Need for Speed Unbound
Summary
For the first half of my Producer internship at Criterion Games, I helped to develop and ship the final two live-service updates to Need for Speed Unbound:
VOLUME 8: COPS VS. RACERS
Hot Pursuit Mode: 4v4 high-octane street battles.
Pursuit Tech: EMP, ESF battering ram, and Spike Strip gadgets.
Cop Progression: Upgrade arsenal with new Cop cars & gadgets.
New Rides: 2 new Rides and 9 new Cop cars.
Speed Pass: 45 new tiers of unlockable content.
VOLUME 9: LOCKDOWN
New Mode: 5 squads of up to 3 players in PvPvE multiplayer.
Lockups: Escape the Zone to keep any acquired Hot Rides.
Extraction Play: Claim the Extraction Truck before rivals do.
Motorbikes: Introduced for the first time in NFS history.
Speed Pass: 45 new tiers of unlockable content.
Trailer
PLATFORM
TEAM
DURATION
Racing
GENRE
ENGINE
Frostbite
Console & PC
Live Service
5 Months
Rising Star of the Year (Criterion Games Annual Awards 2024)
ACHIEVEMENTS
Impact
Coordinated daily playtests to rally the team around software, foster iteration, and drive quality.
Captured bugs, feedback, and any other noteworthy comments that were verbalised during playtests (compiled into reports), with individual points followed up with relevant stakeholders.
Collaborated with the Lead Designer to establish OKRs - focused on experiential feature goals to consolidate the player experience while holding the team accountable to their output.
Partnered with the Development Director to distribute feature development within a roadmap across multiple sprints.
Created player journey maps and conducted reviews to assess progress related to flows and goals.
Supported QA and UXR teams to curate game builds for external playtesting, which involved proactively escalating impactful PX issues to drive fixes ahead of testing.
Assembled strike teams with testing plans to diagnose any outstanding issues while rallying the involvement of QA partners and developer stakeholders.
Built a relationship with the Player Council focus group to understand the needs of players within a diverse community of fans.
Rationalised feedback from playtesting initiatives and shared findings with stakeholders in presentations.
Researched and harnessed the full build pipeline to optimise build selection ahead of testing initiatives.
Prioritised bugs within the team according to my holistic knowledge of the product and team, as well as the stage of the project - adjusting where necessary.
Updated the game’s Credits to include individuals who made contributions during the game’s live-service period, so everyone was credited for their hard work.
Player Reception
PC (Steam) Reviews for Need for Speed Unbound increased to Mostly Positive following the release of Volume 9: Lockdown.
Check out what the players thought about the update below: