This year's Game Developers Conference was a mostly quiet affair, although we did hear about a few new PlayStation 3 exclusives. The one that got the most press time was Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time , but let's not forget about Ivent's Strength of the Sword .
You may have some questions about it, and you should definitely check out the game's offical website to learn more. But for an inside look at the project, you may also want to view ThePlayStation3Guys' interview with Ivent designer Kaloyan Ganchev . Perhaps the most important detail that we glean from this interview is that Strength of the Sword will in fact be a downloadable title for the PlayStation Network, and not a full Blu-Ray production as some had assumed. It will also remain exclusive to the PSN, which should make the Sony loyalists happy. Another interesting tidbit comes when the question is asked regarding the PS3; i.e., how difficult is it to develop for? Perhaps surprisingly, Ganchev had this to say in response:
"Developing for the PS3 is not difficult but let us say that it is specific to develop for it. We think that big companies are finding it sometimes difficult since they have huge resource base in terms of program code. Since PS3 has a specific architecture this is a precondition for a specific way of coding to be used when developing for it. We are a starting company and this is our first game so we decided from the very beginning that we want to develop games for the PS3. One more thing which makes the development of the game easy for us is Phyre engine which has great capabilities and is very easy to work with or at least our lead programmer Georgi Rakidov finds it this way."
To hear more about the Phyre Engine and where Ivent stands on the idea of PlayStation Home, Trophies, and more, feel free to read the rest of the interview. The PSN is already home to more than a few top-notch titles and we're really hoping that Strength of the Sword will deliver the goods. We still like to say it reminds us of The Mark of Kri , regardless of whether or not the actual gameplay is vastly different. Looks interesting.
Related Game(s): Strength of the Sword