Project Gotham - Exclusive Interview Feature

INTERVIEW PART 1 - THE PROJECT GOTHAM TEAM

Project Gotham Racing â“ Xbox

Released in Europe in March 2002, Project Gotham Racing is already being billed as one of the classiest games you will see on any machine, let alone the Xbox. Derek dela Fuente spoke with the team at length on an awesome title!

Q1:
Do you believe your early background at Psygnosis has put you in a good
position? You have created a number of top selling games so what if anything
came from the Psygnosis partnership?

It was definitely a good relationship,
and one that we look back on with affection. Psygnosis were our 2^nd
publisher, and we stayed with them for many years. The F1 games helped put us on
the map in terms of reputation and gave us important financial security in these
testing times. Weâre still friends with the guys in the big green building,
and also with the Sony guys weâve met through Psygnosis.

We did learn a lot â“ mainly things,
which have helped us in our business on both the positive and negative side! We
learnt about teamwork and focus from people like the original Wipeout team. We
also learned that we have to be careful about our own expansion, to help ensure
that we try and keep our friendly and informal atmosphere rather than moving
towards the âcorporateâ. And weâre definitely not going to expand up to
800 people!

Q2: Who came up with the concept of
Project Gotham Racing and what was the vision. (Did you want a benchmark XBox
Racing game - Pushing the XBOX frontier?)

It was something that we wanted to do
after MSR â“ we thought about where we could take the idea and the cities, and
where the game should go. We had loads of useful feedback via websites, forums
and e-mails, and we looked carefully into where we could develop the idea.

When we met up with Microsoft, it
wasnât something that weâd initially thought to do on Xbox. We really
interrogated them about the console, their plans and how they were going to
break into the console market. They really impressed us with their planning and
strategies, and it all really developed from there.

We got early dev kits just before
Gamestock, and it was all systems go to try and take our existing work and make
something that was playable and good looking in time for the show. The idea was
quite simple then â“ but with time itâs matured and expanded into a
well-rounded idea â“ one we hope will give an enjoyable challenge to all levels
of gamer.

Q3: You have written a number of
racing games from 'sim ish' (F1) to MSR, is it harder creating a racer like
Gotham than it would be a 'sim'?

Each game poses its own unique
challenges, really. We always start off with a physics engine, which is as
complex as we can get away with on the platform. On Xbox, weâve been able to
code a brand new complex 3-D, four-wheel dynamics and physics engine. Then,
because youâre taking a real-life scenario (driving with a wheel, pedals and
in a real car) and replicating it on a console (joypad, lack of physical
feedback), you need to add in a layer of âhandlingâ code. This is pretty
much as difficult to get right for a sim, as an arcade racer, or somewhere in
between.

The trick is to use this layer of
handling code to define how âsimmyâ the game is. For a sim, itâs a thin
layer on top of the physics, but on an arcade game, thereâs a lot of player
aids in there to make it more easy as well. For Gotham, weâve tried to give a
playable balance between realism and playability. Itâs easy to get going
without smashing into everything, but itâs still sim-like in the way that
youâve got to learn how to master the car.

Q4: 200+ circuits with four cities
are a 'hell' of a lot of circuit - driving lines. Are there radical differences
in them and can you explain how you decide on the routes of a circuit what you
look for? (IE lots of straights for speed, obstacles to steer around?)

What weâve done is looked carefully
the areas we have â“ three areas in each of four cities, of around 1.5 to 2.5
square kilometres in area. Each area has some really nice long straights, tight
corners, hills, open areas, but with hundreds of different roads, we could
probably create over 1,000 different tracks! So weâve had to focus â“ to try
and find those that are the best, most fun and give the greatest variety of
challenges.

Each track is played by one of our
production support guys, and assessed. Short, tight tracks arenât all that
popular, as you canât get up to speed and you tend to crash more. Simple ovals
get boring, and routes with too many similar buildings can get confusing. So we
gradually cut down the tracks until weâve got those that are the best to race
on. Weâve actually added in a lot of barriers now to round off some of the
most annoying corners, so the tracks are even more fun to race.

Q5: Explain the essence of PGR? It
objectives and sub objectives and varied challenges?

The main idea of the game is the Kudos.
Itâs this that you have to gain to progress, and itâs this that is your best
measure of performance in the game. You can gain Kudos in a number of ways.
Youâre rewarded for your skill (eg. beating the opponents) but also for your
style. And on top of this, you can set your own goals in the game â“ reduce the
goals as low as you can to gamble to earn more Kudos!

The style Kudos is really expansive. You
donât just get points for power slides, you can earn it in a whole host of
ways. From daring overtakes, getting onto two wheels, jumping the car, doing
âdonutsâ to avoiding damage with clean sections â“ youâll get rewarded
for it all.

The game has different modes to suit all
players. Thereâs a Quick Race mode which allows you to pick up and play, Ridge
Racer style. Thereâs an Arcade Race in true Gotham style, where youâve got
to earn Kudos to progress. Thereâs a Time Attack where you get to post your
fastest laps for people to challenge against. And then thereâs the main Kudos
Challenge part of the game, where itâs all out to earn Kudos, win the cars and
beat the game!

The Kudos Challenge takes place on a big
variety of race styles, all with their different goals. You can always lower the
bar for these goals before you race â“ the game will tell you how much extra
Kudos you can win by doing this. Thereâs street races, one-on-ones, Kudos
races, hotlaps, car-passing challenges, time-attacks â“ loads of different
races to get your teeth into. And as you race, donât forget to pile on the
style to earn mode Kudos!

Q6:
What kind of reference material have you sought from London, Tokyo, San
Francisco, New York and have you used any scanning methods? I have heard you
went to all the locations, took 1000s of photos. Firstly is all this detail
needed? Can you explain why? Surely it is about driving and if a location in San
F is the same recreation 99% of the users do not know or care? Also shops,
buildings etc have you tried to recreate everything even down to traffic lights?

We had to visit all of the locations
many times to get the research, and in all, weâve clocked up 250,000 air miles
between the team members! We have huge boxes of photographs in the office â“
over 40,000 at the last count. And to back it up, and help with the modelling,
we have over 40 hours of video footage that the artists have taken whilst on the
research trips.

Weâve needed to take photos to get the
detail â“ and it is needed to recreate a rich, realistic environment. If weâd
stuck to plain âboxâ buildings and no lamp-posts, trees or street furniture,
then the cities would have looked awful compared with the cars. Weâve modelled
everything down to 1m in size, and itâs as accurate as we can get it without
compromising the gameplay (eg. thereâs no one-way streets or âno vehiclesâ
routes through the parks.)

It has been harder to build real life
rather than made-up circuits, but we think itâs been worth it. Nothing looks
as good as real life, and we know, because we tried! At first, to save time, we
tried to build some parts (eg. Trafalgar Square) and then fill in the rest of
the areas with made-up buildings and streets. But they just didnât look as
good, because itâs really hard to create something as realistic and beautiful
as real life.

But as we decided to take the real-life
route, we wanted to maximise the number of people that would know the areas. We
chose locations and landmarks that you would choose to visit if you went there.
If you go to England on holiday, youâll usually stop off in London and see Big
Ben. Those who go to Japan will often visit Tokyoâs temples and shopping
areas. If youâre in New York, where else but Times Square is on the list. In
this way, people will hopefully recognise the areas from seeing them on TV,
visiting them or give them some nice ideas of where to take a holiday!

Q7: Would it be fair to say this
could be viewed as the next step or even extension on from MSR? (What lesson/s
have you learnt or what fundamental changes from feedback will the player see
that is radically different in this location racer?

Itâs taken the spirit of MSR, and
built it into a game with what we hope will be a broader and more polished
appeal. We had a lot of feedback from MSR fans, and from those who didnât get
on with the game â“ from magazines, websites and e-mails. Weâve paid a lot of
attention to them, and tried to address all of the issues. Many of the e-mails
echoed things that we would have done ourselves (such as car damage) had time
and licensing allowed.

The main thing weâve learnt is
feedback. The players need to know the consequences of what theyâre doing
immediately. When they lower the goals before a race, they need to know how much
extra Kudos they could get. When they weave through a set of cone gates, they
need to see the Kudos adding up as they go. The game will now give rewards
rather than penalising for mistakes, and we hope that itâll be adaptable
enough for all standards of players, rather than just the most skilled!

Thereâs also a lot of issues that have
been addressed could have been solved through testing and play balancing.
Luckily, Microsoft have an excellent testing and play-balancing department, who
have been working on the game all the way through, and as a publisher, they
ensure that their games are spot-on before release.

Q8: If you had to list important
facets within a game in strict order what would they be? (IE. Looks Gameplay, AI
etc) To add with the XBox how important is the initially 'wow eye candy
graphics' to entice?

Gameplay. Gameplay. Gameplay! For a
racing game, itâs then probably AI and looks and sound in joint 2^nd
place, as each balances with each other to produce a great feel to the game.
Thereâs also a lot of major points which you need to get right, such as the
user interface and the clarity of the on-screen information.

I think Microsoft are looking to have
great games and great-looking games for Xbox, but to be honest, itâs not hard
to do that, as the machine is so powerful and easy to program. The artists can
realise their ambitions for modelling and texturing, and the programmers can add
the effects to make things look stunning. As with any console, itâs just a
matter of time before youâll be going âwowâ again and again!

Q9: A lot of racing games have lost
some of their challenge. When we started titles like Burning Rubber Pit Stop
(Yes I am of pension age) enticed, as the whole concept could be see on screen -
in one shot. - You are in front and so you are winning. - Nowadays with so much
happening, with such big circuit's etc, your mind tends to wander and the thrill
of leading is lost. HOW THEN, do you try to keep the players attention?

Firstly, by not having the circuits so
long that you lose the other cars. Weâve purposely kept our longer circuits to
the length that they are a challenge to learn, but you donât feel like
youâre on your own. The shorter circuits give even more pace to the game, and
youâre even less likely to lose the others.

However, thereâs also some extra
coding that weâve done (as some other racers do) in order to keep the pace
there. The AI are given aggressive and arrogant personalities, so that theyâll
battle to catch up if they are behind â“ meaning youâre less likely to leave
you miles ahead. And when theyâre in front, they get a bit complacent, meaning
that youâve got more opportunity to catch them up! In this way, the racing
remains fun without appearing unrealistic.