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(Image: SONY)

Spider-Man's PS4 Pro gameplay reveal was probably one of the few genuine highlights of Sony's E3 2017 Press conference last month.

Just a year before, Sony delivered a shock and awe teaser trailer that few expected but many could forget.

A year on and Insomniac Games delivered that all-important gameplay trailer, showing just how everyone's friendly neighbourhood Spider-man would perform when put in the hands of the player.

You'd have to say, it was a definite success, delivering something reminiscent of the seminal Arkham trilogy of Batman games, but with arguably a little more zip in its step and an awful lot more vibrancy compared to the gloom of Gotham City.

Though Insomniac Games have been happy to answer questions through Twitter, be it with comparisons to Ratchet & Clank's incredible PS4 graphics or addressing concerns over quick time events, nothing beats sitting down with one of the team.

Thankfully, at E3 we were able to revisit the demo in the company of Insomniac Games Creative Director Bryan Intihar, a self-confessed Spider-Man fanatic who was more than happy oblige with our non-stop questions.

In return, we've learned a little more about the games use of villains, how Xbox One title Sunset Overdrive helped prepare the team for making their web-slinging PS4 exclusive and the great responsibility that comes with making a Spider-Man game.

From what we've seen so far, you've drawn a lot of inspiration from the more modern Spider-Man story arcs, with Mr Negative and Miles Morales. How much of the older Spidey character are we likely to see?Well, we’re looking at all the characters, old and new, picking and choosing where we feel the characters fit best. You're going to see classic characters like Kingpin and newcomers like Mr Negative. We've got a healthy mix of both for sure.

There are so many villains you could pick from, where do you start?

I will say that when we started the project I was like 'I want that villain, that character and this how do we make this work' - I sent it to the lead writer Jon Paquette and I was like 'make all these guys work, make them work'.

How do you start to make them all work then?

I look at it from two different ways:

From a narrative standpoint and how can we challenge or involve Peter in a way, and how does that relationship tie in with him. The magic happens when you take Peters world and Spider-Man’s world and collide them. There’s a reason why he says Martin Lee when he sees Mr Negative. Peter knows Martin Lee, Martin Lee runs the food shelters where Aunt May works. So there's one reason why we chose him, we can bring those two worlds together, that's the philosophy with the entire story. Those collisions.

And then we're looking at it from a design standpoint. How can it challenge the player, like with strategy? With Wilson Fisk's thugs, Spider-Man can beat the crap out of those guys easy. We chose the Inner Demons because they have no negative energy, the energy they give their weapons require the player and Spider-Man to work. It’s the same for villains, we wanted to mix up how we do it. Really push and pull as much as possible.

Does that mean that because you want villains and characters to lean on Peter Parker as much as Spider-Man that we won’t get the types of villains, like say Rhino, who have less attachment to Peter, over say a Dr. Curt Connors?

No no, we still have those characters. That's a bonus for us, to have something tied to Peter, but it's not a requirement, and we’ll still have some who only know Spider-Man.

For the main story, we'll want to lean on Peter, but we also want to have a great Marvel experience with a big cast and it would feel awkward if they all knew Peter.

Lastly on the villains, do we get to see all of them? Or have you drawn on the Arkham games where some characters are maybe hinted at in side quests, rather than seen in a big way in the actual game?

I’m not sure that’s something we can share ... just yet.

Away from the villains for a second, do you have any original characters

We’re going to focus on characters you know. They’re all established in the Marvel world.

And will we be playing as Peter Parker outside of the suit at any point?

I will tell you that, Peter is an integral part of the experience.

And would that involve Mary Jane at all?

You will have a romantic interest and that’s all I’ll say...

When it came to the gameplay, how prepared were the team having worked on Sunset Overdrive, which has a lot of similar traversal elements?

Funny you mention that because when I was reading a Sunset Overdrive review years ago, someone actually mentioned that Insomniac would be great at making a Spider-Man game, so I cut that out and sent it to Sony!

I guess, building an open world that is based on traversal, helped a lot, it gave us a leg up to start with, but at the same time, Spider-Man brings a uniqueness to it, Sunset was a lot more grinding and looking for things to go for, Spider-Man can go anywhere, do anything. Sunset gave us a leg up with adapting Spidey's unique features, but we're still retaining that same fun fluidity and style.

Do players have a progressions/upgrades system with their Spider-Man character?

We'll have progressions, but we’re not talking about it just yet.

We've only seen the game running in broad daylight. Does this take place in one day?

It’s multiple days. it doesn’t happen in one 24 hour period.

Ok, so, will we have any moments at night in the city and will users experience different weather?

Yup and we have different stages of weather for sure.

And, does that affect the gameplay at all? Like if it's raining does it impact on gameplay?

We probably can’t talk about it too much for now and I’m probably going to get killed for saying that.

How closely did you look at past Spider-Man games before making this, especially say Spiderman 2 which is often seen as the benchmark?

For a lot of people, Spiderman 2 was the game people first felt like Spider-Man, of course, we’ve totally played that and many others games too. Shattered Dimensions, Ultimate Spiderman and more recently with Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2. For me, I loved the Neversoft games.

We’ve definitely played them all and when you're making a game like Spiderman who has such a following and such a history we want to see what others have done before us. So we're looking at what they’ve done and see how we can bring something new to the game as well.

I was just as big a fan of Spiderman 2 like you. Pizza deliveries and all.

Have there been any surprises throughout development?

All the time. The parkour elements especially. I don't think I can boil it down to one. Game development is always a surprise, we have surprises all the time, but that's when Insomniac shines, when we get the unexpected, this team rallies. I don’t think people necessarily stand up and talk about it, but those guys are the superstars.

What do you think's been the greatest challenge for the team making this?

So I used to have a lot more hair when we started this project! What's been the biggest challenge? I think whether the game is enough about Spider-man is always a big concern, like is it too much about the other characters or are the villains interesting enough. or is the villain just there to fight, or can you empathise with him.

But that's just from a story standpoint, then you think of Spider-Man's traversal. If it’s not right we’ll hear about it, right? How fast does he go, what sort of movement does he have.

Every aspect of the game has had that, not crisis moment, but like that moment when we've really got figure something out.

There’s a line in the trailer where Peter says no pressure right, that ties a lot to how we feel making the game.

We feel an enormous amount of responsibility, to get it right and it’s a wonderful character and we’ve been supremely fortunate to work on him. But we want it to be as good as it can be.