How Ghost of Tsushima's Film Mode Impacted Development

Ghost of Tsushima’s State of Play showcase culminated with a look at how the Sucker Punch-developed PS4 exclusive is paying homage to the samurai films that inspired it, with a black-and-white film grain mode that can be turned on from the start. But of course, with a game that is clearly built with as colorful and vibrant a world as Tsushima’s evidently has been, did the developers run into any issues ensuring the cinematic mode was still fun to play? Speaking to IGN after the State of Play, Ghost of Tsushima Creative Director and Art Director Jason Connell explained how Sucker Punch’s rigorous playtesting practices helped them ensure playing through Tsushima's adventure would be just as fun in its standard or filmic looks, given much of Tsushima's naturalistic approach to guiding players involves those very players noticing unique parts of the world. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/ghost-of-tsushima-gameplay-customization-and-upgrades"] “There are definitely some things that are more challenging when you're in that mode. Once we created that mode, and you can play the whole game through it, we quickly realized there were some areas that we need to reevaluate,” Connell said. “Like, if we were using the same icon on the map but just using a different color, then that doesn't work that well. So you have to change the shape of the second icon because the color alone won't work.” Connell explained how this work to make the game fully understandable in that mode took some of its cues from how colorblind accessibility modes in games work. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ghost-of-tsushima-ps4-4k-screenshots&captions=true"] “And frankly, we take a lot of cues from learning from a colorblind accessibility mode. It effectively would be that for us. We just put the mode on and play the game a ton and find out where it breaks and rework on the design. And that's how we work in general about almost everything,” he said. That mode will be something players can experience the entire game in, while the State of Play also confirmed players can turn on a Japanese language voice track from the start if they so choose. And, befitting of Sony’s first-party efforts this generation, Sucker Punch will include a photo mode that allows players to change particle effects and even choose portions of the soundtrack to back players’ scenes. Connell also spoke to IGN about why Ghost of Tsushima isn’t using Infamous’ karma meter, as well as what Ghost of Tsushima biggest Sucker Punch’s biggest game ever means for the scope of what players can expect. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/18-minutes-of-ghosts-of-tsushima-gameplay-full-4k-60fps-presentation"] For more on Ghost of Tsushima, which is set to be released on PS4 July 17, be sure to read everything we learned from the Ghost of Tsushima State of Play, and find out why the Ghost of Tsushima showcase wowed us on the latest episode of our weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Editor's note: Former IGN employee Andrew Goldfarb is currently working for Ghost of Tsushima developer Sucker Punch. Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

source https://www.ign.com/articles/how-ghost-of-tsushimas-black-and-white-mode-affected-development