Hi, my name is Lorenzo Radailli and I want to tell you how we brought the Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star to PlayStation and above all how we improved the experience for some of the special features of PS5. I will also tell you about my source of inspiration for the game and its presence!
The relationship between the two main characters, Sune and Nuki, is often mediated over the phone. In the native PS5 version we used the controller’s speaker and haptic response to mimic vibration and voice messages, and we also used haptic feedback to intensify the way Nuki’s emotions are shown through game scenes. Also, I can finally show the designs in their uncompromising original resolution, the game consistently maintains 120 fps, visible in the camera shake and fine transitions.
From an inspirational point of view, I took it from Kunihiko Ikuhara, a Japanese animation director who is a master of symbolic storytelling and skilled at presenting complex and sometimes incoherent ideas in a simple way. His anime series Mawaru Penguindram was my most important reference: the settings shown in the game are taken from Robert Wilson’s Essential and Minimal Scenarios and director Bernardo Bartolucci’s smoky and decaying environment. For character design, I explored the very flat and distorted style of Masaki Yuasa and the plastic and neoclassical poses of Suihiro Maru.
I decided that music would be the only sonic clue to the mood, mood and character development. In the Milky Way Prince, music is as important as silence, so the verbal communication of the characters gradually disappears and it becomes increasingly difficult to find a solution to a problem. It is a tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni, a film based on incoherence. The soundtrack is inspired by the retro aesthetics of artists such as Lana del Rey and the Arctic Monkey, and the inspiring Noir environment of Angelo Badalamenti.
I can’t wait to hear what you think about the Milky Way Prince and hope it touches you and it stays with you after the game.
