Celebrating 10 years of creativity at Firesprite with our project teams
This November, Firesprite turns 10 years old! To mark this significant milestone, we’ve been sharing some special memories and celebrations all month-long, including interviews with our project teams who reflect on our journey so far with never-before-seen insights and work. Our project reflections series begins today with the captivating and energetic, THE PLAYROOM!
Released in 2013, Team ASOBI’s THE PLAYROOM is an augmented reality adventure for PlayStation 4 which combined the PlayStation Camera with the unique features of the DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller for a world chock full of interactive augmented reality fun!
We catch up with Firesprite Art Director, Lee Carus, Senior Animator, Gav Fitzgerald, Associate Art Director, Rob Sutton, and Senior Storyboard Artist, Darren Douglas, on their time contributing to THE PLAYROOM and working with our good friends Team ASOBI, 10 years on.
How did it feel to work with Team ASOBI on their innovative project?
Gav: It was a good collaboration. Once we got to know the team members in Japan, and who was in charge of each discipline, we were in regular communication and things went very smoothly. It was also exciting for me to be talking to a team on the other side of the world.
Lee: We iterated and communicated daily. We’d get into a cadence of daily deliverables. With the distance between our 2 teams, it was essential, and it worked. We really appreciated our daily calls and had huge respect for Team ASOBI!
What were some of your most memorable moments of working with Team ASOBI?
Darren: Seeing just how much character the animators could put into those super simple designs, they seem so alive, there’s so much attitude in those little bots when they’re in motion!
Do you have any message for your Firesprite and Team ASOBI teammates as we reflect back today?
Rob: Thank you for bringing me along on this journey! I learned so much during the early days of THE PLAYROOM and THE PLAYROOM VR, and it was certainly down to being surrounded by the amazing team we had at Firesprite and the incredibly talented folks from Team ASOBI. I can’t believe it’s been ten years already!
