How a studio in Guildford managed to create some of the best driving games of all time? Criterion spoke to Craig Sullivan and Alex Ward on Need For Speed, Burnout and ... Road Rash?

"All cars are getaway" - Martin Pawley Architects Journal

cities are designed to accommodate a large number of features, but the driving pleasure is usually not one of them. On the contrary these days. The escalating levels of traffic have stifled life on urban roads, while the rate designated parking congestion and became known weapons in the war against personal transportation. We should take advantage of the car, we're supposed to put up with them.

diametrically opposed to the philosophy of life is exhausting Need For Speed: Most Wanted, the latest album-'em-up developer Criterion Guildford anarchic. The veteran studio was responsible for some of the best racing games of the last decade, from your own Burnout series in 2010 to save long march EA Need for Speed ??brand. His interpretation of NFS: Hot Pursuit has sold eight million copies and introduced the system Autolog light social competence, which allows players to compete for the best time in asynchronous mode. And now, the development team is back with another branch and another brilliant performance NFS.

Located on the outskirts of the city of Fairhaven, Most Wanted challenges players to become the most famous runner in the city illegally, speeding through a series of illegal conduct, collection points and speed mods unlocking. Bright, very few dozens of vehicles allowed are blocked early in the game, but are hidden by the huge map - if you find them, you can keep them. And you are free to explore the environment around the world open their spare time, location challenges and races along the way.

So how to go about studying the creation of a landscape designed specifically for high speed thrills? "This is a very interesting process," says artistic director Craig Sullivan. "We started talking about the kind of variety you want. While Hot Pursuit, which was quite different from Most Wanted, we knew we wanted mountains so I can drive in the snow, and we wanted desert, so we could feel the leak endpoint was a city, because that the game was going 200 mph ride through We also draw beautiful curves in California, we wanted beautiful coasts, forests - almost a tribute .. return to original games hunting. But with Most Wanted, we knew we had to be in a city that keeps the coast, however -. 'S our duty to do something that can be learned by heart, so if you know the east coast of the south, can be rotated around it. "

The next step was to add some set pieces - an abandoned airfield, a plant with a lot of off-road racing - target areas for players to explore and experiment . Then comes the road network, or the calling band criteria that connects everything together and holds the vehicle behavior. The underlying objective is to create a world that seems real, but it offers a range of possibilities ridiculous. "We have a jump of 500 feet to cross a highway," says Sullivan. "You do not get many of those in real life, but it is all about keeping stuff that looks like it could be. Past lot of time as a kid skating and understand the flow of skate parks, the lines, which naturally seek and adopt a similar approach when driving at high speed: the best open world games that you will encounter, not a funnel, but a set of geometry that is brought to you by travel, it can be a fun time -. something that can be very bad, but we already had Burnout Paradise, so we had experience with exploration "

Unsurprisingly, designers are strongly inspired by real cities. During the development of the most sought after, Criterion sent a group of its design team in Boston, a historic city with a variety of surfaces and architectural spaces. "To build a real city, not everyone can look pristine and new," says Sullivan. "We must look at what has been built over many years. Wanted pavers, wanted large areas of squares and narrow streets.'m About to go on vacation in Los Angeles and Hawaii, and I know there are things that I see that makes me think "it would be good in a game. "If you find something that looks natural, it seems that it would be fun to drive a car or through or above the design assistance. We are constantly trying to balance credibility and pleasure."

another essential criterion motor driving experience. The studio is famous for its access model, driving pleasure, combining real life with elements of physical design classic arcade Japanese, so you get cars that feel authentic, but still can derive more a mile of asphalt. "There are so many small parts that go into making a great driving experience," says Sullivan. "We start with the raw data provided by the manufacturer to produce an accurate simulation of what the car is like to drive , Most Wanted contains the most realistic simulation of what we did - and we would have stayed there with a lot of games. there who are all on the simulation how difficult it is to drive a car, but we want go beyond -. they need to meet their expectations of what it is like driving a car "

So what does this mean for developers? "There are many DNA Test here," said Sullivan. "Brakes are a little stronger than they are in a real car, so that you can weave in the high-speed traffic We have systems that help drift control -. You can get the rear end by 150,200 mph - I do not know that many drivers in the world who could make a 2 km drift this way. In our game, we ... are not really passing, intelligent systems are the small details that make you feel like you're driving Porsche 911. credible feeling, but you can drive a cool way. "

These systems are the result of obsessive approach to development criteria, and has been since the beginning. "We spent some time in 2000, speaking of the roots of driving games, talking AM2," says vice president of Criterion, Alex Ward. "This is where we began: Braking and dragging us discussed - if you do not have the law, you have nothing. "

two Craig and Alex talk about infinite iteration happens in the studio, forced to play and improve. "We are constantly changing things," Sullivan shrugs .. "Not for the sake of change, but to improve the game is too long, too short, is there enough variety AD We are lucky - they know change many things, but not nervous Shit We iterate all. games we do, we are always cutting things, add things to the end. When you get to the later stages, when debugging starts, the team only wants people like me out of office, because they always I refine things. There are always sending email, the subject's head is "only one last", but nobody thinks it is. They say, "Can we send on vacation? "

over the years, despite all this, Criterion has learned an important lesson: management has to do with the player adored - even if they have no idea about racing lines, the top a braking curve or management should not say that. "There's a reason we can not help you and goes on a set of criteria," says Sullivan. "We try to have an experience that allows people to as many as possible to have fun There are many different cars in the game and some of them are difficult to handle -. Ariel Atom We have here and I 't think theres one in a game Need For Speed ??before he drives like a wasp. . how incredibly fast corners, but it is also very low, if you have an accident no keys "

try to insert another question, but it is out now, breathless list of premium vehicles. "We then Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Aventador, Koenigsegg Agera R, was there, which is currently the fastest car in the world. All units in a very different, but they are still ... we are influenced for the games we played in the arcades: our job as creators of this game is to ensure that within two minutes of taking the driver can drive the car you drive and how nothing seems You inequitable

are

going to crash at some point, but it should make you smile because you know you screwed up. This is the secret of handling narrow sweet spot. This is what we always strive to capture. "

How is this possible? "We have great ideas, but they come in different stages," says Sullivan. "Most Wanted did not start the game you are playing today. We right direction, we can change things. Spoke of all the cars that are unlocked from the beginning of the project, and we had a little time to watch, but it was a really difficult problem therefore started with a linear progression, but later, when we been the basis for a game - .. races, police chases, open world - built, we realized that we could go back and look at the idea that every car is open. "

For Sullivan, was a persistent divergence in the heart of linear progression: how can you offer an open world, but restrict access to vehicles? It made no sense. "For the kind of games we do, especially with Need For Speed, the player's choice is very important - if you go to Disneyland, not force you to go on rights in a particular order may seem strange, but it ' is. As we approach our games - we do not know what each player likes, so you get a lot of things and it is up to you

"We closed tracksuits in the past - three or four games Burnout - there is no place for such securities on the market, but we focus on the genre by pushing the and before we open worlds. player's choice is where driving around a track, whether real or fictitious, there is only so much that can be that: you can improve the appearance - where else is there to go Thurs designs We want to support new experiences? things we do not even know that we are going to design - do not want to hem "