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Exclusive: Richard Burns Rally Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
04/12/2003
We chat to the guys behind the 'true' rally simulation...
SCI has a proven record of producing some really interesting, diverse and extremely enjoyable games and the general consensus is that Richard Burns will prove to be one of the tastiest Rally titles around.
Richard Burns Rally simulation offers a realistic and exhilarating rally experience.
This true to life rallying requires tactics, intelligence and perseverance, as well as speed, aggression and risk taking. The game starts at the Forest Experience Rally School in North Wales, Richard and co-driver Robert Reid will tutor each player in the tactics, preparation and skills required for rally driving, before the player joins a team and embarks on his career as a rally driver. There are additional game modes, including a Richard Burns Challenge, where players get the chance to go head to head with Richard Burns and a 4-player 'hot-seat' multi-player game. A host of ideas and features are included that stretch the genre. We spoke with Patrick OâLuanaigh, Creative Director - SCi Games, who offered a personal insight into the experience on offer!
TVG: What team is creating Richard Burns Rally and what do they believe are their skill sets and expertise?
The game is being developed by Warthog Sweden. Some of the team worked on the highly regarded Rally Championship series from Europress/Actualize, and the team includes a mechanical engineering software specialist. Dennis Gustafsson, Warthog's Creative Director, has designed a number of well-known games, including the fantastic Die Hard Trilogy. Driving-wise, I have worked on Micro Machines, Colin McRae, TOCA Touring Cars and The Italian Job (the original!). Our producer, Pete Hickman, worked on Virgin's Screamer series of games amongst many others. We also use external specialists who have direct competitive motor racing experience including a very talented engineer from ProDrive.
TVG: Presently there are a number of great Rally titles available to the public. How have you approached Richard Burns Rally to ensure that gamers will be excited with your offering? Would you not agree that it needs a new approach and direction to ensure this will be seen as a âmust haveâ gameâ?
I absolutely agree. Right from the outset, we have set out to create a title that doesnât copy other games, but offers something genuinely unique. Richard Burns Rally is a simulation â“ itâs all about reality. We donât have magic ârespawnsâ if your car goes off the road. If you crash badly, youâd better hope there are some spectators or marshals around to roll your car back over. If you hit a tree at 140 mph, youâre not going to teleport back onto the stage â“ youâre going to be whisked away by rescue helicopter to the nearest hospital, and your rally will be over. The detail that we have gone into in almost every area is really quite scary, and we believe that people will find it a very different (and much more terrifying) experience to games like Colin McRae or WRC.
TVG: Looking at other Rally games would you agree they all now have a very formulaic approach? How restricted is the technology you are working with in terms of being able to implement your ideas onto a PC or console format?
Our biggest advantage is that we started this game with no existing code â“ no baggage. We were able to look at how to create rally stages in a very different way to that used by Codemasters and Sony. We listened to feedback from a lot of rally gamers, and their comments were pretty clear â“ they wanted to experience what it is really like to take a rally-spec car and enter a professional rally championship. They donât want arcade driving â“ they want to feel what is it like to be Richard Burns!
Weâre pushing the technology in an unprecedented way. If you get the chance to see Richard Burns Rally running, take a look at the detail of the stages, the amount of vegetation, the potholes and ruts in the road, and the way that other cars âsweepâ the stage for you if they have gone beforehand. We hope that whether you buy the game on console or PC, youâll find something that really pushes your technology more than any other rally game.
TVG: What kind of input have you had from Richard Burns and his mechanics and what form does this interaction take? Is he into computer games and is it true, oddly, you canât assume Richard in the game?
Richard has been extremely helpful. He has been heavily involved in game design and development â“ not just for PR and marketing like many licensed sportsmen in other games! Heâs provided many hours of detailed feedback, and is actually extremely good at the game. His co-driver, Robert Reid, has also been instrumental in the design of the pace-note system, and helped make the game feel 100% realistic. You donât take on the role of Richard in the game â“ Richard is your âmentorâ, and initially gives you a full rally school course at the Forest Experience Rally School. He then helps you get a contract with one of our championship teams, and gives you advice and guidance throughout the season. You can always test your skills against Richard in our âRichard Burns Challengeâ game mode. In this section, Richard has actually driven the stages himself. We recorded his drive, and you can actually race against him, and see if you can beat Richard Burns, head to head.
TVG: What kind of compromise will you make between realism and gameplay? Explain the focus.
Realism is vital to the game, and everything in the game (including features like the occasional bird strike!) comes from this. But we have to make the game controllable on a console pad, and not just a top-of-the-range force feedback steering wheel with pedals and gears. The game is extremely fun to play, but it is also challenging. That is why we force people to play through the rally school first. Itâs not an arcade rally game, and you need to learn proper rally driving techniques. But the reward for this is fantastic â“ you get faster and faster every time you drive a stage, and everything feels just like real life. If you can drive a car in real-life, youâll get into the gameplay of Richard Burns pretty quickly. You can even stall the car, and have to restart the engine!
TVG: What kind of âhands onâ research have you undertaken as well as the reference delving and do weather and surface textures play an important role within the game?
All our tracks are based on real life events. We've had the opportunity to go out to the Arctic (-35 degrees during our visit), Nevada in the USA, Hokkaido in Japan, Canberra in Australia, Mont Blanc in France and Gateshead in England. R&D trips sound very exciting, but generally involve you and a colleague standing around in the rain, mud, sleet, snow, etc. with one of you standing behind vegetation holding up a big white sheet (to provide a clear, neutral backdrop) and the other one taking pictures with a digital camera - either that or taking pictures of rocks, mud, gravel and grass. (You wouldn't believe how many different types of gravel there are!)
The different surface types play a big part in the game, and weâve learnt how important they are in real life. The difference between tarmac and gravel is really very big. Plus, our roads arenât just single textured strips â“ they have potholes, rocks, rutts and all sorts of other features to make WHERE you drive on the road very important. This is something that all other rally games currently ignore.
TVG: Handling must be one of the major concerns for the team so can you briefly tell the readers how you go about ensuring it is perfect? (How do you test ?)
We get very detailed feedback from a number of sources. We have a very experienced rally engineer who has spent months working with us on car handling. We also get very comprehensive information from all the car manufacturers we are working with, plus Richard Burns and Robert Reid provide even more thorough criticism. Our car model is incredibly complex â“ we model things like the engine combustion cycle, the engine cooling system and the entire turbo mechanism, which allows us to make sure that the car acts properly when damaged, and sounds and handles just like a real car. You really notice these little touches - for example, if you leave a real car idling, the pitch of the engine sound doesnât stay constant â“ there are random fluctuations. Our cars do exactly the same thing.
TVG: Where will be the locations and settings for the experience and are they based on real places?
Yes â“ we have six huge licensed rallies that take place across the world â“ from the UK and France to Australia and Japan. All of these take place in real life, and we believe we have picked some of the most exciting rallies that currently exist. Plus the Forest Experience Rally School is actually a real life rally school in Wales that you can visit.
TVG: What do you see as the most innovative, as well as exciting, feature within the game?
There are a huge number of new and innovative features in Richard Burns Rally, from the Forest Experience Rally School (where Richard learnt to drive as a teenager), all the way through to our AI opponents (with personalities), software engine simulation and multi-body physics system. But for me, I'd say our biggest difference is the sense of danger and risk. In Richard Burns Rally if you hit a tree head-on at 100kmph and damage your car beyond the point where it is no longer drivable then there's a good chance you or your co-driver may have sustained an injury and then that's it, you get picked up by the rescue helicopter, the rally is over and you get no points towards the seasonâs total. There is going to be a massive sense of risk when youâre close to the finish, and youâre pushing really hard. One bad mistake, and it could be all over â“ just like real life. Richard Burns Rally is going to be a very intense and scary experience.
TVG: Finally, deformation of the cars: What has been your approach in this area? If there is one area that many Rally games have not got right or moved on from is the varied amount of damage a car can sustain. Explain your vision in this area.
Our underlying software car simulation adds a lot of depth to the car damage system. As Iâve mentioned, we model (in software) aspects of the car like fuel, oil, engine and water temperature, so if you puncture your radiator the temperature in your engine will begin to rise. We model the whole combustion cycle - the fuel being injected into the engine, the combustion, and the cylinder movement. We model temperature of brake discs, so if you use your brakes too much in the early part of a stage, you may suffer from brake fade before the end. If you're a rally car fan then all these things are going to get you excited. If you just love rally games then all you need to understand is that modelling these components gives us a damage model that will break the cars just like it does on TV!
Like many other games, our cars are fully deformable â“ you can break bits off, smash windows, badly dent the bodywork, and the doors, bonnet and boot can bounce around. But unlike other games, where you hit your car will have a big effect. Damage your radiator, and the car will react just like a real car would. Get a puncture, and our multi-body tyre model simulates it perfectly. You get to make the decision whether you soldier on to the end of the stage at a slower speed, or whether you should change the puncture on the stage.
