So you know how Tearaway, Media Molecule's latest PlayStation Vita game, presents a paper world? The premise is that you can interact with this world much in the same way you would actual paper. Most of us go, hey, that's neat, this looks cool. It's a distinct visual style that will work wonders for 'em, because its insanely charming.
But did you know that this world isn't strictly digital? Actually, some of the levels are being built in real life, with actual paper! The developers say this in an interview with Gamasutra:
MH: Most of the concept art is being made with paper.
RC: It's true.
MH: The office is filling up with all these paper things. It's not concept-on-paper anymore. The concept is paper, I suppose, and you actually make it and give it to the artist to make.
RC: Exactly.
MH: So there's an integrity in the art style.
All the models in the game? Are the environments are being modeled traditionally?
RC: No, everything is constructed that way.
AE: Everything is paper.
Is there a real version of everything in the game, like a real paper vision in the real world?
RC: Oh, yes.
AE: So, the announced level, we have a diorama. Our web designer… I haven't realized this until today, so I thought he was just a super genius, maybe he is, but he apparently was a closet papercraft nutter, and we didn't know this. He's built a diorama of the whole opening that you see in the trailer that's just been released, and photographed it. And the engine programmers are looking back at it and going, "Hm, yeah, we should tweak it like this." It really looks like a screenshot from the game. Yeah, everything is legit. The engine tech to do all of the folds and stuff is actually relatively hardcore. There's a lot of crazy math…
And it turns out that as you play, you unlock PDFs so that you can create the things in Tearaway, too. Amazing.
