With videogames now a billion dollar a year industry, it’s no wonder that gaming studios are secretive when it comes to their high-profile titles – something we discovered first hand when we caught up with Full Sail Game Development graduate Shaun McCabe, who is busy working on a tightly-guarded project for the upcoming Playstation 3.

With Sony’s latest console expected to ship later this year, we recently checked in with Shaun at Insomniac Studios in Burbank, CA where he’s currently working on a game known only under the working title I-8. “It’s a sci-fi first person shooter, and that all I can really say,” Shaun says. “I would love to say anything beyond that, but our Marketing Director would probably strangle me!”

As a Sound Programmer on I-8, Shaun McCabe is in charge of creating the technology required to bring the game’s audio components to life. The game is his first title for the Playstation 3, after he previously worked on the Playstation 2 titles Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked, and he’s excited about the extra power afforded to him by Sony’s shiny new box.

“With the new generation of consoles coming out, we’re finally seeing an opportunity to really push the envelope on sound,” Shaun explains. “There’s going to be a level of detail and realism that we haven’t seen in games before with these systems, and it’s really exciting because I’m actually working on things that nobody’s done before because this machine has so much horsepower! When the PS3 launches, it’s definitely going to be able to deliver on people’s expectations.

“[The PS3] is going to bring such a greater level of immersion to gaming because we’re more accurately able to model the acoustics of the environment and the way sound moves through space,” he continues. “One of the big components in this title is there an element of creepiness to it, and sound is a huge part of that. So it’s also become a useful gameplay tool too, because what you hear tells your brain a lot about what’s going on in the game, and that’s totally complementary to the visual experience. You should actually be able to close your eyes and get a really good sense of what’s going on in the game world… that’s ultimately one of our goals – that you can navigate it blind!”

After almost five years in the industry, Shaun still finds himself just as excited as his first day on the job. “I don’t think there are a lot of people who get the opportunity to sit down with as talented a group of people as I get to on a daily basis. That’s always continually amazing to me, just how much brain power goes into this. And if people are going to shell out X number of dollars for a new system, they should expect a lot more from the games. I really like that challenge to wow people, that’s why I wanted to do this job in the first place.”

Thanks to the Playstation 3, the innovations Shaun McCabe and the design team at Insomniac Games have been able to implement in their latest seem poised to help bring interactive gaming to a new level. At the end of the day, however, it’s all about bringing something into the world for people to enjoy.

“Honestly, the most rewarding thing is seeing a title you’ve worked on out there on the shelf, and seeing a kid play it on little kiosk and having a blast,” Shaun admits. “That is such a cool feeling! I can live vicariously through them when I see people really enjoying it. One time, I saw a mother trying to drag her kid away from a kiosk where he was play Ratchet & Clank 3! And that reminded me of exactly why I do this. Because it ends up being such a memorable experience for consumers, and that makes it all worthwhile.”