inFAMOUS 2 and inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood received widespread acclaim from the gaming community in 2011 not only for their amazing open-world super hero gameplay, but also for one very important, very unique feature: the ability to make your own missions. To bring out the best aspiring developers, we launched a contest late last year to see who could build the best mission within inFAMOUS 2. This mission needed to focus on telling a story about the main character Cole McGrath that could fit within the fiction of the universe. It also needed to play great, meaning good gameplay balance, strong action set-pieces, and a compelling narrative to pull you through.
From the missions that we’re submitted on infamousthegame.com, PlayStation and Sucker Punch reviewed only the most-played and highest-ranked missions as voted on by the community that plays. This tool not only makes it easy to find great missions in-game, but you can also browse and queue up missions to play in-game on the web by logging in with your PSN ID.
After much debate with the team from Sucker Punch, we’re ready to share the grand prize winner of the Cole’s Missing Mission contest. Introducing PSN member Seth9977 with his mission: Spying on the Spies. His mission brought a great story that matched the tone of Cole’s character while providing sweeping travel segments, awesome combat, and just the right amount of humor. He also goes a bit in-depth with Cole’s character to imply some deeper issues he’s struggling with and has some great call-backs to Cole’s time in Empire City. It’s now playable in inFAMOUS 2 under the Featured Missions category.
Hi everyone; Seth9977 here.
The thing that inspired me to make that mission was the story mission: “Alden Strikes” from inFAMOUS. I put my own little twist of Zeke being captured to bring back some good old memories of rescuing Zeke from inFAMOUS 1.
My advice to other mission builders:
It’s always best to get an idea of what you’re about to make, rather than sit there with nothing. Find something to spark your creativity, and don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s also best to learn how to use the tools. If you don’t know how something works, look at a template, play around with it, or come ask the friendly users at suckerpunch.com for help. Another thing that is a must for creating a fail-proof mission would be play testing and polishing. It’s always best to constantly test and play your mission whenever you make a change, look for ways that a player can break your mission. It will help you in the long run!
Whenever play testing a narrative, make sure to check your grammar, and read it out loud to make sure it sounds right. There are three questions that you should always ask yourself: 1) “Will this be enjoyable for the player?” 2) “Can less experienced players beat this?” and 3) “Will they be able to break my mission?” If you design around these questions, I’m sure you will have a great and fun mission for users to play!
My thoughts on the design tools:
The design tools overall are well made and allowed me to do a number of things. From creating a simple sentence to making an intense fight. I enjoy working a lot with narrative type stuff, so when I first picked up inFAMOUS 2, and fired up the UGC creator I was glad to see there was a way to implement a story into my mission. The variety of tools in the UGC creator has expanded upon the months, and I’m eager to see what else the people at Sucker Punch have to offer to us!
I would also like to thank everyone who has made this possible for me. I’ve learned a lot on my own, but when I got involved with the community at Suckerpunch.com and infamousthegame.com, I’ve learned a lot more on how the UGC creator of inFAMOUS 2 works. It wouldn’t have been possible without the players too! A lot of thanks have to go to the PlayStation.blog and PSN Community Management team too! Thanks for playing all my missions and inspiring me to keep on creating!
We also want to include mentions for the runner ups in this very heated competition. PSN members jedicam10 (Karma Police), The_Golden_Hero (Children of Empire City), and codybean1 (Cole in Time) also made some stellar missions. These missions are also now easily accessible in-game under the Feature Missions category.
Congrats again to Seth9977! Your $1,000 in PSN Voucher Codes, limited-edition Cole statue, and signed copy of inFAMOUS 2 from the Sucker Punch team is on its way!
