OXMUK
Forza Motorsport is far more than just Microsoft's paint-scraping answer to Gran Turismo - it's a landmark racing simulation in its own right. Besides matching the older game's infamous bloat - the fourth instalment, due in October, will feature over 500 cars from over 80 manufacturers - Turn 10's fender-bending series has consistently led the pack for online racing experiences and community support.
Released in 2005, the original Forza helped popularise such now-commonplace features as leaderboards, custom skin sharing and clans. The nascent Xbox Live population responded enthusiastically, and within two months of hitting shelves, Forza was second only to Halo 2 in the rankings. Where Gran Turismo has kept aloof from the growth of online gaming, committing fully to network features only in the past 12 months, Turn 10 was ahead of the curve the second it left the grid.
Speaking to OXM in our latest issue, creative director Dan Greenawalt makes no bones of his debt to Polyphony Digital's most famous franchise. "My personal fuel for motorsports was launched by Gran Turismo. I played it on the PlayStation, and that really fuelled my love of cars. It even impacted on the cars I ended up buying in my life.
"And after working in games for a while, working on racing games, the group of us decided we wanted to pitch a game. I think from an Xbox and Microsoft perspective it's very important to them to have something to take on the first-party titles, such as Gran Turismo."
He's adamant, however, that Turn 10 dreamed of more than simply aping another developer's successes when they conceived their new game. "The pitch that we came up with was really about establishing our own face, establishing our own identity as a franchise." And the "wellspring" of that franchise? "Car passion", plus a willingness to innovate.
"Innovation" is a much-abused word, of course, but Turn 10's efforts to push envelopes, break boundaries and explore new horizons are founded on more than hot air: they're bedded in the zeal and experience of professional drivers and engineers. "We're in touch with a lot of race car drivers," Greenawalt reveals. "For various reasons I have access to them, and when I have access to them I always try to leech as much info as I can out of their brain."
A car collector and dabbling racer himself, Greenawalt is understandably proud of the attention his brainchild has garnered from within the automotive world. "We had that partnership with Peugeot which gave us access to all the Peugeot drivers from Le Mans, and in particular Stéphane Sarrazin, who is a huge Forza fan and played the game all the time.
"He was really interested in getting more involved, so he came to our studio and used our hydraulic triple-screen simulator to actually practice for Petit Le Mans. He put in about eight hours of driving."
Among other motorsports celebrities, the Turn 10 pro is on familiar terms with Gunnar Jeannette, an American who competes in the LMPC class at the ALMS. "He's been involved since the first Forza, before Forza was even announced. He's somebody I ran into, struck up a good friendship with, and he's come back to the studio every quarter for the past eight years, helping us tune cars and identify tracks.
Jeannette's involvement was crucial to recreating the intricacies of certain famous circuits. "He's driven tracks in Europe, North America all over the world," Greenawalt explains. "So he'd be able to tell us 'hey, there's a bump here that you'd never be able to see, but you can feel it as a driver'. Or 'there's a tree that you'll always use here as a reference point'. He helps us get tracks right as well as the cars right."
With such sources to draw on, and a bustling horde of fans at its back, Turn 10's next gas-guzzler should be a treat for the thumbs.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/28618/features/turn-10-talks-the-birth-of-forza-motorsport/
