inFAMOUS Could’ve Turned Out Very Differently
Sucker Punch, the developer for 2009’s inFAMOUS, is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the game by sharing a bunch of fun little development facts on Twitter. Some of them include info about name changes, early prototype combat concepts, and — arguably the coolest one — a motorcycle parkour mechanic. While a few of them are fairly minor in grand of scheme of things, other changes, if kept, would’ve spelled a very different game compared to what we got.
Have a look at them below:
1) The original working title for inFAMOUS was True Hero. We tried out many titles, and even at the E3 2007 reveal we were awaiting legal clearance for “inFAMOUS.” We had a backup trailer ready with an alternate title just in case, but luckily inFAMOUS was approved in time. pic.twitter.com/mqTHhh2jo3
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
2) In an early version, you could switch out of your superhero outfit into civilian clothing by changing in phone booths. pic.twitter.com/YM0lteQ2Ep
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
3) Early on, the pitch included super-heroic actions like customizing buildings to give a neighborhood new types of shops to keep citizens happy. pic.twitter.com/8NGG11nGKv
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
4) At one point in production before a name for the hero was chosen, the studio referred to him by the nickname “Gearwolf” and he had a completely different hair style. pic.twitter.com/D3z9R6NXXZ
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
5) Characters once spoke in a gibberish language and interactions included emotes instead of full dialogue. pic.twitter.com/4zFeBri5jY
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
6) We experimented with light character customization that allowed you to change your hair, outfit, and more. pic.twitter.com/1xyKxXFm0R
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
7) During development, the hero could use telekinetic powers to draw “throwable” metal objects like license plates, hubcaps, stop signs and bicycle sprockets into his hands to use them as weapons. pic.twitter.com/nyEbORvAEY
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
8) At one point, the hero could do vehicle stunts including motorcycle parkour. pic.twitter.com/r0qeCSyotZ
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
9) We also experimented with the ability to “skate” through the city using an invisible energy field. pic.twitter.com/ukHNWF3gkv
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
10) To this day, Zeke’s voice is still Sucker Punch’s outgoing voicemail message. pic.twitter.com/r4xPIMNY8d
— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) May 26, 2019
Development of games can be very tumultuous and it appears that inFAMOUS was no exception. I’m particularly fond of the motorcycle parkour mechanic (mainly because it looks so cool) but also the skating feature. While I was definitely a big fan of the original when it came out, it does you make you wonder if Sucker Punch kept some of these features in, how much different the final product could’ve been.
inFAMOUS was released on May 26th, 2009 for the PlayStation 3. Its sequel came out on June 7th, 2011. Then, on the PS4, we got inFAMOUS: Second Son on March 21st, 2014 and First Light DLC expansion in August. Since then, it’s been pretty quiet for the series despite solid praise all around.
Sucker Punch is currently still working on their next PS4 game, Ghost of Tsushima. While Sony won’t have a presence at E3 next month, we’re still expecting their first party studios to drop a few announcements.
What do you make of these development facts? Do you think Sucker Punch will ever make another game in the franchise? Let us know what you think in the comments section down below.