Starhawk, Comic-Con and YOU!

When Sony asked us to do a panel we were like “hmmm, what is this Co-mi-con thing you speak of? Do a lot of people go to it? Is it full of awesome? And if it *is* full of awesome, what kind of awesome?”

Their response was “It’s a mega-con of ﬁlm, games, toys, and comics. Yes, tons of people. Yes, its awesome. The unstable, explosive imagination isotopes of awesome.”

So after all of 3 seconds of deliberation, we were like “@&!*@#$, #@%!*$, *&!?!@#!!!”

That’s an enthusiastic YES. Comic-Con is just the perfect venue to talk about Starhawk’s universe, our characters and the story that drives the Solo Campaign. So, BAM! check this out:

It’s a video that we captured from the game and shows how we tell story in the Starhawk. It’s done with a really great kind of animated “wanted” poster style, punctuated with Rift Energy. They’re Emmett’s memories. His Rift visions. They’re being produced by a studio here in Austin, Powerhouse Animation (they worked on the Penny Arcade Adventures animations). We’ve also got some really cool tech that seamlessly blends between the animations and the game (as you can see in the video). This really makes the solo experience smooth and buttery. We didn’t want any experiential speed bumps in the solo campaign. You can sit down, start the game and smoothly ﬂow from mission to mission with no loading screens!

So, yeah, we’re having our Starhawk panel at Comic-Con on Sunday July 24th, 10am – 11am in room 25AB. It’s gonna be moderated by Greg Miller from IGN and we’re going to be showing some never before seen art and videos of the journey and process we took from the initial game concept to the Starhawk that we have today. Getting really in depth with Emmett Graves (our hero character) the universe of the New Frontier, Rifter Unions, Outcast Warbands, and how Rift Energy took away the only family Emmett had.

Family is a classic western story element and for Starhawk, it seemed really, really ﬁtting for us. Our writter, Koen Wooten, has really been able to bring the Starhawk Universe to life and he’ll be at the panel on Sunday too! Did you know he worked on the props for the Coen Brother’s movie True Grit!! Consider that random Starhawk fact a freebie, folks!

But it’s more than just the western elements for us. It’s been about striking the right balance of advanced sci-ﬁ with the texture and warmth of the western themes. And it’s this balance that motivates all of our creative work — from the design of all the stuff in the Starhawk universe, down to even the compositions we choose for screen shots and illustrations.

All this stuff comes together to create Starhawk’s unique universe and we’re excited to let people at Comic-Con get their hands on some singleplayer gameplay. ‘Cause ya know, the solo mission was only available to the press behind closed doors at E3! So swing by the Sony booth and get your Starhawk on! Oh, and yes, I’m told there will be Starhawk bags being handed out.

Did you know that if you put enough swag bags *in* another swag bag, you’ll rip a hole in spacetime and be able to ﬂap your wings like a butterﬂy and cause future hurricanes or some crap like that. I don’t know. I saw it in an Ashton Kutcher movie once I think.

OK, that’s it from me again. Time to get back to work.

Rock on!!

PS: And I *do* feel like I’m going through Uncharted3 BETA withdrawal! Maybe I should check myself into a clinic!!!