068
MAY 2015
JB Hi-Fi
www.jbhifi.com.auvisit
www.stack.net.auFEATURE
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
importantly, 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