PlayStation 4 architect Mark Cerny has revealed that the development team at SCE Japan Studio cobbled together a giant DualShock 4 controller in order get a feel for what it would be like for an eight-year-old to play a console game.
The oversized peripheral was shown off during a presentation at the Develop Conference in Brighton this week as part of Cerny’s keynote on upcoming PS4 launch title, Knack.
Cerny described how the game represents his desire to make a title with core appeal when turned to the highest difficulty, while also being open enough for newcomers on easy.
However, during playtests, it was discovered that eight-year-olds ran into problems when getting to grips with the control scheme of many games. To be more specific, the size of the controller was the main stumbling block.
Thus, the giant DualShock 4 was born.
“So as part of our design process, we ended up making a giant controller, 50 per cent larger than usual, so we could directly experience what it feels like to be a child playing a game," said Cerny.
"And we immediately understood that the shoulder buttons were simply out of reach of the typical eight-year-old, but all face buttons could be used quite readily."
Cerny has been a part of the PlayStation DNA since the PSOne days, having produced Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon.
"What the Japan Studio and I chose to make was a character action game with two audiences in mind," he said of Knack. "One audience was core gamers. I wanted to tap into the nostalgia for game experiences of the past, that feeling you had when you played Crash Bandicoot or Sonic the Hedgehog for the first time.
"Crash was actually a brutally difficult game despite its very simple two-button control scheme. That meant on a hard difficulty setting our game really needed to challenge the core gamer.
"The other audience was light or beginner gamers. I chose this because I have some very specific and personal beliefs about consoles and their position within the world of gaming. Console games can be pretty complex. If we just focus on the controller and the game’s control scheme, there are 16 buttons on DualShock 4 that a game can use, and a typical triple-A title will use almost all of them.
"I’m personally comfortable with that. I started gaming in the era of the Atari 2600, which only had one button. But then I had decades to adjust to the increasing complexity of games as they evolved to the point where they are today."
Cerny was present at the PS4’s reveal event in February 2013. Knack will launch alongside Sony’s next-generation console in holiday 2013.