Mark Cerny is the most delightful hardware/software engineer that you’ll ever meet. His talk about his experiences as the PS4’s lead system architect sounds like it would be boring, but it’s actually a fascinating look into the mind of a gamer that just wants to make things more fun.
Well, Sony put out a new Conversations with Creators video with Cerny about PS4 launch title Knack. It’s a new platformer being made by Sony Japan Studios, and it already looks to be one of the strongest launch titles of the bunch. That could be due to Cerny having a lot of experience in developing strong platformers as he helped out Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog on games like Ratchet and Clank, and Crash Bandicoot. He even served as a producer on Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
In the video, Cerny says that he would love for people playing Knack to have the same feeling they had when playing Crash Bandicoot for the first time on the original PlayStation. To that end, the game will evoke a challenge similar to older platformers on the harder difficulty settings, but it can also be enjoyed by those new to games on the easier difficulties.
All in all, it’s sounding like Knack is the kind of game that I love to see accompany a console launch. It has a strong personality and a familiar, yet distinctive, gameplay that’s seemingly only possible on new hardware. Kameo: Elements of Power gave me that kind of feeling at the Xbox 360’s launch, and I can only hope that Knack does the same for the PS4.
[Image: PlayStation/YouTube]