IGN: How long has Daxter PSP been in development?
Didier: I guess you could say it's been in development ever since I left Naughty Dog at the end of Jak II, because we started thinking about it back then. As far as hitting the keyboards and making the game, we first spent a long time last year studying the info we were receiving on the PSP and developing the Ready At Dawn Engine 1.0 which powers the game. We knew we needed something special to pull off the kind of game we wanted to make, so it was important to get it right before we started making the first levels for the game.
IGN: What has been the involvement from Jak's creators at Naughty Dog?
Didier: We're extremely lucky. Since I worked with all those guys on the first two Jak games, everyone at Naughty Dog was on board with our project from day one. We got access to assets from Jak II for parts of our game which take place in locations you visit in that game too, or models of characters that are found in both titles.
Dan Arey, who wrote the scripts and directed the actors for the Jak games, was a huge help in making sure we retained the same style and quality with our story. We got to work with the same actors who play the parts of the Jak characters. As you can imagine, they are very concerned with making sure the game lives up to the rest of the series. But since we've known each other for so long, they're not afraid to speak their mind and tell us how they feel about our game. It's a great relationship to have.
IGN: Jak & Daxter broke new ground on consoles. What kind of technology is being developed for this PSP adventure? Didier: As I mentioned above, we wrote a brand new engine from the ground up to allow us to do the kind of graphics we wanted to see for this game. Think of it as a Playstation 2 emulator for the PSP because our goal all along was to make visuals that were on par with the other games in the series. This is no small feat because the Jak games have always been known for having the best technology around. We took a similar approach with the Ready At Dawn Engine, by aiming really high and making the impossible possible. I think the results speak for themselves because we keep getting people mistaking our game for a Playstation 2 title which is the best compliment we could get.
IGN: Are you approaching Daxter with a different visual style on PSP now that he has his own game?
Didier: I think the biggest difference visually is that the world is seen from Daxter's perspective. As you know, although he probably wouldn't admit it himself, he is a little on the short side. This has been a great opportunity for us to show locations like places in the city, from a totally different angle. We are also able to introduce new location inside and outside the city that never got explored in the other games. All in all, we made sure that the surroundings will feel familiar but that people who also played the other game will get to see things they couldn't have seen back then.
IGN: What do you think are the benefits of releasing a title on PSP?
Didier: I think working on PSP as a platform is already a huge benefit in itself. We knew from the first announcement at E3 two years ago that this was going to be a hugely successful platform. It's extremely exciting to be part of this and to help bring people to handheld gaming that would probably never have bought a handheld before.
I think we started to get a really clear understanding of this when we finally were able to play the game on the PSP. By creating a full-featured, fantastic-looking 3D platform game on a handheld, there's this undeniable sense that the PSP is giving us the opportunity to do something that's never been done before.
IGN: What are the biggest challenges when working with the PSP?
Didier: As with any new platform, at first, it's just finding out what makes it tick and how to extract the most performance out of it. In the PSP's case there are also some very interesting challenges with the wide aspect ratio (especially for action-platformers like us), but also to cater to people who will play your game on-the-go and not sitting in front of the TV like previous console games I've worked on.
IGN: Are you guys finding a way to incorporate the Wi-fi capabilities of PSP? How about any of the other special functions of the PSP?
Didier: We are planning on using Wi-fi in Daxter for parts of our game but we're not ready to show all our cards yet.
IGN: Is there going to be any cross compatibility with Jak X or past Jak games?
Didier: When Naughty Dog told us they were working on Jak X: Combat Racing, we immediately started talking about the possibility of linking up the two games. So we added this USB link-up mode where you can open up secret items in both games if you connect them. You will get, for example, some characters from Daxter as drivers in Jak X: Combat Racing and things like that. What we wanted to do is to avoid turning this into some kind of a marketing ploy to force people to buy both consoles or both games, but to make it a genuine bonus for people to get if they own Jak X: Combat Racing and know someone who owns our game or vice versa.
IGN: This is the first project for Ready At Dawn, and it's a mondo effort. What's been the experience of bringing the company together and working on a project this high-profile so quickly?
Didier: It's been quite a trip. As you know it takes a lot of very talented people to pull off a game that is worthy of being part of such a successful franchise. Add to that the fact that we are a startup and this is our first game, and you can imagine the challenges we had to face. Ready At Dawn has some pretty huge shoes to fill working on a game like Daxter but I don't think we'd want to have it any other way.
IGN: The team at RAD is an eclectic mix of members from various sides of game design. Are you considering genres outside of action for future projects? Is the studio big enough to handle multiple projects at a time, or is everything focused on Daxter right now? Any hints on what you guys are thinking on when Daxter isn't running through your brains? Didier: One thing we learned over the years is to focus on one game at a time and do it the best you can. So we carried that same philosophy at Ready At Dawn. There's always tons of ideas going around the office, usually the kind that start with "wouldn't it be cool if...", but our focus is 100% on Daxter to make sure that we make nothing less than the kick-ass game the fans of the series have been waiting for.
IGN: What do the team members think of PSP's games so far? What games are RAD staffers playing? Is there any one game on PSP that has really impressed you?
Didier: I think it's hard to argue that the launch so far has been nothing short of spectacular. I don't think there ever was a new console launched with so many quality titles. Of course, since we work on a PSP game, we've made sure we play every title that's available. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Hot Shots Golf, although funnily enough I never played it on Playstation 2 that much. I just got hooked on the PSP version.
IGN: What are you most proud of in Daxter thus far? Didier: I'm most proud of the team we've managed to assemble here at Ready At Dawn and the way the game is shaping up to be. When we started Ready At Dawn, we had a very clear idea of what kind of company we wanted to build and what games we wanted to make. You don't make a game like this with just three guys, no matter what their backgrounds are. I'm proud that in one short year we've been able to build a AAA studio from scratch and that we managed to attract so many top people to work on Daxter. It will most definitely show in the final result.
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