Nour Polloni interviewed by Peliplaneetta.net (Finnish)

[superhyper]

Done!

 

Test Drive series has long roots in the

gaming history. The newest part is sequel

to 4-year old Test Drive Unlimited, which

was made by Eden Games.

Eden Games is currently finishing TDU2

for PC, PS3 and X360, which is coming

out in the end of September.

Peliplaneetta had an opportunity to

interview the lead producer of TDU2,

Nour Polloni

 

Social media integrates into games more

often nowadays. What kind of challenge

does this give to the developer paying

attention to quick development of the

market and long development time of the

game?

 

- It is certainly not easy process, because

in the development part it's necessary to

keep up with the changes of the market.

The original TDU was open towards

social networking, so we wanted to

continue working on our plans and listen

to the community.

We sliced the game to development

parts, which had their own responsible

groups, which made the progress like in

layers. After development we tried

different parts and investigated if there's

anything we can add to the game.

 

The current information gives us the

image that the game has huge amount of

stuff in it, which made the game feel

difficult to make. Was it easy to combine

the huge amount of content and easy

approachability?

 

- It is really important for us that the game

is easy to approach right from the start.

The first minutes are essential and we

hope that the different tips included in the

story help to get used to the varied

content.

We wanted to make the feeling of

freedom even better in the sequel but at

the same time it helps the player to know

his/her next step. In addition to that we

made a new mission page to remind the

player of the available missions without

forcing him/her to do them in a specified

order.

 

Storyline and racing games have never

been too good when put together. How

does TDU2 combine storyline with

racing?

 

- We use the storyline as a kind of a red

line in the game. The player's success

determines the progress and the story of

course includes rivals which are a

motivation to complete the races to beat

them. The game is not just chasing the

championships but the storyline lives

when the player wins the championships.

But we didn't want to do a linear storyline,

so you can go cruise online between

races and when you feel like it you can

keep defeating the rivals in the story.

 

Is the willing to replace the regular

experience collecting with social status stuff

behind the social networking?

 

- We think one of the charms of the game

is showing off your success like you for

example show off your holiday photos and

videos in Facebook. Nowadays it's

normal to show what you are doing and

what you have achieved, so we have tried

to bring the same thinking to our game.

You have mentioned the DLC is based on

the feedback of the community. In terms

of development this means that the game

has to be supported for one or two years

after the release. How have you prepared

for so long life cycle?

 

- After the release we dedicate one

development team to keep the community

alive and another team to develop the

DLC. We use many ways, like Facebook

and the community website to collect the

feedback. We can for example make

polls to hear what the community wants

next.

We aim to react to the feedback as fast

as possible and not make the DLC for the

next year because they wouldn't possibly

like it then.

Eden Games has done huge jumps from

platformer Kya to Test Drive and

adventure game Alone in the Dark. Will

you try different ways in your game

development?

 

- Absolutely! We like challenges and we

are an ambitious studio. We want to

create innovations and we have teams

which like racing games and teams which

like adventure games. We have tried to

put features that differ from regular racing

games.

We will see lots of new racing games this

year but TDU2 looks like it will differ from

the mass in a positive way. Where you

think the genre will develop in the future?

 

- The original TDU was one of the first

racing games where you had an open

environment, which is staring to appear in

other racing games. Social medias and

these features have a bigger and bigger

role all the time so I wouldn't be amazed if

these features will start to appear in even

more racing games.

It was important to us that we would offer

a whole new driving experience instead

of the regular closed track racing. It

carries years more than the track thinking.

We think we are a trendsetter and the

other developers will follow when they see

our games are succesful.

One more thing, will the PS3 and X360

versions be identical?

 

- Yes!

 

Sorry for the rubbish/unclear translation but there it is :)

[Camel]

Moved, but if the article isn't posted in 837.3 seconds exactly I will send the squirrel mafia after you. :nuts:

[Psyhoman]

Moved, but if the article isn't posted in 837.3 seconds exactly I will send the squirrel mafia after you.

Haha...

 

OT:Can't wait! Get on with it!

[Eudemon]

So he's got about 12mins left.

[superhyper]

Translation done, is the squirrel mafia after me already? :eek:

[Psyhoman]

Nice. That was fast. Some useful info there.

[Eudemon]

Don't forget to credit the original author. :)

[superhyper]

Don't forget to credit the original author. :)

 

The authors name is nowhere to be seen so...;)

[TiagoLima]

coool good

[CLR-GTR]

Who knows the cellphone people thought to hear in the Cars and Locations trailer might serve to call for new challenges, just like you had in GTA IV, where you got textmessages about the cars you had to steal.

[Zulnex]

Very nice. Thank you for translating and posting.

[StormLine]

i wonder if the interview was in english and then translated to finnish to be translated back to english. :para: not that your translation, SuperhyperTDU, would be bad. i like to indicate the source. it may not be easy to find weeks later when its not the first entry on the main page.

[Dan G]

so the PS3 and X360 versions will be identical, great, but will PC???? :)

[RazorX63]

There were some cool informations in that interview. Thanks for translating. A bit, too late for those. ; d

[V12 Monstro]

Dude's nothing really has changed in the racing game world since tdu 1 was released. Thats until i saw MC Los Angeles car graphics were banana's. I think atari and eden dropped the ball because a person like my self would have had dlc being released as cars come out to the real world and work on tdu2 at the same time.So do not bore me with all that nonsense this is 2010 and get with the program. The next gen consoles will feature mostly downloaded games which will put the rental company's out of business just like there hurting the gaming industry today! read about that and take notes.....<<<major factor nowadays :oook:

[Latetzki]

Link to original interview would be also nice.

[Not Saop]

Dude's nothing really has changed in the racing game world since tdu 1 was released. Thats until i saw MC Los Angeles car graphics were banana's. I think atari and eden dropped the ball because a person like my self would have had dlc being released as cars come out to the real world and work on tdu2 at the same time.So do not bore me with all that nonsense this is 2010 and get with the program. The next gen consoles will feature mostly downloaded games which will put the rental company's out of business just like there hurting the gaming industry today! read about that and take notes.....<<<major factor nowadays :oook:

 

Wait, what?