Wednesday we’ll be holding a special Unity-exclusive Q&A with Capcom Vancouver developers, who’ve worked on the Dead Rising series since Dead Rising 2 , talking about the series and its recent 10th Anniversary . Since the team is working on finishing up Dead Rising 4 , we’ll be holding this in the afternoon for those on the west coast, at 1PM PST . That’s 4PM EST or 9PM GMT .

To participate, simply go to this thread and set your view mode to “Live View” as I explain within the thread. It’s a rare opportunity to interact with some of Dead Rising ‘s dev team, so don’t miss out!

 Welcome to another development and localization blog for Spirit of Justice! Is everyone having fun with the “Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney” mini-episode and its accompanying pixel art theme? I really love both of these side stories (Apollo’s is available next week!) for their over-the-top insanity and silliness, but I’ll let you be the final judge of that!

This week, I’ve got Mr. Horiyama and Mr. Fuzii on deck. They’ll be sharing stories about their work on the sound design and 2D illustrations of this game. And then, I’ll be sharing a little about how we localized their work into the final version you see in the game.

And now, here’s Mr. Horiyama!

After the Morning Dance of Devotion～⒪

Hi, everyone. I’m the sound director of Spirit of Justice, Toshihiko Horiyama.

From Noriyuki Iwadare’s to the Capcom Sound Team’s work on this title, there is a virtual cornucopia of gorgeous music and sound effects that they created for the American and Khura’inese courtrooms that I would love to point out to you, but the most trying, the most enriching, and the most memorable bit of work was when we poured our hearts and souls into the creation of the sound data for each and every one of Pees’lubn Andistan’dhin’s singing testimonies in Episode 1.

My work on creating that large amount of sound data started around the time when the game designers came to me and asked if they could somehow have Andistan’dhin’s testimony display in time to the music. I received a sample of a typical Andistan’dhin testimony from them, and treating it as a set of lyrics, I created A, B, and sub-melodies, turning the sample testimony into a stock song – a sort of base to draw on later. Many of Andistan’dhin’s testimonies consist of five or six text windows, so what I did was take one of the base melodies I’d created and adapted it so that each statement of the testimony would sound like that melody’s original lyrics. In the event that the text (lyrics) and melody wouldn’t mesh, I would change the text slightly without changing its meaning until it fit just right.

Next, I placed markers that corresponded to the lyrics within the wave data of the completed melody. These markers were for the game’s programming so that it would know when to display what bit of the “lyrics” on the screen as the song was playing. For example, for the line “After the morning Dance of Devotion”:

Marker 1 – Af

Marker 2 – ter

Marker 3 – the

Marker 4 – mor

Marker 5 – ning

Marker 6 – Dance

Etc.

Here’s an example of how I went about marking the sound data.

With this sound data in hand, the scripters were able to then insert the scripts necessary into the text of the testimonies to make the letters display when they’re supposed to in time with the music. The presentation lead, Mr. Onishi, touched on this a little in his entry about scripting . Once this was all done, we implemented the sound data and scripts into the game and tested it out. We fiddled with and adjusted some things a number of times to get the text and music to line up correctly, but as things started falling into place, we were able to basically lock down and mass produce all of the sound data we needed for Andistan’dhin’s singing testimonies.

There are a number of these singing testimonies – in fact, there are 41 of them to be exact. I made 41 unique pieces of sound data (and melodies) for these lines of lyrics.

“It was that muggy, hot summer of last year when

Day in and day out, I made songs for Andistan’dhin”

——————————————–

Thank you, Mr. Horiyama for this in-depth look at how you were able to bring us such a unique style of giving testimony!

It’s funny that the Japanese version started with the lyrics and Mr. Horiyama composed around them, because in the English version, we had to do the exact opposite and write lyrics that didn’t change the meaning of the text and that still fit the music! Naturally, we also had to redo the scripting since English consists of syllables of multiple letters rather than individual kanji and kana characters. I thank my fellow localization team members for all the work that went into THAT unique and daunting challenge!

Speaking of another daunting challenge, do you remember how many 2D illustrations you saw throughout Spirit of Justice? Well, here is Mr. Fuzii to share a little about all the hard work that goes into drawing all of them!

—————————————————-

On Drawing 2D Illustrations

 

Hi everyone! I’m Norihide Fuzii. This is my third outing on an Ace Attorney game, the other two being Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Gyakuten Kenji 2. I was in charge of making character models, drawing 2D and mini-character illustrations, and a whole bunch of other things.

 

Today, I’ll be sharing a little about my 2D illustrations work.

 

On the Ace Attorney team, we call the 2D illustrations that we use at key points in the story “event cuts.” These include pictures of things like in-game photos, letters, and other story-supporting elements, to major things like illustrations of the exact moment of the crime or of a certain thing we’d like you the player to be able to clearly visualize.

Illustrations like these…

 

…and this…

…and even these pictures in the Mood Matrix are a part of what I do.

And now we come to the meat of my story: without spoiling anything, I’m going to show you how I draw these illustrations with an example from Episode 1: the Crime Photo.

2D Illustrations from Start to Finish

  Step 1

A request arrives from the game designers. With it is a detailed diagram with notes regarding when and how the illustration will be used in the story and, in the case that the illustration is part of a puzzle, any guidelines and stipulations on things such as what I can and cannot show in it.

Illustrations that serve as in-game photos are almost always heavily tied to the story or one of its puzzles, so it’s always a real challenge to create them because of how many conditions I have to keep in mind.

Step 2

I draw a rough version of the illustration based on the request order while paying particular attention to the perspective of the people, backgrounds, and any other objects within the frame and the illustration’s overall composition.

Everything slowly comes together as I fine-tune and adjust each element of the picture.

  Step 3

As I work on the illustration, the game designers and the art director Mr. Fuse check on my progress to give me feedback and to make sure we’re all on the same page. After all that, surely I’m really close to being done, right?

But no! During the process of tuning the game’s difficulty, I suddenly received a request for me to fix something in the picture!

“The gun and the scroll are too hard to see in the picture, so please make them stand out a little more,” I was told.

This type of adjustment work is super important as it’s tied to how difficult the game, and therefore, how fun or frustrating the game will wind up being.

There! Fixed! Next!

 

Step 4

I’m finally done!!!!!

…Or so I thought. But no! This time, there was a request to change a real fundamental aspect of the illustration!

“We need you to please change the positioning of his left hand and the blood on it,” I was told.

Ah, there’s a discrepancy between what the game wants the player to point out and what the picture actually shows. These kinds of fixes are a really, really big deal.

Step 5

I’m finally done for real this time!!!

Brushed the picture up a little more for artistic reasons, and now, it’s perfect!

 –FIN-

And there you have it! I think you can see just how much time and work goes into creating just one of these illustrations.

Because the character models and animations in Spirit of Justice are even better than they were in Dual Destinies, those of us in the “event cut” section were determined to not lose to them, so we worked extra hard on our illustrations, too! This time, we didn’t draw just secondary illustrations for things like crime scene photos and other pieces of evidence, but lots and lots of important and dramatic scenes as well.

I would be truly honored if there were any illustrations among them that resonated with you.

Thank you for your support of the Ace Attorney series, and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the series for years to come.

———————————————–

Thank you, Mr. Fuzii for that great example of how you and your section members draw the many, many gorgeous illustrations in this game.

Mr. Fuzii mentioned that among the illustrations he worked on were the ones for the various pieces of evidence. I’d like to share a story of one of the things we had to localize for Spirit of Justice. Without spoiling anything, I’d like to use an example from the beginning of Episode 3.

In Episode 3, The Rite of Turnabout, Phoenix gets a guidebook from Ahlbi as soon as the episode starts. Here are the thumbnails and illustrations for that piece of evidence.

Japanese versions on the left, English versions on the right.

Because the guidebook is for English-speakers in the localized version, the book had to first be reversed in the thumbnail, as the Japanese version is laid out as a right-to-left book (it didn’t have to be – the majority of books in Japan are actually left-to-right nowadays – but it’s what the dev team chose).

After the layout was reversed in the thumbnail (thank you Ms. Kobayashi!), Mr. Fuzii took it as a rough outline of how he should lay out the detailed illustration.

Aside from the obvious editing of the Japanese to English, there is one other thing you may have noticed that changed. I’m sure you can figure out by context what it is, but imagine if you had just this illustration to work off of in the final version of the game.

At one point, this was going to be the final version, but as we playtested it with some members of our localization team, a few people were unsure what the cross with the N on top meant (if they could even read the N on the lower screen). That’s when it hit me: this is a Japanese style compass and I had grown so used to seeing it in Japan that I didn’t even need the N at the top to know what it was!

Japanese maps often don’t even label the N or 北 ( kita ) since it’s common knowledge what this “4” shaped thing is.

But in the context of an English map, with all those English letters flying around, the compass became this odd cross that’s just in the upper right corner for no apparent reason. A quick internet search shows that in the West, one essential component in the design of a compass is the presence of a circle or at least the suggestion of a circular shape (by including NE, SE, SW, and NW, for example). It’s one of the ways we recognize something as a compass.

That’s when I made an adjustment request of my own to Mr. Fuzii to add the circle to the cross, and to make sure that the N was more visible and stylized differently so that it wouldn’t get lost in the diagram. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to you, the players, if you had to figure out something that wasn’t actually supposed to be one of the puzzles in the game!

Join me next Friday for a look at character model creation and animation! As Mr. Fuzii pointed out, I think you’d agree that the models and animations this time have really been spectacular, so stop on by next Friday after some Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney fun for a behind-the-scenes discussion!

Until then!

Catch up on previous blog entries here!

Hey World Warriors,

For those of you that couldn’t make it to Tokyo Game Show, there have been a lot of exciting announcements for Street Fighter V.  The new update will be released on September 22 ^nd and will deliver boatloads of new content including some additional goodies for Season Pass holders. Hit the jump to check out everything the new update has to offer.

Urien

• As mentioned in our blogpost earlier this month Urien will be blasting on the scene with this new update. The Vice President of the Illuminati can be purchased with Fight Money or via the Steam and PlayStation store. Season Pass holders can hop into a match with him as soon as the update goes live.

Daily Targets

• New Daily Targets will be available to help you earn extra Fight Money to purchase additional content. Fight in a ranked match to earn 1000 Fight Money. Spend a little time playing in training mode to earn an additional 500 Fight Money. Each Daily Target has a time limit so don’t forget to log in and cash in on these. Rewards will range between 100 and 5000 Fight Money.

Vs. CPU Function

• Versus CPU mode will be added as another option to standard versus mode. Now you can slug it out with the AI of varying difficulty and sharpen your skills before challenging friends or others online.

Fighter Profiles

• Fighter Profiles will also be updated and stat tracking will go live! Now you can dissect your gameplay to find and eliminate bad habits or simply show off your skills to friends.

Colors 3-10 for Season Pass holders

• Colors 3-10 on default, and battle costumes for all confirmed DLC characters will now be included for all Season Pass holders.

Premium Costumes now include all colors

• Existing and future premium costumes will now include colors 3-10 when purchased. This will be retroactive for those that have already purchased the premium costumes.

Color bundles now purchasable

• Color bundles will be available for purchase with Fight Money or via the Steam and PlayStation stores. Check out the following list for content and pricing.

 

• All 16 Original Character Default Color Pack (3-10) – 85k FM/$4.99
• All 16 Original Character Story Color Pack (3-10) – 85k FM/$4.99
• All 6 DLC Character Default Color Pack (3-10) – 40k FM/$1.99
• All 6 DLC Character Story Color Pack (3-10) – 40k FM/$1.99

New Environmental Stage KO’s

• New environmental stage KO’s will be added for the list of stages below. If you loved blasting other players through doors and dropping bowls of noodles on their heads, just wait until you see what we have in store with this update.

 

• Shadaloo Base
• Hillside Plaza
• Underground Arena
• Forgotten Waterfall
• Union Station
• Kanzuki Estate
• City in Chaos
• Apprentice Alley
• Lair of the Four Kings

Bug fixes

• The issue which added an additional frame of lag to PlayStation 4 fight sticks on PlayStation 4 has been identified and patched. Now input time is unified across PlayStation 4, legacy controllers and PC.
• Juri’s V-Reversal was unintentionally able to hit downed opponents under specific circumstances.  Juri’s V-Reversal was corrected so that it cannot hit downed opponents.
• Juri’s invincibility during her V-Reversal was unintentionally short. This was corrected by setting the invincibility on Juri’s V-Reversal to 14 frames after the hit box of the move disappears.
• When Ibuki was hit during a crouching fierce, she would unintentionally go into a standing state damage animation. This has been corrected so that when hit during a crouching fierce, Ibuki goes into a crouching state damage animation.
• The light version of Yoga Sunburst would fire regardless of whether the player was holding down punch or not. This has been corrected so that when the charge portion of L Yoga Sunburst is guarded, holding down LP will maintain the charge motion.
• When the tip of jumping LP hits an opponent or is guarded during Dhalsim’s V-Skill, the Critical Art gauge would increase rather than the V-Gauge. This has been corrected so when a jumping LP hits an opponent or is guarded during Dhalsim’s V-Skill, it now builds V-Gauge.

• When Dhalsim performs an airborne Yoga Teleport against an opponent on the edge of the screen and performs a jumping attack afterwards, the jumping attack would be performed in the opposite direction of the opponent. The directional determination after Dhalsim appears from an airborne Yoga Teleport has been corrected, making it more difficult for this to occur.
• Under certain circumstances, moves that only hit opponents in a standing state would unintentionally miss during certain standing states. This has been corrected. The hurtboxes on characters recovering from getting hit out of the air, allowing moves that are designed to hit standing characters to properly hit. Additionally throw attacks that normally miss on crouching characters will no longer be able to connect on characters recovering from getting hit out the air as they transition to a crouching state.
• After the attack frames of Birdie’s jumping LK ended, Birdie’s hurtbox would unintentionally remain absent in his recovery frames until he landed. This has been corrected by setting a hurtbox to Birdie’s jumping LK recovery frames, until he lands.
• Currently, the game counts a disconnect between the “Another fight is Coming Your Way” screen until you pass-through the results screen by selecting “find another match” or “exit to main menu”. The range a disconnect penalty will be assessed will be changed to be between from when “Another Fight is Coming Your Way” to after League Points (LP) and Fight Money (FM) have been calculated on the “Results” screen.

 

We’ll have more information to share soon, so be sure to follow us on facebook and twitter for all things Street Fighter V.

“ARGH. Food court zombies are the worst!”

Frank West is back and in cracking form, as today Microsoft and Capcom Vancouver revealed the new gameplay trailer for Dead Rising 4. Titled “Return to the Mall,” the trailer brings fans back to Willamette Mall, where a recon mission quickly goes awry. From cleaving through zombies in the food court to pausing for a few creative selfies, Willamette Mall is a key piece in Frank’s search for the truth behind a government conspiracy responsible for the outbreak. Check out the action for yourself in the video above!

Dead Rising 4 marks an all new chapter of one of the most popular zombie game franchises of all time. All the classic hallmarks of the ground breaking zombie series return, including a huge array of weapons and vehicles players can combine to combat the horde ranging from the practical – to the practically insane. With intense action and an unmatched level of weapon and character customization, Dead Rising 4 delivers a heart-pounding experience as you explore, scavenge and fight to survive in an open world sandbox on the brink of the next zombie apocalypse.

Dead Rising 4 will be available worldwide for $59.99 on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs beginning December 6. If you haven’t already, pre-order your copy of the game to receive incentives from participating retailers worldwide.

Let the Slay Ride Begin!

“Welcome to the family, son.” In June, countless PS Plus subscribers heard this instantly memorable line in their attempt to escape a mysterious plantation house when the Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour demo was first released. Today, we’ve got a bunch of new information to share about Resident Evil 7 biohazard, including a new trailer, an update to the Beginning Hour demo, and more!

First things first; we’ve just released a new trailer that gives you a peek at what you can expect in the full game, which you can check out above. Starting off with a mysterious recorded message, get a look at some of the visceral combat that you’ll experience, as well as an unforgettable feast with the Baker family.

In addition, the Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour demo has hit a huge milestone, with over three million people having downloaded the demo worldwide! For those of you who have explored every nook and cranny that the dilapidated house has to offer, we’ve got something special in store for you. A new Twilight version update for the demo is on the way, and will be available starting tomorrow, September 15th. And while Beginning Hour has previously only been available to PlayStation Plus members, when the update goes live tomorrow, all PS4 owners will be able to download the demo and experience it for themselves. If you haven’t played the demo yet, it will be a great time to investigate the dilapidated corridors and uncover the mansion’s mysteries.

We also have some exciting news to share about the digital deluxe version of the game for North America. Previously offering the game and a season pass for two additional story episodes for $79.99 in North America, we’ll be upgrading the digital deluxe version with an additional playable story episode starting tomorrow. This will also shift the price to $89.99 to account for the additional content. However, if you’ve already pre-ordered the digital deluxe edition on the North American PlayStation Store, your pre-order will automatically be upgraded at no additional charge. Plus, all pre-order customers of either the standard or deluxe versions will get a number of bonuses, including the Survival Pack: Recovery Set, consisting of consumable healing items to help you withstand the mansion’s horrors. Don’t worry; these consumables are available again each time you start a new game. Also included are a mysterious in-game Lucky Coin, and access to the incredibly difficult Madhouse mode (normally unlocked after completing the game once). As if that wasn’t enough, all pre-orders on the NA PlayStation Store will also instantly receive a dynamic PS4 theme. Be sure to head over and pre-order today!

Finally, don’t forget that Resident Evil 7 biohazard will be fully playable with the included optional PlayStation VR mode when fear comes home on January 24th, 2017. If you can’t wait that long, keep an eye out on the Resident Evil Twitter and Facebook accounts to get the latest on the Resident Evil 20th Anniversary U.S. tour list to see if RE7 and PlayStation VR will be brought to a location near you! Plus, check out additional images below!

When we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Dead Rising in 2006 the development team here at Capcom Vancouver started to reminisce about our memories of the game that launched the series that has come to define the studio.

While the original Dead Rising was developed in Japan, we’ve had the honour of working on Dead Rising 2 and have made the franchise our own since. Yesterday Capcom released special 10th Anniversary editions of Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record . As we near completion on Dead Rising 4 and the return of iconic hero Frank West, we wanted to share our memories of the game that started it all.

Game Designer Brian Boog’s list of Dead Rising Credits is extensive, starting on Dead Rising 2 and touching on everything including the crazily named Dead Rising 3: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3′ Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α . For Boog it’s the original game’s gold club that he remembers most.

“Seeing it in the trailers for the original DR game was the reason I bought an Xbox. Watching Frank line up his shot, and headshotting a zombie became my equivalent for a hole in one. I spent days with my friends playing ‘The Willamette Open’,” he explained.

Brian’s favourite part of working on the series was the development of jump scares in Dead Rising 2 . He remembered, “We took co-workers unaware into an audio room and had them play a level without knowing about the jump scare feature. We recorded many of them as they jumped out of their seats. Their reactions solidified our faith in the feature, and we still use it today.”

Roy McCombe was also a designer on Dead Rising 2 and remains with the series to this day. He remembers working at another big local game studio, when a co-worker brought the original game in.

McCombe recently told the story on our Twitch channel explained, “Early in my career a friend of mine forgot his copy of Dead Rising , it was Friday. I stayed at work playing it until he came to pick it up on Sunday (yes I had a shower). I had no idea that right around the corner fate would happen to take me to a new job at a company that ended up getting a shot making Dead Rising 2 ’s prototype.”

It was that sense of anything and everything being possible in Dead Rising that lead Roy and the team at the studio here to create Combo Weapons for Dead Rising 2 .

When asked his favourite memory working on the series Roy said, “As a huge fan of the original Dead Rising I really wanted to create more over the top interactions vs. zombies. At one point I wanted to lift a zombie up in the air with a gun and blow it apart but I kept getting hung up thinking that it would break the gun… then I thought, well if we attached a pitchfork to the gun that might make sense. That ended up being the pitchfork shotgun, the very first Dead Rising combo weapon we shipped.”

Dee Jay Randall is a Technical Director at Capcom Vancouver and worked on the co-op backend on Dead Rising 2 . When discussing the original Dead Rising he said that his favourite moment in the first game was, “Triple-booking Adam’s mini chainsaws in the first Dead Rising and walking around Willamette like a boss.”

Dead Rising 4 ‘s Project Development Director Lindsey Williamson Christy remembered almost losing her husband to the zombie hordes of Dead Rising , “When my husband and I were first dating DR came out on the Xbox and it consumed him. He was already a rabid zombie fan and this to him was the ultimate zombie experience. He would play it all night long and I would fall asleep on the sofa to the sound of zombies and that annoying cellphone. He would wake me up when he burst out laughing at something Frank West said or to show me some crazy outfit.”

Thankfully things worked out for the best for the zombie slaying couple as she explained, “It’s 10 years later, we are married and have a kid who now also loves zombies and can’t wait until he’s old enough that I will let him play Dead Rising , since he’s only 6 it’s going to be awhile. And my husband who is a game designer is incredibly jealous that I get to work on his most beloved franchise and Frank West.”

Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record have been re-released with upgraded HD graphics and 60 fps framerates . Play these classic games again today and celebrate 10 years of zombie slaying with us.

“It’s Frank. Frank West. Remember that name ’cause the whole world’s gonna know it in three days when I get the scoop.” – Frank West, Dead Rising (2006)

Ten years after photo journalist Frank West uttered those words the world is once again returning to a zombie filled shopping mall with the re-release of the zombie slaughtering series’ classic origins as Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record arrive on modern game platforms today.

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the original Dead Rising ’s release, we’ve brought Frank West and motocross champion Chuck Greene, the hero of Dead Rising 2 , back. Our zombie killing heroes are now able to dispatch undead hordes on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam. All games feature Dead Rising ’s classic zombie sandbox gameplay and include all DLC costumes and upgraded graphics presented in 1080p at 60 frames per second.

Now you can relive the zombie chaos of the first three Dead Rising games on your platform of choice with the Dead Rising 10th Anniversary editions of Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record and Dead Rising 10th Anniversary Triple Pack which includes all three games.

With Dead Rising , Capcom released a very different kind of zombie game. Embracing both the horror and the absurdity of the zombie genre, Dead Rising stared photo journalist Frank West as he tried to uncover the truth behind a zombie outbreak in a mall. Anything that West could lay his hands on was a weapon, from the conventional to the absurd.

So pickup your controller and kill some zombies today!

Digital versions out today:

• Dead Rising (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Steam)
• Dead Rising 2 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4)
• Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (Xbox One, PlayStation 4)
• Each sold separately for $19.99 / €19.99 / £15.99
• Dead Rising Triple Pack (Xbox One, PlayStation 4)
• Digital bundle for $59.49 that includes all three games ( Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record)

• Retail Disc (North America Only) – Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 only
• Dead Rising (Xbox One, PlayStation 4) – TODAY
• Dead Rising 2 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4) – September 27th, 2016

Hello, one and all, and a Happy Ace Attorney Weekend to you! If you haven’t heard yet, or forgot in the hubbub of life, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is out RIGHT NOW on the Nintendo 3DS eShop! I hope you’re all enjoying it so far!

I’m back today with some commentary from two of the people whose very vital work often goes unnoticed: Ms. Hirata and Mr. Onishi. They’re in charge of the actual scripting of this game. If you don’t know what scripting is, or would like to know what their work consisted of specifically on this game, you’ve come to the (W)right place! So come on in and gather round!

When you first turn on the game, the very first thing you see is the title screen, but did you ever wonder how we create and design each game’s logo? Well, for Spirit of Justice, we asked Mr. Naoyuki Tsuchiya, a designer who specializes in logos and packaging. These are just a few of his initial ideas.

All of us on the dev team liked option D, but with the narrow diamonds on the ends of the subtitle’s bar, it looked more like a double-headed arrow and didn’t quite have that Khura’inese feel to it. So our UI designer, Ms. Nakano, came up with a few suggestions.

Mr. Tsuchiya took these ideas and gave us a few more variations and after a few rounds of discussion back and forth, well, I think you can see which one became the basis of the final logo.

 

So now that you’ve gotten past the title screen, just how are all the parts that make up a single Ace Attorney experience put together? Well, Ms. Hirata and Mr. Onishi are here to shed a little light into how Ace Attorney games are programmed and scripted.

And now, I present the excitably energetic Ms. Hirata! (By the way, she writes all of her daily reports with extreme gusto, too, which makes them extra fun to read!)

———————————————–

It’s All About Scripting!

Hi, I’m Momoko Hirata, one of the programmers on Spirit of Justice!! It’s nice to meet everyone!!

My role on this title was to support those on the dev team responsible for scripting and localizing the game by creating and maintaining the programming tools necessary for them to do their jobs!! I was also tasked with managing how screens outside of the main portion of the game display!! I wasn’t responsible for a lot of things at the beginning, but bit by bit, I was put in charge of more and more things. That’s because I’m actually the youngest and least-experienced one on the whole programming team!! But since I’ve been given this opportunity to write an entry, please allow me to talk with all of my youthful vigor and excitement about Spirit of Justice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Now then!!

Let’s get talking about scripting!!

Now, I’m sure there are a few of you out there wondering what a “script” is, and if they’re delicious, but I’m here to… give you a pop quiz!!

In every Ace Attorney game, there are all manner of things that appear onscreen with the characters’ lines including character models, backgrounds, UI*, and sound effects and music, but do you know how we get all of those elements to appear and do their thing?

*UI – User Interface. These are onscreen elements that make a game easier to play or understand such as the message windows where the characters’ dialogues are displayed or the “Present” button.

This screen shows everyone’s beloved Phoenix Wright as the lawyer he is!! Those of you who’ve been playing the game will, no doubt, have seen this scene, right?!

Everything like the character model, background, and UI shows up on the game screen at once, but each part is actually its own separate set of data!! How do you suppose we put all those parts together into one screen? Actually, we use something called programming scripts!!

 “But how do they know how to construct these scenes?” you might be wondering. Well, using the scenario script the writers wrote as a base, we write programming scripts that control things like:

• when which character will appear on the screen and what kind of movement they will perform

• what a character will say

• which background will display

• which piece of background music will play

It’s almost like a magical spell that allows us to take the amazing things the artists and sound designers worked so hard to create, and freely arrange them as we wish!! But since we base all of our programming scripts on the scenario, whenever the story gets changed, we have to reflect those changes in the programming scripts as well.

As with the previous games, there was a lot of trial and error on the part of our writers as they kept writing and re-writing in search of a fun and interesting story. This meant that they changed the scenario script a ton of times… And each time, we had to fix the scripts, and then playtest that section of the game, and…

“What? Another change? How many times have I edited this script now? And when will they stop changing the scenario!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I wonder how many times I actually asked myself these questions in the course of the game’s development…

The writers wanted all sorts of things like different dialogue branches depending on the piece of evidence presented, and sometimes, just when we were pretty much done making the scripts for a section, they would ask me to add another multiple choice question…

All joking aside, I worked super hard to make sure that the scripters were able to truly bring out the very best in the game’s story!!!!! With everything we put into Spirit of Justice, I just want to say that this game features both a lighthearted yet deep story, and extravagant and gorgeous dramatic presentation!!!!!!!!! I really, really hope you’ll enjoy this latest, ace installment of the Ace Attorney series!!!!!!!!!

And that about does it for me!! See you in Spirit of Justice !!!!

Next up is Mr. Onishi, the leader of the dramatic presentation scripting team!! He’ll be talking about the charming and appealing presentation style that makes Ace Attorney as fun and entertaining as it is. Plus, he’ll talk about the history and evolution of scripting as the games themselves evolved. Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!

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Scripting the Game – Dramatically!

Hi, everyone. I’m Yoshimi Onishi, and I’m the presentation lead of Spirit of Justice, and I’d like to take this opportunity to share a little about this game from a “dramatic presentation” viewpoint.

But before that, perhaps I should explain what it is the presentation team does.

Imagine, if you will… a courtroom where everyone stands ramrod straight, and the only movements are the characters’ mouths when they speak. You’d probably grow drowsy and even fall asleep just looking at that scene, wouldn’t you? Well! That’s where good presentation comes into play!

Broadly speaking, the presentation team’s work is to match each piece of dialogue with the appropriate character and their animation while adding just the right background music and/or sound effect to complete the scene.

“Objection!”

When and how this famous pose is used is also decided by the presentation team.

Those of us who use simple mini-programs called “scripts” to put these scenes together are called “scripters” on the Ace Attorney team.

And actually, before we scripters can even begin our work, there are a lot of other people who, through hard work and personal battles of their own, pave the way for us by preparing and programming the actual scripts. In fact, Ms. Hirata outlined some of her struggles a little earlier, as you’ll recall.

Now then, returning to the topic of scripters, what I’m about to tell you only applies to this series, but scripting work requires a great deal of empathy and attention to detail. For example, take Ahlbi, the young boy you meet at the beginning of your Khura’inese journey.

A young Khura’inese lad, Ahlbi Ur’gaid

Ahlbi may be an expressive young boy, but you can’t say, “Just make him all cheery and energetic with over-exaggerated animations” and expect that to fly.

A carefree smile… but it wouldn’t do to have him smiling all the time!

“Don’t make him look like an airhead! But make him lovable!” Mr. Yamazaki had ordered. Fulfilling such an order required a little extra attention from us in how Ahlbi expresses himself. We scripters had to pay attention to not only how Ahlbi responds to Phoenix in terms of his reaction animations or even the occasional serious facial expression, but also in terms of his emotional response to Phoenix. We express those nuances through the addition of sound effects like *smack!* *slap!* *thud!* and screen effects like flashing and screen shaking to his dialogue, though it took a fair bit of trial and error to make sure we were conveying exactly what we wanted to each time.

When presented like this, Ahlbi becomes quite the salesperson, and a surprisingly clever boy to boot!

I hope that gives you a better idea of the type of work and the kinds of struggles scripters face every day. Now I’d like to go into the history of scripting for this series, and also a little bit of the very beginning of Spirit of Justice .

Scripting has been a part of the series from the very beginning with the first Ace Attorney game, but as the number of characters and their many expressions increased, so did the scope and complexity of the work itself. The basic elements of the series’ presentation such as character animations, sound effects, flashing, and text speed variations haven’t changed since the series’ 2D days, but the transition to 3D has greatly changed how we deal with things like camera work and bridging animations that help different motions flow into one another for a smoother, more natural look.

Furthermore, compared with 2D sprites, it takes longer to load 3D models, which would sometimes results in the screen appearing to freeze for a second when a character appears onscreen. That’s why we’ve had to find and implement workarounds behind the scenes, such as preloading character model data before they make their appearance. You should see all of the things we’ve implemented behind the scenes as a result of some very passionate discussions among those scripters who are virtually walking encyclopedias of Ace Attorney scripting.

Phoenix was the only lawyer at first, but now there are two more.

…And that’s why, with the transition to 3D, we have been able to do and show more complicated things, thus making our own work as scripters that much more complicated as a result.

Each successive game is more intricate than its predecessor, and with the appearance of a certain person in Spirit of Justice that sings and plays his testimony, this strong – no, knock-out punch really threw us for a loop.

A singer-songwriter of testimonies? Who would’ve thought!

In order to make his dialogue display in time with what he was singing, we had to set markers in the audio file and then work with the programmers to create a new system that would make the right text appear at each audio marker… The creation of whole new implementation systems just to make this one insane thing in the story a reality is also a part of a scripter’s job.

Truly, nothing would make me happier than if you could feel the suffering the art designers, sound engineers, programmers, and, of course, the scripters all went through during your playthrough of this game.

I know it was just a peek, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into the history of AA scripting, and specifically, some of the scripting for the beginning of Spirit of Justice .

Finally, I’d like to share Rayfa Padma Khura’in’s angry face with you.

I hope you’ll envision and enjoy the sound of her beautiful voice insulting you like this with your imagination.

…And that brings me to the end of my entry. Thank you for reading to the end.

I wonder what kind of impression you’ll have of Ahlbi and the rest of the Khura’inese cast. I really hope you’ll enjoy looking through the lens of “dramatic presentation” at the unprecedented richness of Phoenix, Rayfa, and all of the other characters’ expressions and animations in this game.

 

I’ll see you all in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice !

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Thank you so much, Ms. Hirata and Mr. Onishi! If nothing else, I definitely noticed all of your hard work when I had to script the English version, har har. But really, without such a great Japanese version, the English version definitely wouldn’t have the same charm either.

So! I actually have one last treat for you, dear readers: The logos for the two short stories that were announced yesterday!

While these designs may seem like an obvious choice, we still tried out one other layout.

Poor Apollo can’t catch a break in option B, what with the being stabbed by his own bracelet’s sparkle and all…

Needless to say, the terrible balance between each character’s name and “Asinine Attorney” wasn’t all that great in option A, so the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney logo style it was! Now, in Apollo Justice flavor!

Well, that about does it for me this week. Join me next week as I delve into a discussion about sound design and 2D illustrations, and the process of localizing them.

And be sure to keep a look out for the launch of the first of the Asinine Attorney parody episodes next Thursday!

Until then!

Catch up on previous blog entries here!

Starting next week, we’ll be kicking off our Resident Evil 20 ^th Anniversary Tour in San Francisco, California before it hits the road with stops across the country. Come join us to celebrate the Resident Evil franchise and get a peek at what the future of the series has in store with a scream-inducing Resident Evil 7 demo, playable in VR! This will be the first chance for fans in North America to play the new super special, super scary RE7 “Lantern” demo utilizing PlayStation VR, so if you’re in San Francisco on September 15, swing by The Yard across from AT&T Park. We’ve got more info right after the jump!

The series’ most recent numbered entries, Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6 , were released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One over the past few months, and they’re all available now as both physical discs and digital downloads. We’ll also have them playable as part of the tour, with challenges spanning all three games for the competitive types! In addition, we’ll have some cool swag on sale, too, including t-shirts, hoodies, and other goodies, such as a plush toy version of the infamous Licker enemy from RE2 , complete with extra-long tongue. If you’re in the San Francisco area on the 15th, be sure to come by between 11am to 3pm and check it out! After that, the truck will be making its way across the country. We’ll have more info on tour stops soon!

Can’t attend? Be sure to pre-order Resident Evil 7 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC to make sure you get your hands on it as soon as it’s released on January 24, 2017.

Today’s the big day! Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice launches today on the Nintendo 3DS eShop across North America and Europe for $29.99 / £24.99 / €29.99. The Ace Attorney series has always been known for its colorful cast, clever puzzles, witty writing, and courtroom drama, and Spirit of Justice is no exception. Check out the launch trailer above for a taste of what to anticipate in the latest entry in the courtroom drama, then hit the jump below for even more of what you can expect to see in the full game now and later in the month – including DLC costumes available today completely free until September 14th, 2016!

We’ve got some special DLC lined up for Spirit of Justice. First off are DLC costumes, free to download from the Nintendo 3DS eShop for those who purchase the game in the first week of release! This three-costume pack will definitely remind fans of previous games, with Apollo donning his old school uniform (from Dual Destinies), Athena sporting a waitress outfit from Trés Bien (first modeled by Maya in Trials and Tribulations), and Phoenix taking a few cues from loan shark Furio Tigre’s wardrobe (also from Trials and Tribulations). Or is it Xin Eohp? After September 14, the costumes will be available to purchase for $0.99 / £0.89 / €0.99.

You can find additional illustrations of the costumes here , as well.

That’s not all, though! Every Thursday throughout the end of September will see the release of even more Ace Attorney stories. Two “Asinine Attorney” episodes – short, zany stories that take place outside of the main game – will be making their debut, each bringing an exclusive and adorable pixel art 3DS theme in tow. There will also be a full-length case, Turnabout Time Traveler, which will mark the return of even more fan-favorite characters. Let’s just say there are a failed artist and a frilly cravat in your future. Or is it your past? Looks like you’re in for some old-school courtroom action, Mr. Wright.

To make it easy to plan ahead for, below we’ve laid out a handy list of the release dates and prices for each of the DLC releases this month. We’ll have more details for each DLC as their release dates come closer:

• 9/15 – “Phoenix Wright: Asinine Attorney” short story and 3DS theme ($3.99 / £3.59 / €3.99)
• 9/22 – “Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney” short story and 3DS theme ( $3.99 / £3.59 / €3.99)
• 9/29 – “Turnabout Time Traveler” full-length extra episode ($5.99 / £5.39 / €5.99)

If you haven’t been following the news about what the new game is all about or the locations visited in the game, or just need a refresher, Spirit of Justice features dual protagonists as two dramatic stories unfold around lawyers Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice of the Wright Anything Agency. While Phoenix travels to the Kingdom of Khura’in, navigating lawyerless courtrooms and the Divination Séance , Apollo Justice is tasked with holding down the fort at the Wright Anything Agency. Both attorneys face explosive implications in their stories as a legal revolution begins to boil over in Khura’in….

Since the game was first announced back in May, we’ve shown screenshots from the first and second episodes of the game. If you want a sneak peek at what you’ll see in episode three,  we’ve also got some screenshots from that case below. Don’t worry, no major spoilers here, just a taste here at the end of the blog post for you curious types!

We have a full gallery of screens here for those who are even more curious!

With so much ahead for Spirit of Justice, we’re sure nobody has a – say it with me now – OBJECTION! Be sure to stay tuned for more news by investigating the Ace Attorney Twitter and Facebook !

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Dead Rising franchise , and the release of Dead Rising , Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record on PS4, Xbox one and Steam we are taking a look at some of the characters who play a major role in the early games in the Dead Rising series with “Frank’s Files”.

This week we look at Dead Rising 2 ‘s Katey Greene.

• Name: Katey Greene
• Job: Child / Child of Chuck Greene
• First Appearance: Dead Rising 2  (2010)
• Appears In: Dead Rising 2  (2010), Dead Rising 2: Case West (2010), Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (2010), Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (2011), Dead Rising 3 (2013), Dead Rising 3: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3′ Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α (2014)
• Abilities: Katey is good at handheld video games.

Like Chuck Katey is dealing with the loss of her mother (Chuck’s wife) Pam Greene during the Las Vegas outbreak. It was in the midst of this zombie outbreak that Pam turned into a zombie and bit Katey’s arm causing the young girl to need a regular dosage of Zombrex to avoid also turning into a zombie. With her father she managed to escape Las Vegas and now under his sole care is at Fortune City as he tries to win money to be able to afford a long term supply of Zombrex for her.

Once the Fortune City outbreak begins she is taken to an emergency shelter by her father and left in the care of Stacey Forsythe, the head of zombie rights group CURE, while her father attempts to clear his name and forge for more Zombrex to keep her human. If Chuck fails to bring Katey Zombrex every twenty-four hours she will turn, taking yet another of his loved ones from him.

Hello, Illuminati members!

As promised, this month will be bringing our final Season 1 DLC character, hit the jump to check out Urien the “Dominating Light.”

First introduced in Street Fighter III: 2 ^nd Impact, Urien is the Vice President of Illuminati and wants nothing but to take over Illuminati from his older brother, Gill, and destroy Shadaloo. Urien has complete confidence in his own physicality and this elitism shows itself through his sadistic and tyrannical tendencies. He gains joy only from dominating others and having them crumble in the face of his incredible power.

Urien returns to Street Fighter V, donning a pinstriped suit and is often seen with a sinister smile when he hits opponents with his powerful limbs and violent combos. He uses his slow moving projectiles to pressure opponents and get them to do his bidding. A master of manipulating ki, his signature Aegis Reflector, one of the 66 Illuminati secret arts, is back and allows him to control the pace of the match.

What does Urien think of M. Bison’s latest Shadaloo activities and Operation C.H.A.I.N.S.? Be sure to check out the free story DLC “A Shadow Falls” to find out!

V-Skill: Metallic Aura

Urien laughs maniacally while enveloping his body with his Metallic Aura. Once charged, his skin tone darkens and the next forward-propelling special move can temporarily absorb one attack.

V-Trigger: Aegis Reflector

Urien opens his arms and creates an energy barrier in front of him. The barrier will reflect projectiles back at the opponent and the direction held when activating the V-Trigger determines where it appears. Opponents who touch the barrier without blocking will take damage and be knocked back. With a full V-meter, Urien can project two barriers.

 

Critical Art: Dominate Crush

Urien channels energy into his arm and slams it into the ground, striking his opponent with a pillar of destruction.

The release date for Urien and the rest of the previously-announced September updates will be shared at Tokyo Game Show (TGS) next week.

A future post closer to release will provide details for the rest of the update, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter . #RiseUp!