Designer Diaries...

...I've been asked (for months) to write a designer diary for System Rush to go on the web site that goes live very soon (http://www.systemrush.com/ and http://www.whitehatz.net/).

Now I've done these things before and always tried to make the (at times anyway) boring subject of games development interesting. However on past projects I've been on board since day one. On this game - I came in a little later.

So I spent ages trying to work out how to start the damn thing and eventually came up with this:

"4th of April 2005 – London, England.

Nic Cusworth sits at his desk musing on how to work the ‘word of the day’ – fastidious – into a bug report. An ominous shadow casts itself across his keyboard.

Rob: “Have you done that designer diary for Nokia yet?”
Nic: “Erm… I’ll do it now.”

It’s early April and the System Rush team are working with a fastidious eye for detail (wooohooo) to complete work on Ideaworks3D’s first original IP.

System Rush is a futuristic styled racing game for Nokia’s N-Gage, set in a underground world of rival hackers and corrupt multinationals. It’s built on the technology and expertise that’s been refined over the years of producing exceptional ports like Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk, and Colin McRae Rally to the N-Gage.

The SR team are industry ‘battle scared’, with most having 10+ years of experience in traditional console development.

That’s the background, so on with show.

I wasn’t working at Ideaworks during System Rush’s inception, but from what I hear – it all started a little something like this.

The Ideaworks Management team went on one of those ‘building stronger teams’, ‘lets all get lost in the wilderness’ management retreats in the late spring of 2004. I believe it was somewhere in Borneo, but then I’ve also heard that it might have been Greater Manchester – records are sketchy at best. But the story tells the same, regardless of locale.

Fraser, Thor, and Alex had been trekking for days, battling freak storms – killer bees – some guy trying to sell them bootleg DVDs – and an army of paparazzi on the trail of Brad and Jen, when they came across an opening. They checked the map, nothing was listed.

Fraser parted the thick jungle bush and stepped in.

There were a number of small tents, each painted a different primary color. Thor and Alex followed. The camp seemed deserted, so with darkness a matter of minutes away the three decided this would be a great place to spend the night. After all there was shelter – and a fire already lit.

Each of them chose a colored tent and curled up for some much needed rest before the next day’s journey.

We now understand that what they stumbled upon that night was a sacred site of the ‘z~l-o^’ tribe (who use a collection of tongue clicks and small finger cymbals to form their language, so that’s the best translation anyone has come up with).

These tents are known by the tribe as ‘:]{~’, or roughly translated - ‘dream tents’. It’s said that those who sleep in the tents will be delivered a dream from the spirit of the jungle that will stay with them for an eternity.

You can see where this is going – right?

In the morning they woke – well rested, but with the vivid spiritual projection of the jungle etched permanently in their mind. At first no one really talked about their nocturnal experience. But slowly over the course of the journey home – the three began to talk.

Each had experienced the same dream. A dream where they were speeding along futuristic racetracks, color themed by their various countries of origin. They all saw how the craft they were driving could drift and fly as well as grip to the track. They all chose a character named either Vert or Ikko. They all dreamt this at a resolution of 176x96 (which was incredibly convenient).

Finally Alex said what everyone was thinking.

Alex: “I know we’ve only done ports up until now, but we should make this game.”

And so it was agreed – Ideaworks3D would produce it’s first original IP, System Rush – based on shared dream, delivered by an earth spirit.

It should be noted that the said spirit does not have good legal representation and he can try and claim all he likes that we have infringed his intellectual copyright. But lets face it - what jury is going to believe a story like that?

And that’s how it happened. Or so I’ve been told. Remember I wasn’t actually here at the time, and I am quite gullible.

Next time I’ll talk about how we set about translating this germ of an idea into the fastest, most vibrant, some might even say ‘bestist’ racing game the N-Gage has ever seen.

Till then..."

So you have probably guessed - this won't be used ;) But I thought I'd post it here anyway...

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:10 AM 3 comments