Hydro Thunder Hurricane Dev: Self-Made Tech Key To Indie Success

Author: by Staff

Former Electronic Arts Redwood Shores and Stormfront Studios developer Matt Small writes in Gamasutra's latest postmortem that home-grown tech was essential to the success of the XBLA Summer of Arcade game Hydro Thunder Hurricane. "We researched a number of third-party game development suites but decided against them," writes Small, who formed Vector Unit with fellow Stormfront veteran, programmer Ralf Knoesel. Small serves as creative director, lead artist, and designer at the micro-studio. "We needed a pipeline that would be easy for contractors to pick up and learn, allow for rapid iteration with minimum build times, and be adaptable enough that we could add features as needed without having to rebuild existing assets," writes Small. However, as development began, finding a right-size tech solution wasn't easy. "Engines like Unreal were way out of our price range and delivered more power than we really needed. And the indie suites like XNA and Torque didn't give us the low-level control that we figured we'd need," writes Small. "We decided early on to roll our own, and it proved to be one of our best decisions," he reveals. By integrating directly with Maya, artists were able to work comfortably in their tool, using an interface with which they were already comfortable -- a must when working with contractors, Small writes. The team also made sure all tools exported to commonly-used formats. "Throughout development we maintained a working PC build of the game. Although final assets were always tested on the 360 and evaluated on TVs, the PC build freed us up from having to provide dev or debug kits for outsourcers, and also made it easy for team members to work at home and maintain flexible hours," Small writes. For more insights into the development of Hydro Thunder Hurricane, including thoughts on DLC and working with Microsoft among many others, read the full postmortem -- live now at Gamasutra.