2. Introduction  Paul Kerby  Lead Gameplay Programmer, Gotham Team  Gareth Wilson  Design Manager, Gotham Team

3. Presentation Format  Game Overview  Design  Art  Code  Production  Conclusions  Improvements to our process

4. Game Overview  “Speed and Style”  Visually “Next Generation”  Day 1 launch title XBOX 360  Average 89% review scores

5. Production Stats  2 year development cycle  67 Bizarre creations staff  100+ MGS staff  22,400 cans of Coke.  281,600 teabags & 9182 pints of milk!  One million air miles!

6. Software Used  Maya 6, XSI Advanced + Essentials  Visual Studio.NET(C#, C++)  Lua Scripting  Nuendo 2, Pro Tools, Soundforge  Alienbrain, Tortoise Subversion  MS Project 2003, Product Studio & RAID

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9. Design – What went Wrong  Design locked down too late  Lacked detail  Some design areas depended on new technology  Design changes not communicated  Time pressures relating to new hardware

10. Design – What went Right  Design documentation  Design reacted quickly to technical realities  The right features were trimmed  Microsoft design & balancing support excellent  Core pillars agreed early and stuck to

11. Design Pillars Screenshot PGR3 Design Pillars

12. Art – What Went Wrong  Moving to Maya caused an initial dip in production  Build instability caused massive overtime to get level of art polish required  Producing track surface left late in project  Rushed asset production – “too many last minute asset requests”

13. Art - What Went Right  All content produced on time, despite project issues  Outsourcing used on later stages  Visual detail outstanding  In-car view became a defining feature of the game

14. Tokyo Screenshot

15. Vegas ScreenTokyo Screenshot

16. London Screenshot

17. New York Screenshot

18. Nurburgring Screenshot

19. Code – What Went Wrong  Hardware dates changed  Early XDK’s sometimes unstable  Documentation neglected  Poor build stability hampered gameplay and art  Tools built from scratch for Maya

20. Code - What Went Right  MS support excellent  Programmers given specific areas to “own”  Build stabilised at the right time  Once complete, tool chain excellent  All game features flexible and scaleable  Use of scripting invaluable  Coders understood where the “next generation” bar was

21. Nine Months Out

22. Six Months Out

23. Two Months Out

24. Production – What went Wrong  To begin with we failed to realise the complexities of producing HD content  Everybody rushing to the line at the same time  Art and Tech were the focus, sometimes the game was neglected  Milestone targets not communicated well to the team  Programmers could have been scheduled better

25. Production – What went right  New team members hired at start of project  When an area was late resources were added  Empowerment of team members  Game Balancing process went right  Strong relationship with publisher  Outsourcing used effectively  People looked after in times of stress

26. Conclusions  We shipped on-time, a day 1 launch title  We were “Next Gen”  We don’t want to do it like that again!  Bizarre is in a prime position for future game development

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28. Pitfalls  Be ambitious but not too ambitious  Assume makes an ASS of U and ME  Ignore the previous generation at your peril!  Do things in the correct order  Unstable builds halt production

29. Funny Diary shots

34. Top Five Tips  Be Flexible and Scaleable  Communicate Change  Build Relationships  Reduce moving parts  Prepare team for overtime and look after them!

35. Any Questions???