We talk to Ian Bell about Project Motor Racing

Gamereactor: Hi Ian, nice to see you again. Tell us a little bit about Project Motor Racing. What's the thinking behind the game?

Ian Bell: Okay, get ready for a really long answer here, but it's an interesting topic. The whole idea started after I left EA and had a chance, for the first time in two decades, to just sit down and think, "What happens now?" Simply wasting my time was not an option, and I began to realise that I also had a unique opportunity to look at game development with fresh eyes, something that hadn't happened since I started working on the original mod in the late 1990s that eventually became GTR.

Without a publisher, external press or budget to worry about, I found myself imagining what kind of simulator I would most like to make, and that idea soon evolved into bringing together a small team—veterans alongside younger talents who had a feel for where the sim-racing genre had evolved—who began to create what we felt was a "fresh" interpretation, one with a slightly nostalgic core.

After that, we brought in a car physics team to start working on that part. While the physics project was ongoing, the game design team began analysing previous games, the ones we think got things right, and we focused on the parts that we thought made those simulators special. Let me give you an example: Grand Prix Legends. What did that simulator have that makes it so beloved even today? Because I know people who still play it, almost 30 years later. One of the things that was so great about that particular game was that you had a single racing class, from novices to world champions. And that's what made it such an exciting racing experience: getting out on the starting grid with all these different cars, and maybe choosing a slower car because you just loved the brand, the feel, or the sound. We decided to go against the grain of modern titles, which mostly only offer individual classes, by offering 13 complete classes in Project Motor Racing.

GTR, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was another title we looked back on. Our very first game, and one that I hope has aged quite well, along with GTR2. What was it about those simulators that made them so popular? The focused nature of the content and the moddability of the simulator. We love the cars from those simulators so much that we're bringing them back in Project Motor Racing alongside modern GT3 and LMDh, and all sorts of wonderful historic car classes like Group C and GT1 and so on.

Anyway, we looked at all these titles and made some decisions about what we thought were their most important components. Why charge for ranked online races? Why not include a career mode for single players? Why charge for custom lobbies? Why charge for mods? Why not have mods in both the PC version and the consoles? You build a community by offering more, not by protecting, shielding, and hiding the gaming experience behind paywalls, subscription models, and subscriptions. The concept behind Project Motor Racing is: Here's everything you want from a racing sim: Ranked online, single player, and so on. And if you don't think it's perfect? Make your own mods. At Giants Software, we are fortunate to have found a partner and publisher with the financial and technical capabilities to make this a reality, and we are excited to see what the future holds for our new sim and the new community.

Gamereactor: I loved Project Cars and Project Cars 2... The third one, however, was really not good. Tell us a little about what happened there?

Bell: First, I want to thank you for your reviews, then I'd rather look ahead than look in the rear-view mirror here, but let me summarise a long story; Project Cars 3 was actually called Project Cars: Sideways and was an arcade racing game that was supposed to compete with Forza Horizon, among others, but after Codemasters bought us out, we were forced to rename the game Project Cars 3, which did not go down well with the players. There was obviously no time for us to try to turn this around by changing parts of the base game before release, and we learned a few valuable lessons in the process.

Gamereactor: Project Motor Racing was announced as GTR Revival, based on Unreal Engine 4. You changed the name, publisher, and, above all, the game engine... Why?

Bell: Performance and possibilities. For a racing simulator, performance is the only thing we are obsessed with. With our physics engine cranked up to 720Hz, we encountered problems with the previous engine we were using. Nothing we couldn't have solved in the long run, but when the opportunity to join forces with Giants Software arose, many of the most difficult pieces of the puzzle fell into place for Project Motor Racing. With Giants, we were able to get a stable, proven game engine (which powers their Farming Simulator franchise), along with close collaboration on their technology, and a publishing department with years of experience launching best-selling titles. Add to that their experience with console modding, which felt like a natural fit for us. Performance, a stable and well-built engine that our new Hadron physics engine can run on, their experience and technology, and their publishing department, it was the complete package on which to build the foundation for what we hope will be a successful newcomer to the simulator world.

Gamereactor: If we look at Project Cars and Project Cars 2, it's clear, as in the case of Project Motor Racing, that your team is very efficient and does a lot with limited resources. Tell us a little about how you view this, the streamlining of working methods and approaching deadlines?

Bell: I could, of course, say that my leadership style is based on instilling fear, but I don't want to reveal my secrets, hehe. Joking aside, Straight4 consists of a unique combination of experienced veterans and passionate young developers. Nowadays, experience seems to be unpopular, but the thing is, when you've been working in game development for a quarter of a century, you tend to learn a few things. These lessons are part of the studio's DNA, so we don't end up in dead ends for weeks on end because, at some point during the last 20 games or whatever it was, we've probably already encountered the problem and already have a ready-made solution for it.

The secret is simple: Find the most talented people you can, and find a way to keep them, because experience and expertise are invaluable in game development. It becomes part of your studio's culture and can be passed on to a new generation of game developers. Time spent learning how to solve a problem can devour projects: having a team that already knows the solutions reduces development time with proven results.

Gamereactor: iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Raceroom, Automobilista 2, Le Mans Ultimate... The genre is currently overflowing with good games. How do you view your physics engine compared to everyone else's?

Bell: I often compare physics engines in different sim-racing games to racing tyres: some drivers simply handle certain rubber compounds better than others. I also don't want to compare our Hadron engine with other engines, because I know the time, passion, and commitment required to make these simulators. What I want to say is that our Hadron engine is a decade (and even two decades) younger than the engines you refer to. For us, this means that we were able to build Hadron with modern hardware in mind. That's why we expect our engine to have certain competitive advantages over its rivals. I am absolutely convinced that simulator racing drivers will like Project Motor Racing's road handling. The feeling when accelerating, for example, is, in my opinion, absolutely top class.

Gamereactor: How would you compare your working relationship with EA to the one you have today with Giants?

Bell: That's a leading question, don't you think? I don't want to get into the whole EA thing again. My opinion on that hasn't changed one bit. Giants are passionate, talented and respectful, and our collaboration is a brilliant one. They are good friends today and we are all working towards the same goal.

Gamereactor: Automobilista 2 is based on the Madness engine that you and your team once created. Does Project Motor Racing share any technology with that game today?

Bell: No, nothing. I look at Automobilista 2 today and feel nothing but pride. Reiza has done a fantastic job of refining our old game engine, and I wish them every success in the world. However, we don't share any technology between the projects; the Giants engine and our new physics engine have nothing to do with Madness. During the initial year after Automobilista 2 was released, we often provided support to Reiza Studios when it came to the engine and its performance, but today they know the Madness technology better than we do and they deserve all their success. Within the sim-racing genre, all studios are really friendly and accommodating towards each other because as the genre grows, so do all of us who work in it.

Gamereactor: What are your thoughts when you look at the genre as a whole today?

Bell: Sim-racing as a genre is interesting. Sometimes five fantastic games are released in one year, and then you sit and wait five years for the next one. I think the next year or two will be very good years for the community. However, I would say that there has been an effort to make sim-racing more accessible to a wider audience, and I'm not sure we've gone about it the right way.

What I mean is that decisions are sometimes made to create games with gameplay mechanics that our core audience doesn't necessarily want. We've also seen a lot of gimmicks, microtransactions, extra fees, subscription models, paywalls, and so on come into the genre. My personal opinion is that we should strive to make sim-racing games accessible to more people, but not by watering down the simulation itself - that is literally the core function of our games - but by offering more of what the community wants. And we should - as far as we can afford - make everything available without greedy payment models. As I said earlier, a larger community is good for all of us.

Gamereactor: One aspect of this genre that I think lacks realism in almost all examples and in all games is the sound. It lacks reverb, it lacks chaos, clatter, and noise. What is your view on this?

Bell: Stephen Baysted and his team are working on the sound together with Doug Arnao and the physics team. Sound is not just about sound. Since simulator racing does not replicate G-forces and so on, sound plays an amplified role, not only in what you hear but also in what you feel. It's essentially a synthesis of what you hear inside the cockpit of a race car and what your mind tells you you're feeling, at the same time. That's crucial to creating the right feeling in a simulator. Stephen and I have been working together for twenty-five years now, and I never get the slightest bit nervous about the sound in our games, because he always pushes the boundaries.