In our first designer diary for Pursuit Force, Bigbig Studios' managing director, Jonathan Webb, told us about the team behind the upcoming action game, which combines driving and shooting in delightfully unexpected ways. Now that the team's pedigree is established, Webb returns to talk about the process of hammering out the design of the game.

Crafting the Gameplay

　　Managing Director, Bigbig Studios

　　During early production of Pursuit Force, the team created a test-bed level containing just four enemy vehicles. The purpose of this test bed was to get specific feedback about ranged combat, on-vehicle combat, and jumping. From this we could fine-tune the mechanics. This also served as the foundation to the mission creation. We knew that we'd need to have more variety, so we built a number of different mission types (collect, chase, follow, and so on). The idea was to keep things mixed up with the different mission types cycling through the structure of the game, with special missions appearing at key points and boss and lieutenant missions, to really impart a varied and fun gameplay experience for the player. At this stage it was also decided to add the helicopter-mounted cannon. This gave the game a further mechanic (first-person shooting) and even more variety.

　　Leaping onto vehicles and wiping out the enemy--all in the name of justice.

　　This diverse gameplay that we used for Pursuit Force came about quite naturally. Initially, a goal of the team was to create gameplay mechanics that would allow you to perform activities that had been showcased only in Hollywood action blockbusters. Specifically, the jump and on-vehicle mechanics were born from the sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy jumps onto the back of the truck and fights with the driver to take over the vehicle. We just thought, "That would be so cool if you could do that in a game." From there, a preproduction period began on a game idea that included a basic jumping mechanic but was fundamentally a different game to Pursuit Force. At the end of this development period, the jumping, although fairly rudimentary, was an instant hit. And since it was still early in development, it was decided that we should refocus the game and make the jumping mechanic the main focus. From this, Pursuit Force was born. Whenever we first described the game and jumping mechanic to anyone, the general response was, "That's cool! How does it work?" Understandably so, when you consider that it's not every day a game comes along in which you're able to dynamically jump from one speeding vehicle to another. The best way to understand the gameplay is to play it, but I'll try to explain how it works. Here goes:

　　Basically, the jump mechanic in Pursuit Force allows you to leap from one vehicle to another at high speed. And there are almost no restrictions. You can jump to and from pretty much any vehicle found within the game, such as enemy vehicles and civilian vehicles. You name it, you can jump to it. You can jump from boat to car, car to boat, bike to truck, and so on. It's simply a case of getting close to the target vehicle, roughly matching its speed, and then pressing the jump button (an icon is displayed whenever a jump is possible to aid you). Our goal was to get the jumping mechanic to work in the most intuitive way possible. We didn't want you to be wrestling with the controls every time you wanted to jump to a new vehicle. It needed to be quick and painless, and, to be honest; this took a serious amount of tweaking to get right. At one point the player character could jump so far he looked more like Spider-Man! Kind of cool, I'd admit, but not what we were after.

　　As you may know, we have a variety of different vehicle types within the game: sports cars, sedans, bikes, trucks, SUVs, boats, and more. Each one has its own different landing points. These landing points are areas where players land when they've finished their jump. Of course, where you land is automatically determined. If you jump to a vehicle that's in front of you, then you're likely to land on its boot (or trunk, for you folks in the US); if you jump on a vehicle that's behind you, then you'll land on its bonnet (the hood).

　　We decided that the game needed a new slant, one that sat nicely with the idea of fast-paced driving and jumping. What's better than a cop, a gun, and a superfast car? Jumping to any other vehicle at any point in time is unique in itself, but the real uniqueness comes from its implications for the player. There's no need to stop your car, get out, and get into another vehicle, so we can add variety and strategy without ever losing the pace of the game. We're happy that whenever we're asked what makes this unique we can answer with, "What other game allows you to jump from vehicle to vehicle at over 150mph?!"

　　This leads into on-vehicle combat, which is another mechanic entirely. When hanging onto a vehicle, you can only take over the driving of that vehicle once you've taken out all the enemies. Take out the driver and the passengers, and you will automatically swing into the driver's seat. And presto, you now have a new vehicle to drive. Obviously, if you're jumping onto a civilian vehicle, then the driver will simply slide over to the passenger seat to allow you to take control.

　　Another cool addition to the jumping mechanic came about during development when a member of the team had an interesting idea:

　　"Wouldn't it be cool if you could shoot in the air whilst jumping?"

　　"Cool idea," we all thought. I mean, you're jumping to this vehicle with loads of enemies. It would be really useful if you could take some of them out before landing.

　　"Hang on a minute! What if we did some kind of cool slow-mo effect whilst this is happening?!"

　　"Even cooler idea," we all thought.

　　Pursuit Force is bringing a much-needed shot of originality to the PSP.

　　This became our justice jump. Now, you cannot do this all the time. It's just too powerful. But provided you have a full justice bar (similar to a power bar), then you can perform this action whenever you jump to a vehicle. Remember, all these actions happen without ever having to stop your car, which allows for some seriously fast-paced action.

　　Of course in the end, we were left with reams of numerous other cool ideas, mechanics, and special missions to add to the game, but there's always the question of time. Adding new features, regardless of how cool, takes time to get spot on. We wanted to make sure that what we added to Pursuit Force played really well. And still, those extra features aren't going away. We've still got them, locked up, waiting to be used in the future (if the opportunity arises), which is why I'm not going to divulge any of them now.

　　Next time, we'll talk a bit about what you'll find in the world of Capital City as well as delve into the art direction and game design.