Developed by the fresh-faced Seed Studios, the upcoming Under Siege features an extensive ‘Editor’ mode that allows users to play, create, and share custom-made game content. While developing the real-time strategy game, Seed Studios was inspired by Sony’s smash-hit LittleBigPlanet, which now boasts over four million user-created levels.
"At the time when we were planning our game before starting production in 2007/2008, we noticed that Sony was very adamant about content sharing with LittleBigPlanet," said Under Siege Producer Filipe Pina during a recent discussion with PlayStation Universe. "So it made perfect sense to bring to the console not only a real-time strategy game, but an Editor, too."
Like LittleBigPlanet, the ‘Editor’ mode included with Under Siege is the same tool-set that the Seed Studios development team used to create all of the levels included with the original game. There are a huge number of features included in the Editor, allowing users create content ranging from extremely simple maps to deviously complex scenarios.
Under Siege Editor Video
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"The basic stuff is easy, like molding terrain, placing props, painting the ground, adjusting the light and so on," explained Pina. "Then you have the hard part, which is the logic, [more commonly known as artificial intelligence]. If you don’t want to learn the logic, you can import pre-made sets that we have in the game — like ‘Deathmatch set’ — into your map, or just the triggers that create the winning and losing conditions for a single-player map."
Once Under Siege launches on the PlayStation Network, gamers will be able to create content that ventures outside the scope of the original game. One curious gamer once asked Pina if he and his friends could build an adventure game without fighting, including only cutscenes, dialogue, quests, and missions.
"They can, of course," said Pina. "There is also a mode where you can change the way the camera and DualShock [controller] works, and the game suddenly plays like Diablo, where the camera is fixed in a character and you click around it."
"Also, if you want an old school real-time strategy game, with barracks buildings and all that, you can do it," continued Pina. "It won’t look very good, but it will work — just assign some house the properties and some triggers to pump units."
The only limitations on gamers’ creativity are system memory and frame rate. Map size, units, and props can only grow so large before the game will cut you off. To put it simply, the game won’t allow you to build a system-crashing creation.
Under Siege hits the North American PlayStation Network on May 3, 2011 for $19.99 USD. Visit our Under Siege news page to learn more about the game’s units, bosses, and extensive feature set.