Being an independent game developer sure has been a bumpy ride. After making Spider-Man 2, I quit my sweet gig at Activision to see if I could make games my own way, on my own terms. I’ve been through a lot since then! I founded a company with a friend. We built it up, had several employees, health insurance, and everything… only to see it come crashing down.
So now I’m on my own again, starting over from scratch. But maybe things are turning around? By revisiting the coolest thing I’ve ever done — swinging game mechanics — and launching an unorthodox Kickstarter for the game, called Energy Hook, my new company Happion Labs seems to be on an upward trajectory.
And the latest piece of good news: I’m going to be able to bring Energy Hook to PS4 and PS Vita!
So, what’s Energy Hook? Well, imagine a 3D swinging game like Spider-Man 2 had a love child with “points-for-style” game SSX. You swing from rooftop to rooftop, pull off mid-air tricks, run along walls, and rack up points and energy for doing it. Because: it’s the future. And that’s what the extreme sports of the future look like. You have gravity beams and gravity boots and jetpacks and can do awesome stuff.
PS Vita is my favorite handheld. There’s no handheld like it. Nothing else comes with dual sticks, and Energy Hook wants those dual sticks! It’s a very expressive game that wants precision controls. A touchscreen is not enough. I daresay it’s going to be the first, decent, 3D swinging game to hit a handheld.
And I’m also glad to be bringing it to PS4. Mark Cerny has been my hero for years; in fact, we borrowed from his playbook to make Spider-Man 2. So to see him be a frontman for PS4 warms my heart. I can’t wait to see how Energy Hook performs on the new hardware; I’m sure it’s going to be awesome. (I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all that power… but I’ll think of something.)
Energy Hook will be hitting PlayStation first, and I’m totally stoked. I’m looking forward to getting the game in your hands in 2014, and can’t wait to see what you think.