Turn 10s Dan Greenawalt Reflects on the Past, Present and Future of the Forza Franchise
There arent many games for Microsoft that can literally sell themselves. Sure, Halo, Gears and Fable will continue to sell on name alone, but the truth is that their secret weapon of this generation has quite simply been their Forza franchise and its rapid rise to prominence. It wasnt always plain sailing though and speaking with Turn 10s Game Director yesterday, Dan Greenawalt, the creative lead reminisced on his and Turn 10s time with the franchise.
I dared to dream, said Greenawalt when asked whether Turn 10 envisaged that they would become one of Microsofts lynchpins in its first-party catalogue. I think Microsoft saw it as a business imperative to challenge Gran Turismo and Sony, but our dream was always to make something much bigger than a competitive IP. For Greenawalt and Turn 10, it wasnt just about being the best simulation out there, said the humble design director, its about changing how people think about cars, but attacking the subject from both sides of the table. Its about making car fans into game fans; and game fans into car fans, he continued, We wanted to change how people thought about cars and interacted with the content in a whole different way.
Hold on a minute
its just about getting people interested in cars? Yeah! he nonchalantly chuckled, It sounds kind of naïve now, but it really was. It was about how we could get all generations excited about games and about cars.
When starting out though, it was important for the team to remain focused, especially when they were going up against Microsofts own Project Gotham an established racer of a different ilk, maybe, but still a Microsoft first-party racing franchise. I didnt think that far out because it would have paralysed me with nervousness, said Greenawalt in response to Project Gotham. Our focus was finding an identity for our franchise and getting the right team together. We were 100% consumed with putting together a world class studio and then hoped the franchise would have the grounding to establish itself.
Although there may be an air of confidence about Greenawalt that can sometimes gets misrepresented within gaming circles, Turn 10 still suffer from the same anxieties about their games than the rest of the games development fold. We thought we were going to get criticised in the press with our first game, lamented the Game Director, but it came out to positive reviews we really were our own worst critics. Same thing happened with second and third titles, too.
Greenawalt even candidly admitted that they might have lacked direction early on. In fact, Forza 1 was our most unfocused game, he noted, despite having less features than say Forza 3 for example.
Thankfully for the team and their sanity, Greenawalts role now allows him to act as a kind of glue of sorts that binds the team together. Now I take an outside look and can be more impartial and appreciate our achievements, he noted, I literally have to turn round to the team now and go, Look, weve got a great game here.
We definitely got more ambitious, admitted Greenawalt, as he talked through their focus from one game to the next. First we wanted to nail the simulation engine. As we moved into later versions, that vision of turning game lovers in car lovers and vice-versa became more possible using Xbox LIVE and connecting people together. By Forza 3 we actively started moving to capture these people and now we know we can aim for a broader consumer without leaving existing fans behind.
The racing genre and the simulation genre specifically is a field thats become highly competitive in recent years and Greenawalt is quick to recognise that, especially the rise in form from EAs Shift franchise. Of course Ive kept an eye of them, he said about Shift. There are cool ideas in the genre right now and it would be foolish of me not to take note of that, said Greenawalt, noting that a lot of the Western developers are fans of each others work. Its a small community, especially with regard to European and North American developers. Maybe not quite so with Japanese developers , that tends to be another circle, but we do play each others projects.
Ah, of course... the Japanese developers, specifically, Gran Turismo developers Polyphony Digital, who spent years tirelessly slaving over their prized possession, Gran Turismo 5. Does Greenawalt believe that the lengthy development schedule allowed them to sneak in almost unseen? Perhaps, he candidly admits. Objectively, weve had a bigger window to operate in, but as fans of racing, we like competition and while we may share a lot of features, we really do welcome the competition. Need for Speed is another juggernaut title for us, especially as we share the same platform.
But surely creating a three game franchise in the space it takes one developer to deliver one title must be quite satisfying? Greenawalt wasnt so sure. I dont know if Im satisfied in a competitive way, he noted, Id love to see more Gran Turismo titles and Im not criticising the development timeframe there but our approach works really well for us. We have a very highly collaborative group and my job is to inspire my team. My requirement of them is to then come up with better ideas than I can. Our talented staff work together to come up with greater ideas than any one man can and the best thing is, that this has allowed us to scale, and this reflects in our game.
When bringing up the fun factor that Penny Arcade so eloquently touched upon when comparing the franchises, Greenawalt remained humble and refused to be pulled into any sort of slanging match, but what makes Forza have that fun factor that many believe didnt exist in Gran Turismo 5? I think we keep it really close to peoples hearts.
Its all about the layers, he continued, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said at its heart, [its a simulation racer] but beneath the simulation aspect theres something in there for everyone.
Its not about choosing arcade or simulation either according to Greenawalt, its about the things that make games fun, easy and great to jump into. Careful not to pigeonhole the franchise, he notes, We dont want people to choose, so we provide a blend that tailors to lots of different people, whether youre a tuner, an artist, a collector and so on.
We look at community and social networking and how people share content, he continued, citing games like Pokémon, World of Warcraft and Animal Crossing for games that have inspired the direction of the franchise. We dont look at just racing games; we look at other genres for that hook that keeps people playing as well.
With Forza 3 though, Turn 10 seemingly upped the ante ten-fold in respect to its community involvement, but did that focus pay off? Greenawalt seems to think so. Yeah, absolutely. We joke in the studio that theres a subsection of the audience we dont know a lot about. We know a lot of enthusiasts play and talk on the forums, but theres some who play the more fun modes like Tag or Cat & Mouse that we dont know anything else about. They represent a huge part of our audience and provide a lot of data for us, but they dont engage in the forums and its great to be able connect with these people in some way.
So what does the future hold for Turn 10? Well, Forza 4 of course, but Greenawalt remained cryptic on what they did or didnt learn from Forza 3, that theyre taking into Forza 4.
Were our own worst critics and take on board all the reviews and opinions, said Greenawalt. It would be so easy to drive yourself mad reading everyones opinions and evaluating what youve achieved. We try to bucket people into categories to tackle what each subsection wants and how we can tailor the next game to improve it for them. Its a colossal list. We get together and decide which of those edits or additions are the most important.
We always see the glass as half empty and were very dedicated to improving the game.
That surely means improving the physics on their simulation engine, after all, Turn 10 almost seem obsessed with that level of detail, but when asked whether anyone would actually notice the tweaks and upgrades, Greenawalt remained philosophical.
I think it depends on what kind of customer were talking to. The tyre model, assists and controller buffer affect how we can modify these physics, he noted, before reflecting on years gone-by when it would take days to run simulations. Lots of the dynamic simulations that had to be done over a period of days have now been streamlined with greater accuracy so these effects are not only more powerful but also more concise. Ten years from now, I think were going to see race cars designed 100% in real time.
Forza 4 though, for Greenawalt, isnt just about extending and building on their previous goals and foundations. Its, and I quote, about giving people a playground to have them engage with their cars in.
We dont want to make any of our cars disposable by limiting their usefulness in certain racing events, he declared, Upgrades and other customization really helps to achieve this. In terms of technology, LIVE and Kinect are two fantastic ways to give players brand new experiences that they dont expect to stoke their passion.
So, the inevitable Kinect subject reared its head amidst topics of community and the franchises roots, but at what point did using Kinect for Forza 4 become a reality? Before we finished Forza 3, we had an incubation team who branched off to investigate these experiences. It wasnt just about racing with an imaginary wheel though for Greenawalt. Oh no, that was too obvious.
We didnt want to just look at the racing aspect, but how to interact with those cars using the technology, before correcting us that the E3 demo wasnt ever intended to be a Forza 3 add-on, it was simply intended to show what was achievable with the technology.
The E3 demo wasnt really a standalone product, it was just an example of some of these ideas that the team had created. Before long we saw some of this getting rolled into the fold for Forza 4s development. And the rest they say is history.
Being a Microsoft wholly owned studio though, did pressure come from outside to include Kinect features in Forza 4. Short answer: no. I didnt need any pushing from Microsoft and frankly we didnt get any, said Greenawalt, We were very keen to support it. Back in 2002 when we pitched the franchise, we wanted to develop our own identity and team. As a creative studio, Kinect and LIVE have been brand new frontiers that we find hugely interesting.
Its new technology and new territory, said Greenawalt, speaking of their experience with the tech thus far. What weve got now is the beginning of a new revolution and this is just the start, almost a palette cleanser. The ideas that will change the world require time to play with. I honestly still believe that were just scratching the surface with Kinect and that is hugely energizing for the team the sky really is the limit.
Even Turn 10 has seen the evolution of the tech in the time theyve spent with it. The XDK has just improved consistently, giving us more tools to play with when we use Kinect, he pointed out. Add in the rapid development on top and its really exciting for the team. I expect this to continue for another three or four years. Theres not been a change like this in gaming since, well
in my career, certainly.
While Kinect is definitely adding another facet to the simulation genre, Greenawalt had some strong words for the genre itself while talking about innovating and reinventing it. I think simulation racing as a genre is actually outdated in its name, claims Greenawalt, Its a genre that hasnt really changed in the last 20 years.
Youve got arcade being about the thrills and spills, and real simulation that is so hard no-one can play it. With Forza we aspire to be both, or conversely, neither. We do try to take the best of both though, but for me, its all about the cars rather than the racing. My hope is that we wouldnt just be judged as a simulation racer, but for our cars and our fun experiences.
Its now about evolving your game into a game about cars, and with Forza 4 scheduled to hit this year, thats exactly what they intend to keep on doing.
Old good times 
