We’re currently working on a review for Wailing Heights, so I got in touch with Outsider Games to talk about the game’s development for its PS4 release. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Welcome to PS4Blog.net. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a bit about your work?
Hello! I’m Stephen Downey, and I run indie studio Outsider Games.
My background is as a comic artist, having drawn for books such as Flash Gordon and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. My love of gaming led my career into the world of game development, first as an artist on projects like Need For Speed: The Run, to then found Outsider Games in 2011.
We started with small mobile projects, but we really wanted to do our own bigger, narrative, and art-led projects, and Wailing Heights marks our console debut!
PS4B: You’re set to release Wailing Heights on PlayStation 4. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
We describe Wailing Heights as a hand-drawn, body-hopping, musical adventure game!
It’s a set in a peaceful, blood-curdling village blessed with gorgeous panoramic mountaintop views and the blissful stench of rotting corpses. The village is home to the likes of vegan werewolves, hipster vampires, soulful zombies and all manner of well-adjusted supernatural taxpaying home-owners.
It’s an adventure game that’s inspired by point and click releases such as Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, but with modern direct-character control. If you enjoyed these, or more modern classics such as Stick it to the Man! and Thimbleweed Park, then I think you’d really enjoy Wailing Heights.
PS4B: How long has it taken to develop the game for Sony’s home console? Any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome?
We first started working on the PlayStation 4 version around two years ago. One major challenge is that the realities of a small game studio mean we often have to work on multiple projects at the same time. This can lengthen development time, and results in software versions needing an update or two, often breaking the game. Everything can be fixed, though, and the actual development process wasn’t particularly bumpy.
PS4B: Could you please share the game’s PS4 trophy list with our readers?
Sure! We have 12 trophies in addition to the Platinum trophy. They aren’t particularly difficult to achieve, and should be fun to hunt down!
Prison Break – You have successfully completed the Tutorial
Act 1 Complete – Found the book, lost your body
All the Balls – You exchanged all the ball talk
Zombie Chat – Zombie talk at the water fountain
Is it Something I Said? – Why can’t I understand this zombie?
Act 2 Complete – We are the Deadbeats
Game Complete – Encore!
Thirsty – Ordered everything from the zombie shop
Eye Poke – You’re a mean vampire
All Limericks Found – You found all the limericks
True Detective – Exhausted your interrogation techniques
All Extras Found – Good Hunting. You found all extras in the game
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Is there something else you’d like to add before we go?
Just that the team is super excited for our upcoming launch and really excited to see how PlayStation owners react to the game! We’ve love to connect and hear your thoughts, so please come and chat with us on Twitter and Facebook.
