The PS5 is a little over a month from its release date and quite a number of people in the gaming community are looking to get their hands on the upcoming next-gen system. Perhaps one of the PS5's most interesting components is its new controller, the DualSense. Though, apparently, the development of the DualSense controller actually ran parallel with the development of a free game that will come pre-loaded on every PS5 console called Astro's Playroom.
This game will serve as a sequel to Astro Bot Rescue Mission, a free PSVR game intended to showcase the power of PlayStation VR. Now, it seems the character will make an additional appearance on the PS5 to further showcase what the console is capable of. However, it seems that the new game also served as a means to help develop the DualSense controller.
According to Nicolas Doucet, the boss of Japan Studio and the lead director of Astro Bot Rescue Mission, the game mechanics of Astro's Playroom helped to provide important feedback for the developers in charge of the development of the DualSense controller. This helped the DualSense developers in terms of certain components within the controller itself.
The use of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are still decently new features in terms of game design and development. Thus, Japan Studio worked closely with the hardware developers in charge of the DualSense controller and constantly sent the team feedback in terms of what worked and didn't work. For example, Doucet and other members of the team would send personal feedback to the controller developers, citing things like "this has too strong of a recoil." According to Doucet, this process took nearly two years to complete.
It's nice to that Sony has second party development studios that provide additional feedback in terms of other facets of software and hardware development. Although, Doucet mentioned this is rather unorthodox in terms of development, in a way it makes a lot of sense. With a game that heavily relies on the hardware capabilities of the DualSense controller like Astro's Playroom, it's important for both development teams to be on the same page.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what other projects Japan Studio has in store for the PS5. Along with Astro's Playroom, the development team has also been working with Bluepoint Games to produce the upcoming remake of Demon's Souls, both of which will be available as launch titles when the PS5 officially releases.
The PlayStation 5 is set to launch on November 12th, 2020.
Source: IGN