CZ-R
07-18-2006, 08:50 AM
Sounds like fun :TU:
The following is borrowed from this article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/17/BUGA3JUNSI1.DTL&type=tech)
"If you want to achieve success, you can't rest on your laurels. You have to challenge the thinking from the last game without changing things that people liked," said Larry LaPierre, executive producer for Need for Speed Carbon. "If you just give people what they're asking for they won't be that impressed. You have to give them something new they're not expecting."
LaPierre's team put together the latest and 13th installment in the extremely successful street-racing franchise, which routinely sells more than 8 million games a year. The challenge for LaPierre's team included taking street racing to another level, somewhere it hadn't gone before.
Through their contacts in the street racing scene, developers learned that increased police interest in the often illegal activity had pushed racing to the outskirts of town, to the hills in some cases. The producers decided to incorporate canyon racing into the latest installment, which will be released in autumn, giving racers a chance to earn their stripes by chasing each other down winding roads overlooking the city.
It was the new twist the venerable franchise needed to stay fresh, LaPierre said.
"One of the things we tried to do is look for new game play experiences," he said. "In previous games, we introduced games focused on drag and drift racing. We now have that in canyon duels."
Devil is in details
After working on the game for more than 18 months, the development team would have been remiss if it just stopped there. These days, the devil is in the details, and game designers know that's what can often put a game over the top.
LaPierre's team included a new design program that allows players to customize their car accessories to an unprecedented degree. In the past, racers could choose their car, the color and accessory kits that included bumpers, side skirts, spoilers and rims. Now, using a program called Autosculpt, players can actually determine the dimensions of each add-on, altering the size of a vent, the length of a skirt or the exact width of each spoke on a rim.
"It blows the doors off of what we've done in the past," LaPierre said. "If you're familiar with body kits and customizing sets of spoilers, this takes it to a whole new level."
The following is borrowed from this article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/17/BUGA3JUNSI1.DTL&type=tech)
"If you want to achieve success, you can't rest on your laurels. You have to challenge the thinking from the last game without changing things that people liked," said Larry LaPierre, executive producer for Need for Speed Carbon. "If you just give people what they're asking for they won't be that impressed. You have to give them something new they're not expecting."
LaPierre's team put together the latest and 13th installment in the extremely successful street-racing franchise, which routinely sells more than 8 million games a year. The challenge for LaPierre's team included taking street racing to another level, somewhere it hadn't gone before.
Through their contacts in the street racing scene, developers learned that increased police interest in the often illegal activity had pushed racing to the outskirts of town, to the hills in some cases. The producers decided to incorporate canyon racing into the latest installment, which will be released in autumn, giving racers a chance to earn their stripes by chasing each other down winding roads overlooking the city.
It was the new twist the venerable franchise needed to stay fresh, LaPierre said.
"One of the things we tried to do is look for new game play experiences," he said. "In previous games, we introduced games focused on drag and drift racing. We now have that in canyon duels."
Devil is in details
After working on the game for more than 18 months, the development team would have been remiss if it just stopped there. These days, the devil is in the details, and game designers know that's what can often put a game over the top.
LaPierre's team included a new design program that allows players to customize their car accessories to an unprecedented degree. In the past, racers could choose their car, the color and accessory kits that included bumpers, side skirts, spoilers and rims. Now, using a program called Autosculpt, players can actually determine the dimensions of each add-on, altering the size of a vent, the length of a skirt or the exact width of each spoke on a rim.
"It blows the doors off of what we've done in the past," LaPierre said. "If you're familiar with body kits and customizing sets of spoilers, this takes it to a whole new level."