We caught up with Ralph Fulton, creative director on Forza Horizon 2 at Playground Games, at the Best of Xbox showcase during E3. The conversation started out talking about the choice of southern Europe to host the new Horizon festival.
"We have this long list of criteria," says Fulton. "We're looking for great driving roads, stunning vistas, interesting variety, you know towns, cities, a long list of things. And basically we also have a research team that just looks at locations around the world and scores every location based on this criteria. Both the south of France and northern Italy came close when we were scoring it for the first game. What we were able to do with Xbox One though is say 'these countries are next to each other, why don't we just throw the net over both of them and build our world across two countries'. And that's what we've been able to do."
"This E3 you're seeing the true strength of Forza," says Fulton. "I guess what a lot of people will not understand is that there are two world class teams working within Forza. At Turn 10 over in Seattle they have an amazing team with an amazing pedigree who have been making Forza games for decades and we've always been huge admirers of them. And then over in the UK we have Playground Games, of which I'm a part, and we also have a world class team. And we're able to pull on a worldclass pool of developers in UK and in Europe. And we make a completely different experience, but like you say within Forza. So it's still identifibly Forza it has the same values, the same feel. But they are very different experiences."
Fulton was keen to highlight the fact that engineers at Playground Games had helped out in getting Forza Motorsport 5 ready in time for launch, but also explained how they're taking advantage of the engine while improving it to fit their own game.
"The graphics engine was a huge boost for us. It does image based lighting, it does physically modelled materials. What we've done is make them work in every time of day, cause we've got a full day and night cycle. And also in every varied weather condition that our new system can create. And it can create near limitless visual variety."
The two Forzas are obviously different racing experiences and Fulton talks a little how they compare to eachother.
"One of the key differences between Motorsport and Horizon. You know, Horizon is more laid back, it's more fun, it's not serious and competitive all the time. Sure, you can be competitive in races, but there is a huge aspect to it which is just kicking back, just driving, just meeting people, right? So, we have a vision for online in Horizon 2 - a very next-gen vision. First of all, we want it to be instant. If you make a decision to play on Xbox Live we don't want you to be sitting in a lobby. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to be waiting. We want you to be able to push a button and without even stopping your car, without even slowing down. Bam! You're online. We sync the weather. We sync the traffic. We sync the time of day. You're just in online. It just works."
Part of that is Playground Games vision of a game "that's not just about beating people", creating communities through clubs and car meets.
And what's a festival without music?
"More people tweet me about the music of Horizon than any other aspect," says Fulton. "I think we did something right there. Our plan for Horizon 2 is to do even more right. Same guy, Rob da Bank, who's the curator of the soundtrack is back to pick the music. This time we have twice the number of radio stations. We have twice as much music. So I really hope you're going to be listening to music you love, but also discovering new music, because that's what Rob is great at."
Forza Horizon 2 is set to arrive on Xbox One (and Xbox 360) on September 30 with Sumo Digital working on the separate Xbox 360 version of the game.