Sony’s Home Team Discusses The Recent Public Release

Ed Fear from developmag.com recently sat down with the developers of Sony’s virtual world, Home, to discuss the public Beta release. Off the bat, the lead programmer, Mitch Goodwin, expressed how Home has been a work in progress that originally was a PS2 project that stalled due to a lack of online users, and eventually became a dedicated PS3 project. Goodwin said the project has been a very slow process, so slow that legacy code reveals weapon pickups from when the project had a different direction, something that would definitely make Home a little more exciting. Imagine running around with weapons and taking out the fools that run circles around you and dance in your face.

Game Director, Peter Edward, made it clear that Sony does not want to replicate another social networking platform. He believes Home will take advantage of the PS3 as a gaming platform. Unfortunately, there isn’t much gaming actually involved in Home, other than boring arcade games and bowling. Edward also discussed the idea of connecting the gamer with their games in the Home environment to include tournaments, leaderboards, and feedback about games. Goodwin believes developers can take advantage of Home to reward users through their games in the Home environment.

When asked about the reception of developers to Home, both Edward and Goodwin stated that the reception was exciting at first, but due to its slow development and no real indication in how Home can be used by developers to connect with gamers, there is still a bit of hesitation. Goodwin believes as Home develops to a more mature state it will be up to the developers to take advantage of the platform to show unique and creative ways to use it.

Source: developmag.com; Home Sweet Home – Part 1

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