With Project CARS launching only a few weeks ago to great reviews and our very own gingerneo posting his review here. We were lucky enough to grab Creative Director Andy Tudor for a quick Q&A session.
Krusty: Hi Andy, thanks for taking the time to speak to us during what must be an incredibly busy time for you and the rest of the team. Can you give us a little background on your role at Slightly Mad Studios and how you became involved with Project CARS?
Andy:Before Slightly Mad Studios I worked at Sony which at the time was synonymous with action adventure titles like MediEvil, Primal, GhostHunter, 24: The Game, The Getaway etc.. In those last two, vehicles were introduced but I’d never truly worked on a pure racing game before despite being a massive fan and player of already-established franchises like GT, Forza, PGR, and Need For Speed. It was an ex-colleague in the end that pointed me towards what Slightly Mad Studios were doing and as soon as I saw the studio, the people, the technology, and the games it was a clear decision that I had to be part of this exciting team. To start with I moved from the Art to Design department and we soon attracted the attention of EA who asked us to reboot the Need For Speed franchise after a number of years of gradual decline. Following the success of those titles we then worked on the Test Drive franchise and then on to the current success of our own with Project CARS. That took seconds to say but it’s crazy to think I joined the company almost ten years ago!
DanLH16: How much of a challenge was getting the community to fund project cars and would you recommend this method to another studio if they asked?
Andy: Gladly and thankfully it was a pleasant surprise how eager the community were to join. It took months of hard work to get everything in place before launch and then we opened the doors and hoped that our vision would connect with the fans and it was amazing to then see more people signing up to the WMD Portal than there were to Xbox Live at the time - we were truly humbled (and overwhelmed with immediate feedback!). Throughout the development of Project CARS though, after a bit of mutual teething troubles on both our part and the community, it’s pretty clear that the game is the success it is today from including the community from day one and any game company can benefit this method.
Billy Dubya: How does it feel to be doing this game yourselves in terms of having complete control over what goes into it, compared to working with EA?
Andy: Great, refreshing, scary! It’s certainly a break from tradition and one I expect other studios have been eyeing to see whether we prevail or not. But now that the game is out, is being played by hundreds of thousands of players, and has been critically acclaimed across the board I think it’s pretty clear that the system worked :-)
Caws09: Your team has worked on a number of racing games. In the pre-production stage, how did you collect ideas on how best to structure the game?
Andy: It came from a number of different angles - there were definitely items we wanted to address from our previous games like a totally new tire model, much improved force feedback, in fact totally upgraded and new handling all around. Then there were items we simply didn’t get to previously like dynamic time of day rather than static. That then meant we had to have pit stops for endurance races which then led to the opportunity to license the Le Mans 24H. So that was kind of a natural snowballing effect. Then there were things we wanted to innovate on like dynamic weather, things that were ‘benchmark features’ from other sim racing games that hadn’t necessarily been seen on console before like ‘join in progress’ online and the pure range of options we’ve exposed, new technologies we wanted to explore like Oculus Rift and 4K, new avenues we wanted to push in like eSports and community events, and a whole load of community-requested features they either felt were missing in their current favourite game or had always wanted in a racing game. Phew! That was a long list! But hopefully you can see it comes from a place of wanting to keep pushing the racing genre forward, keep innovating, and keep producing ‘best in class’ features.
Billy Dubya: What challenges did you face getting the console versions of the game to run at a steady 60 frames a second and were there many sacrifices made to get this to happen?
Andy: Someone far more technical than me can answer that! But obviously, 60 fps is a major draw (and some would say necessity!) in racing games so obviously, despite all the things going on onscreen there was obviously a challenge to getting it all running smoothly and the team have done an amazing job with little to no sacrifices being made. Obviously players can kit out PCs to the absolute max so they’ll always have an advantage but the core experience is identical on both PC and consoles.
TheWayneG: What can we expect from the career mode of Project Cars?
Andy: Something different, something new-but-familiar, something authentic, and something more in keeping with modern-day gaming habits. If you’ve played Madden or FIFA or NBA 2K15 then you’ll feel right at home and the removal of grinding for cash or XP puts the focus back on the racing. Check outprojectcarsgame.com/career for a complete rundown.
oBIGASHo: Was there anything you and the team weren’t happy with that led to the game being postponed and are all those (if any) issues fully addressed now?
Andy: Absolutely. We always said that the delay was down to our own personal dissatisfaction with a few remaining bugs or bits of polish or minor additions needed and now the review scores are out and we did so favourably I think it was justified (although heartbreakingly agonising to decide that at the time). Now after launch we’ve seen a few more issues pop up, particularly on Xbox One, and the community have been fantastic in isolating those so we can identify the solution and get a patch out to immediately address them. We made the game alongside the community and continuing that ongoing discussion with them is paramount to ensuring the game keeps attending to the wishes and desires of the players.
oBIGASHo: I see Nicolas Hamilton helped with development. What was the reason behind this?
Andy: Nicolas has been a sim racer for a long time now so he has a unique perspective on racing both from the comfort of his own home, from his experience out on the track in real-life motorsports, and from the world of motorsports he grew up with in his family. So with that raw passion he had for the game he was able to give us some pretty insightful feedback on all aspects of the game from car handling to track accuracy.
caws 09: The DLC on recent racing games has offered new cars and a few new tracks. In light of this, will you be offering any other types of DLC to keep us wanting more and do you have any unannounced cars/tracks you can share with us?
Andy: Absolutely! I think we’ve been pretty clear since day one that Project CARS is the start of something brand-new and we plan on being around for a very long time. And when we approach ‘further content’ I hope you’ve seen that we’re trying to do something a bit different from the norm there too. Every month there’ll be a free car to all players thanking them for the long wait for the game. We surprised everyone hopefully when we released some free liveries that had been created by the community on day one. And for those in the US that didn’t get a chance to pre-order, we released the Modified Car Pack early so our fans there can get their hands on it before it becomes available later in the year over in Europe. All of these, as well as a load more plans in the pipeline aim to hopefully solidify that concept we’ve always held true - that Project CARS has been made by the fans, for the fans and we want to treat them fairly and ensure the game stays fresh and contemporary for a long time.
ImmortalTanz: Will there be a season pass?
Andy: Ha, as above - we’ll have more info regarding this very soon!
wellsa27: If you had to choose, what's the one feature that you are most proud of having in the game?
Andy: We never really talk about numbers, but the fact that we run our physics at 600 times per second, have over 40 cars onscreen at the same time, have the largest track roster of any recent racing game, run at 12K resolution, and run at 60 fps on consoles all strong indicators that technology-wise Project CARS is leaps and bounds ahead and crucially - that all of those items add significant gameplay, whether that’s battling in a torrential downpour in a neck-to-neck Touring car race at the Nordschleife or cruising down the California coast at sunset on a triple-screen setup. It’s this combination of technology affording us these immersive, breathtaking experiences that really makes you sit back and say “Wow" occasionally.
Big B 1970: If you could race one car from the game round Brands Hatch or Silverstone in real life, which would you choose?
Andy: Tough choice! The Ariel Atom for the purity of that chassis, the Lykan Hypersport simply for that holographic dashboard and its price tag, and the Zakspeed Capri for the rawest engine noise you’ve ever heard.
TheWayneG: Can we expect any community based things such as fastest laps, most overtakes, who's earned the most in career mode?
Andy: Check out the Driver Network feature over atwww.projectcarsgame.com/driver-network! There’s stats to look at, photos and replays to be shared, time trials with downloadable ghosts to play against, and regularly-scheduled community events including our ongoing SMS-R Driver Network Championship season throughout the year. Lots to do, lots of Accolades to win, and lots of Achievements & Trophies to chase after :-)
Emotionalworm: Do you have anymore games planned and is there a specific game you wish you had made?
Andy: The SMS Police sharpshooters will pull the trigger if I say anything ;-) As for games I wish I’d made, I have three... the Shenmue saga (and I say ‘saga’ as I hope the third will appear some day!) as it’s an absolutely beautiful piece of art, Lollipop Chainsaw as it’s the pure expression of “Can we do this? Sure why not!” whilst also being more grounded than Bayonetta, and the Batman: Arkham games since as a huge fan of comics and Batman in general they’re just doing it absolutely right over there and the things I asked for (co-op, playable Batgirl, drivable Batmobile) all made it into this one so I’m absolutely ecstatic. One day I’ll make a Superman game.
Emotionalworm: What is your favourite game or series you've played?
Andy: There are two games I always buy whenever a new version comes out - Bubble Bobble and Street Fighter. They’re the games I used to stand in line at an arcade to play when I was a kid, they’re the games I played tirelessly, and they haven’t aged unlike some games. Geometry Wars is another for pure ‘in the zone’ bite-size fun, Final Fantasy VIII (not VII like most people!), and of course the Mario games (probably the 2D side-scrollers more than Galaxy or World). Most recently it’s League of Legends that’s gradually sucking all my game time up though.
Thank you for your time Andy and we wish you and the rest of the team the best with Project CARS. I do however have one last question to ask.
Krusty: When the dust has settled and things have calmed down slightly for yourselves, and we at Absolute Gaming have acclimatised ourselves to Project CARS do you think you and some of your team would be up for an Absolute Gaming VS Slightly Mad Studios tournament?
Andy: At the risk of absolutely humiliating ourselves, it sounds like fun! We’d better put some practice in then. Can we substitute the Stig inon our team? ;-)
Project CARS is available now.