Test Drive Unlimited Developer Diary

Test Drive Unlimited Developer Diary

December 20th, 2006, 20:17 Posted By: wraggster

Via IGN

Test Drive Unlimited launched this past September on the Xbox 360, and this coming February it's set to hit the PS2, PC and PSP. Offering up an inside look at the development of the PSP version of the game is Kevin Burfett of Melbourne House, the game's developer. Have a read.

I'm back again to tell you some more about Test Drive Unlimited - this time I'm talking about the PSP version.

It's pretty incredible when I first show people the Playstation 2 version of Test Drive Unlimited, they are usually amazed at what has been squeezed into that platform. But to see their faces when I pull out a PSP out of my pocket that's running the game, wow. The general reaction is that it is impossible to make this game for the PSP, which makes the achievement all the more satisfying for all of us at Melbourne House.

We've spent a lot of time working out how to keep the core gameplay of Test Drive Unlimited on the PSP. We've managed to squeeze the entire island of Oahu into your hands, which is an incredible technical feat.

Every piece of the 1000 miles of road is there in a fully streaming world. You can race around the entire island in a single session without seeing a loading screen.

All of the cars have been remodeled specifically for the PSP, and they look fantastic on that beautiful PSP screen. That's a wonderful thing about working on a handheld console, the developer and the end user have exactly the same screen - no differences in size, shape or color. What you see is exactly what the developer intended you to see.

We've also gone through the island and optimized the world, the trees, the buildings; pretty much everything is built for the PSP.

The PSP version comes with the Auto-GPS that I talked about in the previous diary, with Master Points, Race series, and over 240 races all playable online.

Online? Yes, Test Drive Unlimited PSP has online multiplayer!

You can play in Infrastructure mode - connecting to the Internet and playing with people down the street or across the planet. High Scores are recorded for all races while online (single player and multiplayer) - so you can try to break the world record for a time trial race while sitting in a fast-food restaurant munching on a burger and using a wireless hotspot.

Once you go online you'll be seeing other PSP players immediately in free-ride, no need to set up complicated sessions or looking for servers, we look after that for you. Even when you want to find a race session we've made that nice and easy as well with the ability to automatically find and join a race session.

But that's not your only wireless networking option, you can also connect to your friends in ad-hoc mode and race against them while riding the bus, or just cruise around the island with them while sitting in the back of the classroom (no, I don't advocate this!) There's something very cool about sitting down on the sofa with a few friends and just going for a long cruise through the streets of Oahu.

Cruising seems to be a phenomenon that is unique to the Test Drive Unlimited world and is catching on big time. It's not always about the racing, we've found that many people get a huge amount of enjoyment from just cruising around the island in their favorite car, looking for new and interesting places to drive (although the coastal roads are usually the most popular).

Because the PSP is often used in short bursts, Quickrace will be a popular option for those times when you just want to get in there and have a race.

Another option for those time-limited moments is to jump in head off down some unexplored roads, or do some shopping for a new car. I've even simply jumped in to check whether I'd lost my top spot in the world rankings for a speed challenge (yes, I had.)

Well, time for me to get back to the PSP and try to gain back some self-esteem by taking that world record again... A colleague once said to me that "Producers always have to get the high score, it's like it's in their job description or something". It's not in our job description; it's in our blood.

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