What is this?
Jason Lee Elliott

Simpson’s Hit & Run

Developer: Radical Entertainment  Release Date: 09/16/2005  Platforms: Playstation 2 / Xbox / Gamecube / PC Role: Game Designer 

A Look Back

After finishing the Hulk game I took a week vacation and came back to find out that I had been loaned out to the Simpson’s team. I had never done a racing game and was excited for the challenge. This game was getting close to finished and I was prepared to push through another grind. To my surprise, this team ended up being the best managed game I have ever worked on. Overtime was generally and extra hour or two each night and the occasional weekend play session. It almost seemed wrong at the time. It was due to the good management that this became the only game I have ever worked on that I received royalties from and that came about because the game came in under budget, on time and had a great meta-critic rating. This game would go on to sell something like 7 million copies!

Coming onto this project, my first job was to work with the artists to polish the collision in every level. Having been an artist for years I could easily explain how to fix each area while retaining the aesthetics. After that I worked on laying out the various missions and playtesting like crazy. I don’t remember much else other than it was the most relaxing Alpha / Beta I ever went through.