CM:
It’s been a while since we announced we had secured the rights to the Formula One licence and much has changed since that original announcement, both internally and within the world of F1. The project team has grown and now fills Codemasters Studios in Birmingham (as well as keeping many busy at our Warwickshire HQ studios), features have been locked down and development is making great progress. In the real-world F1 had KERS, then it didn’t, the points system changed, refuelling is no longer allowed, several manufactures have left the sport, whilst new independent teams are preparing for their first season in F1. Oh and you might have heard that a certain multiple World Champion has returned from retirement. The 2010 season certainly looks like it could be the most spectacular for years and we cannot wait to deliver our take on this fascinating sport, not to mention reinvigorate Formula One videogames.
Now the first race is almost upon us, we felt the time was right to give you an overview of what we’ve been up to as well as taking this opportunity to clear up a few points and features.
First and foremost it’s worth noting that F1 2010 is not based on F1 2009 (Wii/PSP) the development has been completely separate and as such the feature set of F1 2010 will be very different.
Early on in development we identified all the key areas that we needed to make shine, building upon and enhancing aspects of the EGO racing technology and extracting the most interesting elements of F1 not previously utilised in games.
Number one on that list was the car physics system, which is being re-engineered from the ground up for F1 2010. Several key areas have been rewritten, enabling us to have a detailed simulation of how an F1 car feels on track. Whilst we have made several major steps forward with this, we will continue to build upon this new foundation into 2011 and beyond!
The next big feature was to write a comprehensive weather system, which is now nearing completion. This is something we’re very proud of, and you’ll see why in the near future. Needless to say this plays a big part in both player and AI strategies, as well as changing the handling characteristics of the car considerably.
Another big area of focus has been on the Pit Stops, which we don’t feel have ever been done justice in racing games. These are a pivotal moments of a race and integral to the F1 experience. Our take centres on the drivers perspective, rather than button bashing, and the vast majority of this system is now integrated and refinement work is underway.
We’ve also had to progress our damage modelling up to another level, again building on the tech established in both DIRT and GRID, but enhanced to match the unique make-up and composition of a Formula One car.
All this coupled with a fresh design, taking into account many of the ideas and suggestions on this forum, has allowed us to create what we hope will the greatest F1 racing game experience ever. We are not just delivering the same feature set seen in many previous Formula One games. It’s important that we deliver something new and exciting, however this does not mean we’re losing sight of what F1 means to purist racing gamers.
We will go into much more detail about all of the above features in the coming weeks and months as well as several other aspects of the game which we’re sure will really capture your imagination.
There is of course much debate on what is needed to create the ultimate F1 game and as importantly, how to present this to the player and put them right into the world of F1. Checking in on the forums has been and continues to be an essential part of this process. Both the Senior Producer and Chief Game Designer regularly check the forums and every suggestion and opinion posted is read and considered. It’s worth mentioning the fact both of these guys will not have the time to engage with the forum all the time (there’s a game to finish after all), but we’ll certainly try to come on and answer questions when we can! Keep an eye out for the Chief Game Designers private twitter feed (
http://twitter.com/T4RG4), it might give you an insight into where the game is on any given day. Information on this will be given out at a later date.
We’ve seen lots of discussion around what may or may not be in the game. As ever there were far too many features than we have the time to implement and do justice for the 2010 game, so this is a good opportunity to clear up a few points:
* Laser Scanned Track Data – Considered early on in the project we assessed for our needs and decided against its inclusion in favour of other features. Our track creation pipeline has been further developed and we’re now capable of producing extremely authentic environments, track surfaces included, without the need for this data.
* Safety Car – A common forum request but investigation proved, surprisingly, that this actually offers very little in terms of enjoyable game experience in comparison to other game elements we’ll reveal later. Once you find out what we spent the time on instead we’re sure you’ll agree that this was the right decision!
* Formation Lap – Currently not part of the plan, for the same reasons as safety car. This is not to say we won’t look to add a little of what the formation lap provides!
* A Feeder Series – We’re at full-stretch creating an engaging Formula One experience. Including a feeder series is not part of the deal we have and code support alone would take too much away from the main game to prove worthwhile in 2010.
* Split Screen – Some of you will have noticed this is not present in any recent Codemasters racing titles. Early on we established the huge amount of resources this feature would consume and, after weighing against our need to move the series in an original direction, made the tough decision that F1 2010 would not be the project to return Split Screen. We have included an interesting local multiplayer mode in its place and an extensive online multiplayer mode.
We will be working with F1 beyond this year’s game and so may well reconsider some points, as well as looking at new additional content for 2011, during a second round of concepting. As a result they are most definitely not ruled out.
Of course we would love to include everything but, for obvious reasons, we cannot. It’s important that when we include a feature, we spend the required time to make it just right. The 2010 game attempts to re-establish F1 games and its safe to say this title is stretching a highly capable team, across both Birmingham and Southam studios, right through to launch.
If you have any burning questions or comments, be sure to post them on this thread and, along with Helios, we’ll try our best to answer where possible. We look forward to meeting some of you at the ‘F1 2010 Revealed’ event in London on March the 17th.
Thank you for your ongoing feedback and support,
Codemasters Formula One Development Team
