Exclusive: Forza Motorsport
Added 09/14/2004 by Jman
First of all, what is your position at Microsoft Game Studios?I’m Dan Greenwalt, the lead designer for Forza Motorsport.
What does the team creating Forza Motorsport want to accomplish with this game?
With Forza Motorsport, we want to create the most realistic racing sim available for Xbox. We are aiming to bring some new and innovative gameplay to the racing sim genre. Forza’s going to introduce new features to this space, including a powerful damage engine and customization options that you typically don’t see in racing sims.
How long has the team been working on this title? And how many people are involved?
Any game is only as good as the people who built it, and we made sure to hire all-stars every step of the way. We hired from across the industry, including EA, DICE, Boss Games, Nintendo, Crystal Dynamics, and Neversoft. We also hired great newcomers from other areas of Microsoft, including our computer opponent programmer. He’s a PhD Learning AI researcher from the Microsoft Research group. Our Audio developer is from the Xbox ATG (Advanced Technology Group) team. Our networking guru was instrumental in building Direct Play for Windows. We’ve got huge car fans, two guys who race motorcycles, a guy who races his Mini in rally and auto-cross events and a guy who left the Star Mazda open-wheel racing series to come help build this game. This is a group of very passionate and very experienced people. The team is well over a hundred people. We’ve been developing Forza Motorsport internally for over two years now.
What will the career mode entail? For example are there different types of racing we'll take part in or will it simply be different car classes?
Forza’s career mode is structured more like a playground featuring lots of event types serving as apparatus to play on. Money is the structure that holds this playground together. You’ll be able to select from a good mix of cars to start with. By “good”, I mean that players won’t be stuck with econo-boxes as they launch their careers. As you go through the career mode, you’ll earn money to trick-out your current car, or spend it on buying something extraordinary and rare, like high end Ferrari’s and Porsches or even the Audi R8.
Of course, you’ll earn money by winning races. However, you’ll also be rewarded for challenging yourself. By turning off assists such as automatic transmission, limited damage and traction control, the game gets tougher. At the same time the monetary rewards become greater. Thus advanced players will find plenty of challenge to keep them busy, while casual gamers can still earn cash, progress through the game and enjoy racing.
We want to make sure Forza is enjoyable to even those gamers who might not have hours to invest in building a career, so we’re starting online and arcade gamers off with the vast majority of the cars already unlocked – including our high end race cars.
What do you think about the Xbox gaming community calling Forza the “Gran Turismo Killer”? Is that an accurate translation on what the Forza team is trying to do here? Outshine the GT franchise?
We get asked that pretty frequently, and honestly, we don’t like to consider Forza a “GT killer.” We have tremendous respect for Yamauchi-san and his team, and the original Gran Turismo is why some of us got into developing games. While Forza’s in the same genre as Gran Turismo, it offers a lot of new gameplay vs. GT. For example, we have a vehicle damage system and car customization features, neither of which is currently available in GT games. We think these features will really help us push the genre forward, as gamers will be tweaking, tuning and customizing their cars in ways they never have before. And our damage engine is going to ensure that racers don’t use other players as “brakes” or track walls as “rails” during a race.
When it comes down to it, we’re very honored to be compared to Gran Turismo, but we’re also going to be offering a very different gameplay experience.
We know the Subaru WRC is going to be included in the game. Will rally racing be an option or will we be racing this car on the asphalt?
Forza Motorsport will not feature the Subaru WRC (World Rally Championship). We have included the Subaru WRX STi, the 22B, the Cusco JGTC WRX as well as several aftermarket tuner WRX’s,
We looked into including Rally tracks and events a couple of years ago. However, Forza Motorsport is first and foremost a track based racing simulator. We wanted to spend the majority of our time delivering the best wheel-to-wheel racing simulation available. We’ve included some surprise event types that go beyond standard wheel-to-wheel action, but to answer your question, there won’t be any rally.
What is your favorite car in the game so far?
There are so many cars in the game, and so many ways to customize them, it’s tough to pick just one. I drive a Stage 2 tuned 2000 Audi S4 to work every day. Because of this, I guess my ultimate car in the game would have to be a Audi S4 bi-turbo, tuned to make 500 plus horsepower and sporting racing slicks. I’d also change out the rims, hood and add a “touring car” style rear wing. Finally, I’d give it just the right paint scheme complete with decals to it to make it really look like a race car. At that point, it would be “mine.”
Will gamers be able to customize any car? If so, in what ways?
Customization is one of the key elements of Forza, so you’ll be able to change the look, feel and driving characteristics of every production car in the game. We have well over 200 cars in Forza. Our production cars range from hot sport compact cars like the Dodge SRT4 or Acura RSX to exotic supercars like the Mercedes SLR or Porsche Carrera GT. We even have classics like the 69 Chevy Camaro SS and Pontiac GTO.
We have an extremely powerful paint job editor. This editor allows you to place decals and vinyl primitives all over the car. You’re not limited to specific shapes and locations – go ahead and freestyle.
As I mentioned before, first and foremost, we are a simulator. Therefore, all upgrades in the game have a performance characteristic. For example, while a player might swap out a few aftermarket parts purely for cosmetic purposes, it will also have an effect on the car’s weight and aero. Other upgrades, like engines and rear wings, will make a huge difference in gameplay.
We’ve got a mountain of customization options – you can change bumpers, scoops, side skirts, paint schemes, decals and of course the engines. And that’s just for starters. Since every gamer is different, we felt we should offer enough customization options to ensure every gamer’s car is different. In Forza Motorsport, you are what you race.
Onto the technical side: What can you tell me about the graphics engine that is being used with this game? How is it pushing Xbox to the next level?
We’ve put a lot of time into Forza Motorsport’s graphics engine. Especially in the details of the tracks and the cars. We’ve painstakingly photographed each and every car and track in the game, and we’ve even built scale models of some of the cars to use as a reference. All the details, right down to the depth of the wheel-wells are in there.
Tracks are detailed right down to the skid marks that were present on the track the week we captured them. On top of that, we also maintain the skid marks you left three laps ago. And if you bump your car against a wall, you’ll be leaving a paint trail in your wake.
How about the sound engine that game will use? How is it utilizing Xbox’s powerful audio processor?
Forza is a sim, and as such, we want to make absolutely sure every aspect reflects reality. So, we aren’t skimping on the sound. When you’re racing in Forza, you’ll really hear your 5.1 audio system come to life, as each tire is tied to a speaker, giving you instant feedback as to who’s slipping and who’s gripping the pavement. Our sound engine is going to let you know when you’ve managed to bite into a turn, or when you’re about to lose it. And of course, you’ll hear those other drivers coming up on your tail.
On the multiplayer side: How many people will be able to compete on the same Xbox at once?
Forza will support two player split-screen and tons of multiplayer modes and options.
What features from Xbox Live 3.0 will this game be supporting?
Xbox Live is obviously a big deal for Forza Motorsport, and right now we’re fleshing out all the details on gameplay modes, Live features and the number of players who will race in a round. Stay tuned for more info later.
When will Forza Motorsport ship for Xbox?
Forza Motorsport is expected to ship in Winter of 2005. And when it does, it should really change how gamers think of racing sims.
Talk Xbox would like to thank Dan Greenwalt for answering our questions about Forza Motorsport. It's gonna be a great game!
