it to a class and activate “Mastery Challenges.” This will allow a piece of gear’s Ki level to be upgraded to 120 and eventually unlock a second perk slot! As you activate Mastery Challenges, you can also unlock a new Ability and new Techniques for each class.

Starting on August 20 (release date of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut), we’re also releasing an update that will add new features to Legends, including some changes based on feedback from the community. We’ve rebalanced the Survival mode to shorten the session length and added new weekly Survival Nightmare challenge variants. We’ve also unlocked additional cosmetics in Legends for players who’

Last October, we launched Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, our very first online multiplayer project as a studio, which expanded the gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima into a supernatural world inspired by Japanese mythology. And to say that your support and enthusiasm blew our wildest expectations out of the water is an understatement. We have loved seeing reactions and photo mode shares for the past 10 months, and have lost plenty of sleep staying up late to watch teams streaming their Raid progress. Thank you to everyone who’s played so far!

With just two weeks to go until Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, we wanted to talk about what’s next for Legends*. As always, just like all Legends content, every update detailed below will be available at no additional charge to owners of any version of Ghost of Tsushima on PS4 or PS5, with no Director’s Cut purchase required. Players on PS4 and PS5 will also be able to play together seamlessly, and progression in Legends carries over regardless of which console you’re playing on.

Play Video

First, today we’re excited to reveal Rivals, an all-new mode coming to Ghost of Tsushima: Legends on September 3 (including new Trophies and cosmetics!). In Rivals, two teams of two will compete to defeat waves of enemies. With each defeated foe, you’ll collect Magatama that you can use to harm the other team. For example, you can spend Magatama on Shades to block your opponents’ purchases, Curses (health drain, exploding bodies, etc), Hwacha fire, and more. Once you’ve spent enough Magatama, you’ll unlock Final Stand waves. Complete these before the opposing team to win!

Second, at the same time Rivals launches, we’ll be releasing the Gear Mastery system.
This is a new expansion of the progression systems and rewards for Legends. Players who’ve earned 110-level gear will now be able to bind it to a class and activate “Mastery Challenges.” This will allow a piece of gear’s Ki level to be upgraded to 120 and eventually unlock a second perk slot! As you activate Mastery Challenges, you can also unlock a new Ability and new Techniques for each class.

Starting on August 20 (release date of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut), we’re also releasing an update that will add new features to Legends, including some changes based on feedback from the community. We’ve rebalanced the Survival mode to shorten the session length and added new weekly Survival Nightmare challenge variants. We’ve also unlocked additional cosmetics in Leg

It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, we held our first online digital event with the SFV Summer Update in 2020. One year and several seasonal updates later, we’re back with today’s SFV Summer Update 2021! Check out the full video here:

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Let’s dive into what was covered, including info on returning SFIII series character Oro, SF newcomer Akira, the reveal of the final character for Season 5 of SFV, and more! 

Oro returns from the SFIII Series

Street Fighter III’s wandering hermit is back in SFV and is ready to teach these youngins a lesson in fighting. Oro’s playstyle has always given him a variety of options and his SFV iteration is no different.

V-System

Oro’s V-Skill I is called “Onibi,”which summons a bouncing orb projectile that can bounce at three different trajectories. 

Oro’s V-Skill II is “Minomushi,” that has Oro executing a short hop that has two different follow-up attacks: “Kaki Otoshi,” an overhead attack or “Eda Uchi,” a safer on block kick.

Oro’s V-Trigger I is called “Manrikitan,” which gives Oro access to his command grabs called “Kishinriki” and “Kishin Kuchu Jigoku Guruma” and can be performed on the ground and in the air, respectively. 

Oro’s “Tengu Stone” returns as his V-Trigger II where Oro summons three objects that can be used to make combos possible that weren’t before.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners wowed the VR world with its intense physics based combat, terrifying undead hordes, and immersive survival gameplay. Its first major update, The Meatgrinder, brought with it a new gameplay difficulty, the wave-based survival mode The Trial, and hours of replayable walker slaying action. However, for those seeking a way to continue your adventure in the main campaign, the wait is nearly over. Though delayed for some time, the next free update for The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners will be launching on September 23, and with it comes new missions, new threats, and a new mystery to uncover.

As Mark Domowicz, Project Director at Skydance Interactive, describes the update,“I like to think of Aftershocks as a small ‘Thank you’ to the players who’ve supported us since the game released and as we’ve grown.  These are the bonus missions, end-game content designed to surprise, delight, and challenge even our most diehard fans.  And, it’s a small appetizer for bigger things yet to come!”

To get you ready for this ‘Thank you’, we have five tips that will give you an edge in tackling these challenges and increase your chances of finding the remnants of The Reserve. 

1. Expect the unexpected

As all of the missions in Aftershocks take place after you complete the main story, the tasks you take on will be fully geared with well-trained survivors ready for an extra challenge in mind. Old stomping grounds will be revived in unexpected, deadlier ways, and no two missions will play out the same. Newly guarded areas, surprise death squads, hungry walkers and deadly traps will show up where you least expect them, so don’t go into any mission resting on your previous map knowledge. 

2. Watch your step

Speaking of traps, one of the first new things you’ll need to keep an eye out for are the tripwire bombs set up in your path during certain missions. Connected to propane tanks, these lethal se

 Hi everyone, I’m Benedict Nichols, the composer and sound designer for the third-person aerial combat game, The Falconeer, which is coming to PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 on August 5. I’ve worked with the game’s solo developer, Tomas Sala, for almost two years, helping to bring his vision for the game to life. It’s been an incredible privilege to work on such a unique game, and it’s a pleasure to share a little insight into how I used music to bring the world of The Falconeer to life here with you today.

Tomas knew that he wanted deep Mongolian singing to be the sound of the Ursee (the ocean-based world of The Falconeer), and so, as the waters provide a stark reminder of death below, it provides the bed for nearly all the music and ambiences. After receiving the liberating guideline of “be bold and unique”, my creativity ran wild! 

I felt music needed to do more than just accompany the player’s journey, so I set about the ambitious task of creating an entire sonic world that not only represented the game and it’s various factions in the ‘present day’, but also immersed the player with a sense of history, creed, musical development, and the emotional journey the people of the Ursee have experienced. 

Every location in The Falconeer has its own unique suite of music, written with guidelines for each faction, that varies depending upon your relationship with those people (friendly, neutral or hostile). Further thought was given to the physical position of locations. For example, Mawbridge, being right in the centre of the map, draws on influences from various faction locations around it as it’s a pinch point for travelling sailors, who would bring their cultural heritage with them. This pseudo-anthropological approach results in a much more immersive experience for the player, for if they fly from one side of the map to the other, they will experience shifts in the music and ambience that relays information about everything below, This becomes essential for establishing a ‘believable’, engrossing world that is much more than just a stunning visual backdrop to the good old classic dogfighting!

Below are the guidelines I established for the various factions. These were integral to establishing the believable, immersive game world that the player inhabits. I tried to find unusual ways of using and combining instruments that would feel unique to the world while still resonating with the player:

Civilians

Struggling for survival amongst the warring factions, their independence is characterized by solo string and woodwind instruments. Their melodies are somewhat remorseful of their history, but at locations like Saladmount, there is still a bit of grit in them. Meanwhile locations like Sacred Steps feature ‘religious’ chanting, as the monks perform their rituals within, which informs the player of the sort of people they are approaching.

Imperium

Strong and imposing, the rhythm of their machinery runs through the blood of its workers. There’s a sense of them stamping their mark everywhere they go with heavy drums (often emphasising beats 1, 2 and 3) and metallic hits, while combinations of brass (including some non-idiomatic flugal horn playing), bagpipes, cimbalom, bazantar, and synths boldly proclaim their presence.

Hola! For this month’s Players’ Choice poll, we’ve got a prime selection of gaming decadence for you to choose from. JRPG sequel NEO: The World Ends With You released to high praise from fans of the quirky original, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles appeals to fans of loud exclamations and pointing at people, Tribes of Midgard makes a boisterous debut, and oh-so-much more. Hit the poll below before Sunday night to cast your vote, and we’ll update this post with the winner next week. See you then!

How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation.Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. Soon thereafter, we’ll close the polls, tally your votes, and announce the winner at PlayStation.Blog. PlayStation Store will also showcase some top Players’ Choice winners throughout the year.

What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? In keeping with our long tradition in the Game of the Year Awards, remastered or re-released games won’t qualify. Ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds and remakes like Shadow of the Colossus and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will.

How are nominees decided? The PlayStation.Blog and PlayStation Store editorial teams will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll. Write-in votes will be accepted.