What significance does the title \'Gotham\' have in reference to the game?
Garrett Young: Great question. Gotham was the original codename of the project, based on its historical meaning as an "urban center." We\'re giving gamers the chance to race through these super rich, high-detailed downtown environments, so we thought the codename should reflect that. When we tested the name out with console racing gamers we found they really liked it, so the name stuck.
Have you dealt directly with automobile manufacturers when designing the cars and determining their performance?
Garrett Young: Have we ever! Our licensing manager, Christian Phillips, has been 100% dedicated to working with all the major manufacturers for the past year. The relationships he\'s been able to develop have not only given us an incredible lineup of vehicles -- cars from Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin and others -- but also has allowed us to implement realistic vehicle damage (something that\'s missing in the other racing games I\'m playing right now).
I could go on and on about how almost 100% of our vehicle audio has been recorded from their real cars (standing next to a TVR Tuscan Speed 6 hitting 120mph on a dynamometer was intense!), or how we\'re currently plugging in all the real-world characteristics for each vehicle into the code now -- 0-60 speed, gear ratios, top speed, red line rev counter, etc. -- or how each 16,000-poly vehicle has been built from schematics directly from the manufacturers, or how.... Well, you get the point ;-)
Where there any previous racing games that have inspired the direction you took with Project Gotham?
Garrett Young: We\'ve looked at a lot of racing games for inspiration. The team at Bizarre have a great history in building console racing games with Formula1, F1 \'97, and Metropolis Street Racer, while we at Microsoft have learned a lot from building the Madness series on the PC and working with the other great partners we have -- many unannounced so far -- on our other xbox racing games. We\'re also all big racing gamers, so we\'ve all spent a bunch of time earning licenses and tuning our cars in the upgrade version of Mr. Yamauchi\'s GT series...
What do you think are the key ingredients for a great racing game? What do you think today\'s gamers want to see in such games?
Garrett Young: Wow, loaded question: how much time do you have? I\'ve never been known for being succinct, so I\'ll try turning over a new leaf here: the key things I look for in a racing game like ours are car control, interesting racing environments, challenging AI, some type of long-term progression, and the ability to race against my buddies.
To me, car control needs to be intuitive and reasonably realistic. By intuitive, I mean this: how long is it between the point where I feel like I\'m pushing buttons on a controller, and the point where I feel I\'m actually controlling a car and having fun? We have guys with years of game design experience at Microsoft that can talk your ear off about how to minimize this period -- there\'s definitely some magic to it.
By "reasonably realistic", I mean the vehicle handling and physics need to give me a great sense of speed and need to feel realistic up to the point where realism and fun diverge. I expect to see and hear vehicle damage when I slam into a corner at 90mph, but I don\'t want my tires to explode or my car to burst into flames -- I came here to race!
The other items on the list above are really important too -- along with engine, collision, and ambient audio that adds to the driving experience -- but I better wrap this question up so people can go check out the awesome new screen shots you guys have posted this week.
RE: your question about today\'s gamers: I think there are people out there who look for the same things I look for, but there are also a lot of people who look for other things -- pure simulations, kart-style racing, driving shooters, etc. The consistent thing that all gamers look for in racing games are a great variety of tracks, a great sensation of speed, and a nice variety of cars. We\'ve got all of those elements plus we have something that helps set the game apart and that\'s the Kudos reward system.
Tell us a bit about the multiplayer features, will we see a split screen or a quad screen?
Garrett Young: Multiplayer is a hugely important thing for all racing games across our portfolio. In Gotham, gamers will be able to play against 3 of their friends at once in "quad screen." Also, they\'ll be able to compete for speed (i.e., winner = driver who finishes 1st) or for style, where the winner is the driver who finishes the race with the most Kudos.
Name a feature of Project Gotham that makes this game different than previous racing titles?
Garrett Young: Well, in Gotham gamers get the ability to race through the hearts of San Francisco, London, Tokyo, and New York City, they get higher-detailed cars and environments than any other racing game out there, and they get option to play their own music as they race (via .WMAs they can rip to the xbox hard drive), but the key thing I think gamers will like -- the thing that makes Gotham really cool and different -- is the Kudos scoring system.
In Gotham, we reward users for not only driving with speed, but also for driving with style. Kicking the back end out in a power-slide, getting up on 2 wheels around a corner, passing opponents cleanly -- it takes a lot of skill to drive stylishly when racing. Through the Kudos scoring system, we reward users for this skill.
Winning in Gotham isn\'t about having the fastest car or spending the most time in the garage buying upgrades; winning in Gotham is all about your driving skill out on the streets.
What are some of the different modes of the game? Will we see simulation vs. arcade style racing or even a career mode?
Garrett Young: We\'ve got 5 key modes in Gotham.
Two separate "quick race" modes to get the user onto the tracks quickly: one mode where competition is based on your success vs. AI opponents, and another mode where competition is all about your skill on the track alone, scoring Kudos and beating time limits. Both of these modes give gamers four increasingly-difficult levels of challenge -- 4 tracks through each city, per level.
We also have 2 modes fundamental to all racing games: a Time Attack mode for setting record times on each track in the game, and a Multiplayer mode for taking on up to 3 of your buddies at once.
Last but certainly not least, the "career mode" in Gotham is the Kudos Challenge. 12 stages of different races and competitions -- ranging from 4 to 10 challenges each -- all meant to push you and your car to the limit.
Success in all the modes will be tracked in the driver profile, and we\'ll be giving gamers rewards and other unlocks all over the place.
Thanks Garrett! Check back tommorrow for Part 2 of the interview with Garrett.
http://www.teamxbox.com/article.php?id=116&t=
Whoa!!!!!!! Check out the detail in the first pics. Now thats impressive.
Topic: Project Gotham Racing: Interview & New Screens (Read 1020 times)