Members of the development team were on hand to play rounds of the game with guests, and I got chance to have a sit down and chat with Ralph Fulton, chief game designer for GRID.
First I quizzed him on what was next for Codemasters’ racing games, he reiterated the news that Codemasters had recently acquired the licence for Formula 1, which was previously held by Sony, and that they’d wait to see how GRID performed whilst working on that before they picking their next move. Furthermore, because of the loss of Colin McRae last year, the company was still discussing internally where to take the renowned rally franchise. Though Fulton promised an announcement within the next couple of months, those hoping for a DIRT 2 may have a wait on their hands.
GRID seems to land nicely between the petrol headed Burnout series and the sober Gran Turismo. Despite saying that the company is looking for opportunities and niches in the market they can fill, Fulton was adamant that the company had a decade of racing experience under its belt and doesn’t allow itself to be dictated by the competition. Presumably Codemasters see themselves as leaders in the racing game market rather than followers. The fact they grabbed the F1 licence from Sony would attest to that.
The next thing we spoke about was the success of the GRID demo, which received a reasonably impressive 1 million downloads. Fulton was quick to point out that there wasn’t a huge opportunity to make changes to the final build of the game because it only came out a month before release. However, it did give them an awareness of what people think and there was a small window in which to make some minor tweaks. It was “good to have it act as a beta trial”, he said.
Commenting on the controversy regarding the allegedly under-polished PS3 demo, Fulton said that it was “not the worst feedback we’ve ever received” and that it was only a small controversy. He went on to say that it wouldn’t change their strategy with regards to demo production in the future and that demos are rarely of boxed quality anyway, “if that’s what people want they should wait until it’s released”.
Finally, I asked him about the fact that many gamers, especially gear-headed racing fans, complain about Codemasters’ seeming love affair with pivoting their cars on a central axis. The moment the words “central” and “axis” passed my lips Fulton sighed, grimaced and looked to the sky, presumably for some heavenly guidance; “I want to put this to bed” he said to me, going on to explain that their cars do not pivot on a central axis and that it was something said by an employee who left the company 8 years ago. What people may actually mistake for a single pivoting axis is the fact that the camera lags behind the movement of the cars, an intentional stylistic choice. He concluded by saying that he didn’t think the cars looked like the behaved in that fashion and that their “physics are much more refined”.
The day was a big success for Codemasters and an even bigger learning curve for me. Look forward to our review of Race Driver: GRID in the coming days.
[See also: Race Driver: GRID gallery]
