Hard Truck: Apocalypse Wrap Report

Major Challenges

Evgeny Khrunov: One of the major challenges we faced during the development process was the realization of a non-linear plot with two major storylines and many smaller branches. It was a lot of work for the designers, balancers and QA, but it was worth the trouble - it gave the game replayability. Another challenge was finding the right artistic style. There was much discussion about that, and the original truck sketches were totally out of this world. In the end, we managed to find a balance between realism and sci-fi in our models.

My favorite truck in the game is the red and white military type called the Belaz armed with lasers and plasma guns. It's a cool truck to drive and destroy dozens of pesky little raiders who try to steal my hard earned money.

Evgeny Khrunov: One of our designers best decisions was making a detailed quest scheme. This helped us to see the overall picture and to find storyline gaps, and it made testing much easier.

Another good decision was to implement lightmaps into the game. It made the landscapes look totally different! It was a risky decision, as it came near the end of the development, but luckily, it worked out.

And a third decision that worked out well was to shift from hardcore level of gameplay to a somewhat more casual one so that the game could be enjoyed by a larger audience. Judging from the positive feedback we are receiving about the gameplay, we did the right thing.

Key Strengths

Evgeny Khrunov: Our key strength as a team was establishing good communication between various departments. Somewhere in the middle of the development period, we moved to a new office, where we occupied one floor and were only a few steps away from each other. It was then that we realized how important good communication among the team members is, and it really helped development.

Another thing that helped make Hard Truck: Apocalypse a good game is the team members' initiative. People were really putting their hearts into developing it, suggesting new things, and doing their very best within the time that was available.

And the thing we are most proud of is that we completed this project without major delays and did a pretty good job, in our opinion. :)

Areas for Improvement

Evgeny Khrunov: We wish we had given more time and attention to the pre-production period. All those elements we implemented into the game during the later stages of development should have been included in the plan earlier on.

Also, we found that our decision to make masks instead of facial animations didn't work out quite as well as we expected. Making the masks took as much time as making the animations would have, and worse still, the gamers didn't particularly appreciate them. Most people thought they looked creepy. I should say that story-wise, wearing masks is vital in the world of Hard Truck: Apocalypse since you'll die without one.

Lessons Learned

Evgeny Khrunov: The three most important lessons we learned during development are:

1. the importance of the pre-production stage,

2. the importance of team-building,

3. the importance of supervision. Watch everything that can go wrong. Pretty much everything can.

Audience Response

Aleksey Tchestnikh: We've been a bit nervous as to how the game will be received by gamers and press… but we shouldn't have worried! We received tons of positive feedback from gamers and quite good reviews in press. The gamers were more generous for praise: they called the game "a masterpiece", "a must-have" and "a game that takes you away from reality for several days". Several Russian on-line media (Gamemag.ru, Ogl.ru, Purga.ru, Crpg.ru) included us into their "Top 2005 games" lists, and we received the "Editor's choice" of one of the most respected Russian game magazines - "Game.exe". So, on the whole, we can say that the amount of positive feedback exceeded our expectations, though there was some criticism, as well. People found long travels between towns boring, they wanted to be able to drive more kinds of vehicles, the masks were misunderstood, and people said the game lacked multiplayer. Oh, well. There is always room for improvement.

Personal Thoughts

Aleksey Tchestnikh: My favorite truck in the game is the red and white military type called the Belaz, armed with lasers and plasma guns. It's a cool one to drive and destroy dozens of the pesky little raiders who try to steal my hard earned money.

I hope you'll have as much fun playing Hard Truck: Apocalypse as we had developing it. The greatest reward for us, the developers, is hearing that you liked the game!

Aleksey Tchestnikh

Lead Designer, Hard Truck: Apocalypse

Targem Games

Anton Savin

Lead Programmer, Hard Truck: Apocalypse

Targem Games

Evgeny Khrunov

Project Manager, Hard Truck: Apocalypse

Targem Games

[Since introducing them in November of 2003 to offer post-release viewpoints from the respective teams, it has been our pleasure to publish Wrap Reports on a good number of other titles, primarily within the RPG, online world, action and strategy categories. A complete list of the previous ones may be found on the next page. - Ed.]