The following is an interview with Steve Shatfort and the Orbital Media team behind Racing Gears Advance. It was originally conducted in 2005 for DS Central.
DS Central recently had the privilege to fire a few questions at Orbital Media, the team responsible for the upcoming game Racing Gears Advance. Get a little behind-the-scenes info about the game that we think is going to be a big hit.
How about a quick introduction from everyone.
Steve S: There are several teams here at Orbital. The team behind Racing Gears Advance consisted of 14 developers! Even though it was a whole team effort, the main heads who really battled it out were Graham Scott (Controls, AI, Gameplay), Steve Shatford (Producer, Designer), David Bond (Programmer), Armand Vos (Graphics), Neil Voss (Sound) and Brian Yee (Graphics).
Fourteen developers? That’s larger than average team. Does it ever get crowded in there? Most importantly, do fist fights ever break out?
Steve S: Having more talented developers makes a real difference, we can focus on creating better technologies, methodologies, designs, spending more resources to make great games. Its not a magic formula. To make great games you get what you put in. Are there fisty cuffs? Many developers get really passionate about certain game mechanics, designs, models, ok yes, everything about the game and when there’s a dichotomy, sometimes a little hell breaks loose.
Graham: Heh… Well there was this one time… Generally the team is split into sub groups that are responsible for their own components. I think that everyone here realizes that we are a team working toward the same goal. And if any fist fights do break out it’s usually done through whatever multiplayer game we currently have in the office! Many a Soul Calibur fight.
Tell us a bit about Orbital’s early days.
Steve S: I’ve been in the industry since the old CES pre-E3 days and have had the opportunity to see varying levels of this industry and game platforms. My experience building various companies challenged me to build an environment where creativity, passion, and hard work are rewarded and that in the end, it’s all about gameplay! Our commitment to produce “AAA” games results in quality not quantity. As a publisher we market our games just as hard as we develop them. Even if you have a killer game, you need killer marketing. Consumers need to know that you’re out there!
What were some of your first projects as a company?
Graham: Well although Racing Gears Advance is our first released title, I have worked on a few projects over the years. Pretty much all of the concepts and ideas are being put to use in other titles that you will be seeing in the near future. Games Like Scurge: Hive, Juka and the Monophonic Menace, Pirate Battle and more!
Why focus solely on the handheld market?
Steve S: Many top developers were chasing after the fastest hardware like PS2, GC and XBox. We saw an opportunity where we could put together killer teams for portable platforms. Really get into the guts of the hardware and push the gaming-experience to the next-level.
Racing Gears Advance is racing sim, but there are elements of exploration and character development integrated into gameplay. Was this part of the original design or did it evolve over time?
Graham: From the initial concept stages of the project we wanted to create a racing game that encouraged players to use different strategies. This applied to the action during the races but also to the decisions that players would make when preparing for the races. Take character selection for example.
When you select a persona to race as you automatically gain certain perks such as better traction, increased acceleration from a stopped position, or resistance to certain weapons. This can affect each players’ strategy differently. For example, I like to use weapons as little as possible. So I tend to pick a character who gets a temporary speed boost when he is hit by another drivers’ weapons. To offset the fact that everyone is trying to spin me off the road, I invest in armor early on.
We also wanted the player to have a good deal of characters’ and levels that could be unlocked by reaching more difficult circuits.
With the large team, how long was the game in development?
Steve S: Development broke out in various phases. The team hit Alpha in 6 months which was much more than just proving the game mechanics. At E3, behind closed doors we got the reactions we all hope for, with comments like “This is great! …How are you guys doing this?”. We knew then that we had to go all the way. Beta took another 6 months, at this point the whole game was there, no bugs, no crashes and it was multiplayer mayhem! Testing and tweaking was important now, a good game, is a well balanced game. Focus groups and over 40 external testers were needed to get all the feedback we wanted and took another 6 months. It was a long development time period but we wanted to make sure that this game rocked! It was definitely worth it.
Any major roadblock arise during the production?
Graham: As with any project there were a few situations that arose that called for a quick change of direction. The one situation that most affected me was the need to restructure the vector collision data for over 25 tracks in less than a month. Of course there are always limits when dealing with cart size and a lot of effort was put toward resolving the issues before they got to a point where they would hinder the project.
What are some personal favorite features in Racing Gears Advance?
Graham: For me the powersliding is number one. I think it’s cool that in a game with so many weapons and obstacles a skilled player can still pull off a victory without firing a shot. The varied terrain and the way that it affects traction is very cool as well. Being able to powerslide off a cliff, spinning around backwards and landing to execute a shortcut…Yeah that’s pretty sweet. The helicopter when you fall off a cliff into the water is nice, we get a lot of comments on that… The rotation of the vehicles as you go up and down hills of varying degrees…Honestly there are far too many features to comment on.
Steve: Fantastic controls & Weapon combinations! I like to use the cloak and sneak up behind my opponent then knock him off track with a rocket letting me squeeze by. Then to further torture them, lay down a smokescreen and a few mines which he won’t see, once he clears the smoke what’s next? scorch him with a flame thrower!
A warm thank you to Steve, Graham and the entire Racing Gears Advance team at Orbital Media. A lot of time and effort were put into creating a diverse and well-balanced playing experience. The final product, in stores later this month, certainly shows this commitment to quality.
