Test Drive Unlimited 2 (trailer)
POSITION : Game Designer
On this project I have made essentialy game design tasks (proposition, documentation, setup and tuning, scrum management)
When I arrived on Test Drive Unlimited 2 I worked on the design of an additional game mode : The nightclub !
The main idea was to add a social area in the game, where players could chat and... dance. We designed a "dance" mini game with contest and trophies (we where two designers on this task).
Finally it was decided to stop the production of this game mode due to budget and time constraint.
Screenshot of the "night club" design document (this document was written by me and another designer : Jerome Braune)
After the nightclub mode i worked on special cooperative game modes
The idea was to find game modes in which players had to work together to succeed and not fight against each other. A lot of proposition where made and two cooperative modes are in the final game.
Screenshot of the "cooperative game modes" design document (this document was written by Jerome Braune and myself)
Car database
I was in charge of the car customization database. I had to make a lot of research on real "car configurators" available on websites of each car manufacturers present in the game. Then every configurations possible (outside colors, inside colors, textures etc...) were edited in the database.
Here is a video of the car customization in a car dealer
Traffic cars behavior setup
Later in the production I worked on the traffics cars setup. It was needed to fill a new database with a lot of realistic paramaters such as : torque, gearbox length, weight, tire configuration etc.
Then i had to test the traffic cars in-game and with the AI driving on different roads and configurations (big crossroards with traffic lights, high density of cars on the highway).
Scrum group "camera and global driving experience"
Near the end of the project i lead a group composed by a programmer, an artist and an additional designer to work on the driving camera and find solutions to improve the driving experience.
First we compared TDU2 with other games then we decided what could be done in the time we had.
A new in-game tool for camera setup was made, this tool improved the production drastically (speed and quality). It was now possible to share a configuration of camera with similar cars in a few clicks.
Then we decided to add FX's and PostFX's to improve the quality of the picture (motion blur at high speed driving, exhaust flames on powerful cars, smoke when the car was making donuts etc...)
Finally we've added some camera shakes on big crashes and offroad driving (finally gamepad rumbles were linked to different events : crashes, offroad driving, gear selection).
Focus Test
I was sent to England to take part in the "Focus Test". I was there to represent Eden Games, to watch different kinds of players (male, female, young, middle age, hardcore gamers and casual) while they were playing the first hour of TDU2.
This was a wonderful experience as i was behind a one way mirror and the players could not be distracted by the presence of a designer in the room.
I had to make a huge report to the lead game designer and the project manager after the focus test was over, some improvements were made, but the release date was too close to the focus test for all the changes to be made.
Motorbikes DLC
