French middleware company Omegame announced that Paris-based developer Quantic Dream licensed Menus Master, a user interface toolchain, for upcoming PlayStation 3-exclusive title
Heavy Rain.
Menus Master is designed to help artists and programmers reduce the time it takes to author game user interfaces, such as 2D and 3D front-ends, in-game UIs, and heads-up displays. With the software, game user interfaces can be fully authored by artists, without the assistance of a programmer.
Though little has been revealed about
Heavy Rain, which is due sometime in 2009, director David Cage has previously described it as a "dark film noir thriller with mature themes."
Quantic Dream’s previous titles include
Omikron: The Nomad Soul, which was released for PC and Dreamcast, and
Indigo Prophecy (also known as
Fahrenheit in Europe) for the Xbox, PS2, and PC.
"We want to immerse audiences emotionally in the story, make them care for the characters and what happens to them," says Quantic Dream's co-CEO and
Heavy Rain's executive producer Guillaume de Fondaumière.
He continues, "The user interface, which is the link between the game and the player, is therefore very important. We benchmarked different technologies available on the market, and finally selected Menus Master as it was the only solution providing both great artistic possibilities and easy integration within our in-house engine and tools.”
