Nier: Automata is currently in development by Platinum Games. Game designer Takahisa Taura took to the team’s blog to update fans on what’s going on with the upcoming action game. Also, he goes into great detail about how game design works. So for aspiring game creators this could prove helpful.
Taura writes about the how the team makes sure the character works in a test level (pictured above). Furthermore, he gives other details:
In an action game, the response time between when a player pushes a button and when their attack is performed has to feel great. To improve this response time, we use a special tool to fine-tune when each animation can be canceled into other actions, and occasionally even make subtle adjustments to their total speed. We have to be careful, though – if the animators catch us changing the speed too much, they get pretty mad…
Additionally, we get a glimpse at the animation development. The designer gives examples and details on the issues one might run into when working on an action animation:
As an animator first and foremost, there’s a lot you can’t help but want to leave in. But you’re not making a movie here – you’re making a game, and it has to be tight and responsive. The truest sign of a skilled game animator is their ability to make something great with the number of frames they’re given.
Taura provides a very unique and interesting point of view from the development cycle of a long-awaited game. He concludes with character modeling, concept art, and sound design. In terms of the latter, Taura explains:
In a tight, closed space, sounds don’t echo very much. In a wide open room like the one above, though, echoes last longer. Echoes also change depending on the materials that make up an area: They’re louder when you’re surrounded by metal than when you’re surrounded by dirt, for example. Each area you explore in a game needs its own reverb settings to get these echoes just right.
In all our previous projects, we sound designers made individual settings for echoes to fit the exact shape of each area in the game. However, since NieR: Automata takes place in a more open world, it would take a massive amount of work to do it that way. We’re aiming to cut down on all that effort while creating a realistic soundscape for the game by using a system that can manage echoes on the fly.
NieR: Automata is coming to the PlayStation 4 in multiple regions with no release date.
