Evolution: Who gives a shit about target renders?

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift’s lead designer Nigel Kershaw has lashed out at those who criticise games for failing to match the video quality seen in pre-release video renders.

A high quality video render of a new game is a great tool to get people interested, but setting high expectations for a title can cause problems in the long-term. Speaking on the 1UP Show, Kershaw stated:

“Before you do a game, you do a test render that says ‘this is the game we want to make, now let’s go make it’. It’s just like writing a game design document. The end result might not look like the render that you did. Who gives a shit? If you’re 50, 60, 70, 80 per cent to that line you’ve succeeded.

“Also, it’s not about the visuals. If you go back and look at that movie, it was about the interaction of the vehicles. It was about lots of vehicles racing together – all that stuff that we achieved.

“But it’s this thing that haunts you, that you didn’t match your target render. Everybody makes such a big fucking deal of it. Who gives a shit? That’s how we make games. If people have got a problem with that, tough.”

The MotorStorm franchise, along with fellow Sony title Killzone 2, was famously embroiled in fanboy-flamed internet scandal after its E3 unveiling using a truly gob-smacking video.