Transistor Creator Reveal Secrets Of DualShock 4

Transistor Creator Greg Kasavin Reveals secrets of PS4 DualShock 4 Controls

By Maya Mayfield
3rd October 2013

Supergiant Games Greg Kasavin the creative director of PS4 Transistor  has shared some secrets with us today. He explained that while being apart of an independent studio like Supergiants does have its fair share of challenges, the pros far out way the cons.

"Moving from a big game studio to a smaller one, you quickly realise how fast things can get done as you have fewer checkpoints and people saying no to new ideas." Says Kasavin. "The creative freedom to quickly come up with new concepts and implement it into our development process is what makes Supergiants a great place to work. For example we decided to try a little trick with the DualShock 4 controller a few months ago when we first got our hands on it."

Transistor is about a woman called Red, who finds herself in charge of a super extraordinary  weapon, part of its many mysterious qualities is the weapon is to communicate with Red.
Kasavin goes on to explain that when they first tested out Transistor with friends, everybody noticed the voice, but most couldn't tell exactly what or where the voice was coming from.
This was a major problem for the Supergiants team to solve as they toyed with the balance of creating something that was both intriguing and mysterious, without leaving gamers feeling bewildered or lost.

So after many trials and errors, Kasavin says the team where not only able to get the perfect introductory scene, between Red and the mysterious weapon but they were also able to develop a smart way of letting the transistor flash sync in perfect time with the voiceover coming from the weapon.

This flashing effect will help players notice Red amidst all the bright futuristic colours in games scenes and instantly recognise the voice is coming from the strange weapon she is carrying with her.

After solving this hurdle the team at Supergiants came up with another brilliant idea, this time using the light bar on the PS4 Dualshock 4 controller.

"Programming the Dualshock4 light-bar to work in perfect sync with the in-game flashing effect when the weird computer sword talks to Red, felt like I was holding the Transistor in my own hands," says Kasavin. "This feature as subtle as it was became a major hit with gamers, who tested out the game at this years PAX prime and noticed the light bar flashing in sync with the flashing screen and voiceover."
Kasavin finally went on to say that this entire process only took a few short hours of brainstorming with his team to get this done.

We enjoyed our run through of Transistor at Gamescom 2013, and thought the team at Supergiants have done a brilliant job on this upcoming PS4 title. We can't wait for its early release on the Playstation 4 next year when we will be giving you all a thorough review of the gameplay.

You can also check up on the Supergiant team @SupergiantGames on Twitter.