Here at Sucker Punch, we’ve spent the last couple of years hard at work on inFAMOUS 2. Over the last nine months or so, we’ve talked about a lot of things that make I2 awesome—things like crazy new powers for Cole, super-powered sidekicks, radically improved graphics and special effects, a cool new karma system with branching story lines and multiple endings—but we’ve managed to keep one major feature completely secret.
Until today.
Sandbox games like inFAMOUS 2 are a ton of fun. There’s a whole city to explore, and we provide lots of stuff to do in the city… but no matter how many missions and mini-missions and systemic opportunities and branching story lines we add to the game, eventually the story ends.
We thought inFAMOUS 2 would be better if it didn’t end—if you never ran out of missions and mini-missions to play and things to do. So… we spent the last two years adding a User-Generated Content feature to the game. With User-Generated Content, inFAMOUS 2 players can build new missions, then share them with the world. I think you’ll all quickly discover that while building missions is a lot of fun, seeing people play and enjoy those missions is even better!
There really aren’t a lot of limits to the sorts of missions you can build. Sure, you can build the sort of missions that will ship on the inFAMOUS 2 disk. Mission creators have access to the same set of characters, creatures and props—so if you want to set a pack of Hive Lords rumbling after Cole through the streets of New Marais, you can do it. If you want to have Cole and Zeke face off against Nix and Kuo, you can do it.
If you want to bend the rules of inFAMOUS 2 to create new kinds of missions, you can do that too. Wish I2 had pure stealth missions? No problem, you can create stealth missions. Looking for more of a challenge? Try taking away some of Cole’s powers—see how the player does facing a platoon of Militia wielding only his Amp. Or add an old-school platforming challenge, or a race, or… I could go on all day.
It’s pretty easy to do missions that are more like mini-games, too. Skeet shooting? No problem. Disc golf? Assuming you’re happy tossing around cars instead of Frisbees, sure. How about a mission where Zeke just tells you bad jokes until you shoot him? Um, yeah, you can do that, too.
Building missions is only half the story, of course—we make it super easy to upload your missions to the network, so other players can see your cool new missions.
User-generated missions show up in the world just like regular missions. When you walk up to them, you see the PSN tag of the mission creator, plus extra information like the mission’s current rating. And back at Sucker Punch headquarters, we’ll be watching—missions that get high scores will get promoted to the Sucker Punch Featured Missions list, and those missions will end up just about everyone’s copy of New Marais.
We think this is a neat opportunity for people to become famous for the missions they build. We know there are lots of creative people out there, people who love third-person action games like I2, and have great ideas about what they’d do with the game if they had the chance. Well, now we’re giving you that chance! Let’s see what you can do!
There will be a limited public beta of inFAMOUS 2 UGC starting in early April. We’ll be announcing how to sign up for the beta on March 14… watch infamousthegame.com for more details! And be sure to watch the video above to whet your appetite…
