SEGA RALLY 2005 Interview

Thanks for relaying this useless piece of info to computer users....

Dave

"Xenon" > wrote in message
...
>
> [20/12/04 10:54]
> Most driving game sequels don't take six years. But then most driving game
> sequels aren't the latest Sega Rally, says Edge
>
>
> After a strangely long absence, Sega Rally Championship is preparing to
> re-enter the race - and not in the arcade but on PlayStation2. We talked
to
> producer Jun Taniguchi and director Kenji Sasaki about their new direction
> for a treasured franchise.
>
> Sega Rally has traditionally led as an arcade title. What made you decide
to
> develop this version on PS2?
> JT: The requests from gamers were quite important. Of course we had many
> requests for an arcade version as well and, yes, we like to challenge
> ourselves on powerful platforms. Arcade, PC or Xbox could have suited us
in
> that matter, but PS2 is the biggest market of all. It is the tenth
> anniversary of the series. Until now, we had enjoyed sharing our passion
of
> automobiles with a broad public: first in the arcade when that market was
at
> its peak, then on Saturn with 1.2 million copies worldwide and later on
> Dreamcast with around a million copies worldwide. As you know, though,
> [coin-op] sales are down. With this anniversary in mind we wanted to make
a
> game so fans and newcomers alike could enjoy our game. The best way to
reach
> so many people was PS2.
>
> KS: The base of the series is our love for automobiles: the fun in driving
a
> car is the core element of the game. Of course, the gap in terms of
> technology between arcade and the console is quite important, but the main
> difference is you can't enjoy an arcade game as you would enjoy a consumer
> game. You have to deliver all the fun in three minutes for the arcade
while,
> on console, you expect to be able to play the game for as long as you
want,
> whenever you want. So if our main motivation is the same, we have to
> redesign the game rules and play time to fit with this new market.
>
>
>
>
> "Games are getting too difficult to enjoy. Most racing
> games claim they are realistic, but I think realism has several faces and
> one is the way you enjoy the game"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> How has that affected the play modes on offer?
> KS: Two of them are very similar to what you had in the arcade. The Quick
> Race mode is what we used to call the Championship mode. Then you have
Time
> Attack. The third mode is really specific to the consumer market, the
Career
> Mode. It follows an automobile enthusiast who decides to drive
> competitively, first locally and later aiming at higher classes until
> finally entering the Sega Rally Championship. He then has a year of
> competition to reach the top of that championship.
>
> I know this style of play is quite common nowadays, but usually you need
to
> clear a race in order to access the next one. And eventually you come to a
> race that's too difficult, and you can't progress beyond that stage, which
> is where most players give up. We want to avoid these problems with our
> vision of the career mode in Sega Rally 2005. All our events and training
> session are scheduled on a calendar, and you are free to attend or ignore
> them as you wish - although some may have conditions for attendance, such
as
> achieving great results in a previous race or holding a certain licence.
>
> But presumably there'll still be a need to clear a series of events to
> access the final championship.
> KS: Well, the game will give the player the freedom to do what he wants.
If
> he wants to become the overall champion, he will aim at the Sega Rally
> Championship and play hard. Others might only enjoy one kind of race, like
> the Toge, illegal mountain races. You may prefer to be just a local
> champion. The Career mode is divided into classes like you would find in
> WRC, but we did not put a limitation on the car choice as you would find
in
> other games. Of course, you will definitely need to gain access to a
higher
> class in order to buy a more powerful car, but you can get a powerful car
> from the beginning if you can afford it, just like in reality. For
example,
> you could buy an Impreza or a Lancer Evo as your first car. You can go to
> your car dealer, buy them and then attend a local rally competition. In
the
> game you can do the same.
>
>
>
>
>
> How many cars will be featured?
> KS: There are not that many, around 20. One problem was that there are not
> many cars in the WRC championship.
>
> JT: But you know, in Europe, you have lower classes like the Junior WRC
and
> the Super 1600. In these classes you find competitive cars like the Astra,
> the Golf, etc, but rally fans are focused on the higher classes with cars
> like the Impreza and the 307. So packing the game with hundreds of cars is
> not always the solution, and I'm not convinced that players play all these
> cars. Plus, hundreds of cars mean you need to prepare the equal number of
> physics - so we preferred to focus on a smaller number of cars but making
> them individually really enjoyable.
>
> What about the cars at the heart of the series - the Toyota Celica, the
> Lancia Delta and the Stratos?
> KS: They appeared in the demo, but we're not yet completely sure if we
will
> use them in the final game. I can say you shouldn't expect old but
legendary
> cars like the 205 or the Alpine, though. This 2005 version is a way for us
> to reset the series and make a fresh start on console.
>
> Will there be any focus on tuning your cars, or are you concentrating on
the
> racing aspect?
> KS: Since I want to bring game back to racing, I would prefer to avoid
> having players spend too much time on this. So this option is purposefully
> not that deep in the game.
>
> You've announced the game will feature a random course generator - is this
> as an aside from the prebuilt courses for the main game modes?
> KS: Yes, we developed the random course program as an idea to help make
> players enjoy our game. But our problem at the moment is to determine
> whether the courses it creates are fun. There are also plenty of courses.
We
> are planning something like 400 tracks of various types for the Career
> mode - although that does not mean you will find 400 different landscapes.
> We will also have various weather conditions prepared, and we are still
> working on effects in order to study what we can do in addition to the
> 'classic' conditions.
>
> How about the other racers? Are you working on giving them personality
> through AI?
> JT: Career mode will feature AI rivals who will have their own names and
> their own specialities. So according to your driving style you may always
> find yourself confronting a given rival. And they each have a kind of
> 'psychological profile', a way that they drive. Previously, you only had
> types of car as rivals, but now you have Mr X on Evo, or Mr Y on another
> Evo, Mr Z on Impreza, etc...
>
> KS: You will find one AI known for high speed, another for aggression, and
> so on.
>
> JT: This Career mode is a start for us and I see in the future something
> much more developed, deeper - maybe some kind of a simulation or team
> management mode.
>
> Simulation-style rally games have proven popular in the console market -
are
> you making any concession to that within this version in the series, or
> keeping to Sega Rally's arcade heritage?
> KS: We want to deliver a gaming experience and, in that regard, it will be
> arcade. So, yes, it would be closer to a game like RalliSport Challenge on
> Xbox. I know they did that game because they loved our Sega Rally, which I
> find really cool. And we enjoy playing RalliSport in our office sometimes!
>
> Overall, I think games are getting too difficult to enjoy and very
> inaccessible for many. I still believe that we can enjoy games purely for
> fun. Most of the racing games on consoles claim they are realistic, but I
> think realism has several faces and one of them is the way you enjoy the
> game.
>
>
>
> That sounds similar to the approach you've always taken with the series.
>
>
> KS: When we did the first Sega Rally, we had many competitors on the
market:
> Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc. When we decided to make Sega Rally, we agreed
to
> change the way players should enjoy a racing game. We first wanted the
> player to feel as if he was actually driving a real car. In other racing
> games, you would have a high sense of speed. In Sega Rally, we decreased
> this speed and focused everything on controls. We amplified the controls
to
> make them very easy to understand. So our cars in Sega Rally were drifting
> in a way a real WRC car would not. At that time, we did not spend any time
> in testing real WRC cars, but the result was that users were delighted and
> found our game very 'realistic'.
>
> With Sega Rally 2, it was a time when simulators were numerous, like Gran
> Turismo. So this time, we went testing rally cars with real drivers. We
> realised how much our game was different from the reality. Then I felt the
> need to give the opportunity to the players to experience a rally race
> through the driver's eyes. That became the base for Sega Rally 2. We
> analysed the cars' specifications to reproduce some of the physics, but
our
> main concern was to recreate the way the driver would see a landscape or
the
> road and the way the controls would work.
>
> You talked about making a fresh start - do you think the arcade series is
> over?
> KS: Hmm... What I can say is you may expect something different from us in
> the arcade. I mean, seven years have passed since the last Sega Rally in
the
> arcade.
>
> When did you start working on Sega Rally 2005?
> KS: My feelings about Sega Rally did not disappear during the seven years
> that I was not working on it. We really started on this version last year,
> in April or June. But the beginning of the development was quite slow,
with
> few staff working on it. Of course the libraries and our track-building
> program were in progress for quite some time so it helped speed things up.
> Currently, there are around 15 of us working on the game. I know you will
> find much bigger teams working on a single title these days and, yes, I
> would like to do the same - but right now, I think we are doing OK.
>
> How have you found working with Sony's hardware, given how little
experience
> you've had with it?
> KS: I think we're starting to see something quite interesting indeed with
> how the game is developing. In fact, the designers working on the game are
> coming from our past structure, Sega Rosso. Now, for this game, since the
> difficulties of working with the PS2 have been no secret for most of the
> industry, we have benefited from the past experience of others to build
this
> engine. It will deliver 60fps and we will work to ensure this is constant
> throughout the game.
>
> Will you be looking to support PS2's online options?
> JT: No. The game will be a standalone experience with no twoplayer option.
>
> KS: A player who wants to speed through everything should clear it in 20
to
> 30 hours. This experience is our objective right now.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Nice one.

--
Andi.

Remove only one zero to reply


"Dave St.Onge" <1@1> wrote in message
...
> Thanks for relaying this useless piece of info to computer users....
>
> Dave
>
> "Xenon" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > [20/12/04 10:54]
> > Most driving game sequels don't take six years. But then most driving
game
> > sequels aren't the latest Sega Rally, says Edge
> >
> >
> > After a strangely long absence, Sega Rally Championship is preparing to
> > re-enter the race - and not in the arcade but on PlayStation2. We talked
> to
> > producer Jun Taniguchi and director Kenji Sasaki about their new
direction
> > for a treasured franchise.
> >
> > Sega Rally has traditionally led as an arcade title. What made you
decide
> to
> > develop this version on PS2?
> > JT: The requests from gamers were quite important. Of course we had many
> > requests for an arcade version as well and, yes, we like to challenge
> > ourselves on powerful platforms. Arcade, PC or Xbox could have suited us
> in
> > that matter, but PS2 is the biggest market of all. It is the tenth
> > anniversary of the series. Until now, we had enjoyed sharing our passion
> of
> > automobiles with a broad public: first in the arcade when that market
was
> at
> > its peak, then on Saturn with 1.2 million copies worldwide and later on
> > Dreamcast with around a million copies worldwide. As you know, though,
> > [coin-op] sales are down. With this anniversary in mind we wanted to
make
> a
> > game so fans and newcomers alike could enjoy our game. The best way to
> reach
> > so many people was PS2.
> >
> > KS: The base of the series is our love for automobiles: the fun in
driving
> a
> > car is the core element of the game. Of course, the gap in terms of
> > technology between arcade and the console is quite important, but the
main
> > difference is you can't enjoy an arcade game as you would enjoy a
consumer
> > game. You have to deliver all the fun in three minutes for the arcade
> while,
> > on console, you expect to be able to play the game for as long as you
> want,
> > whenever you want. So if our main motivation is the same, we have to
> > redesign the game rules and play time to fit with this new market.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "Games are getting too difficult to enjoy. Most racing
> > games claim they are realistic, but I think realism has several faces
and
> > one is the way you enjoy the game"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > How has that affected the play modes on offer?
> > KS: Two of them are very similar to what you had in the arcade. The
Quick
> > Race mode is what we used to call the Championship mode. Then you have
> Time
> > Attack. The third mode is really specific to the consumer market, the
> Career
> > Mode. It follows an automobile enthusiast who decides to drive
> > competitively, first locally and later aiming at higher classes until
> > finally entering the Sega Rally Championship. He then has a year of
> > competition to reach the top of that championship.
> >
> > I know this style of play is quite common nowadays, but usually you need
> to
> > clear a race in order to access the next one. And eventually you come to
a
> > race that's too difficult, and you can't progress beyond that stage,
which
> > is where most players give up. We want to avoid these problems with our
> > vision of the career mode in Sega Rally 2005. All our events and
training
> > session are scheduled on a calendar, and you are free to attend or
ignore
> > them as you wish - although some may have conditions for attendance,
such
> as
> > achieving great results in a previous race or holding a certain licence.
> >
> > But presumably there'll still be a need to clear a series of events to
> > access the final championship.
> > KS: Well, the game will give the player the freedom to do what he wants.
> If
> > he wants to become the overall champion, he will aim at the Sega Rally
> > Championship and play hard. Others might only enjoy one kind of race,
like
> > the Toge, illegal mountain races. You may prefer to be just a local
> > champion. The Career mode is divided into classes like you would find in
> > WRC, but we did not put a limitation on the car choice as you would find
> in
> > other games. Of course, you will definitely need to gain access to a
> higher
> > class in order to buy a more powerful car, but you can get a powerful
car
> > from the beginning if you can afford it, just like in reality. For
> example,
> > you could buy an Impreza or a Lancer Evo as your first car. You can go
to
> > your car dealer, buy them and then attend a local rally competition. In
> the
> > game you can do the same.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > How many cars will be featured?
> > KS: There are not that many, around 20. One problem was that there are
not
> > many cars in the WRC championship.
> >
> > JT: But you know, in Europe, you have lower classes like the Junior WRC
> and
> > the Super 1600. In these classes you find competitive cars like the
Astra,
> > the Golf, etc, but rally fans are focused on the higher classes with
cars
> > like the Impreza and the 307. So packing the game with hundreds of cars
is
> > not always the solution, and I'm not convinced that players play all
these
> > cars. Plus, hundreds of cars mean you need to prepare the equal number
of
> > physics - so we preferred to focus on a smaller number of cars but
making
> > them individually really enjoyable.
> >
> > What about the cars at the heart of the series - the Toyota Celica, the
> > Lancia Delta and the Stratos?
> > KS: They appeared in the demo, but we're not yet completely sure if we
> will
> > use them in the final game. I can say you shouldn't expect old but
> legendary
> > cars like the 205 or the Alpine, though. This 2005 version is a way for
us
> > to reset the series and make a fresh start on console.
> >
> > Will there be any focus on tuning your cars, or are you concentrating on
> the
> > racing aspect?
> > KS: Since I want to bring game back to racing, I would prefer to avoid
> > having players spend too much time on this. So this option is
purposefully
> > not that deep in the game.
> >
> > You've announced the game will feature a random course generator - is
this
> > as an aside from the prebuilt courses for the main game modes?
> > KS: Yes, we developed the random course program as an idea to help make
> > players enjoy our game. But our problem at the moment is to determine
> > whether the courses it creates are fun. There are also plenty of
courses.
> We
> > are planning something like 400 tracks of various types for the Career
> > mode - although that does not mean you will find 400 different
landscapes.
> > We will also have various weather conditions prepared, and we are still
> > working on effects in order to study what we can do in addition to the
> > 'classic' conditions.
> >
> > How about the other racers? Are you working on giving them personality
> > through AI?
> > JT: Career mode will feature AI rivals who will have their own names and
> > their own specialities. So according to your driving style you may
always
> > find yourself confronting a given rival. And they each have a kind of
> > 'psychological profile', a way that they drive. Previously, you only had
> > types of car as rivals, but now you have Mr X on Evo, or Mr Y on another
> > Evo, Mr Z on Impreza, etc...
> >
> > KS: You will find one AI known for high speed, another for aggression,
and
> > so on.
> >
> > JT: This Career mode is a start for us and I see in the future something
> > much more developed, deeper - maybe some kind of a simulation or team
> > management mode.
> >
> > Simulation-style rally games have proven popular in the console market -
> are
> > you making any concession to that within this version in the series, or
> > keeping to Sega Rally's arcade heritage?
> > KS: We want to deliver a gaming experience and, in that regard, it will
be
> > arcade. So, yes, it would be closer to a game like RalliSport Challenge
on
> > Xbox. I know they did that game because they loved our Sega Rally, which
I
> > find really cool. And we enjoy playing RalliSport in our office
sometimes!
> >
> > Overall, I think games are getting too difficult to enjoy and very
> > inaccessible for many. I still believe that we can enjoy games purely
for
> > fun. Most of the racing games on consoles claim they are realistic, but
I
> > think realism has several faces and one of them is the way you enjoy the
> > game.
> >
> >
> >
> > That sounds similar to the approach you've always taken with the
series.
> >
> >
> > KS: When we did the first Sega Rally, we had many competitors on the
> market:
> > Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc. When we decided to make Sega Rally, we agreed
> to
> > change the way players should enjoy a racing game. We first wanted the
> > player to feel as if he was actually driving a real car. In other racing
> > games, you would have a high sense of speed. In Sega Rally, we decreased
> > this speed and focused everything on controls. We amplified the controls
> to
> > make them very easy to understand. So our cars in Sega Rally were
drifting
> > in a way a real WRC car would not. At that time, we did not spend any
time
> > in testing real WRC cars, but the result was that users were delighted
and
> > found our game very 'realistic'.
> >
> > With Sega Rally 2, it was a time when simulators were numerous, like
Gran
> > Turismo. So this time, we went testing rally cars with real drivers. We
> > realised how much our game was different from the reality. Then I felt
the
> > need to give the opportunity to the players to experience a rally race
> > through the driver's eyes. That became the base for Sega Rally 2. We
> > analysed the cars' specifications to reproduce some of the physics, but
> our
> > main concern was to recreate the way the driver would see a landscape or
> the
> > road and the way the controls would work.
> >
> > You talked about making a fresh start - do you think the arcade series
is
> > over?
> > KS: Hmm... What I can say is you may expect something different from us
in
> > the arcade. I mean, seven years have passed since the last Sega Rally in
> the
> > arcade.
> >
> > When did you start working on Sega Rally 2005?
> > KS: My feelings about Sega Rally did not disappear during the seven
years
> > that I was not working on it. We really started on this version last
year,
> > in April or June. But the beginning of the development was quite slow,
> with
> > few staff working on it. Of course the libraries and our track-building
> > program were in progress for quite some time so it helped speed things
up.
> > Currently, there are around 15 of us working on the game. I know you
will
> > find much bigger teams working on a single title these days and, yes, I
> > would like to do the same - but right now, I think we are doing OK.
> >
> > How have you found working with Sony's hardware, given how little
> experience
> > you've had with it?
> > KS: I think we're starting to see something quite interesting indeed
with
> > how the game is developing. In fact, the designers working on the game
are
> > coming from our past structure, Sega Rosso. Now, for this game, since
the
> > difficulties of working with the PS2 have been no secret for most of the
> > industry, we have benefited from the past experience of others to build
> this
> > engine. It will deliver 60fps and we will work to ensure this is
constant
> > throughout the game.
> >
> > Will you be looking to support PS2's online options?
> > JT: No. The game will be a standalone experience with no twoplayer
option.
> >
> > KS: A player who wants to speed through everything should clear it in 20
> to
> > 30 hours. This experience is our objective right now.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>