Hello, my name is Lorenzo Radialli and I want to let you know how we ported Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star to PlayStation and specifically how some PS5 exclusive features allow us to enhance our experience. I’ll tell you something about my inspiration for the game and what it looks like!
The relationship between the two heroes, Sune and Nuki, is often mediated through their phones. In the native PS5 version we use controller speakers and haptic feedback to mimic vibration and voice messages, and use haptic feedback to improve the way the game displays Noki’s emotions through the scenes. Additionally, I can finally show the drawings without compromising their original resolution, leaving the game a steady 120fps, visible in fine camera movement and transitions.
In terms of inspiration, I took it from Kunihiko Ikuhara, a Japanese animation director who is a master of symbolic storytelling and skilled at presenting complex and sometimes communicative ideas in a simple way. His Mawaru Penguindram anime series was my most important reference: the settings shown in the game are drawn from the smoky and decaying atmosphere of Robert Wilson’s Essential and Minimal Scenes and director Bernardo Bartolucci. For character design, I explored Masaki Yuasa’s super-flat and distorted styles and plastic / neoclassical poses of Suihiro Maru.
I decided that the only clue to mood, atmosphere and character development would be music. In the Milky Way Prince, music is as important as silence, so the characters’ verbal communication gradually disappears and it becomes increasingly difficult to find a solution to a problem. It was a tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni’s disjointed film. 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, I hope it resonates with you and it stays with you after the game.
