In a special bonus feature from 2007, the creators of
Crackdown examine the creation of the open-world title, with honest detailing of what went right and wrong in its construction.
In the feature, published online for the first time in honor of Realtime Worlds' upcoming
APB and spinoff studio Ruffian's
Crackdown 2, we showcase
Game Developer magazine's October 2007 postmortem of RTW's first project, the Xbox 360-exclusive action game
Crackdown.
As Realtime Worlds' Phil Wilson explains in the introduction to the piece: "I was producer of
Crackdown from almost-but-not-quite the very beginning. Like many projects, the development cycle was a rollercoaster of highs and lows, but despite some truly gut-wrenching sensations, it was a fantastic experience."
A mass of notable events are discussed in the postmortem, among them the well-received demo that helped build attention to the title. Wilson commented of this:
"We heatedly debated how much of the
Crackdown experience we should present for free in the demo. Until we heard some reassuring user test feedback, many of us were concerned that Realtime Worlds might only be remembered as those crazy guys who gave away the farm."
Also notable is discussion of the game's well-received co-operative mode, of which Wilson notes: "Co-op mode certainly wasn't something that we did wrong, far from it. The implementation was spot on and the result was phenomenal. Unfortunately co-op mode was something that, during development, went wrong, repeatedly."
The
full Gamasutra reprinted postmortem of Crackdown is now available, with lots more specifics on scheduling, art style, hiring challenges, and much more.
