F1 2014 is coming to consoles – but possibly not the ones plugged into your TV. As the team at legendary British development studio Codemasters crunches to come up with a Formula 1 game worthy of the Xbox One and PS4 in time for next year’s race season, it’s releasing F1 2014 as something of a warm-up lap for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
This is no mere appetiser, however: with a host of new features including all the new team line-ups, new courses and a smart driver evaluation system, it’s a fully-fledged edition of the long running racer in its own right.
To find out what to expect when the game arrives on October 17, we caught up with Codemasters senior games designer Lee Mather for more details.
We always like to ask developers who work on an annual franchise: how on earth do you decide what features make it into one year’s edition and which don’t? It must be brutal.
Since we started work on F1 2010 back in 2008 we’ve never actually stopped working on the next F1 title here in the studio. As the project reaches certain stages in development some staff will start looking at what’s ahead, plus we’ve always had a long-term plan, with the occasional timing tweak along the way. Deciding what makes it into the game is often dictated by a multitude of issues, the classic cars and circuits in F1 2013 being one of the prime examples of this. We always wanted to include classic cars, but the additional work and licensing hurdles meant we had to wait until we could do them properly.
What features would you have loved to have included this year, but weren’t able to?
Personally I really liked the concept of the Live the Life element of F1 2010; I’d welcome the return of something along those lines, only taking it a lot further. As for things which didn’t make it; I couldn’t possibly disclose those as who’s to say they won’t still see the light of day in the future!
What made you include the driver evaluation system, and just how smart is it?
Formula 1 cars are hard to drive, even for the most experienced of racing gamers. The Evaluation Test pits you against AI drivers of differing pace. At the end of the test you are rated on your performance and a difficulty and assists level is suggested to the player. You can take the test as many times as you like until you’re happy with your chosen difficulty level, which you can then carry over into Career.
Why include a ‘Very Easy’ mode? Is that not an admission of failure? Do you think the learning curve for the game is that harsh?
Formula 1 is a sport which is enjoyed by a very wide demographic, but not all of them are big gamers. Because of this there are a large number of people who would love to be able to experience a Formula 1 game, but feel too intimidated to even entertain playing it. We want Formula 1 fans of all skill levels to be able to get the same level of enjoyment out of the game, which is why we’ve tried to lower the level of entry into playing the game.
Go on. Tell us something about the game’s development that nobody knows.
An artist who previously worked here hid a teapot in each of the track environments; we’ve still not found them all to this very day.
How difficult is it as a game of a sport when F1 changes the real life technical rules for cars? Can you explain what makes this year’s changes so ‘seismic’?
The two biggest [IRL] changes this year were the reduction in aero, with the lack of the blown diffusers and the major changes to the power units. The combination of these two changes has given us the opportunity to add a lot more movement into the cars, especially when on throttle. Balancing out the power delivery of the new units and the levels of downforce the car are running has given us plenty to keep us busy.
How do you anticipate these changes, though, and adopt them into the new version of the game? Can they scupper months of work?
We see the rule and technical regulations once they’re published by the FIA. From here we start to work out we how we think the changes will affect the coming season's car performance. We then discuss with the teams to solidify what we’re thinking. With F1 2014 being our fifth Formula 1 game, we not only have strong relationships with the teams and Formula One Management, but we’ve also become better at second guessing what could happen within the sport. Obviously there are always some things you’d never expect. Who would have guessed at double points in the last race of the season?
So like this year’s grid, Codemasters have decided against a next-gen version. Can you tell us when this decision was made, and why? Do you think, having seen the success the Xbox One and PS4 have had since launch, that it was the right one still?
For F1, we’ve had a team of people working on new gen for some time now. There have been a few titles announced for new gen that have slipped or failed to meet expectations. Formula 1 is a huge deal to us, so we made the conscious decision to give ourselves enough time to make sure we get it right, both in technical and in gameplay terms. We’ll be talking more about F1 coming to PS4 and Xbox One later this year ahead of the game’s launch in 2015. With regard to the success of the Xbox One and PS4, we knew a lot of gamers were ready for the latest consoles, as many of us were, but I don’t think anyone was expecting such amazing uptake from the public for either device. This new generation of console gaming couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.
F1 2011 was also made for handhelds – is there any chance we’ll ever see the series return to 3DS and Vita? If not, why not?
We’re always looking at all of the hardware opportunities and weighing them up against the amount of resource it would take to do such a game, and balancing that against the resource we have. We’d rather deliver bigger blockbuster experiences on a handful of systems than spread ourselves too thin.
A lot of driving games on next-gen have been causing a stir by sticking to 30 frames per second. What will F1 2014 offer? Do you think 60fps is objectively preferable or is the game content more important?
I think it depends on the type of racing game which you’re producing as to which is favoured. There are pros and cons to either direction, plus there are often compromises to be made. F1 2014 is built on a further refinement of our EGO engine, so we’ll be running at 30fps. With the amount of physical simulation running we really push the Xbox 360 and PS3 to their limits.
What changes exactly have you made to the handling on a gamepad?
We’ve dedicated a large amount of time to setting the gamepad up to best allow the player to drive as quickly and consistently as a player using a steering wheel and pedals. With such a tight range of inputs on a gamepad we’ve concentrated on making sure that the inputs made by the player give as consistent and predictable outcome as possible without impacting the level of involvement in controlling the car.
What customisation aspects can we expect to see? How much tuning will we be able to do on each car?
As in the real sport, it’s all about those subtle changes that gain or lose tenths of a second. We give the player control over various areas of the car, allowing them to adjust suspension geometry, aerodynamics, ride height and chassis balance etcetera. Not available this season, mirroring the real sport, is the removal of adjustable gear ratios on a race-by-race basis.
What can we expect to see in scenario mode? How has it been expanded exactly?
The further inclusion of Scenario Mode has allowed us to create even more exciting and challenging scenarios. The real strength of this feature is in allowing those who don’t have hours to dedicate to full race weekends, to still enjoy some of the key aspects of Formula 1 in more manageable bite-sized chunks. Players can experience all areas, such as tyre wear, temperature management, fuel concerns, changeable weather conditions and pit stops amongst other areas.
How about career mode? What makes this year’s version different to previous iterations?
Career mode features all of the driver changes of the 2014 season, as well as the addition of the two new circuits; Sochi and Red Bull Ring and the return of Hockenheim. Driver and team performance has also been balanced to mirror the real 2014 season. Career Mode requires a huge undertaking of time to be able to experience several full seasons, and there are often sticking points such as certain circuits, which some players find too difficult. As such we have found that a significant number of players never get to experience a second season and progress up through the grid to a different team. This year we are offering three different season lengths: Easy is seven races, Medium 12 races and Hard, the traditional full 19 race season, so that more players get to experience the career progression element.
How do you update the tracks to keep them in line with real-life changes on the courses?
Wherever the information was available to us early enough we’ve updated the circuits. We’ve also improved upon lighting and overall fidelity. With F1 for the new consoles also in production we’ve taken on some of the new techniques we’ve developed and applied them to F1 2014 where possible to further improve on the game's visual impact.
Last year’s game sported classic content; are there any plans for this year’s title to sport the same?
F1 2014 won’t feature classic content. It took us three previous titles to finally clear all of the licensing issues and pull together the required assets to allow us to do justice to the classics in F1 2013. It’s something we all thoroughly enjoyed working on though, and would never dismiss doing something similar in the future.
Tell us about the lengths you go to to recreate individual F1 cars in game. How are they researched, animated, recreated, and how are sound, physics and handling captured?
First we start with the basic layout of the chassis. This is taken from the physical model with the chassis dimensions modelled correctly. We then add in the weight, centre of mass and calculate the inertia properties. From here we take the information we receive from the teams and know from the technical regulations and begin to set up the suspension and engine power and torque curves. At this point we have a drivable model. Next comes a balancing act between aero and suspension, making sure the ride heights and suspension travel work correctly. In terms of animation of the suspension what you see is what is happening in the physics, there are no visual modifiers, it’s all pure physics. Once we’re happy with the drive of the initial base car we start to add in the individual balance aero properties for each of the teams, giving them all their own unique strengths and weaknesses based on the performance and characteristics we see from each of the races. Capturing the audio is a very complex task due to the lack of places to attach the microphones and store the recording equipment, no matter how compact it is. Working closely with the teams we’re able to get access to the cars at the pre-season tests. Where possible the teams will try and accommodate our requirements, performing a series of plans to allow us to capture the best quality and range of audio possible.
Do you get professional drivers in to test the game before launch? Can you tell us who?
We’ve had many drivers play our games over the years, including Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Adrian Sutil, Heikki Kovalinen, Bruno Senna, Anthony Davidson, and Gary Paffett. There are also quite a few using them to familiarise themselves with the new circuits, some of which are still undergoing construction. Unfortunately, often due to the limited amount of time which they spend in the UK, we don’t often get the opportunity for the drivers to pay us a visit here in the studio, but we do regularly take early versions of our titles to the factories to allow them early access and to provide feedback. We often see teams tweeting images of staff and drivers playing our games, either competitively or for fun.
How is the team currently split between duties on F1 2014 and the next-gen title you’ve said is coming next year? How many are on each, and do they overlap?
With F1 2014 almost complete, the majority of the team have now moved over to the next-gen title. A separate team was set up to start work on the new gen game to give us the best possible start while F1 2014 was also still in production, the plan being to move people over on to next-gen as they became available, and once we had a strong and solid technical base to begin building the game. There is some overlap, but due to the move to a new EGO engine powering new gen F1 it’s not a straight sharing of data or of assets, it’s more often a sharing of knowledge and experience within the team.
F1 2014 was released on October 17 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.