But Jones spoke to MTV News — more candidly than most game makers — about the anxieties that come with working on a game for years and then releasing it to the mercy of the gaming public. He also detailed the unusual decisions made to make sure that his game gets a shot, including a "Halo 3" marketing gimmick he says didn't bruise his ego.
"This game does not look good in screenshots," Jones said during the interview, unprompted. "That is probably the biggest thing I've struggled with." The Pacific City of "Crackdown" stretches as far as the eye can see. No fog obscures buildings several blocks away. When the player drives through the city at top speeds, the frame rate is smooth. But that doesn't show in stills. So long ago, Jones realized, people were writing his game off. Pacific City's citizens, outlined in black, look cartoonish. When "Crackdown" appears in stills, it looks a bit simple. "In screenshots, it pales in [comparison] to a great-looking, realistic-looking shot."
When Jones checked focus groups to see what they thought of the game, he discovered that for the first 10 or 15 minutes, they didn't get it.
They took control of a super-cop out to knock off gangs stationed throughout a sprawling city, but so what? In early minutes, they'd yet to experience the main gimmick of "Crackdown": the concept that every shot fired made the super-cop they controlled a better shot, that every barrel heaved made them stronger until eventually they could pitch cars, that every low rooftop reached would bring them closer to the power to leap buildings in a single bound. Those abilities didn't kick in when people took control of their super-cop right at the start. "People weren't quite sure, because at that level, you're kind of like most characters in most other games." Once their super-cop strengthened and started jumping rooftops, their thumbs went up. It was just a gradual sell.
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