Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Visiting with old friends...

Out in Utah for the next few days, tuning and tweaking levels for Tm:Lost and Tm:Head On. Man, being with these characters, these cars, being in this world, it feels like visiting with old friends...again! I thought I was done with car combat after Black but I'm surprised at how much fun I am having! Lots of passion for this little port, I have to say. I really hope you guys/gals dig what we are doing! Here's some quick pics:


Hmmm...


That's the car ROADKILL racing thru the Hollywood level of TM:HEAD ON. The team is in the processes of resing up the textures so it will look much nicer on the PS2 that it did on PSP. They are off to a great start!


Every TM game has 30-40 pages of tweaks. Here's just one of the pages, car dynamics. Today I was working with Scott to tune the car speeds, turn radius, decide how much skid/slide the vehicles should have. I am starting to feel when we made Black, we made too chaotic of a game. The ability to focus on the action and play in a more strategic way got lost for many players. On the port we are toying with dialing it back a bit, exploring the idea of getting back to what made the earlier TM games so much more accessable.


Here is just one page of the main menu of tweaks. It encompasses things like car dynamic tuning; weapon tuning (hit points,speed of weapon, rate of pick up regeneration,etc), AI, and lighting effects. Out of all of these pages, I usually focus on only about 4-10 of them. The others I never touch...cause I don't have a clue what the hell they do!


Art for the shell. Don't let all the Bonus Features fool you. We WANT all that stuff...not sure if we'll be able to get it all in. But we're going to shoot for as much as we can!


Lots and lots of play tuning going on these days, trying to get it just right. Here is one of the levels being tuned and tweaked. One of the most fun parts of this game is sitting with the level builders and pushing and pulling the 3d geometry around, adding a road here, putting up a wall there (well it's fun for me, I just ask for stuff and someone else does all the hard work)! I am always surprised by how one little element (a ramp, a wall, a blockade) set down in just the right place can make a level a blast to play. After all these years I still don't know how to make a great TM level. We can pretty consistently make a good level; but the great ones you just close your eyes and prey because they just sort of come together and end up great, and you are never really sure how or why. The Rooftop level in TM1 is- to me- one of the best levels we've ever made. But rooftops on BLACK is a pretty poor level to me, and we worked HARDER on the Black rooftops than on any other rooftop level in the series! Go figure! Shows what the hell we know! :)


New snazzy reflective, warbly water going into the Egyptian level. Lots of nice spfx touches going in the game- besides the upresed graphics- to make this thing really pop!


Ok, so there's a photo tour of my day. Had to get up at 3:45am to catch a 6:15 flight to Utah so I am friend. Heading to bed. Night ya'll!

David

37 comments:

Unknown said...

sweet, it's nice to get a behind-the-scenes look.

onAXIS said...

Hey David Jaffe,
Nice to hear about that Twisted Metal Game your working on. You think you can affiliate with my site?

http://onaxis.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I hear Bioshock will be coming to PS3 early next year. You didn't hear it from me though. Twisted Metal FTW!!

felman said...

Honestly, I didn't like Black that much. I felt that it was a little too hard to kill the guys. Maybe I'm just screwed up or something. ^_^

PlayStation Museum said...

David, I get off on behind-the-scenes looks. I find game designing so interesting. Thanks for showing us the progress and what's involved.

Now get to work on Jet Moto 4. Hmm, where'd I put that anyhow?

Sadeq said...

I'm not sure why but I am interested in this remake (though I am not a TM fan and I already have Head On on PSP). Guess I'll be playing this one on my PS3.

Sadeq said...

Just noticed that none of the TVs in the photos is a Sony brand. WTF?!

Coldhand said...

wow... nice nice nice looks great.
I like it! :DDD

Sebastian

Unknown said...

Definitely looks awesome so far. But man oh man I wish this was going to be on the PS3 in 720p or 1080p! Beggars can't be choosers, but my most wanted game right now is definitely a PS3 Twisted Metal, but its gotta be built by you guys. I think most would agree.

Brice Gilbert said...

Yeah Black was really really fast. Maybe a little too fast.

derrickgott007 said...

David,

Whats up with all those crappy tv's in the pictures? Is that how you guys make sure the game still looks good even on crap tv's? (like mine!)

Anonymous said...

It makes sense what you say about the rooftops. I messaged in one of your other topics. Sometimes a level just feels right, that is what I was saying you haveto focus on simply making the levels and the way the cars handle your top priorties.

Simple clean, good atmosphere level builds is the way to go.

The interstate/highway level in TM 1 was amazing, as was most of the other levels like the suburban area.

If you only took those levels and added in textures and maybe abitilty to go into buildings and what not, it would be grand.

Just call them "classic" levels and put them in the game too, wouldn't hurt.

Anonymous said...

You hit the nail on the head with Black. Too chaotic. I thought maybe it had to do with the level size. They seemed bigger than the levels in Twisted Metal 1&2, though I'm not sure if thats true. Either way, I'm now really looking forward to this. It was slightly on my radar before, but now I'm thoroughly interested.

DKSE said...

Was Twisted Metal: Black 2 canceled? That would have been an awesome game. And by TM: Lost do mean a new TM?

felman said...

I think I noticed some pictures that weren't there previously....or maybe I'm just too over-medicated.

Wolf26pack said...

Hey David

I have always enjoyed your TM Games and the Series My favorite has to be 1&2 and then Black.

1&2 were just classics I just wish I would have taken better care of my TM 1 Disc so it didn't break on me,but I can't wait to play it on the PSN when it comes out on there. I still have TM 2 and still play it, what a classic.

I really enjoyed Black with it's great music and Dark Atmosphere and the Story's were just the best of the Series how each of the characters ended up screwing themselves over. I loved it. It may have been to chaotic but I felt it was very well made.

Sorry to go on but the real reason I came here to leave a comment was because I too wonder what TM:Lost is? I have never heard of that one I hope you can emphasize on that one for us.

Unknown said...

^ Its the lost levels from TM: Black 2.

Anonymous said...

Dammit, Jaffe! Those are wide screens! Make use of them!
Argh! So many games force me into 4:3 on my sexeh widescreen, and it just feels wrong...

Anonymous said...

twisted metal black was fucking awesome...but it was a hardcore game. like if your going to pick it up once every few weeks youll prolly not do well....you gotta session the shit out of it to get awesome

whereas twisted metal 2 was more causal i think

Wolf26pack said...

Thanks Jeff I thought it was some new game or perhaps a canceled one.

Anonymous said...

Black was great. Cutscenes were so damn great... I saw some Jacob's Ladder in there... Am I right? You know, the head shaking stuff with Sweetz.

I never played the game for too long, I don't know, the cars didn't feel heavy, they were not grounded enough and impacts of projectiles weren't brutal at all. You know, when I throw a missile at someone I want to see that big blast and maybe add a stop motion like when you hit opponents with your sword in Zelda TP. Something that tells me "you hit that guy and he paid the price, BIG TIME". Yeah, with every single attacks. Heavy rumble is always nice too.. a short but intense rumble. Enemies were not too hard to kill... it felt that way because the impacts from attacks were too low key. You never felt the destructive effects of your attacks.

When cars are landing after a jump I want to see big spark effects and you almost lose control of the car. I want intense stuff from TM. Black was good enough, but didn't feature all these brutal touches I wished would be added.

Specials were not balanced at all. Some characters had these extremely powerful specials while others had those "can I suck your cock" specials... and you had to play with them all to unlock their stories. What a pain that was.

I know, Black was maybe a bit too dark to please the mass... but man, some of the stages were just awesome with that style.

Also, when you ram into a car there should be like this huge impact when you use the turbo... and the turbo should be used like bursts that are used solely to ram your opponents...not holding down a turbo button. You have 3 injections or something, but it's not used to get away... man, this is Twisted Metal... You use it to destroy your opponent. You use one turbo burst as a powerful burst attack and BAM major damage. The car body all broken from this impact.


Anyways, can't wait to play the new game. Keep up the good work.

maartyrr said...

Nice work Dave, I cant wait to play this game. I thought the pacing and the controls in black were perfect. If anything I found that it was a lot easier to concentrate on the battles going on around. In tm2 I had to worry about controling car and how far to turn the car before the car started sliding out of control. With TMB physics I didnt have to worry about that happening and I could take my eyes off the car and just focus on what was going on around my car. I know its impossible to please both fan groups the tmb and the tm2 but I'm going to venture a guess that you'll find a balance somewhere in the middle. Actually I dont care how you do it I'm going to be playing the shit out of this game. Viva la twisted! Goodluck with the project I know that it'll turn out great

Anonymous said...

give us a trailer!

Anonymous said...

hey Dave & company..... met u at the Metreon in SF....anyway, me and my friends loved and played the rooftops in TM2 for months.....

Anonymous said...

the game looks nice, and it'll be nice replaying tmho on my ps3. i was big into the tmho for psp and me and my tHc clan played all the time before moving to socom for a while, and in a couple days we'll be hitting up warhawk.

Zodiak said...

^ But killing Warhawk in Black was much more pleasing lol

love that Egypt stage Dave, that water looks amazingly realistic =)

-Z

Anonymous said...

Greetings, Mr. Jaffe. I sent you an e-mail a week ago-- I hope you got it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the behind the scenes look Dave. Things look promising. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

This looks very promising, keep up the good work Dave!

Anonymous said...

David,

Thanks for the inside peek. Its cool when you let us see the "man behind the curtain".

We gonna get any clues to your next game venture? When will your new company's site be up?

Dutch
www.thedigitalblast.com

felman said...

Getting warhawk jaffe?

s said...

Sony seems really cool about letting you post dev pics...I wish my former publisher was as understanding.

Anonymous said...

I *loved* Black. Loved it. I'll definitely buy the new TM game the day it comes out.

My all-time favorite TM level was Paris in TM2. It'd be cool if you could just up-rez the textures and bring some of those classic levels into the new game. MarioKart DS did that, and those "classic" tracks were just as much fun as most of the new ones, imo.

I also really liked the cinematics in the games (TM2 and Black). I've forgotten the cinematics in 98% of games I've ever played, but I still remember those TM ones, many years later. Designing those characters, vehicles, and backstories must have been a blast.

Anonymous said...

You should put a OST of Twisted Metal 1,2, Black and Head-On... I still have that Paris's Theme from TM2 playing in loop in my head !

Anonymous said...

Sounds good so far, though I do wish that an HD version of this was coming to the PS3. Well, actually I wish a full on sequel to Black built for the PS3 from the ground up was coming... but I'll take what I can get.

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