http://www.bizarreonline.net/index.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=47
New testers join, and The Boy puts weird stuff on his head.
This week we've been welcoming some new testers to Bizarre Creations. Tom, Adrian, David, John, Sam, Matt, Scott, Joseph, Steve, and Tom #2 are playing PGR3 as we speak... those lucky scamps. They might be enjoying it at the moment, but after several weeks of The Boy's cone challenges they might be singing a different tune! Argh!
We've taken on this bunch of new guys for a few weeks whilst we work out some of those elusive bugs. In fact, most of these guys' time is going to be spent doing what we like to call, game play balancing. This basically involves playing the game in hundreds of different variations to ensure that the difficulty level is consistent and slowly ascending. Have you ever wondered how designers make video games get progressively harder toward the end? Well, it doesn't happen by accident, it takes TEAMS of people to continually play, replay, and adjust for months on end. This is especially important in a skill-based game such as PGR3.
Some of the tasks our new testers have been doing include:
* Simulating an AI car race to set generic lap times.
* Fine tuning difficulty settings.
* Giving feedback on the new Kudos system.
* User Interface testing.
* Playing through career mode and testing medal difficulty.
These guys are going to have time working against them, as our game's launch slowly approaches. After all, there is ALWAYS something left to tweak no matter how much time you dedicate to it! This was perfectly represented in The Boy's customised "balancing headphones" this week...
The Boy's Balancing Headphones
I suppose you know when you're in crunch time when previously reasonable people start to stick pieces of paper to their heads. It might start a fashion... who knows? Another crunch-time sob story is that of Toby's tooth ache. He sits with a bottle of mouthwash on his desk, occasionally taking a swig to numb the pain. Apparently he's working so hard that he doesn't have time to go to the dentist... (Yeah right! I bet it's got more to do with those drill things they have!).
Anyway, it's about time we released a new PGR3 screenshot. This little beauty is a shot of an Enzo cruising across one of New York City's road bridges.
As always, this screenshot is in-game and running on 360 hardware. It isn't a mock-up or such like... Pay particular attention to the reflections of the bridge on the car's paintwork and windows; this is something we're especially proud of. In fact, we're still working on improving the overall appearance of the car materials and their interaction with the scene at the moment. Charlie (a programmer at Bizarre) has taken some incredible test screenshots which I will drop into a future Studio Update.
If you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up to the forums at http://www.bizarreonline.net/forum/ and chat about PGR3. Plenty of the Bizarre team visit the forums on a regular basis, and chances are you'll get to hear some more info "straight from the horses mouth". We've also been improving the layout and features of many facets of Bizarre Online in the last week or so - be sure to have a quick look and check out the changes!
There'll be more from Bizarre Creations next week...
New testers join, and The Boy puts weird stuff on his head.
This week we've been welcoming some new testers to Bizarre Creations. Tom, Adrian, David, John, Sam, Matt, Scott, Joseph, Steve, and Tom #2 are playing PGR3 as we speak... those lucky scamps. They might be enjoying it at the moment, but after several weeks of The Boy's cone challenges they might be singing a different tune! Argh!
We've taken on this bunch of new guys for a few weeks whilst we work out some of those elusive bugs. In fact, most of these guys' time is going to be spent doing what we like to call, game play balancing. This basically involves playing the game in hundreds of different variations to ensure that the difficulty level is consistent and slowly ascending. Have you ever wondered how designers make video games get progressively harder toward the end? Well, it doesn't happen by accident, it takes TEAMS of people to continually play, replay, and adjust for months on end. This is especially important in a skill-based game such as PGR3.
Some of the tasks our new testers have been doing include:
* Simulating an AI car race to set generic lap times.
* Fine tuning difficulty settings.
* Giving feedback on the new Kudos system.
* User Interface testing.
* Playing through career mode and testing medal difficulty.
These guys are going to have time working against them, as our game's launch slowly approaches. After all, there is ALWAYS something left to tweak no matter how much time you dedicate to it! This was perfectly represented in The Boy's customised "balancing headphones" this week...
The Boy's Balancing Headphones
I suppose you know when you're in crunch time when previously reasonable people start to stick pieces of paper to their heads. It might start a fashion... who knows? Another crunch-time sob story is that of Toby's tooth ache. He sits with a bottle of mouthwash on his desk, occasionally taking a swig to numb the pain. Apparently he's working so hard that he doesn't have time to go to the dentist... (Yeah right! I bet it's got more to do with those drill things they have!).
Anyway, it's about time we released a new PGR3 screenshot. This little beauty is a shot of an Enzo cruising across one of New York City's road bridges.
As always, this screenshot is in-game and running on 360 hardware. It isn't a mock-up or such like... Pay particular attention to the reflections of the bridge on the car's paintwork and windows; this is something we're especially proud of. In fact, we're still working on improving the overall appearance of the car materials and their interaction with the scene at the moment. Charlie (a programmer at Bizarre) has taken some incredible test screenshots which I will drop into a future Studio Update.
If you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up to the forums at http://www.bizarreonline.net/forum/ and chat about PGR3. Plenty of the Bizarre team visit the forums on a regular basis, and chances are you'll get to hear some more info "straight from the horses mouth". We've also been improving the layout and features of many facets of Bizarre Online in the last week or so - be sure to have a quick look and check out the changes!
There'll be more from Bizarre Creations next week...
