Transistor uses DualShock 4 light bar to represent sword

Transistor, Supergiant Games‘ upcoming sci-fi strategy game about a woman who comes into possession of an extraordinary talking sword called the Transistor, will use DualShock 4’s light bar to represent the sword, the studio has revealed.

“See, among its many features, the DualShock 4 has this light bar on it, which can be programmed to display just about any color,” Supergiant creative director Greg Kasavin said on the PlayStation Blog. “When Sony revealed the controller, they suggested this light bar could have a variety of uses, such as visually distinguishing between four players in a cooperative game and stuff like that.

“Sony didn’t suggest it could be used to indicate when an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin was speaking to you. We soon found, however, that the light bar works really well for that. We got it to match the exact turquoise hue of the in-game weapon, and the flashing effect was in perfect sync. When I played with this for the first time, it felt a little more like the Transistor was right there in my own hands.”

These subtle features are “just as important as the big stuff,” according to Kasavin. They’re “fun and interesting little details” that “gives the best games their distinctive character and personality.” And it only took “maybe a couple of hours” to implement.

The studio is also looking into doing something with the controller’s built-in speaker. Maybe we’ll have the option of hearing the Transistor speak through there?

Transistor is due out for PlayStation 4 in early 2014.