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Hey guys! Comic-Con 2011 just wrapped up this past weekend so for those of you couldn’t make it to the show, I wanted to share a highlight reel from our Starhawk panel discussion, which took place on Sunday in San Diego. The panel, titled…”The Evolution from Warhawk to Starhawk: The New Universe that is Starhawk and the Characters Behind the Conflict,” detailed the creative process that LightBox Interactive and SCEA’s Santa Monica Studio have gone through to make Starhawk a reality, including the development of an all-new story and the establishment of main character, Emmett Graves.

Under the expert moderation of IGN.com’s Greg Miller, the panelists included: Starhawk’s Creative Director — Lars DeVore (LightBox Interactive), Senior Producer — Harvard Bonin (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), Studio Director — John Hight (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), and Starhawk’s Writer — Koen Wooten. You can watch the video of the full panel – nearly 50 minutes long – courtesy of GameSpot.com. Here’s also a great write up by Kevin Kelly of G4 who was on-site with us.

Thanks again to everyone who attended the panel, we really appreciate your support! Stay tuned for more Starhawk updates as we get closer to Gamescom and PAX.

When Sony asked us to do a panel we were like “hmmm, what is this Co-mi-con thing you speak of? Do a lot of people go to it? Is it full of awesome? And if it *is* full of awesome, what kind of awesome?”

Their response was “It’s a mega-con of film, games, toys, and comics. Yes, tons of people. Yes, its awesome. The unstable, explosive imagination isotopes of awesome.”

So after all of 3 seconds of deliberation, we were like “@&!*@#$, #@%!*$, *&!?!@#!!!”

That’s an enthusiastic YES. Comic-Con is just the perfect venue to talk about Starhawk’s universe, our characters and the story that drives the Solo Campaign. So, BAM! check this out:

It’s a video that we captured from the game and shows how we tell story in the Starhawk. It’s done with a really great kind of animated “wanted” poster style, punctuated with Rift Energy. They’re Emmett’s memories. His Rift visions. They’re being produced by a studio here in Austin, Powerhouse Animation (they worked on the Penny Arcade Adventures animations). We’ve also got some really cool tech that seamlessly blends between the animations and the game (as you can see in the video). This really makes the solo experience smooth and buttery. We didn’t want any experiential speed bumps in the solo campaign. You can sit down, start the game and smoothly flow from mission to mission with no loading screens!

So, yeah, we’re having our Starhawk panel at Comic-Con on Sunday July 24th, 10am – 11am in room 25AB. It’s gonna be moderated by Greg Miller from IGN and we’re going to be showing some never before seen art and videos of the journey and process we took from the initial game concept to the Starhawk that we have today. Getting really in depth with Emmett Graves (our hero character) the universe of the New Frontier, Rifter Unions, Outcast Warbands, and how Rift Energy took away the only family Emmett had.

Family is a classic western story element and for Starhawk, it seemed really, really fitting for us. Our writter, Koen Wooten, has really been able to bring the Starhawk Universe to life and he’ll be at the panel on Sunday too! Did you know he worked on the props for the Coen Brother’s movie True Grit!! Consider that random Starhawk fact a freebie, folks!

But it’s more than just the western elements for us. It’s been about striking the right balance of advanced sci-fi with the texture and warmth of the western themes. And it’s this balance that motivates all of our creative work — from the design of all the stuff in the Starhawk universe, down to even the compositions we choose for screen shots and illustrations.

All this stuff comes together to create Starhawk’s unique universe and we’re excited to let people at Comic-Con get their hands on some singleplayer gameplay. ‘Cause ya know, the solo mission was only available to the press behind closed doors at E3! So swing by the Sony booth and get your Starhawk on! Oh, and yes, I’m told there will be Starhawk bags being handed out.

Did you know that if you put enough swag bags *in* another swag bag, you’ll rip a hole in spacetime and be able to flap your wings like a butterfly and cause future hurricanes or some crap like that. I don’t know. I saw it in an Ashton Kutcher movie once I think.

OK, that’s it from me again. Time to get back to work.

Rock on!!

PS: And I *do* feel like I’m going through Uncharted3 BETA withdrawal! Maybe I should check myself into a clinic!!!

I wanted to take a quick time out from having fun with Starhawk and invite you to check our new behind-the-scenes video below! In it, you’ll gain insight into how we created the Starhawk universe and story, as well as background thoughts on our protagonist Emmett from the team at LightBox. As a special treat, you’ll see snippets of our animated cut scenes as well!

Want more? Check out StarhawkTheGame.com for an extended cut and check out the PlayStation.Blog next week as we release a full cut scene in honor of Comic-Con.

Speaking of….

San Diego Comic-Con is next week and Starhawk will be there for all to play! It’ll be the first time gamers will get to try our single-player mode so come on down and give it a play if you are around. On top of that we’re having a panel discussion at 10:00 a.m., Sunday, July 24th so please come and join us! We’d love to meet you all in person.
Here’s a marketing blurb about the details. Come on by!

Timing: Sunday, July 24 from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PST
Location: Room 25AB at the San Diego Convention Center

The Evolution from Warhawk to Starhawk — The New Universe that is Starhawk and the Characters Behind the Conflict:

Meet the creative minds behind Starhawk, the spiritual successor to Warhawk, as they introduce you to an exciting new world set in the lawless frontier of space. The team at LightBox Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Santa Monica Studio are set to bring you an action packed story with compelling characters beginning with hired gunslinger Emmett Graves. Learn about how Emmett must navigate through Starhawk’s brutal playground of large scale combat where the tide of battle turns all the time, whether you’re on land, in the air, or in the far reaches of space. Throughout this discussion you’ll discover details about Emmett’s back story, his affliction to Rift Energy, and his overwhelming distaste for The Outcast, the war band of deadly monstrosities that he must fight to destroy in this PlayStation 3 exclusive. Join Starhawk’s Creative Director—Lars DeVore (LightBox Interactive), Senior Producer—Harvard Bonin (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), Studio Director—John Hight (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), and Starhawk’s Writer—Koen Wooten, as they provide insight into the creative process behind Starhawk’s space western universe with never-before-seen concept art, exclusive story details, and in depth commentary, straight from the men behind this innovative new shooter experience.

As expected, E3 2011 was crazy fun and a gamer’s dream come true. Every year E3 gets bigger and badder but this year’s show was special for us: we finally got to unveil our multiplayer Capture the Flag mode for Starhawk! So far, the feedback has been great. Starhawk was nominated for a bunch of E3 awards, including Best Shooter, Best Multiplayer and Best PS3 Game from G4TV.

During E3, the PlayStation.Blog team streamed live demos for a host of PlayStation games, including this 20 minute-long Starhawk tour that really shows off one of our single-player missions. Check it out above!

Here are a some impressions from members of the press that played Starhawk at E3:

“What stuck out was the combat from the air, the power of the Hawks, and the surprisingly convenient ability to jump seats in a moving vehicle.”
–IGN

“We’re definitely excited to see more of this game, including its extensive single-player campaign.”
–GameSpot

“Starhawk is full of the same brand of intense aerial dogfights and on-foot combat, takes the war to the stars, further complicating matters with an injection of real-time strategy.”
–Kotaku

“[PlayStation] could have a new king of multiplayer on its hands.”
–GamesRadar

“Even in its early state, Starhawk shines with polish….the game’s not due for another year, but it already sported a rock-solid framerate and some of the best visuals for a multiplayer game on the platform.”
–ShackNews

We definitely appreciate E3 awards…but honestly, what meant the most to us was the feedback and love we got on the floor from fans just like you. We were thrilled that players walked away from the kiosks genuinely liking the game — that’s what counts to us. We even had a huge Warhawk fan fly all the way from Brazil just to play Starhawk at E3…and she played for all three days! And we couldn’t forget our Canadian friends that stopped by the booth to say hi. It’s always a thrill for us to meet loyal Warheads….especially when they seem so normal! Go figure.

At this point, we know we have a long way to go and it’s our job to bring you a game that lives up to your expectations. Our challenge now is to get the game into as many hands as possible. We’ll be at Comic-Con in San Diego July 21-24 so please come on by and check out our game! We’re going to tell you more about our solo campaign and the Starhawk universe during the show, so stay tuned.

What’s up PS Blog and fellow Warheads? I’ve been working on Warhawk since 2007 and I represent the other half of the Santa Monica Studio/LightBox Interactive partnership. I’m sure you all know about the Santa Monica team from the God of War series. What you might not know is that we’ve been working with LightBox since the studio opened its doors, helping the team get started on this exciting new project. We’ve been contributing to the Starhawk development process creatively and on the biz side of things. It’s been a true collaboration — we’re thrilled to be working with the talented group at LightBox.

Lots of you are wondering how Build & Battle fits in with the Warhawk recipe of “frenetic epic firefights,” so today we wanted to give you a taste of what we will have playable at E3 next week! This is a video of an actual multiplayer tournament we had recently at the LightBox studio.

As you know Starhawk also has a cool single-player campaign that will immerse you in the story of our main character, Emmett Graves, but as you can see we have not forgotten about our multiplayer roots! We’ve designed Starhawk’s multiplayer to be just as much fun as Warhawk’s, but now with our new Build & Battle toy box, you shooter fans will have something you haven’t truly experienced before – the ability to change the battlefield on the fly. We’ll have more details on Starhawk’s multiplayer soon, but for now we invite you to come visit us at E3!

Thanks a ton for the amazing reactions to Starhawk thus far. I can honestly say that we’ve only scratched the surface so look out for more info in the months ahead.

And if you want more Starhawk info, there are lots of ways to reach us. Register on StarhawkTheGame.com, hop on the Starhawk official forums, and join in on the conversations. The PlayStation.Blog is also a great spot, of course. As you’ve seen, Dylan has spent a lot of time trying to answer your questions and he’ll continue to do so. He also has a Twitter account that you can follow, @dylanjobe, where you can find out about Starhawk and ask him questions…or just see what he had for dinner. We can’t answer all of your questions just yet but we pay close attention to what you, the fans, are talking about and what’s most important to you.

Please comment away and, again, thanks for your continued support.

Space is rad, you guys, which is why I wanted to make sure you knew about this.

The original rumors about Starhawk portrayed an epic struggle between air and ground forces that allowed those whisking above the ground to fly away and actually join another battle happening in space. When Starhawk was revealed, however, it showcased ships, mechs and tanks safely planet-side.

Putting doubts to rest that space isn't cool, Lightbox Interactive has confirmed space combat.

"The outer space environment set that the art team here at LightBox Interactive has put together is really awesome," said Lightbox president Dylan Jobe on the PlayStation Blog. "Super fun to play on and looks great. Some of the elements are still being worked on and we don’t want to show it untill we’re 100% happy with it. But since sooo many of you guys asked, Sony was okay with me at least telling you that Starhawk was not just about terrain battles."

And now...Chris Remo of Irrational Games sings about Space Assholes.