Games
The racing sim studio is back with a new game – we’ve got the first interview and images.
Milestone have carved out a niche for themselves in the motorsports gaming world, creating some crackers in the form of Ride 2, MXGP2 and Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo.
However, upcoming title Gravel offers something completely different. As the name cunningly hints, Gravel is taking the racing action offroad and it promises to be a world away from another regular rally sim.
Instead, Milestone is going back to basics, focusing on fun and offering some of the most iconic vehicles around, from Group B rally monsters to cutting-edge machinery from 2017 and you’ll be able to enjoy the cars in some jaw-dropping locations. We’ve been speaking to Irvin Zonca, head of game design at Milestone, to find out more.
What made you want to try an offroad game?
We took this decision for several reasons. First of all, there are currently a lot of good rally games already available, so we didn’t want to saturate the market. Then, we changed technology by switching to the Unreal Engine 4, a game engine that offers a lot of amazing features like fast prototyping, dynamic time of day, different weather conditions and the chance of creating large and realistic open maps.
Also, we wanted to experiment with something fresh and new that wasn’t already available on the market so, mixing all these elements together, we thought that creating an offroad game was the best way to create something very exciting for both us and the players.
Gravel is the most extreme offroad challenge and it’s different from every game that you can already find on the shelves, because no one focuses on core offroad arcade-racing as we do. Gravel is the only one that celebrates offroad racing by taking the player to exotic locations around the world, with some of the most exciting vehicles ever created. With this game, we want to bring back the fast-paced action that players could enjoy some time ago with games like Screamer.
How long have you as a studio been working on the game?
We started working on the core UE4 technology two years ago, since we had to heavily customise some parts of it, and we started developing the game more than one year ago.
What’s the tone of the game – where does it sit between arcade and sim?
We have a proper and realistic simulation under the hood, but all the different parameters have been tuned by the gameplay designers to make the game point towards the arcade genre. We can probably call it a 'sim-cade'. For sure, the game is NOT a simulation and is NOT a rally game: you neither get a co-driver nor some tight rally stages… You are never alone during the race; you are always competing against other drivers. We want to bring back those good vibes from the ‘90s, where the games already looked realistic but were easy to control and enjoyable for everyone.
What sort of real world research did you have to do for the game? Did you involve any professional racers, and if so, how?
We did a lot of research for creating the environments. All the locations of the game were created starting from real places: exotic locations that could fit racing competitions or huge, beautiful natural environments that would have been perfect as a base for an open map.
We started by taking a virtual tour of the world with Google Earth. If we fell in love with a real location, we started getting GPS data using a powerful tool called World Machine, and then we started fine-tuning the maps with the Unreal Engine editor.
We also accepted suggestions from people who visited specific locations during the holidays or saw a beautiful documentary. This is what happened with Alaska, to give you an example. We loved the feeling of that part of the world, so we looked for an area that could include different elements, such as seaside fisherman towns, lakes and winding roads that climb the mountains, and when we found it we started importing the GPS data.
The same happened with some Pacific islands and other parts of the world that will be announced throughout the year. We also feature real and licensed tracks including rallycross circuits, which are perfect for door handle-banging competitions. This time we didn’t involve any professional racer, because after years of collaborations with some of the most important drivers around the world, and given the arcade-style of the game, we already had all the info that we needed.
You’re using Unreal Engine – what will that enable you to do with graphics that you haven’t been able to achieve before?
Unreal Engine 4 is currently the best third-party engine available on the market. The rendering and lighting management is just amazing and lets us create photo-realistic cars and environments, also thanks to its beautiful shaders. We also feature advanced particles systems, different times of day and different weather conditions. Just imagine how thrilling it is to dash through the woods with just your headlights lighting the whole environment, or how lovely can it be to push an opponent out of the race as you speed at 150mph, enjoying a beautiful sunset on the shores of the Pacific Islands!
How many different vehicles will there be in the game? What about tracks/levels?
Gravel features more than 50 of the best offroad vehicles ever created. We basically have the finest selection of cars from the ‘70s to 2017, including Group B rally cars, American trophy trucks, cross-country vehicles, rallycross cars, Group S prototypes, some brand-new vehicles such as the 2017 Abarth 124 and legendary brands such as Ford, Lancia, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Renault, Chevrolet, BMW and many more. And let me show off a little bit; we also got Porsche! When they said “yes” after reading the game design documents, it felt like Christmas day.
Regarding the tracks, we feature more than 18 different locations split into four groups: open maps, where the player races in huge and photorealistic environments, wild rushes, which are exotic locations set up for hosting racing competitions, American stadiums and real rallycross circuits.
How many players will multiplayer support?
Online multiplayer will support 12 players at the same time.
With game modes like Capture The Flag you’re venturing into new territory. Was this a challenge for designers perhaps better used to recreating more standard racing tracks?
It definitely was. For Gravel, we designed several fresh and different game modes, also by mixing and matching modes from other genres like shooters, in order to provide the player with a fun multiplayer experience. Since developing these kind of game modes is something new for us, we had to prototype and redesign some features several times, listening to the feedback coming from both the developers and focus groups. Gravel is a new challenge for the players and also for us, and it’s the best way to make a good usage of all the amazing features the Unreal Engine 4 offers.
Any plans for a VR mode? What about visual upgrades for the PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio?
We don’t plan to feature a VR mode with Gravel, while we are willing to fully support HDR and better resolution with PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio.
You’re headed for PS4/Xbox One/PC – any plans for a Nintendo Switch version?
For the moment we’re not planning to release Gravel on Switch, but we’re looking very closely at it for the future.
Gravel is set to land on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. For more games coverage, follow @RedBullGames on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
