Interviewed via Xbox Community Network.
What’s your favourite car in Forza 2 and why?
My favorite car changes from week to week. With our upgrade and classification system, even an entry level Honda Civic can become a supercar killer. I’m constantly finding new cars to explore and master. Most recently, I’ve been playing with the old 1969 Fairlady R – with racing slicks, weight reduction and a Skyline powertrain swap, this car is a monster.
The number of cars available is an advantage Gran Turismo has over Forza 2. Are you going to add a notable number of new cars in order to close the gap on GT?
The original GT had less than 200 cars. When GT made the leap from PS1 to PS2 it went from 500 cars to around 150 in GT3. As a developer, whenever you make the next-gen leap, its a double edged sword. You can make things look much better and create a more immersive experience, but the content takes much longer to create. This is a question of scale versus quality – balancing breadth versus depth. Forza Motorsport 2 contains over 300 cars including Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. Each individual feature you add to the cars, adds time. For example, having damage and customization dramatically reduced the number of cars we could do by increasing the amount of time each car takes to model. We had to find the correct balance between features/car and number of cars. All developers have to make similar choices weighing important next-gen features versus sheer quantity – do more cars with less features like customization and damage or do more cars with fewer next-gen features. Is also worth noting that while I’m not prepared to talk specifics about DLC; added cars and tracks are a no-brainer.
What do you think of the Xbox 360 driving wheel? Do you think a handbrake should have been included?
The Xbox 360 driving wheel is an excellent Force Feedback wheel – especially for the price. The build quality and the material finish is especially striking plus its wireless. Personally even if I were building a $500 wheel, I still wouldn’t add a handbrake. However, I would want 900 degrees, an H pattern shifter, two thumb sticks, a clutch pedal and especially a Force Feedback brake pedal – again at a much higher price point. Having a pressure based brake pedal with FFB would be hot. Its really hard to simulate real braking with a travel based analog.
Some people have criticised the somewhat ’aggressive’ behaviour of AI-cars in Forza (their not-so-gentleman-like ways of ’attacking’ the player’s vehicle, particularly when he was about to overtake an AI-car). How have you addressed this in Forza 2? Also, generally, can you tell us how AI has improved in Forza 2?
In order to answer your question, I have to provide some backstory. The Artificial Intelligence in the original Forza Motorsport was based on Drivatar technology developed by one of Microsofts research teams in Cambridge, England. This sort of colaboration is one of the benefits of working at a 50k employee company you never know what sort of technology some other part of the company might be working on. The Cambridge guys are researchers, not game developers. So they approached the problem of AI from a completely different angle. The AI they developed was a form of machine learning. It was truly revolutionary AI. Having revolutionary AI is both a blessing and a curse. The Drivatars are really more like children than standard AI. You dont script them, you teach them. We really never got our heads fully wrapped around the system before we shipped the original Forza Motorsport. Id say they were more like 13 year olds in the original.
For version 2, we hired some new developers and a designer dedicated to getting the most out of this system. Im happy to say, the AI have graduated to the next level. Thats not to say they dont have room to improve. Id say they are more like 18 year olds now. This is a very exciting technology. With a better understanding of the technology, we were able to add character to the drivers personality. In the career, you will encounter 30 different drivatars, complete with different skill levels ad aggression levels. One driver, M. Rossi (no relation to the great V. Rossi) is one of our fastest and most aggressive drivers. Late in development, he started learning things that we hadnt taught him. He started check braking a very advanced racing technique, also sorta dirty. Anyway, this was a bit of a scary moment. He was learning faster than we were teaching. Back to your question, the AI is very aware of the human drivers on the course. Will they still bump you, it depends on how aggressive they are. We have some drivers that are so tentative that you can block them to a crawl. Meanwhile, M. Rossi wont think twice about swapping paint with you if youre in his way.
What do you think of the Xbox 360 driving wheel? Do you think a handbrake should have been included?
The Xbox 360 driving wheel is an excellent Force Feedback wheel – especially for the price. The build quality and the material finish is especially striking plus its wireless. Personally even if I were building a $500 wheel, I still wouldn’t add a handbrake. However, I would want 900 degrees, an H pattern shifter, two thumb sticks, a clutch pedal and especially a Force Feedback brake pedal – again at a much higher price point. Having a pressure based brake pedal with FFB would be hot. Its really hard to simulate real braking with a travel based analog.
Forza is often compared to Gran Turismo when it comes to driving realism. Many Forza-fans think your game is better and more realistic than GT. What gameplay mechanics have you further improved to insure this high level of (sim-like) driving realism?
No other racing game gives you cutting edge simulation physics including damage with Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. Were obsessed with physics. For example, we partnered with real-world tire manufacturers like Toyo and spent over 3 months on the tire physics alone to make sure we were on the cutting edge of this very dynamic science. It takes upwards of 9000 parameters to define a car in our simulation everythings got weight and inertia from the engine, driveline and clutch to the rims and tires. Also, we run our physics at 360 fps. This makes the cars very responsive like in the real world. Some games run their physics at 60 fps, this makes the cars unresponsive. I have taken several driving schools and track my car. Even heavy cars like mine are more responsive in the real-world than 60 fps can do justice.
Did you avoid weather conditions on purpose (possibly due to time constraints), or is it a feature that the studio is willing to experiment with in the future, so that they could further expand the simulation aspect of the franchise?
Moving to next-gen hardware is a mixed blessing. The more powerful hardware and added resolution allows us to create a truly stunning scene. However, building next-gen content is extremely time consuming. We’ve looked at programmatically creating weather effects and dynamic time of day. However, this replaces the craftsmanship of the artists with the technology of the devs. Thus far, this replacement yields results that do not meet our exacting standards. To build these conditions the old-fashioned way with artistic skill and craftsmanship requires more artists and more time. Our team is already huge and still growing. In fact, we’ve been hiring artists (devs and designers as well) non-stop for over a year. However, we still struggled to create 45 tracks to a next-gen spec with no alternative weather or time of day. Given the choice between doing weather or more unique environments, we elected to deliver as many next-gen environments as possible at optimal racing conditions. We’ll see what the future holds.
Will there be downloadable content? If so, will there be new tracks and cars?
Cars and tracks are a no-brainer. However, we just finished the game and are going to take a well deserved week or two off before we come back to solidify our DLC plans. Currently, we’ve got a bunch of ideas on the whiteboard.
What is the real motive to delay the release of this game?
We’re perfectionists and the game wasn’t done. You don’t ship and date, you ship a game. At the end of the day, you have to ship something you can be personally proud of – we have.
Why do you think Forza Motorsport 2 is the real Gran Turismo Killer?
I don’t like to attack other developers. We are all working hard to make great entertainment. I have tremendous respect for Yamauchi-san’s team. Its natural to compare the two games. However, if you really look at them, the comparisons break down quickly. Forza Motorsport 2 is not only a fantastic simulator – its a truly next-gen game that embraces todays design trends and cultural phenomenon such as web 2.0. I don’t want to kill anything, I just want to advance the genre in new directions. More than anything, I want to make a very inclusive game that turns gamers into car freaks and converts car freaks into gamers in order to build a vibrant community.
Creating designs was quite tricky for those wanting to make unique paintjobs. Has the design process been made easier?
The design process is much easier. We’ve added quick keys as well as custom groups that can be saved and applied to any car. We’ve also added text and hundreds more shapes and decals. Our goal is to empower creative people. Poor artists like myself can easily create a unique livery. But, does that mean that everyone will be able to create the Mona Lisa on the side of their car? Nope. Great craftsmen are empowered and they can then become famous on the Auction House. I see painting as a skill, like great driving and great tuning. You don’t have to be the best driver to be a valuable part of the Forza community.
Did you find adding achievements for the game a chore or was it something that the team enjoyed?
I’m a gamer before a developer. When we first started working on the Xbox 360 and I heard about the achievement system, I thought: ”hmmm, this could be interesting.” After the Xbox 360 launched, I was amazed at the effect that the achievements had on me. I became an ”achievements whore”. I found myself playing games differently. Its actually a great tool for designers to encourage unique play styles – just look at Crackdown. Of course some developers have made for really annoying achievements as well – such as ”get 1 on the scoreboards.” I mean, that’s crazy. Anyway, to answer your question, we were excited about it.
Will we see a Forza 3? If so, when?
To really answer this would be a much longer conversation. Technology hasnt yet caught up to my vision for the Forza Motorsport franchise. While Forza is an incredible simulator, our goal is to create an inclusive experience that embraces anyone that has an interest or passion for cars. We havent even scratched the surface of the total experience I want to create. We need a couple years at the very least to develop new innovative technology. Also, this game is huge, the expectations for follow-up version will be massive. It will take a long time to top this game.