IncGamers: One of the “big new things” for Unbounded is the track/level creator. Why did you want to include such a thing?

Joonas Laakso: A number of reasons, but chiefly we were afraid that maybe “just” making a kickass arcade isn’t enough for today’s marketplace. We felt like we needed something extra. We thought about adding car customisation, more game modes or a story mode or something but once we rested on the idea of the creator it felt right.

It was a very interesting exercise for us because we haven’t done anything like that before.

IG: Arcade racers often suffer from a lack of longevity, is that why you added a creator?

JL: That is certainly part of it, yes. We thought that if there was a way to provide new content every time you logged on then that would be very interesting. Also, for us, we get to see how the game evolves and how players want to play.

The longevity certainly plays into it, but if you put a sticker on the box that says “this game has a creator mode” that seems to boost sales.

However, if you look at Far Cry 2, LittleBigPlanet or Halo: Reach, very few people actually use the editors for anything. I think people like the idea of creating and discovering new stuff but they’re not so keen on actually spending the time to do so. We wanted to see how many people we could encourage to use the editor if it was simple enough.

IG: There are memory limitations on the tracks you can build, are those the same across all platforms (360, PS3, PC)?

JL: Currently, yes. I think it would be viable to increase that for the PC where you have more RAM to play around with.

IG: Have the tracks on the disc been made with the same editor tools available to players?

JL: Absolutely. At first we thought it wouldn’t be possible, and the level designers did complain, but our CEO was very strict. If we were going to create an editor then our level designers were not going to get any cheats, they’d have to work using the same tools.

It does work though. We were creating tracks using only the 360 and PS3 builds, we don’t use the PC for anything anymore.

IG: A lot of games now seem to be focusing on providing creation tools. Do you see game development going further down that route, rather than providing pre-built, finite content?

JL: To a point, yes. But at the same time, developing creation tools is a completely different skill set – especially with advanced examples where you’re placing objects in a 3D world. It’s really hard and requires a different design approach than making a normal car game.

We’ve discovered that it’s extremely hard to put something like that together in a user friendly way. If you look at someone like Epic, they’re more of a technology company than a games company these days. They have to really focus on making a suite of tools that can be used by anyone, whereas we’re focused on making a set of tools usable for this specific game.

IG: Which engine are you using?

JL: It’s our own. The physics and rendering stuff have been built upon for the past 11 years, so it’s very good at what we want it to do – high speeds with lots of highly detailed physics for crashes etc. I don’t see how we could use anything else.

IG: How is the console hardware holding up to what you’re looking to achieve?

JL: Well, it’s a challenge. The memory on the consoles is a constant problem. Because we’re working so much with physics the CPU limitations are also starting to become an issue, so it is a problem. However, I’m not too eager to jump onto the next generation because now that we’ve got this running nicely on the 360 and PS3 we’d love to do another game.

It’s very hard to find processing power for things like split-screen without sacrificing things like graphical fidelity or physics. We do understand that players would love split-screen, and they may be willing to sacrifice for it, but it’s very hard for us to find a balance.

If we had new hardware and added power it would be a lot easier.

IG: Why release on PC? Namco are not known all that well for their PC titles, nor are arcade racers…

JL: I don’t think Namco would release a product if they didn’t think the market was there. I’ve been looking at responses on the internet and there seems to be a PC crowd who are eager to get a new arcade racer. Lots of them are still playing Burnout Paradise…

For us, we’re just happy that we’re making it. Once we learned we were making a Ridge Racer game we thought that maybe a PC version wouldn’t be wanted. Bugbear fans are very much a PC crowd and they would have crucified us for not doing a PC version. So we’re very happy we’re doing it.

IG: How do you think fans will take to the game in general? Bugbear fans may be surprised that you’re making Ridge Racer, while Ridge Racer fans might be surprised by the focus on destruction…

JL: Bugbear fans are great, they’ve been very receptive. I haven’t yet seen one confused Bugbear fan out there about us doing this game.

I understand the reactions of the Ridge Racer fans, but honestly I was expecting worse. I’m seeing that a lot of them understand the reason Namco has chosen us to work on it was because they wanted to take a new approach with the franchise – it’s quite old at this point. I suppose the easiest way to do something new is to change the development team.

Still, I think it still feels very much like a Ridge Racer title. The drifting, for example, has had its important increased all the time as we’ve been working on the handling. I guess it comes back to what people are expecting from the game, in Ridge Racer there’s always been a reliance on the drifting mechanics to do well.

IG: How have you approached the AI? Is it a traditional ‘rubber-banding’ system?

JL: You could call it ‘rubber-banding’ but I think that it’s short changing by calling it that. It’s quite an involved system with multiple roles that the AI tries to fill in the race. We’re trying to make sure that, if you’re driving adequately, you should always be able to see someone in front of you.

But we’re trying to stay away from a very robotic AI where they drive in a perfect line or they always try and let you catch and pass them. We’re playing with turning off the ‘pack control’ (which keeps them around you) on the last lap so that there are no cheap last minute comebacks with them suddenly catching up.

There is a lot of AI cheating going on behind the scenes but it’s always for the enjoyment of the player. We never want to make it cheap or too difficult.

IG: Will a similar system be in place for multiplayer?

JL: We had experimented with a pack control mechanic but it’s very hard to do it without players noticing – I don’t think we should do it if players can tell what’s going on. If we work out a way of doing it invisibly then I think we should do it because it will keep things more interesting.

IG: There have been a lot of top quality arcade racers in the past couple of years – not all of them commercially successful – how do you stand out from the pack?

JL: To me it’s always felt as though we’ve been doing our own thing. On one level this is a very direct continuation from our previous games – although this is more refined. What we’ve done differently here is shift the core gameplay.

In FlatOut the core excitement comes from avoiding failure, here we’re trying to do the opposite by rewarding you all the time. The depth comes from how the mechanics work and you going for the high scores.

If you look at Split/Second, Blur, MotorStorm and so on, I think that there’s plenty of space for arcade racers compared to other genres. For example, with first-person shooters, I can’t tell the different between the latest Battlefield and Call of Duty from screenshots – if I see them moving, maybe I can tell the difference. For the most part if I’m not playing them, I can’t tell them apart.

Compare that to arcade racers and we’re very far apart in terms of differentiation, lots of studios are making games by their rules. In shooters there are much stricter rules that must be followed – control schemes, respawns, loading; they’re all engraved in stone. When you see developers going against the grain, like Killzone 2 had a ‘heavier’ style of movement, the outcry is so bad that it usually has to be changed instantly.

 

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