We talk to Ian Bell about Project Motor Racing

Gamereactor: Hi Ian, nice to see you again. Tell us a little bit about Project Motor Racing. What is the idea behind the game?

Ian Bell: Okay, prepare for a very long answer here, but it’s an interesting topic. The whole idea started after I left EA and had the opportunity for the first time in two decades to just sit down and think, “What happens next?” Just wasting my time wasn’t an option, and I began to realize that I also had a unique opportunity to look at game development with fresh eyes. something that hadn’t happened since I started working on the original mod in the late 1990s that eventually became GTR.

Without a publisher, outside press or budget to worry about, I found myself imagining what kind of simulator I would most like to make, and that idea quickly evolved into bringing together a small team – veterans alongside younger talents who had a feel for where the sim racing genre had evolved – who began creating what we felt was a “fresh” interpretation, One with a slightly nostalgic core.

Then we brought in an autophysics team to start working on that part. While the physics project was going on, the game design team started analyzing previous games, the ones we think did well, and we focused on the parts that we thought made those simulators special. Let me give you an example: Grand Prix Legends. What did that simulator have that makes it so beloved even today? Because I know people who still play it almost 30 years later. One of the things that was so great about that particular game was that you had one racing class, from beginners to world champions. And that made it such an exciting racing experience: getting on the starting grid with all these different cars, and maybe picking a slower car because you just liked the make, the feel or the sound. We decided to go against the grain of modern titles, which usually only offer individual lessons, by offering 13 complete lessons in Project Motor Racing.

GTR, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was another title we looked back on. Our very first game, and one that I hope has aged pretty well, along with GTR2. What was it about those simulators that made them so popular? The focused nature of the content and the customizability of the simulator. We love the cars from those simulators so much that we’re bringing them back in Project Motor Racing alongside modern GT3 and LMDh, and all sorts of wonderful historic car classes like Group C and GT1 and so on.

Anyway, we looked at all these titles and made some decisions about what we thought were their most important components. Why charge for online ranked races? Why not include a career mode for single players? Why charge for custom lobbies? Why charge for mods? Why not include mods in both the PC version and consoles? You build a community by offering more, not by protecting, shielding and hiding the gaming experience behind payment walls, subscription models and subscriptions. The concept behind Project Motor Racing is: Here’s everything you want from a racing sim: online ranked, single player, and so on. And if you think it’s not perfect? Make your own mods. At Giants Software, we are fortunate to have found a partner and publisher with the financial and technical ability to make this happen, and we are excited to see what the future holds for our new sim and new community.

Gamereactor: I loved Project Cars and Project Cars 2…. However, the third one was really not good. Tell us something about what happened there?

Bell: First, I want to thank you for your reviews, then I’d rather look ahead than here in the rearview mirror, but let me summarize a long story; Project Cars 3 was actually called Project Cars: Sideways and was an arcade racing game that was supposed to compete with Forza Horizon, among other things, but after Codemasters bought us out, we were forced to rename the game Project Cars 3, which didn’t go over well with players. There was clearly no time for us to try to turn this around by changing parts of the base game for release, and we learned some valuable lessons in the process.

Gamereactor: Project Motor Racing was announced as GTR Revival, based on Unreal Engine 4. You changed the name, the publisher and especially the game engine…. Why?

Bell: Performance and capabilities. For a racing simulator, performance is the one thing we are obsessed with. With our physics engine cranked up to 720Hz, we experienced problems with the previous engine we were using. Nothing we couldn’t have solved in the long run, but when the opportunity arose to join forces with Giants Software, many of the most difficult puzzle pieces fell into place for Project Motor Racing. With Giants, we were able to get a stable, proven game engine (which powers their Farming Simulator franchise), along with close collaboration on their technology, and a publisher with years of experience launching best-selling titles. Add to that their experience with console modding, which felt like a natural fit for us. Performance, a stable and well-built engine on which to run our new Hadron physics engine, their experience and technology, and their publishing department, it was the complete package on which the foundation was laid for what we hope will be a successful newcomer to the simulator world.

Gamereactor: Looking at Project Cars and Project Cars 2, it’s clear, as in the case of Project Motor Racing, that your team is very efficient and does a lot with limited resources. Tell us a little bit about how you view that, streamlining practices and approaching deadlines?

Of course, I could say that my leadership style is based on instilling fear, but I don’t want to give away my secrets, hehe. All kidding aside, Straight4 consists of a unique combination of experienced veterans and passionate young developers. These days, experience doesn’t seem to be popular, but the point is that when you’ve been working in game development for a quarter of a century, you tend to learn a few things. These lessons are part of the studio’s DNA, so we don’t end up at a dead end for weeks because at some point during the last 20 games or whatever it was, we’ve probably already encountered the problem and already have a ready-made solution for it.

The secret is simple: find the most talented people you can and find a way to retain them, because experience and expertise are invaluable in game development. It becomes part of your studio’s culture and can be passed on to a new generation of game developers. Time spent learning how to solve a problem can consume projects: a team that already knows the solutions shortens development time with proven results.

Gamereactor: iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Raceroom, Automobilista 2, Le Mans Ultimate…. The genre is currently overflowing with good games. How do you see your physics engine compared to everyone else’s?

Bell: I often compare physics engines in various sim racing games to racing tires: some drivers just handle certain rubber compounds better than others. I also don’t want to compare our Hadron -engine to other engines because I know how much time, passion and dedication it takes to make these simulators. What I will say is that our Hadron -engine is a decade (and even two decades) younger than the engines you refer to. For us, this means that we were able to build Hadron with modern hardware in mind. Therefore, we expect that our engine will have certain competitive advantages over its rivals. I am absolutely convinced that simulator drivers will like the handling of Project Motor Racing. For example, the feeling when accelerating is, in my opinion, absolutely top notch.

Gamereactor: How would you compare your working relationship with EA to the relationship you have with Giants today ?

Bell: That’s a leading question, don’t you think? I don’t want to get into the whole EA thing again. My opinion on that hasn’t changed. Giants are passionate, talented and respectful, and our collaboration is brilliant. They are good friends today and we are all working toward the same goal.

Gamereactor: Automobilista 2 is based on the Madness engine that you and your team once created. Does Project Motor Racing share technology with that game today?

Bell: No, nothing. I look at Automobilista 2 today and feel nothing but pride. Reiza has done a fantastic job refining our old game engine and I wish them much success in the world. However, we do not share technology between the projects; Giants’ engine and our new physics engine have nothing to do with Madness. In the first year after Automobilista 2 was released, we often offered support to Reiza Studios when it came to engine and performance, but today they know Madness technology better than we do and deserve all their success. Within the sim-racing genre, all studios are very friendly and accommodating to each other, because as the genre grows, so do all of us who work in it.

Gamereactor: What are your thoughts when you look at the genre as a whole?

Bell: Sim-racing as a genre is interesting. Sometimes five great games are released in one year, and then you sit and wait five years for the next one. I think the next two years will be very good years for the community. However, I would say that there has been an attempt to make sim racing more accessible to a wider audience, and I’m not sure we’ve tackled it the right way.

What I mean is that sometimes decisions are made to make games with gameplay mechanics that our core target audience doesn’t necessarily want. We’ve also seen a lot of gimmicks, microtransactions, extra costs, subscription models, pay walls, and so on come into the genre. My personal opinion is that we should strive to make sim racing games accessible to more people, but not by watering down the simulation itself – that is literally the core function of our games – but by offering more of what the community wants. And we must – as far as we can afford – make everything available without greedy payment models. As I said before, a larger community is good for all of us.

Gamereactor: One aspect of this genre that I think is realistic in almost all examples and in all games is the sound. It lacks reverb, it lacks chaos, clatter and noise. What is your opinion on this?

Stephen Baysted and his team are working with Doug Arnao and the physics team on sound. Sound is not just about sound. Since simulator racing does not replicate G-forces and so forth, sound plays an amplified role, not only in what you hear, but also in what you feel. It is essentially a synthesis of what you hear in the cockpit of a race car and what your mind tells you you are feeling at the same time. That’s crucial to creating the right feeling in a simulator. Stephen and I have been working together for twenty-five years now, and I never get a little nervous about the sound in our games because he is always pushing the boundaries.