Knack

[Flawless]

I think this is looking like a solid launch title.

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[Valdarez]

Re: Knack

This game looks like good old fashioned wholesome fun.

[Flawless]

Re: Knack

Meet Mark Cerny: PS4 System Architect, Knack Creator, Busiest Man in Gaming

PSB: What was the original seed of the idea for Knack?

MC: The seed of the idea was that we have a character who could pick up items from the environment and incorporate them into his body, but that turns out to be very hard to make a game around! Our initial concept was that Knack would maybe break down a building or a wall, and he’d incorporate the resulting bricks into his body, but when we prototyped this we ended up with a giant amorphous blob of a character.

It took a year and a half to figure out that the secret was to design the character more intensively. The character is made from ‘relics’ – these are left over from some long lost civilisation, if you dig down deep into the earth you find them. They’re a power source, and the doctor has managed to imbue them with consciousness. With that storyline we were able to then design relics in specific shapes and build various versions of Knack out of them.

PSB: What element of Knack do you think players will be most surprised by?

MC: Each level is a different variation on the theme of “Here’s this character who has this ‘knack’ that lets him grow and transform.” In some levels he’ll slowly grow, and in other levels he get big really fast – by picking up icicles for example — but then if he goes out into the sun he’ll melt down quickly.

The way I look at it – there’s a bit of Crash Bandicoot in there, a bit of Katamari Damacy, which is a game I love and must have bought three of four times over the years. And there’s a bit of God of War too. You can see that game’s influence on Knack – especially in the control set, where the right stick is the dodge. Actually God of War 3 was one of my consulting projects!

PSB: What’s the scope of Knack? Exactly how big is it?

MC: It’s not apparent from the E3 demo, but it is a very story driven adventure. The first time through should take about ten hours, and then we have included a lot of features that make it interesting to play again.

For example, there are hundreds of secret rooms and many contain treasure chests. Some of those are part of gadgets that will help Knack in his quest – you need to collect all the parts before you can build the gadget. Others are crystal relics where if you collect enough of them you can unlock a variation on the Knack character you can use in a subsequent play-through. There are also a couple of additional features that we’re not talking about at this point.

PSB: Clearly Knack is aimed at a younger crowd, but will there be something in there for my generation of gamers, who grew up on Crash, Spyro et al?

MC: Oh, we are definitely speaking to the nostalgia that people feel for the play experiences of the past. If you play this game on the hard difficulty setting it will definitely challenge you. And the control scheme is on the simpler side but you’ll need really think about how best to use it. So, yes, I think many people will go to the store and get, say, Watch Dogs or Killzone or the like for themselves and they’ll get Knack for another member of the family, but I also think a lot of core gamers will end up getting Knack for that old school – with a twist – feel.

[nemesis04]

Re: Knack

It has a Rachet and Clank type feel to it which is something I enjoy.

[Flawless]

Re: Knack

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[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Knack

Not a launch purchase for me, but definitely want to play this down the line.

[HealyMonster]

Re: Knack

looks like an interactive disney movie

[Flawless]

Re: Knack

Not a launch purchase for me, but definitely want to play this down the line.

Same. It seems like a prime candidate for a PS+ offering at some point.

[areobee401]

Re: Knack

This is one of the few launch titles that interest me. But as Flawless pointed out, it does have future PS+ offering written all over it. Probably going to hold off.

[Flawless]

Re: Knack

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[LingeringRegime]

Re: Knack

Looking good. Getting this too.

[Holic]

Re: Knack

This is one of the titles that interests me at launch.

[8and9]

Re: Knack

Probably won't buy a launch. Looking forward to playing the demo though.

[Flawless]

Re: Knack

KNACK is one of the PS4's first-party launch titles, and Adam Sessler recently got a chance to go hands-on. Find out what he thought of the 3D action platformer, and whether or not it has a chance to live up to designer Mark Cerny's legacy of Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Rachet and Clank.

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[Flawless]

Re: Knack

Starting to lean towards this as my second game along with KZ: Shadow Fall. I'm not expecting anything amazing, but it just looks like lighthearted fun and that's more appealing to me than the many cross-gen titles of annual franchises.