Proteus creator explains PS3/Vita-exclusive features

Proteus is set to hit PS3 and Vita later this month and creator Ed Key discusses some of the exclusive features set to hit these versions of the game.

Ozzie Mejia

October 11, 2013 11:55 PM

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Proteus has charmed PC players with its deliberately minimalistic design and procedurally-generated environments. One wouldn't imagine that a PS3 and Vita version would contain many exclusive features, but creator Ed Key notes that the upcoming Sony versions will include some platform-specific features.

"Most of the new features are related to the Vita hardware," Key told PSN Stores. "You can use the motion sensors [sic] control the view and after a certain stage you can use the back touchscreen to manipulate aspects of the world. On both systems, you can explore an island unique to the current date and on Vita you can generate one based on your current location as detected via PSN. Both of these will hopefully randomly reveal some cool-looking things as time goes on."

Key adds that Proteus has been rebuilt from the ground up using Curve Studios' in-house engine, which should result in a more polished experience. There is one other Sony-specific addition that seemingly flies in the face of Proteus' entire objective-less concept -- Trophies.

"We deliberately didn't have any in the original Steam version, but I think the current set is pretty interesting," Key explained. "All the non-hidden ones are a little bit cryptic and are mostly about taking one aspect of the island and following it to an extreme. Actually one of the biggest sticking points here is that trophies require text, and one of the core design points of Proteus was that once you're in the game there's no text of any kind. I think this adds to the vague dreamlike vibe--the verbal part of you is kinda off the hook and free to wander. If you want to play it safe and avoid disruption, I think I'd still say that it’d be best to play with notifications turned off the first time."

Proteus is set to arrive on PS3 and Vita later in October.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?