In order to develop a title for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or even the PSP, developers have to piece together middleware applications for 3D content editing, audio, user interface, asset management, and more. God of War: Chains of Olympus developers Ready At Dawn are looking to make the whole process a little easier, integrating its own code-base with to tool providers works to create the Ready At Dawn Engine, "the only comprehensive and fully integrated console game development platform."

"At Ready At Dawn Studios, we are faced with the challenges of making a great game everyday," Didier Malenfant, president, Ready At Dawn Studios, said. "We are building something for developers who are tired of the challenges of PC engines shoe-horned into consoles, or trying to stitch together layers upon layers of middleware from multiple vendors. Our solution will be a complete game development platform that simply works."

The Ready At Dawn Engine supports PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PSP development, with the company offering tailored evaluations of each project's needs to ensure that developers get the most out of the package.

It should be amazingly useful to dev teams making the switch from PC to console, and it's great to see this sort of support from one developer to others. Nicely done, Ready At Dawn.

Ready At Dawn writes today that the developer, known for its PSP expertise, was "surprised no one has found this one out yet." The dev also reveals how it's done, saying the player must "finish Chains of Olympus in god mode, [with] no upgrades, and collect all the urns of power twice without dying you open up the companion cube as a hidden character."

That makes this a little strange. I've collected every single Urn of Power at least three times over, even the one you can only get using the Basilisk glitch, yet I've never seen this. I'm guessing that's because it's not real.

"I really have no clue what Sony's plans are," Ready At Dawn CEO Didier Malenfant told Edge Online, despite being a top notch PSP developer and a trusted second-party. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't like to see the rumored PSP-4000 go the digital distribution route, sloughing off the UMD format. In fact, he'd probably love it.

"I'd love to see anything that can help distribution move quicker toward a 100 percent online model," Malefant said. "It's not piracy but used games that are killing us." And, you know, it's pretty tough to trade in the games one buys from the PlayStation Store.

Ready At Dawn is rumored to be hard at work on a follow-up to Chains of Olympus, a title that would likely generate interest in a new PSP if it were offered as a digital download alongside a hard copy.

We're hoping that if Sony does opt to push for more digital distribution, the most recent management shuffle at the company means the PlayStation Store on the PS3 and PC, combined with some nice iTunes-style games management software, will make the medicine go down easier.

Ready At Dawn's Two Cents on PSP Rumors [Edge Online]

According to a report from Joystiq, Sony has already put in an order for a sequel to the PSP blockbuster, a game that could make an appearance in announcement form at this year's E3. That's according to the site's "trusted source," which puts Ready At Dawn back on PSP development as of "late 2008."

While Ready At Dawn reps opted not to confirm the rumor, it would certainly make a lot of sense. The Irvine, California based dev certainly knows its way around a UMD.

After "moving on" from PSP development last year, the Chains of Olympus developer looked to have a change of heart, if only for its successes on the platform.

John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment of America's director of hardware marketing, says that the publisher is in talks with the studio, noting to Kotaku that PSP software development is ramping back up. With LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm and Assassin's Creed already confirmed for the PSP, another entry in the bestselling God Of War series seems perfectly logical from a money-raking standpoint.

Hopefully we'll know more at E3 2009 or when the manual for God of War III starts making the rounds.

Rumor: Ready at Dawn developing new PSP God of War [Joystiq]

The studio famously got out of the PSP-development business last year, returning their development kits to Sony and moving on to other things. But John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment of America, says that Sony Computer Entertainment have been in talks with the studio about returning to the PSP.

"Ready at Dawn is a fantastic developer, they did God of War: Chains of Olympus and Daxter," he said. "The conversations with them continue.

"Don't give up on Ready at Dawn yet."

Koller said that a lot of studios who were reluctant to develop for the Playstation Portable in 2006 have noticed the surge in PSP sales with the release of the PSP 2000 model. That, he says, explains the impressive slate of games announced this week for the portable.

"In mid 2006 the hardware had seen a bit of a bottoming out, a lot of publishers decided to reallocate their resources," he said. "In 2007 the PSP 2000 came out and we saw a big increase in sales. When we met with developers in 2008 they said, 'How can we get back into the PSP?'"

With the long development window, those games are just now starting to hit the console.

Sony also sat down with developers and talked to them about stream lining costs to make game development and marketing for the PSP more cost effective.

"We went in with a number of ideas and really laid it out," he said. "We had recommendations about franchises that made a lot of sense for the PSP."

The independent developer sounded the call for new talent today, looking for a few folks willing to relocate to sunny Santa Ana Irvine, California to work on their next projects. Projects that aren't PSP games or Wii ports, but for "other consoles" like the PlayStation 3... and maybe even the Xbox 360 and PC.

Sorry, not much info on the developer's new games to be gleaned from the available job listings. But anyone who does find gainful employment there, you know where the tips e-mail is located.

Just sayin'!

Jobs [Ready At Dawn]

You may recall that back in June, Ready at Dawn announced that they were going to stop developing for the PSP after putting out the fantabulous God of War: Chains of Olympus. They even put their money where their mouth was, returning all of the PSP dev kits to Sony.

But recently they posted about the continued success of Chains and Daxter.

According to Gamasutra, 2 out of 5 top PSP games sold on Amazon in the US last week were Ready At Dawn games with Daxter and Chains of Olympus both making the top 5.

Maybe we should reconsider this whole ‘no more PSP games’ thing because we seem to be doing pretty good at it

It sounds like they are kidding, but why not return to the PSP. Maybe Sony should send those boxes back, filled to the brim with cash to help convince Ready at Dawn.

Happy Holidays indeed… [Ready at Dawn]

Ready At Dawn News

I really don't know what under pretext the credits were cut... What do you all think? I feel dejected, and not only because my own name has been erased from my creation. Of course we have pride in our work and we want to scream "We made this!" from the top of our lungs. But more than that, the fact that they cut the entire staff is utterly deplorable.

Kamiya on Credit [Platinum Games via Canned Dogs Thanks, Sarah!]

Eds Note: Oh! For those who are interested in reading the entire post (in English), Platinum Games has posted the official translation here.

Ready at Dawn certainly achieved their goals, but they didn't do so without a bit of stumbling.

Loved:
Channeling God of War: This pocket-sized God of War is an amazing reproduction of the big screen version. Everything from the epic scope of the backdrop, to over-the-top battles, to the hidden sex mini-games is packed into this excellent title.
Pacing: As with the original, Chains of Olympus keeps you enthralled with a storyline you care about and the perfectly paced blending of battles and puzzle solving.
Graphics: Miniaturized, Kratos is just as much a bad-ass as he was in the original games. The detail of animation is at times awe-inspiring, and the character design at times almost surpasses the first two in the franchise.
Controls: With the exception of a few quick-time boss battle kills, the controls are flawless, allowing you to hammer out 40 to 50-chain attacks on a screen full of enemies.
Weapons: From the Gauntlets of Zeus to Kratos' mainstay Blades of Chaos, the portable God of War comes packed with an amazing selection of boostable weapons, a half dozen all told.
Bonus Material: While the game's five hours or so of campaign play was more than enough to satisfy my God of War bloodlust, it's nice that the game also includes five challenges that unlock silly bonus material, like being able to play as Kratos in a dress, and a God difficulty.
Addictive: Because of the vagaries of early builds and demos, I managed to play through chunks of Chains of Olympus three to four times, and it never got old. In fact, I had a lot of trouble putting it down. It's rare that a game gets its claws into me so deep. Even rarer that it would be on the PSP.

Hated
The Thumbstick: There are a number of big monster, quick time event kills in which you have to do timed swirls with the thumbstick and often it just doesn't register. There's nothing as annoying as failing in a boss battle or creature fight because of the hardware.
Save Points: There are a couple of unforgivable save points in the game. Why on earth would you put a save point right before the unskippable cut-scene that introduces an incredibly hard boss battle?
Story: This prequel to the original God of War has a wonderful, potentially emotional plot marred by disjointed delivery. There are moments in the game that could have truly touched gamers, but felt too forced to work.

God of War: Chains of Olympus delivers more to the Playstation Portable than I thought was possible. The game is nearly flawless in its production value and what minor issues it does have has more to do with the irritating difficulty than any real design flaws. My only disappointment lies in the story, which had such great potential for evocative gaming, but never fully delivers.

Set aside a chunk of one day to sit down and enjoy this experience uninterrupted from beginning to end. If I could only buy one game for the PSP, this would be it.

God of War: Chains of Olympus, developed by Ready at Dawn, published by SCEA, released March 4, for $40. Available on Playstation Portable, played to completion.

The RAD team also says that after a short, post game launching break, they'll be working on new projects that aren't for the PSP, with Chains of Olympus being their "last PSP game." What's next? "Other projects and other ideas on other consoles" is all they'll say. Who wants to make some guesses?

Two Rumors, One Stone [Ready At Dawn]

...a quasi-16:9 widescreen mode — we call it "quasi" because it's not full resolution; thin black bars remain on each side of the screen.

UPDATE - I'm done with this topic. The build IGN were playing on was, according to Ready At Dawn, an old one, and RaD president Didier Malenfant has promised us that the final, retail build of the game will feature "full 16:9". Case closed. Move along.

Here's something you should've seen coming a mile away—a nipple-filled threesome mini-game in Ready At Dawn's PSP title God of War: Chains of Olympus. Outside of a polygonal pair of boobs, don't expect much more than a suggestive candle-as-phallus bobbing about on a crate, occasionally ejaculating hot wax. Suffice it to say, it's not safe for work, if only for the banging and moaning sounds, but mostly for the digital ta-tas.

Daxter has been an incredible success for us, especially considering it was our very first game as a company.

Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn co-founder, dropped me a line to let me know that his studio has put two eBay auctions up to hlp raise money for Child's Play.

The studio managed to get their hand on one of the last Daxter PSP Entertainment packs around and then had everyone at Ready at Dawn Studios. As if the cool autographed, hard-t0-find PSP weren't enough, the Ready at Dawn folks are throwing in an autographed piece of original production art from the game.

All proceeds go to Child's Play. Hit up the link for the U.S. auction, and check out Ready at Dawn's other auction if you live in Europe.

Ready at Dawn eBay Auction

The game on Wii is going to be an exact port of the PS2 version and I think that's what fans of the franchise want to see. This game has such a huge following throughout the world that people would probably send us death-threats if we messed it up by trying to add things that don't have their place in the Okami universe. Being huge fans of the franchise ourselves, we made sure that Capcom also wanted to stay true to the original before signing on to do this... To this day the graphics of Okami are some of the most awe-inspiring ever seen in a video-game and I know it sounds cliche but you don't want to fix something that's not broken.