mark cerny
Latest
Recommended Reading: Inside the PlayStation 5 with Mark Cerny
PlayStation 5 uncovered: The Mark Cerny tech deep dive Richard Leadbetter, Eurogamer If you're craving even more explanation on the PlayStation 5 than lead architect Mark Cerny shared during his in-depth chat a couple weeks ago, get comfy. Eurogamer shared part two of its chat with Cerny this week, and while there weren't any new revelations per se, there was more detail on the things we'd already heard about.
Watch Sony's PS5 deep dive in under 10 minutes
Today Sony revealed a ton of information and specs about the upcoming PlayStation 5. Everything from its speedy SSD, details on the clock speed of its CPU and GPU and plans for 3D audio are now revealed. If you tuned in for the hour-long livestream then you've probably heard everything, but if you'd prefer to cut out any filler or just get a quick replay then we have the solution. Besides a rundown of known PS5 specs compared to the Xbox Series X, we have this ten minute video that brings just the parts you need from Sony's presentation. It's the fastest way to get caught up on how Sony's next box will "shape the future of games."
Sony will reveal more PlayStation 5 details in a livestream tomorrow
It's time. In a tweet, Sony announced that it will be hosting a livestream tomorrow about the PlayStation 5. The broadcast will start on the PlayStation blog at 9AM PT (12PM ET/4PM GMT) and be hosted by Mark Cerny, the console's lead system architect and director of both Knack games. According to Sony, the presentation will provide "a deep dive into PS5's system architecture, and how it will shape the future of games."
Sony heads dish on the PS4's famous E3 debut
The hour-long interview featuring Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House revealing how Sony strategically changed its E3 script to stray from Microsoft's DRM direction is now online. The video, from last week's Develop Conference in Brighton, also features PS4 architect Mark Cerny, and both Sony bigwigs discuss the brand's past and future.
Cerny on cloud gaming: Some genres perform better than others
PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny addressed the console's Gaikai-powered cloud gaming capabilities in a recent interview with IGN, explaining that certain genres may be more conducive to streamed gameplay than others due to latency. "It is just a part of that cloud gaming technology that there will be a bit of latency there," Cerny said. "Ultimately I think it's going to be that some games will work really well in that kind of context and some games will work less well. If you're playing a twitch fighter or racing game, you might not want to be doing that. That's cloud gaming. But a lot of games will work very well that way." Remote Play performance between the PlayStation 4 and a linked PlayStation Vita system should not be an issue, however. "If we're talking about Remote Play on Vita, that's done with a direct Wi-Fi link, and the latency is very low," Cerny assured. "It's all in the house. Once you get out of the house, there will be some latency." Sony previously announced that players will be able to stream cloud-stored PlayStation 3 games on PS3, PS4, and PS Vita systems starting in 2014.
Here's how Knack's two-player co-op works
PS4 launch title Knack will feature local co-op support, allowing another player to jump in and control titular hero Knack's companion and helper, Robo Knack. Using a DualShock 4 controller or Remote Play through a PS Vita, this second player can use Robo Knack to pummel baddies or support Knack by hooking him up with spare parts - basically health - when he's running low. Knack, which is developed by Sony's Japan Studio and directed by PS4 architect Mark Cerny, will be available at the PS4's launch on November 15. The action-platformer centers around a Katamari-like creature known as Knack, who grows in size as he gathers objects known as Relics.
Giant DualShock helped make Knack accessible to kids, taught design lessons
Sony made the PS4 launch game Knack more accessible to children by creating a super-sized DualShock to playtest, with the core concept being to make developers feel like an 8-year old holding the controller. In a keynote speech at the UK's Develop conference today, PS4 system architect Mark Cerny touched again on how he wanted the colorful platformer-brawler to appeal to both experienced and younger, newer players. Cerny described his aim for Knack is as an "on-ramp to the world of console gaming," but found through playtests that similar games with mascot-like heroes were often inaccessible to their target audiences. Cerny said Sony's research showed 8-year-olds had difficulty with those games' control schemes, but not because of their complexity. Instead, the size of the controller was the problem. "So as part of our design process we ended up making a giant controller, 50 percent larger than usual, so that we could directly experience what it feels like to be a child playing a game," Cerny said. "And we immediately understood that the shoulder buttons are simply out of reach for the typical 8-year old, but that all the face buttons can be used by an 8-year-old." Playing Knack at E3, we found the control scheme limited to a few face buttons, sometimes in combination, and the two analog sticks. We can't speak for 8-year-olds, but the limited controls made it easy for us to pick up and enjoy the game. While we didn't check out the harder difficulty, Cerny said he feels Knack has appeal there for old-school players too. [Image Source: @yosp]
Cerny: PS4's 'time-to-triangle' to rival PS1
The tech housed inside the PS4 makes it as easy to swiftly bring games to the system as it was to do so for the original PlayStation, according to the PS4 Lead Architect Mark Cerny. Speaking at Spain's GameLab conference this week, Cerny explained how he took Nolan Bushnell's mantra of good games being easy to learn but difficult to master, and applied it to developing the PS4's technology. "My variation on this was that the hardware should have a familiar architecture and be easy to develop for in the early days of the console life cycle," Cerny said, "But that also there needed to be a rich feature set which the game creators could explore for years.
PlayStation through the years: Mark Cerny on the PS4's roots and the brand's evolution (video)
The genesis story: the long-lead up to every console's launch usually leaves one in its wake. Typically, we get some sanitized version, appropriately molded by corporate PR and fed to the public with the crust cut off. But when you're Mark Cerny, lead PlayStation 4 architect, and you've literally grown up with the games industry and the PlayStation brand itself, the tale you get to tell tends to be more truthful, mesmerizing, and chock full of the hard knocks that make success stories so great. And that's just what Cerny delivered at Gamelab in Barcelona this week, recounting the whirlwind career that led him to have the heaviest hand in shaping Sony's next-gen platform. Not familiar with the man's esteemed background? Then sample this bit of historical trivia: Cerny was the youngest Atari employee at age 17 (!). How's that for inspiring? Oh, and what's more, Cerny even fesses up to the egotistical attitude that flattened Sony's PlayStation 3 launch (spoiler alert: it has to do with crushing third-party devs). There's much, much more insider-y goodness packed into the 45 minute-plus video after the break. Go on, now. Watch it. You'll be better for it, we promise.
Knack influenced by God of War, says PS4 architect Mark Cerny
PlayStation 4 system architect Mark Cerny discusses the console's upcoming launch title Knack in a recent interview at PlayStation Blog, revealing that the project aims for international appeal among both the casual and hardcore crowds. Continuing a decade-spanning career in which he designed games ranging from Marble Madness to Ratchet and Clank, Cerny currently serves as Knack's director and lead designer. He notes that Knack will feature multiple difficulty settings, in an effort to court veteran game players. "We are definitely speaking to the nostalgia that people feel for the play experiences of the past," Cerny said. "If you play this game on the hard difficulty setting it will definitely challenge you. And the control scheme is on the simpler side but you'll need really think about how best to use it." Cerny cites numerous influences for Knack's gameplay, hinting that Crash Bandicoot and God of War fans may find a lot to like in the finished product. "The way I look at it – there's a bit of Crash Bandicoot in there, a bit of Katamari Damacy, which is a game I love and must have bought three or four times over the years," he explains. "And there's a bit of God of War too. You can see that game's influence on Knack – especially in the control set, where the right stick is the dodge." While Knack is developed by Sony's Japan Studio, Cerny mentions that the game was specifically designed for worldwide audiences. "The original concept was 'let's make an international title,'" he recalls. "The problem is that if you have a mascot, that mascot is going to be immediately identifiable as a Japanese mascot, or a US mascot, or whatever. "Our way to get around that was to make the character an effect, so the first question was 'what sort of effect should he be?' We came up with the idea that he would pick up things in the environment and get bigger, and a year or so later Knack was born." Knack will be available when the PlayStation 4 launches later this year.
Mark Cerny really has a Knack for making PS4 game trailers
Mark Cerny, AIAS Hall of Famer and lead on the PlayStation 4's hardware, is directing Knack for Sony's new console, and so far it looks a little something like this. Cerny also showed off Knack running on the Vita via remote play.
PlayStation 4's dedicated video hardware will allow seamless video uploading, streaming, sharing
Lead system designer Mark Cerny took the stage at today's PlayStation 4 announcement event, and he's just revealed some very interesting features of Sony's newest console. Cerny said that the PS4 is equipped with always-on, always available hardware for both video compression and decompression, which means that playing and recording video won't take up the CPU during your gameplay. This makes for a lot of interesting features, like seamless uploading and downloading of video -- you'll be able to just hit the "share" button on the new Dualshock 4 controller, browse through "the last few minutes of gameplay," find what you want to send, and then upload it while you continue on through your game.Cerny also said that having this much video running around will allow players to share and view video at will: You'll be able to browse through videos of potential opponents before you play against them in a game, or view streaming videos on a PS Vita or "companion apps" on tablet hardware. Players will also be able to interact while watching each other play, or even "take over the controller" remotely via video streaming. The hardware sounds very impressive indeed. Stay tuned to the Joystiq liveblog and to the site all day today for more info on the PlayStation 4 and how it all works.
Mark Cerny directing Knack for PS4
Mark Cerny isn't just the lead on PS4 hardware. The Marble Madness creator is also directing the first announced game for the hardware, Knack, about a robot made of an assemblage of junk, fighting goblins.It's cartoony and features some combat, some stealth, and big junkbot punches. Knack shows the ability to drop all the seemingly magnetized parts that make up his body, in order to shrink down to tiny size. We're guessing the use of all those parts is meant to show off the PS4's ability to deal with a bunch of particles.Developing...
Single-player games will be dead in three years, says industry analyst
So game development studios desperately want to move the entirety of our hobby online in order to mimic the recurring revenue model of MMORPGs. That's not exactly news, but it is news when an industry analyst makes an eyebrow-raising claim regarding the immediate future of the genre. To that effect, Eurogamer recently attended a "closed-door, Sony-organized panel discussion on the future of video games," which featured an analyst predicting the end of single-player titles by 2014. Mark Cerny, a "veteran video game consultant," used the 2009 single-player RPG Demon's Souls as an example, saying that its mixture of traditional offline gameplay and social connectivity to other gamers experiencing the same title is the wave of the future. "The funny thing here is, we don't even know what to call this. Is it single-player or is it multiplayer? We don't even have the words. It's kind of Orwellian. If you don't have any word for freedom you can't have a revolution," Cerny said. What exactly is that revolution, and will it be good for gamers? Check back in 2014 to find out.
Industry veteran Mark Cerny talks about the hugeness of modern developers
Mark Cerny is a game developer with 30 years of experience under his belt, which just so happens to be notched with widely known projects like Marble Madness and Crash Bandicoot. In an interview with Gamasutra, Cerny discusses how the size of game development teams has ballooned in recent years. He explains that there was more accountability when he developed games by himself, adding, "You couldn't blame upper management who didn't understand you, you couldn't blame the marketing guys who didn't put together the proper marketing campaign." Cerny says that his role as a part-time mercenary developer becomes less effective when he's hired by hundred-strong teams, and that some games -- namely, Thatgamecompany's Flower -- simply can't be developed by a gargantuan ensemble. "Because you're taking such a curved path on the way to making the final product, you don't want the art staff of 20 just waiting, just building the models, when Jenova is going to have some idea that goes in a completely different direction," Cerny says. We agree, though we think a larger staff would have allowed for the online deathmatch mode that Flower so, so desperately needed.
Watch the GDC 'Classic Game Postmortem' talks for free
If you want to hear about Mark Cerny's first, overambitious version of Marble Madness for yourself, try to decipher Toru Iwatani's clues about a "singing Pac-Man" game, see the history of Prince of Persia in the time it takes to play Prince of Persia (one hour), or suck John Romero's Doom postmortem down, you are welcome to do so right now. The GDC organizers have uploaded video and slides of many of this year's presentations to the GDC Vault, most of which are restricted to subscribers. However, the GDC Vault offers the Classic Game Postmortem series for free, including the aforementioned talks plus Eric Chahi on Another World, Will Wright on his first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay, Ron Gilbert looking back on Maniac Mansion, and more.
The (Marble) Madness of Mark Cerny
In 1983, game designer Mark Cerny worked on a game that had dynamic 3D environments, including bumps in the floor that would chase your character. It also, at one point, was to use either a touchscreen or a motorized trackball that provided resistance feedback to correspond to onscreen events. Obviously, none of these things worked out at the time. But the game did manage to make it out, if in a less grandiose form than originally intended, and on more modest hardware than the revolutionary arcade board Cerny had in mind. And the scaled-down version found an audience as Marble Madness. During a GDC postmortem for the classic game, Cerny said that the concept came about because the post-crash game market (and Atari) demanded totally unique concepts with two-player functionality. Two players meant twice as many coins per play, after all. And so Cerny set about with a minigolf-inspired game that used new 3D hardware -- which eventually ended up 2D, with a new "budget" arcade board that used interchangeable cartridges and afforded a bit more storage space. Cerny gave an abstract look to the game, with enemies like Slinky creatures and transparent blobs (the transparency was simulated by drawing the floor grid onto the enemy sprite). So he was understandably irritated when the cabinet designers decided to make the trackball controller a smiley face. Eventually, they reached a compromise, with a sort of smiling character on the panel, but not quite a face, and not on the trackball itself. After the year or so of design, Cerny and Atari ended up with a hit -- for about six months. Sales dropped off, he said, because the game could be completed in four minutes. He lamented not spending more time designing levels after getting the tech in place; at eight minutes, it could have remained a hit, he said.
AIAS Hall of Fame 'Game Changers' confess pro mistakes
Kicking off DICE 2011, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences invited Hall of Fame "game changers" to speak on a variety of topics, moderated by New York Times writer Seth Schiesel. Things got introspective when the panel discussed design decisions they wish they could take back, or a plan that didn't work out as well as they thought it would. BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk, who will be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame this year with business partner Dr. Ray Muzyka, said that about 10 or 12 years ago he made a pitch video for Five Fingers of Death. It was going to be a kung-fu game set in the Baldur's Gate universe. Cutscenes would have have been too expensive to produce, so Zeschuk spent several weeks re-dubbing old kung-fu movies using his own voice. When the tape went out he recalls several companies laughed them off. If anyone happens to have a copy of that tape, there are several video upload sites we'd be more than happy to recommend.
Marble Madness creator Mark Cerny to be inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
It may have been a quarter century since Mark Cerny's groundbreaking arcade game Marble Madness was first developed, but this year the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will give the influential developer an induction into its Hall of Fame. On February 18 in Las Vegas, Cerny will become the 13th member of the AIAS' small club -- a club that includes development bigwigs like Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto, among others. For those of you who don't know, Cerny's been hard at work behind the scenes of some of our favorite games throughout the years. The developer's had a hand in everything from Sonic 2 through God of War 3, with his influential "Cerny Method" of tenacious development being passed down to modern day big boys like Insomniac's Ted Price and Naughty Dog's Evan Wells. "Mark has left an indelible mark on all of the games he's been a part of, the developers that he's collaborated with, and most importantly the individuals that he's worked along-side of," Wells said in the press release (warning: PDF link). For Cerny's part, he said he's "thrilled to accept this award" and humbly offloaded some respect to past colleagues that he's "had the pleasure to work with over the years." We're looking forward to witnessing the "Cerny Method" in action during his acceptance speech, wherein he only allows himself 30 seconds to catch our interest before reevaluating the entire thing.
