My name is Clint Tasker, creative director and co-founder of Thorium, and I’m stoked to introduce Undermine to all you PlayStation fans. We heard you. We got all the “PS4 when?” tweets. And you know what? PlayStation now! That’s when! (Well… if now is March 30, otherwise March 30).

Adding Undermine to the PlayStation library is a cathartic moment for me and my partner at Thorium, Derek Johnson. This game has allowed us to live our dream, and to express ourselves creatively, but it’s also come at great personal cost. The road of indie development is winding and full of potholes, so buckle up, I’m about to take you for a ride. 

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Derek started Thorium back in 2015. He didn’t know he was making Undermine at the time, just that he wanted to do his own thing. Something he and I talked a lot about on our coffee breaks together at Relic Entertainment. Soon after starting Thorium, he lost his initial partner. The first of many bumps. Not long after that though he began working with an artist on a roguelike. Why a roguelike? “Because I won’t have to write a save/load system,” he said. 

A couple years later in 2018 I was growing exceptionally frustrated with my work and growing increasingly jealous of Derek and his indie dream. Undermine was just a core nugget of an idea, but it was a great nugget. So, I asked him if he wanted a hand, which he gladly accepted. I joined Thorium as a partner, and then proceeded to add all kinds of systems and features to the game that would very much need a save/load system. Sorry buddy, but the nugget needed more.

We weren’t well known developers. We never led big, AAA projects, or had our names in headlines, so we really had to start from scratch. We built our community from nothing. In late 2018 we began showing Undermine to the public. First at PAX West and then at DreamHack Atlanta. It was really encouraging and a bit relieving. The game was bare bones, but was getting a really great response. Soon after though, we were struck with another huge blow. Creative differences with our artist led to him leaving the team. We were just a few months out from early access, and really behind on content. 

After some scrambling we managed to find a couple of great, new artists to work with, but we still went

Hello, people of the Fog! We’re excited to announce that Dead by Daylight’s new Chapter is now available, bringing with it a resilient new Survivor, Yun-Jin Lee, and a sadistic, flamboyant new Killer, The Trickster. Keep reading for a closer look at how one of the most unique Killers to ever join the Dead by Daylight roster came to life. 

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The Trickster is a crazed pop-idol named Ji-Woon Hak and his thirst for fan adoration is only surpassed by his desire to kill in the most extravagant possible ways. On and off of the stage, Ji-Woon has a decadent personality and a giant ego. He sees both his music and his murders as high art, even going so far as to mix his victims’ screams into his own tracks.  

In order to create his look, we placed ourselves in the shoes of a K-Pop entertainment company and created a brand around this character. The goal was to make him stand out in our universe, while also standing apart from real industry idols. The K-Pop universe has an extensive palette – it can be lighthearted and bright, but also dark and edgy. We felt this gave us enough wiggle room to interpret what K-Pop meant in a DBD context.

The Trickster’s main weapon

“One thing we really wanted to push with the Trickster was his flamboyant style and his color palette. Being a performer and wanting to be under the spotlight, he’s all-in. He wants to be seen and he’s not trying to hide.” – Filip Ivanović, Art Director 

In The Trickster’s mind, he always performs for an adoring crowd which created fun opportunities for us to develop his personality. You’ll see him break the fourth wall and wink directly at the camera, for example. Ji-Woon is unique in that he isn’t a supernatural being, and he doesn’t wear a mask. He’s a killer that shows his real face, and he’s also the first to actually speak in-game! 

The Trickster’s knives visual exploration

Gameplay-wise, The Trickster has some very interesting mechanics, including a new adrenaline-pumping perk called “Showstopper”. The player can quickly and accurately throw a flurry of sharp blades

We’re now into our second month of car-wrecking, platform-leaping action after PS5 exclusive Destruction AllStars made its debut on PlayStation Plus in February. We’ve witnessed first-hand (and been the cause of) the beautiful visual carnage that’s a metal-shredding headline of the game’s 16-player matches. We’ve watched tornados explode vehicles into a cascade of parts, seen superstars parkour around arenas and flow over fast-moving cars, and felt every shunt and crunch thanks to the DualSense wireless controller. 

To find out how this all came together, we spoke to its creators, developer Lucid Games and Sony xDev, who gave us a tour under the hood. 

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PlayStation Blog: If you had to pinpoint one tech pillar as being the most critical for Destruction AllStars, what is it and why?

Colin Berry [Game Director, Lucid Games]: For me, it’s the DualSense controller. It’s enabled us to do some really subtle and nuanced things. 

So we’re able to do directional haptics. When you get hit, you’ll see it, but importantly you’ll feel it as well. And we vary the weight of that hit; from big smashes to smaller, subtler scrapes. We put haptics on characters’ footsteps. You’ve got the sound effects, the little pitter patter coming out the speaker, and you’ve got the feeling of the feet. 

We were worried it’d be too much, as it’s continual. But when we took it out [during development] to test reactions. Everyone was asking what had happened, asking why they’d gone. It showed it worked; really nuanced, subtle. It’s like when you play a game with a character and there’s no shadows; they don’t feel connected to the world. Put a shadow in and they do. This is like the next step of that.

And then the triggers let you feel when your vehicle’s damaged;  the brake feels harder to use. When your vehicle is super damaged, you feel that on the accelerator as well. There’s no resistance when you first start driving. That’s deliberate: we found having resistance all the time was not pleasurable. 

John McLaughlin [Senior Producer, XDev]: [PS5] is great in terms of the GPU and CPU. That we can throw all these particles around, throw all these vehicle parts around at a very high resolution. We’re doing real time deformation on vehicles. It’s a good looking game, and I am a graphics man. But the DualSense controller is probably the biggest game changer. 

But I have to say, as a man of a certain age, who remembers consoles on cartridge and instant loading it feels gr

Forget what you know about being a detective. That’s right, leave your trench coat and magnifying glass behind. We want you to invent your own detective in Disco Elysium – The Final Cut and give you the chance at the character creation screen. The game launches on PS5 and PS4 March 30.

There are four attributes to take into consideration here:

• Intellect: brain power
• Psyche: emotional intelligence
• Physique: raw strength
• Motorics: agility

Should you prioritize being smart? Or is it better to be physically tough? Perhaps both at the expense of social awareness? It’s not an easy decision to make, especially in a game like ours which cuts off certain options and opens up others based on your skill levels.

If you find yourself overwhelmed, we’ve provided three archetypes so you don’t have to create a character from scratch. Each archetype provides a unique journey through Disco Elysium so it’s just a case of figuring out which you prefer.

Thinker

The defining attribute of the Thinker is having high Intellect. This means you could be good at connecting evidence, coming up with original ideas, and presenting arguments. If you plan on being a right little Sherlock then this is the best choice to make.

If you do want to focus on solving the case, then increasing the Visual Calculus skill will help you draw conclusions from evidence in your surroundings. You can see this in action right at the start of the game inside the trashed hostel room you wake up in.

Interact with the broken window in your room and you’ll be able to use Visual Calculus to figure out how the damage was caused. A neat graphic shows you that the shards went outwards which means the damage came from inside the room. Perhaps it was you who smashed it, then… In any case, you should be able to see how this will help you solve other mysteries.

Sensitive

Psyche is the main attribute of the Sensitive type. You could read people’s emotions, impose your authority on them, and get hunches and gut feelings. It’ll also expose you to Disco Elysium’s paranatural side so any fans of Twin Peaks should opt for this one.

This archetype will help you connect with the citizens of Martinaise on all levels. Improve the Empathy skill and you’ll be able to learn more about their backgrounds and figure out what they’re choosing to not tell you. Similarly, the Esprit de Corps skill will tune you into copspeak so you can understand your partner better. This will come in handy.

You’ll also benefit from having a high Suggestion skill early on when getting information out of Joyce Messier about the hanged man you’re investigating. Unfortunately, she insists on seeing your badge before she imparts her wisdom, but you probably don’t have it. Using Suggestion will let you strike a bargain with her instead – get her some info on the local drug trade, and she’ll share what she knows.

Last week, we asked you to move through the changing seasons of your favorite games and share landscapes highlighting summer, fall, winter, and spring using #PSshare #PSBlog. From snowy hills to sun-beaten deserts, grassy fields to fallen leaf piles, here are this week’s seasonal highlights: 

Spring has sprung in the lush and colorful world of Immortals Fenyx Rising, shared by jpvp_1. 

Yarny emerges from some fallen autumn leaves in this Unravel share by Nu_Lupo.

A Sawtooth lurks in the snowy hills of Horizon Zero Dawn, shared by ameeba37.

The sun sets on this scorching summer scene from Red Dead Redemption 2, shared by Candy__Spice.

Ellie enjoys the winter landscape of Jackson in this The Last of Us Part II share by lilactric_.

Flowers fill the island across Ghost of Tsushima, shared by dead_end_fufufu.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: Expressions

SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on March 31

Next week, we’re taking a closer look at the expressions of our favorite characters in gaming. From angered grimaces to cheerful smiles, share expressive portraits from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. 

Want to share more of your epic photo mode moments? U.S. players can enter the Red Bull Capture Point competition* for the chance to win some thrilling prizes. See full details at redbull