Can You Play Hidden Agenda With A Controller

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When Supermassive Games launched the horror title Until Dawn in 2015, it became a political party game where your friends could help you make the correct conclusion to save the lives of doomed teenagers. With Hidden Agenda, Supermassive is offering the same kinds of choices.

Simply one person had the controller in Until Dawn, and everybody else on the burrow had to lookout man. Simply thank you to a new Sony PlayStation applied science dubbed PlayLink, everybody can at present join the game. With PlayLink, ane histrion controls the PlayStation 4 controller. Merely equally many as 5 others tin can use their smartphones to vote on what choice to make in the game.

Will Doyle and Jez Harris, 2 of the game's leaders at Supermassive, said they wanted to build on what they achieved with Until Dawn in the story of Hidden Calendar, where you have to stop a series killer. The game features realistic human faces, and its cinematic style is meant to fatigued in non-gamers. The game debuted on the PlayStation 4 on October 24. I talked with Harris and Doyle about designing the game.

Here's an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Hidden Agenda game director Will Doyle of Supermassive Games.

Paradigm Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: I started out in this space by playing Until Dawn, and then declaring it my favorite game of the year. That was a lot of fun for me. When I was playing that, I had the experience where my college-age kid brought her friends over and nosotros all played it together, with anybody shouting out what determination to make. Is that sort of where this started for your? What's the background of the project?

Will Doyle: We certainly saw how people had responded to Until Dawn, especially on streaming sites. That inspired a lot of the direction we've taken with the game. Obviously, with Subconscious Calendar, it's a game about choices, near dilemmas, about tricky decisions. Every choice in the game is voted on past the people sitting effectually the burrow playing it. The response to Until Dawn was very much in our minds from the beginning.

GamesBeat: How many people are able to play?

Doyle: Nosotros support six players together using mobile phones or tablets. Any Android or iOS device will work.

Higher up: Y'all can play Hidden Agenda with six people altogether.

Prototype Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: How did you settle on that number as the ideal?

Jez Harris: I think in part, the logistics of supporting any number of devices — I don't actually know offhand precisely what the maximum number of PlayLink devices nosotros tin support is. But we were always keen to push information technology as loftier as we were able to go. For various reasons in evolution nosotros settled on six. From a UI perspective, going much college than that would have caused us some difficulty.

It's also a merely a decent-sized crowd. Subconscious Agenda has always been about replacing a movie night. That'southward been our intention. It's a crime thriller. It's 2 or three hours long. It'due south there to be played instead of a picture show night. Vi feels like a decent party size.

Doyle: Also, during development, we had board games and menu games on our mind quite a lot. Similarly, that seems to be a superlative cease number for those types of products besides.

GamesBeat: I talked with the Planet of the Apes game manager recently. At that place are some interesting components that go forth with PlayLink. It happens that their game is highly realistic. Yours seems to be in that fashion besides. Does that seem to work well with a movie-like feel?

Doyle: We wanted something that was actually accessible to anybody, whether you're a gamer or not. We wanted to create something where yous could invite your friends round who don't normally play games and they'd get a lot of enjoyment out of it. At Supermassive we do pride ourselves on making really visually attractive, cinematic stories. We wanted something that wasn't off-putting. Centering the game very much around story choices, rather than specifically moving characters around and and then on fitted actually well, and certainly fitted what PlayLink is trying to exercise.

Harris: Over again, with what Until Dawn did, and what yous were mentioning about groups of players — a lot of not-gamers really embraced it. A lot of that comes from the allegiance of those characters and performances we go. Using that top-end tech, although it's just cool as well, it'due south there for a reason. We're trying to brand something that's not off-putting to people who don't really know games. A lot of that comes from connecting with human characters, which nosotros get from those performances and those facial expressions and all the rest of it. Ten years ago you weren't getting that out of computer game characters, but now nosotros feel nosotros tin can stack up against more traditionally accepted forms of media.

Doyle: Information technology fits very well with the crime thriller theme as well. Everyone in a crime story, anybody has their own secret motivations. It'southward great to see the interim come up beyond in the fidelity we've got.

Above: Jez Harris of Supermassive Games.

Image Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: How did y'all comprise PlayLink? What's easier for y'all this time around if you have something like PlayLink integrated from the beginning?

Doyle: It's really hardwired into the gameplay we're doing. In Hidden Calendar you lot have a couple of modes, story mode and competitive fashion. In the competitive mode, the game is based around a group of friends playing, and throughout the story, one of you will receive a hidden agenda, a secret objective. That histrion will move around randomly equally y'all play through the game. They'll run across that on their device. They'll actually receive secret data, which is something nosotros couldn't do and so easily with a controller.

In story mode, the game at times but asks which of your friends represents a certain quality. Information technology might ask, "Who'due south the bravest in the room?" You vote on that secretly. You await down on your device and run across different cards with dissimilar players' names on them and you pick 1. For this kind of plotting-confronting-each-other gameplay it work really well.

Harris: Considering you've got a hidden screen. It'south as well the accessibility factor. We've been trying to make an feel for people who aren't necessarily gamers. It's no cloak-and-dagger to say that a Dual Stupor can be quite intimidating to your mom or dad, anyone who doesn't play games. But most people these days are comfy with a smartphone. They've all got 1. Y'all can have those 6 players and anybody just pulls out their smartphone and downloads the app and gets on with it.

Will and the guys on the pattern front have been very keen to emulate established and known mechanics in terms of the control side of things. When you're using the smartphone nosotros're not request you to exercise anything peculiarly complex or fancy. Y'all're just swiping left and correct. Information technology's all fairly self-explanatory. It'southward an easy game to play from the user'south perspective.

GamesBeat: It reminds me of things similar the Werewolves tabletop card games.

Doyle: We've found that people, when they're using their devices, they really kind of concur them like a paw of cards. When they're given their secret objectives, people will pull back in their seat and hide their screen from the people next to them. Information technology adds something tactile to the fun of it.

Harris: Again, information technology ties back to trying to push a good bargain of the experience into the room. It'due south not about what'due south on screen every bit much. Information technology'southward about what the people next to you lot are up to. When y'all're trying to piece of work out who has got those subconscious agendas, as much as it's but about maybe trying to sneak a await at their screen, it's also about looking around and seeing how shifty someone looks, what expression they're holding. Trying to have that chat and give-and-take nearly what choices to make amongst the grouping. It all works surprisingly well together.

Doyle: Information technology creates some situations we've found that are quite fun where it'south different depending on who you play with, as well as whichever branch of the story you go downwardly. Each game is unlike depending on which of your friends is present.

Higher up: Can you make the right selection in Hidden Calendar?

Image Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: I wondered how similar it is to Until Dawn in terms of that butterfly effect and the many unlike possible endings. What's similar and what's different in that respect?

Harris: It's built around the sense of jeopardy that all the characters detect themselves in. Until Dawn was obviously a horror movie, if you like, and this is a law-breaking thriller, merely what they practice accept in common is the players in the story are all vulnerable. The sense of who can live and who tin die is pervasive throughout. It's not as large a office of it in Hidden Agenda equally it was in Until Dawn, which was very much based on the thought that anyone can live and anyone can die – that was the main motivation for playing in some means. With Hidden Agenda it'southward non all nigh that. Simply everyone is vulnerable.

The story is profoundly branching. It's a shorter experience, deliberately shorter. We wanted to make it this thing that could exist played in a single sitting with a group of friends, simply like watching a picture show. Nosotros wanted a story that's wrapped up in the form of a unmarried evening. But information technology'southward going to be a very different story depending on who y'all play with and how you play it.

GamesBeat: How many decisions might you brand in a single game? What take you constitute works well every bit far as how often yous desire to put in these decision points?

Doyle: We accept to have a frequency of choices that ebbs and flows according to the drama of information technology. With the choices, we have something we call the ripple effect. Every choice yous make is like dropping a pebble in a swimming. If yous drop minor pebbles, they may ripple out and just impact relationships in one scene, or affect something that's coming up in the near future. But certain decisions are like dropping rocks in. That creates huge waves that may lead to the deaths of characters or major branches in the story. We definitely have this challenge when we make these games as far equally how nosotros position the menses of the narrative confronting the gameplay. It certainly does ebb and flow every bit y'all play through.

GamesBeat: Can the game vary in length depending on how you play?

Harris: It depends on the grouping you're playing with. Some groups we've seen, amid ourselves and in user testing, might sit and spend ten minutes arguing over what they're going to do in a given state of affairs, which extends the whole thing by quite some margin. But annihilation from two to 3 hours is about standard for each playthrough. Some of it depends on the choices you lot make. There are slightly shorter or slightly longer versions of events that can take identify. You'll spend at least a couple hours with it for a unmarried playthrough.

Doyle: When yous brand a choice, if information technology'south a tie, you demand to get to a majority to movement on. Some groups accept literally sat there for 10 minutes arguing well-nigh stuff.

Above: You may get a secret message from the Hidden Agenda game.

Image Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: What kind of feedback have you gotten from watching people play?

Harris: As a studio and through Sony equally a publisher, we do a lot of user testing. All through the product we're putting it in front of groups of players and getting feedback to hone mechanics and become the story residue right. We have some good footage. Lots of people having a great time with it.

Doyle: Information technology's especially the case with PlayLink. Information technology's a new thing, and we're trying to appeal to people who aren't necessarily gamers offset and foremost. We've washed a lot of testing around that to become the all-time out of it.

GamesBeat: I got a good laugh out of the videos yous included in the Until Dawn appendix.

Harris: Right. With Hidden Agenda information technology's not really nearly scares in the way Until Dawn was. The human being side, as we said, really comes from those discussions and arguments and fights over what to do next.

GamesBeat: What conclusion have you drawn as far as what kinds of stories are good to tell in this style using PlayLink?

Harris: For me, I remember a story in which the stakes are high is of import. This may not be truthful for everyone, but information technology's certainly true for the approach we like to take. Characters demand to be vulnerable. That risk — the selection has to really matter in the way that we would like. The notion of life and death has to come into play at some point. It's not every choice, and y'all're non necessarily aware of exactly which ones might accept a huge impact, but knowing that the choices do matter all the manner through is vital. A crime thriller, where information technology's all about trust and deception and life and decease, is a neat fit. It's non the but fit, but it's a keen fit.

Doyle: A balance in your story is also important. The stuff that works well for u.s.a. are choices where there'southward no correct answer. Creating a story that has lots of dilemmas by and large means you need characters that are painted in shades of gray. There's no obvious good guy or bad guy. There are lots of questions around people.

Harris: At that place's no right way through this game. That'due south a focus.

Doyle: Absolutely. Nosotros spend a lot of time making certain our stories feel great whichever path you take. That certainly informs a lot nigh who the characters are and how we shape them.

GamesBeat: Is information technology taking every bit long to make this as it did to make Until Dawn, or was that more work just because it was the first of its kind? Are there any technical improvements in this game?

Harris: Nosotros're using the Unreal engine for Hidden Agenda, which is not something we did on Until Dawn. That'south been slap-up for the states. We're getting astounding results out of that. In terms of how long it'due south taken, Until Dawn did take a off-white flake longer. It's a very different feel — dissimilar game, unlike telescopic, different platforms equally you might recall. It gestated quite a scrap over the grade of its evolution. This has been a keen fun project, really. We've learned an atrocious lot about our processes and technical changes.

The thing we've spent a lot of time working on, which is arguably the hardest thing we've had to look at with Hidden Agenda, was really figuring out how to formalize the competitive nature of a narrative-led game. That'south not something people take washed a lot before. That took a while to settle on. Nosotros went through some periods of overcomplication and asking perhaps a bit too much of the mechanics, or too much of players in fact — all the information nosotros were request them to retain in their heads about the story as nosotros were trying to mark them on their successes and failures as they played through.

That got refined into what is at present, we think, a very engaging and understandable, but quite deep scoring system. It's all based around the subconscious agendas and this notion of trust and honesty in the room. Information technology's taken a while to get there, but it's where we want it to be now.

Higher up: Samantha, played by Hayden Panettiere, in Until Dawn. She did a great interim task.

Prototype Credit: Sony

GamesBeat: Until Dawn had a measure of success as far as replayability there, with the goal to save all 8 characters. Is there something here that makes it highly replayable as well?

Doyle: We have numerous ways you can get through the story and reach a completion. But nosotros practice like to think, again — with the competitive mode and hidden agenda mechanics, that makes it a bit like a board game. Y'all tin can play information technology a number of times, even experiencing the same story, but through the hidden agenda it encourages a lot of repeat plays. For ourselves, we've had a good feeling recently, because in testing it every twenty-four hour period we nonetheless bask playing information technology ourselves because of this aspect of putting the gameplay into the room. It actually is different every time.

GamesBeat: With PlayLink, technically, does that piece of work very quickly? Exercise you take to account for any kind of latency in the procedure of coordinating with all the phones? I'grand curious about how fast a response it has and how fast a response you demand to do things. Do yous have timed decision-making, for example?

Harris: We haven't had any issues with latency then along. Nosotros're comfortable with the fact that we have quick-fourth dimension events in the game and timed choices, and that'southward caused no problems at all. In terms of how PlayLink is set upward, you connect the devices to the same wi-fi your PlayStation is on at domicile, and as soon as you've done that yous're all hooked upwards and good to get. I'm sure some unlike people will have different quality in their home network setups, but information technology works equally you'd await information technology too — simple, straightforward. It makes the whole thing very accessible. Nosotros haven't at any point had to think, "We tin't do that because of latency." It merely works.

Doyle: We've had a lot of experience working with new technology, and PlayLink is just another i. It's always fun to see people who haven't played games as much come in, sit down with their friends, and leave having really enjoyed themselves. That's fulfilling for usa, to see that it's working for the states in that respect. And in terms of making a new story, nosotros've introduced a bunch of new characters here around a new theme. Doing a crime thriller is new for united states. That'southward been a bully artistic try. It's been actually good fun.

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