We managed to sit down and catch up with SCE’s XDev Producer John McLaughlin to talk about his work creating games for the PlayStation Vita, his favourite Vita development experience so far and the future with SCE

GC: In terms of game development, how does creating games for the PSP Vita compare to creating games for the PSP for you?

JM: Well it was great to do things on Vita  I mean I worked on the invizimals franchise so the Invizimals was really innovative it took the PSP to a new level but with the Vita, ya know we’ve got the built-in cameras now, we’ve got dual analogue sticks, the multi-touch hand screen is awesome, the multi-touch pad, from a processor point of view it’s really powerful so we can bring across PlayStation 3-style experiences to it so from our perspective, it ticks all the boxes in terms of what we want to create and in terms of our games or it’s graphics or innovative new control schemes so yeah we’re really happy with it and our developers are happy with it too

GC: So it sounds like its definitely going to expand the experience especially for gamers going from the PSP to the PSP Vita. So what would you say is the most fundamental change gamers can expect upgrading from the PSP to the PSP Vita?

JM: So whether its a game like Uncharted or whether it’s a true racing game like Wipeout or whether if you wanna get a small download game like Super StarDust, we can do virtually anything with this machine. And then you’ve got different types of games so whether it’s a new blockbuster or just like a multi-touch game, you’re going to get the full PS3 experience. But in terms of the games that the users can create we’ve got 500 levels now on PS3 that users have created and they’ve become really innovative with the type of levels they can create and now they’ve got much more in terms of front touch and rear touch and you can actually use those inputs to create levels which makes it a lot easier for them. You gonna get like multi-platform games, multi-touch games, you can use the online specs to create like location-based games, there’s so much scope there for gamers so I don’t think anyone’s going to be disappointed with the Vita.

GC: That sounds awesome. So for you personally what is the most rewarding experience you’ve had so far creating for the PSP Vita?

JM: Well, I’ll feel rewarded actually when I’ve finished my first game as I’m currently producing Reality Fighters. It’s good to see people’s reaction about the game because Augmented Reality is still something relatively new for a lot of gamers and now we’ve got the full-tilt cameras you can expect a lot more. You know we’ve programmed on the likes of the PS2 and the Invisimals on PSP and on the PS3 but with the Vita I think you’re going to see a lot more in terms of Augmented Reality.

GC:  What do you think gamers can expect from AR on the PSP Vita?

JM: With the Invizimals on PSP we kind of broke the mold there because you weren’t just playing as a character in a video game, you were the hero and you were playing in your world, you were finding these creatures whether they were in your bedroom or your garden. So with Reality Fighters, I mean we have the same team who created the Invizimals and it’s next generation for them so whether it’s the technical perspective of getting 60 frames per second or whether it’s a case of being able to do much more with the shaders and all fighters can tear up your environment, or crack holes in the floor or open port holes into new worlds. And we’re working on some exciting new technology as well which is called Wide Area Augmented Reality or WAAR for short. So if you know about most AR games they only use one marker but WAAR consists of six markers and what this does it allows us to make much bigger gaming environments so you could turn your tabletop into a battleground kind of thing. Or you can use markers on different heights or maybe the character will jump from your coffee table onto the ground and run away or you can bring different markers into the gameplay scene, or a different character. Lets say you’ve got a virtual pet, you can bring a marker in and that gives him a toy to play with or you can bring another marker in and another marker in so you can create your own little dog shelter for example. So it gives us massive scope in terms of what we can do with WAAR and you can only do this on Vita with the power its got.

GC: In terms of what you’re working on currently, are you allowed to talk about your current projects at all?

JM: Absolutely yes! I’ve just wrapped up Invizimals 3 for PSP and I’m working on Reality Fighters right now so I’m really looking forward to wrapping this game up and seeing it on shelves. So it’s going quite well it’s an AR beat em’ up but unlike most beat em’ ups, we can use the camera to scan yourself or your friends or your family so you can scan those guys in, put them in the game so it looks really realistic. You can customise them any way you want, you can make them really chubby or really thin in real time. So if you want to be a proper martial artist you can be that, if you want to be a cowboy or a policeman or Santa Claus or an Astronaut you can be almost anything you want to be in Reality Fighters. There’s like fifteen different fight-styles like some of them are martial arts fight-styles so anyone that loves martial arts games are gonna love that. But then we’ve got like a disco dancer, like a kind of John Travolta guy, we’ve got wizards, we’ve got super heroes, we’ve got zombies so you can be almost anything you wanna be. And all of that takes place obviously in the real world through AR. So we’re really happy with how its going. You can take pictures of your fighters and post it on facebook and make fun of your friends, that kind of stuff. It’s going to be a really good social experience too.

GC: Yes there really sounds like there’s a lot of interactivity going on there and we’re talking about a handheld which you  don’t really expect on that level. I think the Vita is bringing so much more to the experience, particularly for hand-held gamers

JM: Yeah, we’ve got a lot of online connectivity as well, I mean whether its connecting to the PS3 so what we can do now is play directly against PS3 gamers. So you can play against your friend on the PS3 playing Wipeout and all these things are possible now that weren’t possible before.

GC: Is there anything that you can talk about in terms of future plans for your work on the Vita

JM: So I’ll finish up work on Reality Fighters and I’ve got more plans to work with AR stuff. I’m also working with other teams for the Vita which I can’t talk about yet but I’m pretty sure they’ll blow you away!

GC: Sounds like you’re having a really great time working with SCE on the Vita and we can’t wait to see what’s to come!

JM: Yeah I mean from our perspective we’re excited to see what comes from other developers but for now, we’re just working hard to get all our games ready for launch.

GC: Thanks so much for your time John

JM: Thank-you Julie