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068

MAY 2015

JB Hi-Fi

www.jbhifi.com.au

visit

www.stack.net.au

FEATURE

GAMES

How do you design a racer that everyone wants to play?

You develop it in conjunction with your core audience.This is

Project CARS.

The

Community

Racer

T

he ubiquitous racing genre is a

tough place to trade. Finding a

point of difference in such a

heavily populated marketplace is a struggle

facing developers with every new iteration of a

racing franchise. However, Slightly Mad

Studios think they have what it takes to lead

the pack.

Based in London, Slightly Mad was formed in

2009 following the acquisition of the developer

behind the GTR racing series, Blimey! Games.

The studio’s portfolio includes the acclaimed

Need for Speed titles,

Shift, Shift 2

and

Unleashed

for EA, before completing

Test Drive:

Ferrari Racing Legends

in 2012.

While contemplating their next project, Slightly

Mad canvassed the thoughts of both racing game

enthusiasts and professional drivers in a bid to

determine just what was required to produce the

perfect racing title.

Armed with this information, they decided to

develop a racing title with direct input from the

people who will be playing it – the fans – and

Slightly Mad conceived a crowdfunding platform

for the production of

Project CARS

. Under the

title of WMD, or World of Mass Development,

potential involvement in the game was accessed

via a website where different tiers of investment

denoted the level of involvement in the

development process.

It’s a fine idea and was eagerly adopted

by the racing community eager to

submit creative input and access regular

opportunities to road test code; and more

imp

ortantly, provide vital feedback.

In all, some 80,000 racing

enthusiasts helped shaped the

game with the added incentive

of the prospect of earning money

from their contribution.

Moreover, input from “Stig” Ben Collins,

European Touring Car driver Nicholas Hamilton,

and European Le Mans series champion and

BAC Mono test pilot Oli Webb provided

Slightly Mad with the ‘real driver’ insight the

studio sought for inspiration – and above all,

authenticity.

Project CARS

has been designed as the

ultimate sim, where players can just about tweak

any part of the game. The cars are photorealistic,

with the studio purportedly using 300,000

polygons per vehicle. You can race anywhere at

anytime in any format, too, with events spread

across 14 countries, with 80 different track

layouts and over 400 kilometres of tarmac.

The team also decided to break the traditional

format of a racing title. In

Project CARS,

there’s

no incessant circuit repetition and under-

performing vehicles collecting money for

upgrades, so you can compete with the best.

All the cars here are unlockable from the off. No

grinding out results to get a sniff of a decent ride;

you simply get what you want and race it where

you want from the start. How many times have

you asked for that in a racer? And the vehicle

diversity is unprecedented, with everything from

road cars, karts, supercars and touring available.

It’s been almost a year since we last saw

Project CARS

at E3. It looked good then,

without the benefit of further time to work on its

completion. While the project has been delayed

several times now, this could turn out to be a

blessing. We know the racing enthusiasts in the

STACK

office are talking about no other game at

the moment. We might have to form a queue.

Slightly Mad conceived a

crowdfunding platform for the

production of

Project CARS

Project CARS is out May 6