Origins and PlayStation 4 were very involved with the development of the
PlayStation 4 platform. They discussed with
Sony how much power they would like with the new hardware and what refinements they would like to see on the
DualShock 4 gamepad.
Sucker Punch Productions began to develop
Second Son while the
PlayStation 4 was still being designed. Having finished work on
Infamous: Festival of Blood, they began to plan a new entry in the
Infamous series under the working title
Infamous 3. As early as 2010, they discussed with
Sony their desire to bring
Infamous to a new
PlayStation platform. Sucker Punch were in close connection with the PS4's lead system architect
Mark Cerny, who visited the studio several times. They gave Cerny feedback about how much power a new PlayStation system would require to render their ideal open world, how fast it would be capable of doing so and to what degree of texture detail. "We had some experience there that was useful for that team when they were planning some aspects of the hardware design", producer Brian Fleming explained. He found that during the PS4's development, there was a great level of interactivity between the system's designers and game developers such as Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch made suggested improvements they would like to see for the
DualShock 4 gamepad.
Second Sons designer Jaime Griesemer traveled to Sony's headquarters in Japan to discuss such improvements. The developers found they were able to adopt the DualShock 4's touchpad into
Second Sons gameplay (for example, players emulate the in-game
fingerprint scanner using the DualShock 4 touchpad). The game was envisioned to take full advantage of the hardware, without the imposition of porting to older platforms like the
PlayStation 3. The hardware let developers improve the
particle system that lights Delsin's face up while he draws neon power from billboards and add detailed reflections to the game world. The increased memory bandwidth let the team render characters with higher fidelity. They found the PS4's simplified architecture so easy to work with that they were able to reach very high graphical quality even though the hardware was new. Over 110 developers worked on the game, a number that director Nate Fox considered small. He felt that working with a small team necessitated having a defined vision for the game from the outset, "to answer those first questions about what you want your game to be". Sometimes, ideas came about during development that would have to be thrown out for not fitting with the game's original vision. "We kill our darlings at Sucker Punch. It's not easy; it's necessary", Fox explained.
Second Son displays a native resolution of
1080p at 30
frames per second.
Design .|alt=A screenshot of the game world's Seattle skyline, with the Space Needle depicted in the center. Lighting, draw distances and weather effects are visible. Sucker Punch elected to set
Second Son in their hometown of Seattle as they could draw from their personal experiences in the open world's design. During early development when team members debated where
Second Son would be set, Seattle rated high on a list of possibilities. Fleming considered that the city had not been featured in many games prior to
Second Son and so would not be "overblown", and felt that Seattle's weather and mixture of "old and new" architecture would make it an interesting setting. The team conducted fieldwork in Seattle's nearby forests with audio and video equipment, which was used to reproduce local flora and the chirping sounds of local
American robins. Seattle landmarks such as
Pioneer Square, the
Space Needle and Elephant Car Washes feature in the game. The developers licensed logos and signs from local businesses. Griesemer called the game world an "abstraction" of Seattle rather than a re-creation since its layout did not suit
Second Sons gameplay and required the team to make necessary changes. The team wanted to thematically explore Seattle's heritage of
Pacific Northwest,
American Indian tribes in the game. The designers used graphic sliders in the
game engine to determine the amount of water covering the streets. Like Seattle, rain is frequent in the game. The lighting effects (such as neon light from Delsin's powers) coupled with reflections help bring color into Seattle's dark and rainy atmosphere. Because of the move to the PS4, Sucker Punch were able to render more open world than what was possible in previous
Infamous games. "You get a better feel of the city when you can see more of it", said Griesemer. Sucker Punch later shared their 3D map of Seattle with
Naughty Dog, who used it to understand the city during early
development on
The Last of Us Part II (2020). After deciding on Seattle for the setting, the developers began to think about the superpowers that Delsin would possess. They added neon lighting to the city to amplify the "beautiful reflective streets", and subsequently decided to make neon a source of power for Delsin because of its prevalence. Animation director Billy Harper considered Delsin's smoke powers challenging to design, as the team wanted to make powers feel more fluid than in previous
Infamous games. They removed Cole's "contorted hand poses" to improve the connection between Delsin and his powers. Fox felt that smoke helps Delsin deftly navigate the game world by letting him zip up buildings and through enemies. Griesemer (who previously worked with
Bungie on the
Halo series) wanted to bring the fluidity of
first-person shooters to
Second Sons combat. The team reviewed the control scheme of previous
Infamous games and "removed some of the complexity that was preventing people from interacting with the game". Griesemer said that a recurring theme throughout
Infamous games that they wanted to continue with
Second Son was the idea of "modern
elemental powers", variations on commonplace powers drawn from the game world. Producer Brian Fleming found that the graphical effects helped to inform players of the amount of power Delsin possesses. "This is a game about super powers, so for us, the way the effects look tells you a lot about how you're playing the game", he explained. Fox considered that the game world's resemblance to Seattle helped the superpower elements feel authentic. "Because we have that sweet foundation of plausibility, you buy into the super-powered element", he explained.
Character development Second Sons premise is built from the "good ending" of
Infamous 2, which sees protagonist Cole MacGrath sacrificing himself to save humanity. They looked at
Trophy data and found the majority (78%) of
Infamous 2 players chose this ending, and concurred with the popular choice. This allowed them to create the new protagonist, Delsin, from scratch. "Moving forward onto [
Second Son], we said 'Alright, Cole's dead. People have voted for this. Let's make a new hero'", Fox explained. Griesemer felt that taking the
Infamous series to the PS4 signified a new era, and that departing from the story of previous games would help them reach new audiences. "We needed a new entry point, and Delsin was the first step for that", he explained. The idea to move away from Cole's story came about during
pre-production staff meetings, and was confirmed after discussions both internally and with
Sony Computer Entertainment. Griesemer described the contemporaneous sentiment as "It's going to be new hardware, a new platform and we're going to have a new audience". '' journalist
Dan Ryckert participated in a demonstration of the
motion capture process, where people's faces were captured and rendered in the game using high-definition digital cameras.|alt=A digital rendering of a man's face in a motion capture software. Delsin's American Indian heritage came from the game's setting in the Pacific Northwest, which features a large American Indian population. Delsin wears a
beanie inspired by one that Harper would wear around the studio (Harper recounted one particular staff meeting where four of the six team members were wearing hats). Delsin's character was inspired by United Kingdom
street artist Banksy, as the development team appreciated Banksy's clandestine, satirical work. Developing Delsin's personality, the team posited the hypothetical: "What if
Johnny Knoxville had powers? What would he do with it?". Harper considered Delsin "full of reckless abandon", the kind of character that would, upon gaining superpowers, jump off a cliff to see what happens. Fox considered Delsin "flawed in a way I think a lot of us can relate to", trying to live up to his successful brother Reggie. He called the game's story a "
hero's journey".
Digital Domain were brought on board for the
motion capture work. Fox helped direct the actors' performances, but found that they did not need much guidance for their roles. "You need to let them understand what you need from a scene, but the actors are so much better equipped to deliver that than me", he explained. Fleming considered that using motion capture added authenticity to the characters. "The ability to capture [Delsin's] facial reaction when he's like 'Oh, shit', but doesn't say 'Oh shit'—that's a big deal", he explained. Most of the
non-player characters (NPCs) that inhabit the open world were motion-captured. The developers contacted casting agencies, and asked their friends and families if they would like to appear as extras in the game. Over 75 people were scanned in a three-day period. They were seated in chairs and told not to move or smile, and a high-definition digital camera captured a 3D model of their faces. The camera sent out strobe light patterns to capture the volume and shape of each face. A 360-degree setup captured the actors' moving bodies, but mannequins were also used to help capture different clothing styles. Data collected from the cameras was used by the designers to render digital models, each composed of roughly 1.4 million polygons—any blank spots on the models would be digitally filled in by the designers. To render the models in the game, the data would be compressed by reducing the polygon count. == Release ==