Gamasutra's latest feature profiles Killzone developer Guerrilla Games from its inception to the release of its 2011 blockbuster Killzone 3, and features behind-the-scenes insights from managing director Hermen Hulst and more.
The feature explores, in part, the deeper story around the controversial Killzone 2 trailer unveiled at E3 2005, and how the team was forced to dive into development on the game based on gamers' reaction to the high-quality visuals... despite the fact that up till then Guerrilla had been working on a sequel for the PlayStation 2, not the PS3.
"After we completed Killzone 1 on PS2, for a good half-year or so, until early 2005, we had a PS2 game in development called Killzone 2," Hulst told Gamasutra.
"What happened was that we had never anticipated that that trailer in 2005 would get that much traction. I mean, the whole world seemed to be talking about it, and at that point it just made more sense to scrap the work we had done for the PS2 version and work on the PS3."
Said Hulst, "The hard part for us was like 'Uh-oh. Now we will actually have to make that!' But the good part is that that 2005 trailer shown at E3 created tremendous focus for the team. You had a graphical benchmark, but also the intensity of the combat shown, and frankly there was no way back from that. When you show something and shout about it to the outside world, you better live up to it. So the good part of that was that it gave us a lot of focus, and it acted as a kick start for the project."
The full feature, now live on Gamasutra goes further into the past, touching on the studio's origins developing on the Game Boy Color -- and even before that. It also examines what drove some of Guerrilla's decisions on Killzone 3 and how Sony was first motivated to sign the original Killzone before it bought the studio.
