Heavy Rain (PS3) – New Trophy Strategy Revealed

Heavy Rain, the new PS3 exclusive title due out on 2/23/2010 developed by Quantic Dream, is revealing a brand new, albeit slight change to the Sony Trophy system.

In every other Trophy-enabled title produced for the PS3, each Trophy event trigger produces a ding sound accompanied by small banner displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. This brief interruption informs the player of the earned reward. Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, however, is such an emotionally-charged and character-driven presentation that the developer decided to change the system.

Sony agreed. Instead of firing up the reward sound and display banner at the time the Trophy is earned, Heavy Rain will wait until chapter breaks to do so. In other words, the player will still earn the rewards, but the game will keep it silent, delay the Trophies, and won’t inform the player until transitional sequences occur. According to QD’s co-CEO, Guilaume de Fondaumiere, normal Trophy interruptions will break the spell the game has over the player, interrupting key points of investigation or emotionally engaging scenes. It may seem an insignificant change, but rarely will a developer make a decision like this without ubiquitous amounts of user feedback.

It will be interesting to see how this strategy changes the way games handle Trophies and Achievements in the future, but this is a bold move by a game developer who cares deeply about the content of their title and the emotional attachment required by the player. Since Heavy Rain plays more like an interactive movie than a traditional video game, I can appreciate the attempt at furthering realism. After all, no one watches a feature film at the theater with random pop-ups on screen stating “You’ve earned a Large Popcorn”.