Nicolas Doucet, senior producer of EyePet, fields questions from the PlayStation community.
Are you thinking of introducing more challenges or a story mode via PlayStation Store? (Eosia, Poland; atomonium, France; PrincessMiu, Germany)
It's something that we've been considering. We wanted to gather feedback on the game as a whole and which interactions people enjoyed most, as there are quite a few. That feedback has been varied. Features like drawing are quite advanced and perhaps most used by those kids who tend to play with their parents.
For the more casual audience, it has been simpler interactions such as the bubble machine that have been received best, and it's that area that we'd like to expand.
So to answer the original question, I can't confirm any new downloadable challenges but we'll keep you posted as things develop.
Will you ever introduce a multiplayer mode allowing people's pets to play together? (ToMi-Ireland, Poland; ghoulachi, France; PrincessMiu, Germany)
Pet to pet interaction is something that we've put a fair amount of research into. We can't confirm we'll be adding it but we are bringing new features that will allow people to share drawings and EyePet styles, so that's something for the community to look out for.
If you're talking about local multiplayer - so two or more EyePets on the same screen - then the challenge lies in rendering multiple pets. We know that we can do it, but it's a lot more difficult than simply dropping in new pets; we also have to consider individual Artificial Intelligence and authentic behaviour.
Another challenge, on top of that, is creating a game structure that allows two or three people to play together freely, without feeling like they're constrained in a game mode. We spent a lot of time structuring EyePet in a way that encourages you to play a certain way, but when you let kids loose on it, that all goes out of the window; suddenly they're sitting really close to the screen and climbing over each other to try and touch the pet. And that's fine, because they're having fun. To make a multiplayer game then we would have to be very clever in our design, in order to minimise the chaos.
Will any future challenges use any other control method, as opposed to the Magic Card? (PHB_fr, France)
There are actually toys and challenges that are controlled via the Wireless Controller... I imagine the question is whether you could substitute the Magic Card for the traditional controller. We didn't do that because our idea was to place an object in the player's hand when they saw themselves on the screen.
Looking to the future and other control methods, we've been looking at the PlayStation Move motion controller; in fact, we've been involved from the very beginning of its development. It's going to allow us to take EyePet to a new level. It makes interaction even more robust and the fact that you have a solid object in your hand makes for a more comfortable experience.
In terms of content, we're repurposing the entire game with PlayStation Move motion controller functionality and we're currently looking at including a selection of brand new toys, designed specifically for that new control method, but I can't commit to any more detail on them as we're still at the prototype stage.
Have you ever considered voice recognition, allowing you to issue commands to your EyePet? (Bonny_Pau_ES, France)
We actually had that in our initial plans and we got it working, to a certain extent. The problem with the kind of voice control you mention is that it can sometimes feel like you're speaking to an interface, rather than a living pet, and that spoils the illusion of EyePet.
Maybe we'll look at it again in the future but I'd like to do more than have the player talking to their EyePet and have EyePet talk to them, but in his own language. It's like in the film Gremlins, where the Mogwai speak in their own language and the kids end up copying them. Encouraging the player to learn a creature's vocabulary could be an interesting thing to explore.
Many thanks to the community at the official PlayStation Forums for their questions and keep an eye on eu.playstation.com for more opportunities to quiz the developers behind the latest games.
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