The setting is 2125
A.D. Jet Moto 2124, like its predecessors, is a futuristic
racing game where the participants compete against each other on
highly maneuverable, all-terrain hovercraft, similar in
appearance and greatly inspired by the late 20th century
motocross motorcycles. These contests take place not simply on
maintained tracks, but in various locations throughout the
occupied solar system. The extraordinary capabilities of these
vehicles, which combine the versatility of a hovercraft, the
maneuverability and handling of a stunt bike, and the power and
aerodynamics of a jet aircraft, allow for track configurations
unlike anything seen in any other racing circuit.
There are two different types of competition offered in Jet
Moto. The main event is a typical, high-speed race to the finish
line, if hopping across the rooftops of a futuristic, downtown
megalopolis or screaming through a massive space station at near
zero-G can be called typical. The second is a stunt competition,
where riders vie for the attentions - and perfect 10’s - of the
judges, pulling tricks, catching air, and generally risking life
and limb in one of several arenas, all for the highest score
When they start the game, players have the option of playing in
Arcade, Touring or Stunt mode. Each mode offers different
options, challenges and goals.
Extreme Futuristic
Racing!
All-new 3-D
racing engine delivers smooth, unparalleled racing action
Race any of
16 sleek jet hover bikes through the 22nd century
Speed
through 10 huge futuristic worlds or trick out in stunt mode
Experience
enhanced Jet Moto gameplay, including turbo power-ups and
slingshot & racer grapples.
Bottom Line:
Jet Moto 2124 is deep, fast, beautiful, and most important,
fun. It was certain to be one of the biggest selling games
on the PlayStation and easily lives up to the standards set by
previous versions.
What were
some of the challenges that the team encountered with Jet
Moto 2124?
“The problems
with JM4 as I remember was that the tracks were graphically
impressive but short and confusing, requiring the player to
go over the same terrain on a different part of the track.
We were trying to do some things with water tracks that
didn't work well. I think we got to the point that it was
becoming a startover and we decided to put the JM franchise
to rest for awhile.” Kelly Flock, former President 989
Studios
"We tried to stay true to the game design of Jet Moto 1 and
2. The games were challenging - especially challenging and
we wanted to try and stay true to the core design philosophy
of the first 2 games. Jet Moto featured figure 8 tracks and
"suicide" tracks that, once you got to the end, you would
turn around and go back the same way you came. This was
established in JM 1.
Midway through development when a lot of the tracks were
very nearly complete the studio director suggested that we
widen the tracks by 50% which would have wrecked our poly
count, texturing and AI. It would have been a massive
undertaking. The influence of Wipeout on this vision of what
Jet Moto 2124 should have been was not in line with what we
had been designing. Although both games are futuristic
racers, the game play of these games are drastically
different. If we had received this direction a lot sooner,
the outcome of the game could have been different. Looking
back, I think that some of director’s comments had merit. It
just went away from what JM 1 and 2 had been. " Christopher
Tritt, former Associate Producer Sony Interactive Studios
America
“A large problem that we had was that management appeared to
have very different expectations of the game than did the
development team. They seemed to think that someone should
be able to plop themselves down in front of the game and
within a matter of minutes be an expert. They would watch
with considerable excitement as I demoed the game for them
(I played it non-stop) and, when it came their turn to play,
they would quickly get frustrated when they couldn’t play it
as well as I could. They were of the opinion that if you
couldn’t immediately see where to go and easily navigate the
track, that the game was poorly designed and therefore a
disaster. I, myself literally spent weeks playing the
Nightmare level on Jet Moto I before I could complete all
three laps without falling off the track. For me and the
rest of the team, half of the fun was learning to find the
best way through the tracks and learning the split-timing
required to make it through some of the terrain.” - Paul
Willman, former Producer Sony Interactive Studios America
What were
some of the influences to the design of the game?
"We drew our inspiration from a number of different areas.
For game play, we obviously played heavily off of the
original 2 entries in the franchise. We were also attracted
to the extreme sport of motocross and the insane stunts that
the X-Games riders would perform. For the bike designs, we
were inspired by the rugged performance of off-road bikes
and the sleek, speedy look of supersonic aircraft. To
compliment the obviously air-born motos we came up with, we
wanted to place them in a futuristic environment where such
clearly-advanced vehicles looked at home and natural. This
was in stark contrast to the bike designs of the first two
games that more closely resembled jet skis. In an effort to
make the motos seem real to the design team, I came up with
an artificial technology around which the hover bikes were
designed. Original moto design concepts such as the Primary
Vectored Thrust System, Rear Auxiliary Booster Rockets and
Audiomagnetic Grappling Units explained the basic
performance characteristics of our motos. Once we described
these fictional systems, additional game play concepts
logically followed, such as the ability to kick the bike up
in the air, grapple off of other players and
performance-enhancing power-ups. These new game play
elements also led to the implementation of new track design
components that had not been available to the previous three
games, such as the split loop, grapple slingshot and
stepping stones." - Paul Willman, former Producer Sony Interactive Studios America
Explain why Syd Mead was important
to the game.
Chris Tritt was the magic man on this project – he got us
all sorts of amazing things. Why was Syd important? He is a
visionary. He did amazing things on Blade Runner, Aliens and
the other Hollywood productions he was involved in. His
artwork is distinctive and unlike anything else out there.
He created the universe in which Jet Moto 2124 took place
and brought a consistent look and feel to the game. Having a
big name like Syd Mead gave our project a level of respect
that I don’t think it would have received had we done our
own conceptual work. However, I must admit that a number of
the artists on the team were somewhat disappointed that they
didn’t get to do the concept art for the game. But they were
all excited to get to work with him. - Paul Willman, former Producer Sony Interactive Studios America
There was a
project, with the working title “Prince” that we were
starting to mock up on paper to get a green light from Kelly
Flock. The premise of Prince was that you were a covert
agent that infiltrates embassies and top secret military
bases, taking out sentries and avoiding security cameras.
Sound familiar?
At E3 that year, Syphon Filter (which was published by Sony
but we knew nothing about) and Metal Gear Solid were both
announced. So, we had to start all over.
[It was called “Prince” so when we changed the name, it
would be “the game formerly known as Prince.” Still one of
the stupidest things I’ve ever heard...]
Paul Willman suggested that we take a week and put design
treatments together to pitch as a new project. We all worked
diligently to create something new. On the day of the design
meeting, after each of us had all talked about what new game
we might make, Paul casually asks us if we would like to
work on Jet Moto. Of course, we all leapt at the chance.
There was some concern internally that JM3 was not going to ship
on time. We were the sequel to that game but
also, a sort of insurance policy so that SCEA would have
something if JM3 was unable to overcome problems.
The JM 4 team was exceptionally well-balanced. We had great
programming and art. I was very proud to be a part of that
team, I learned a good deal from each of them.
I felt that the physics were especially good. Our lead
programmer, Tim Monk was taking flying lessons at the time.
He turned what he was learning in the cock-pit into a great
handling game. We had to make adjustments to the physics
because the first version of the game’s motos had too much
lift and wanted to fly – which makes sense. If you had a
real moto, you probably would want it to fly – it just
didn’t translate to the game.
As Assistant Producer, my responsibilities weren’t really
defined. So I looked at the things that no one had the time
to do, and focused on that. Paul was managing the team. I
jumped on everything else.
Another team within the studio was using an outside
conceptual artist to give their game a more cohesive look.
We thought that was a great idea. I went around the studio
and asked artists I admired to suggest a list of names for
possible concept artists. Lots of the artists mentioned by
our in-house art staff were featured in Spectrum and did
covers for Heavy Metal. Donato Giancola, Stephan Martiniere,
Luis Royo to name a few. I started making calls to their
agents to meet with them.
[It was an interesting meeting with Luis Royo. For one
thing, he only speaks Spanish. For another thing, he brought
something like 20 original art pieces with him in a carrier.
I recognized about half of them from Heavy Metal covers…]
In the end, we decided that Syd Mead was the best fit for
our game. We were going for a bright, clean future: Star
Trek, not Star Wars and post-Apocalyptic concepts had been
done to death. We wanted an optimistic future. Also, Syd’s
angular style worked well in using a limited number of polys,
something that he seemed to understand well- he should since
he designed Tron.
If you’re not familiar with Syd Mead, he designed Johnny
Five, Blade Runner and the marine’s tech in Aliens. Syd
refers to himself as a “futurist” which is a very apt
description.
We sent Syd a written description of the level and some art
done in-house and Syd would send back two renderings per
level that we would use to guide the direction of the look
of the game. It was awesome. I definitely learned a lot from
looking through his perspective.
The next step I tackled was in-game sponsors. Having real
sponsors within the game really helps build an “authentic”
feel to a game. But they have to be the right sponsors.
While movies and TV shows have ironed out the wrinkles in
advertising, video games were still trying to figure it out.
Do you charge or not? What is an equitable exchange? Is it
more important to have the right sponsor, or is it more
important to get revenue from the sponsor?
I must admit, that this caused a problem with our marketing
dept. Marketing wanted to get advertising co-ops. We wanted
the right sponsors… In the end, we got a little bit of both.
I think you can tell where the split is when looking at the
actual sponsors: Doritos vs. SMP and Slim Jim vs. Body
Glove. Personally, I wanted to see the same sponsors I was
seeing at motocross and extreme sports events. Since the
game didn’t release, it was all for nothing anyway.
[SMP technologies were in San Diego at the time. They were
great. They even put together some suit designs for our
riders to wear.]
I attended a lot of motocross and Superbike events to take
pictures and video. It made the most sense that I go since I
didn’t have kids to worry about and the artists and
programmers had work to do. I got a lot of resource material
from the paddocks and racetracks. It was a lot of fun,
definitely something I enjoyed doing.
Music was the next item on the list. To go with our
futuristic utopia, electronic music was our choice. I
definitely was taking cues from Wipeout. Wipeout and Jet
Moto are close in some ways and very different in others. I
was a little concerned in going so close in direction but it
worked for us on several levels.
First of all, it is easy to manipulate electronic music, in
terms of length and looping. Also, electronic music was very
popular at the time. I’d like to think that we chose the
right music -music that kids into the rave scene would
recognize and respect. I was hoping that we would get some
attention from the music press if we did it right. Lastly,
techno music is perfect for driving fast.
[The way I test music… I get in my car and play the music
loud. If I start speeding – then I know it’s good for
games.]
At one point, we were in discussions to publish a video game
soundtrack CD.
We spent $150,000 on the music alone…
We drew inspiration from other games and media. The trailing
lights effects in Akira gave us the idea to include light
trails when you used turbos. We had arcing electricity
effects to show the bike was suffering damage.
We had story lines and victory cinematics for each of the
riders like they have in Tekken or Street Fighter. I wanted
to give the player a reason to play as each character. This
would give the game some replay value. Also, each character
had a personality, which gamers would hopefully identify
with and adopt. (I still haven’t really seen this in a race
game…Maybe Mario Kart.)
Besides barrel rolls and forward/back flips like they have
in JM 1, 2 and 3, each of the riders had a signature move
and each of the riders could also do conventional freestyle
motocross tricks like can-cans and heel clickers. You could
even combine them and do a can-can barrel roll if you
wanted… Special areas with long air-times were added in the
levels to do tricks. Tricks added to your turbo meter.
Lastly, we devised several game play features that weren’t
in any of the previous JM’s. Slingshot grapples, trampolines
and teleporters were just a few of the types of features we
added to the game.
Andy Jarros was the game’s primary designer. He came up with
most of the new game play ideas.
The game was hard. Really hard. We were in the process of
tweaking the difficulty when progress was halted. We were
taking cues from JM 1 and 2 and trying to decide whether to
focus more on speed or technical riding. We wanted to give
it the “Jet Moto” feel but with “Wipeout” speed.
So, why was it cancelled? It’s hard to say. JM3 was panned
by the critics and sales weren't stellar. We got a new
president that questioned the need for a 4th version of the
franchise. The studio director wanted to widen the tracks by
50%, which would have cost us 6 months as we would need to
rebuild everything, including AI. It was probably a
combination of all three…
I will say, however that it was pretty tragic. It is tragic
because I believe it would have changed mine and my
team-mates careers in the video game industry. I think a lot
of people would have enjoyed playing it. I would have loved
to have carried the franchise to the PS2 and the PS3. Could
you imagine JM for PS3?!?
Even with all of the racing games and motocross games,
there’s still nothing quite like Jet Moto. Jet Moto 2124 may
well be the best game that no one will ever see but then
again, we all know exactly what that’s worth.
WRITTEN BY:
CHRISTOPHER TRITT,
former Associate Producer Sony Interactive Studios America
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Realistic Development Cycle - This was one of the only
non-sports titles that had been given what I would consider
a reasonable development time table. The fact that it was
started while JM 3 was still pre-alpha certainly helped
and, towards the end, when JM 3 slipped its schedule, the
thought that we could possibly beat that game to the shelves
really motivated the team.
Appropriate Staffing - We had THE BEST programmers in the
studio working on this game. Tim Monk and Rich Carp were
arguably the best programmers that SCEA had (with the
possible exception of Brandon Bogle who I would rank up
there with those two). These guys could program circles
around anyone in the industry. Rich was dedicated to in-game
effects and the results were stunning, I think you'll agree.
Fully-animated bikes, light trails, lens flare - he put the
polish on that game that no other had. Tim's character and
animation engines were amazing and gave an unprecedented
realism to the characters. There was not a single frame of
motion capture in that game, yet his characters behaved more
realistically than any game that had hundreds of thousands
of dollars spent on motion capture.
The art staff was also top-notch. We had enough artists that
we could dedicate one per track, which allowed a single
person to focus on an entire package. Each track had a
consistent look throughout.
Game Design - We had the Jet Moto franchise! What else needs
to be said? Chris, Tim, Andy Jaros (lead level designer) and
myself were all die-hard fans of the original Jet Moto and
spent the entire time chomping at the bit, trying to take
the original game into new and exciting areas. We had the
phenomenal talent of Syd Mead at the helm of the conceptual
art, which gave the entire game a unique, but consistent,
look that we would never have achieved ourselves. Chris
scored a major coup unprecedented at the Studio by getting
nearly $100k in music licenses from big-name artists for a
sound track that I STILL listen to, today.
WHAT WENT
WRONG
Moto Physics Model – Although his animation engine was
state-of-the-art, Tim’s physics and collision models for the
environment and the motos had serious limitations and needed
to be tweaked. Granted, at low speeds, it absolutely rocked
– the response, look and feel of the game was amazing and
held great promise, but, when the motos got up to top speed,
we ran into real problems. The virtual shocks built into the
physics model simply couldn’t handle the stresses that the
game put on it. It bottomed out, bounced off the collision
polys and the nice, smooth feel of our predecessors was
shot. Such track features as sharp turns and loops were
rendered nearly unplayable. We played with a number of
different methods to patch these problems, but were never
able to come up with a satisfactory solution.
Lack of Marketing Support and Coordination – Although I
listed concurrent development with JM III as a plus, it also
worked against us. Marketing was focused on JM III and had
no time to spend on us. This was a problem with all the
studios – marketing typically wasn’t even interested in your
product until it was at Beta. Then, they would step in and
make suggestions and requests that should have been made way
back in the early design stages. Many of the requests they
would make were incompatible with the current design or
technology and could not be addressed.
Camera Perspective and Moto Scale – As all the pieces
started to come together, it became apparent that something
had not quite gone as planned. Levels that felt nice and
roomy in the level editor seemed tight and cramped when
placed into the game engine. The highest speeds of our motos
– speeds that, if exceeded, would totally break the physics
model – did not feel particularly fast, especially in light
of the recent game play of JM III, which was BLAZING fast.
A few people around the office began calling it Jet Slo-Mo. This
eroded external enthusiasm for the product and eventually
hurt the morale of the team. We tried several different
tricks to address these issues, such as scaling the motos
down, scaling the levels up, changing the position and
tracking and focal point of the camera, but nothing seemed
to help the problem.
WRITTEN BY:
PAUL WILLMAN, former
Producer Sony Interactive Studios America
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