Feature: 'Postmortem: Climax/THQ's MotoGP '06'

In this exclusive Gamasutra feature, Climax lead programmer David Jefferies presents a postmortem of well-received THQ-published Xbox 360 title MotoGP '06, from lightscattering effects through framerate battles. In the introduction, Jefferies notes: "It was in early January 2005 that we received our first Xbox360 development kit from Microsoft and were tasked with moving the MotoGP series onto the next-generation of hardware. Over the previous 5 years we’d developed three versions of the game on Xbox and PC but this was the first time the game was going to receive the radical overhaul needed when jumping a generation. Our Core Technology Group had been writing our tools in preparation for the next-generation of consoles for up to 2 years previously, but most of the game team were coming from PS2 and Xbox projects with little idea of what to expect. Next-gen buzzwords were everywhere: normal maps, HDTV and HDR were all new and all being touted as the next big thing. At that stage in a console’s life cycle you have to make a lot of decisions about what’s important and what’s not – separating the technological wheat from the chaff. There’s very little information to go on and because near-launch games have to be developed in such a short space of time, there’s little chance of rectifying big mistakes made early on." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the topic, including much more fascinating detail from the game's development (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).