Ahead of the release of Codemasters' new Rally offering DiRT 3 on May 24th, Sport.co.uk caught up with the game’s senior designer Paul Coleman, to discuss the latest offering, working with Ken Block, appeasing rally fans and his favourite sport’s game of all time.
For those not familiar with the DiRT franchise, what can they expect from the latest game?
I guess we have always been at the top end of the Rally car racing genre, but I think we have taken a step back towards that, with DiRT 3 by representing rally in a much more definitive format. As well as taking that step backwards towards what we know we are good at, we’ve also introduced this new discipline called Gymkhana, which Ken Block has been making famous on youtube. As well as getting some great new features in there like online party mode, split-screen for the first time in our next generation racing titles and also a youtube upload feature which allows you to take a snap-shot from a replay and upload it directly to your youtube channel.
Whilst making the new game is there always added pressure to better the last?
Definitely as the designers, because we have to try and keep things interesting, to try and avoid just selling the same old game. We have to try and innovate and find new things to do, and I think with Gymkhana for DiRT 3 we’ve done that, and found something different that hasn’t been done in games before.
But also feed back into the game experience we’re famous for. By practicing Gymkhana and honing your skills you can become a better rally driver and we are really pleased how it has all correlated together.
How involved was Ken Block with the process and how important was his expertise in developing the game?
Ken helped us from a rally driver perspective and also a Gymkhana one. Not many people do Gymkhana in the way that he does, so you know, speaking to him about how he does it, how he sets his car up, and how the car then behaves on different surfaces was very important. Having him coming into the studio and actually trying out the prototypes we put together and telling us where we can change it. Tweaking some of the handling changes for example was very, very helpful.
We also get other help from co-drivers and rally driver like Chris Meek. They come in and tell us about car setups, and Chris helped us with the WRC mini in particular, because he is involved in a full test programme in his normal day job. So when he comes into the studio he is already in that mindset. He gave us great insight into how the car handles on different surfaces.
So Ken and the others have been really, really helpful in terms of what Gymkhana is and what it stands for and how he represents it. In some ways we have modelled our career mode on the lifestyle of a driver like Ken Block, who isn’t all about just competing in races. They do quite a lot of sponsorship and videos that constantly promote their sport and also their celebrity as a driver.
Did you have much firsthand experience in the car with Ken and experience Gymkhana first hand?
Unfortunately I have never been on a ride with Ken, we tend to reserve that for members of the press! But I have had wheel time behind a Ford Escort Mark II, I’ve been driven around some rally stages by Phil Price, who is a rally instructor in Wales and recently went out to Sweden and had some passenger time on an ice-lake.
The more we can do the better and with this project we have definitely taken a real step towards getting as close to the car as possible. Certainly our audio engineers get to ride along with every car in the game because they need to record them. Our vehicle handling department do get more wheel time than I do as a game designer because my job is to get all the logic correct, but the vehicle handling engineers need to get as close to how the car behaves as possible.
Personally I’m planning to become a co-driver later on this year and maybe do a full season next season. So I’m trying to get myself properly embedded in the sport so I can understand it firsthand.
So you’ve really got the bug?
Without a doubt, well I had the bug when I was five years old, when I was watching Group B cars in the RAC rally on television, and my dad had a Lancia Delta. I wanted to be a car designer originally and then I became a game tester at Codemasters because of the original Colin McRae games, and then worked my way into a design position so it has kind of been a bit of a fairytale story. Rally is in my blood and it’s something that has become my life through the job that I do. I think it can also become a really good hobby.
When you are developing a game for a sport with such a dedicated following, are you aware of having to appease the fans?
Definitely. I think we have perhaps been criticised in the past for leaving the rally fans a bit high and dry, certainly with DiRT 2 as there wasn’t much rally content in there. People were buying it because of the Colin McRae name and they may have felt a little shot changed. That’s why we have addressed that with DiRT 3, by bringing a lot of the rally content back in, with cars from present days all the way back to the 1960s.
For now we are finding that nice balance between all the disciplines of off-road racing like rally-cross, like stadium truck racing and like hill climbs up Pikes Peak, and that style of rally racing, and we are fusing it with this new thing called Gymkhana, which does correlate. Ken didn’t do any tarmac rally racing over in America because they don’t really have that concept over there like we do in Europe, so Gymkhana was his way of getting used to how a rally car behaves on a tarmac surface. I think with DiRT 3 we are pleasing both sides of the audience without missing any one out. Sometimes you can aim too close to the middle and end up pleasing no one, whereas with DiRT 3 I think we have got that balance about right.
Where do you think the franchise can go next?
It’s too early for me to say at this juncture, but I think certainly from my perspective there is more we can do with the rally angle, the service area, the nursing of cars through an endurance event. It’s not something the WRC have had to deal with recently because they have been doing much more sprint based events where the cars don’t really deteriorate as much.
How has the game been received ahead of the release date of May 24th?
Everyone that has played it so far has been very encouraging and quite complimentary, in fact Gymkhana was always a worry because it was new, and we weren’t sure how people would respond to it and we still haven’t shown everyone apart from a few focused testers how you actually encounter gymkhana in terms of the game itself. When we do our demonstrations at press events, we sit people down in front of the cars and say go off and drive gymkhana, whereas in the actual game we have a tutorial session with Ken Block and he talks you through each trick and shows you the ropes.
So I think people will find the learning curve a bit shallower when it comes to the actual game itself, but they are really happy with the rally and the night stages, the weather effects and they are excited about gymkhana. I just think people are looking forward to getting their teeth into it really.
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And finally what is your favourite sports game of all time?
Well, I think the one that holds a special place in my heart is Colin McRae Rally 2, it’s what almost made me fail my 2nd year at university, but it also encouraged me to change tact and become involved in the games industry.
In terms of perhaps, all-time, maybe Geoff Crammond’s Formula One Grand Prix is the one I spent the most time on as a kid although I haven’t played it in many, many years so I may be looking at it through rose-tinted glasses.
Anything racing really, particularly with a sport angle, a reality angle, I’m not too keen on some of the other driving games that have their own kind of license and are not correlated with rally, formula one or touring car racing.