One of the best things about working on video games is walking into a shop and seeing the finished product on the shelf. Most games are developed over 12-24 months (ATV Pro was ~18), and looking at the end result of something that was a large part of your life is a very rewarding feeling.

So far our Metacritic score is 78%, which is good but a little disappointing. I’m very happy with ATV Pro and feel it deserves more. I think we’ve delivered a title that really pushes the PSP and is fun for portable play.

Two of our biggest goals were to have a 60fps framerate and keep most loading times under 20 seconds, both of which we achieved. Very few titles on the PSP have either of these, and for a good reason - they’re hard to do! We also wanted to do something else that few other games do; PS2<=>PSP connectivity. For example; When unlocked, certain mini-games and vehicles can be transferred from the PSP to PS2 (and vice-versa) and played on that platform. It’s a great feature for people who own both versions, or have friends that do.

While I’m happy that ATV Pro has shipped, I’m also a little sad. 

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(This post is for all the family and friends who were puzzled by my near-disappearance during August and September. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d be busy at work for a few weeks!).

For the majority of video game developers, end of project overtime (a.k.a crunch-time) is the near-inevitable tradeoff we accept for an interesting and generally fun job. And like the Curb Your Enthusiasm sketch about Hodgkin’s disease, there are both ’good’ and ‘bad’ varieties of crunch-time. 

Good crunch comes close to the end of the project. There are X number of bugs preventing you shipping and the end is in sight. Another form of good crunch would be working overtime to make that last-minute-yet-terrific tweak, or polishing up the latest E3/Press/Cover-Disc demo that will be seen by thousands.

Bad crunch is very different. 

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The main reason I picked this up was to check out the hype, and because it was only $20. It’s great fun and an ideal game for a handheld, but I’m not going to tell you what my brain age is! :)