Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Web-Swinging Took Insomniac Nearly 3 Years to Make

Web-swinging is the most important part of any Spider-Man game. Sure, a good story is nice, a quality open-world design goes a long way, and visual fidelity is always a nice perk, but if the web-swinging is bad in a Spider-Man game, the game is bad. That said, the web-swinging is what Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 gets right the most, and thus it should come as no surprise that a lot of work went into it, like three years worth of work.

Speaking at Gamelab 2019 in Barcelona, Spain, Game Director Ryan Smith talked about the PS4 game’s early development, including the early stages of its swinging mechanic. According to Smith, it was the first thing the team began working on, and it wasn’t finished until near the end of development, meaning it took roughly three years to complete.

Interestingly, the team initially began with a physics-based swinging system, but it proved to be too much of a hassle to get to work. For example, an issue was players would constantly crash into buildings, which isn’t fun and isn’t Spider-Man. It also made wall-running difficult, and so eventually Insomniac made some changes towards what’s in the game today.

Also turning corners was a difficult thing to master, and ultimately Insomniac decided on something more fluid feeling rather than something that required precise control movements.

“Carrying momentum through transitions–that was something where, when we unlocked some of that momentum transfer between big swings and different places you can leap off in a swing, that was a huge game changer for us,” said Smith. “Adding an expressive camera that makes you feel like you are Spider-Man–how would you feel during those swings, during the dive, and how can we emphasise that with the camera? All of that was developed over the space of two or three years, finding those opportunities based on the prototype we had.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man is available for PS4 and the PlayStation 4 only. For more news, media, and information on all things Spider-Man, be sure to peep all of our previous and extensive coverage of the hero and all things related to him by clicking right here.

Thanks, VG 24/7.