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CES 2010: Under the Hood of Sony's ModNation Racers

Sony's new Playstation 3 racer from United Front Games introduces user-generated content to the genre
Article | 01.10.10 | By John Gaudiosi

LAS VEGAS – Sony had its upcoming PlayStation 3 game, ModNation Racers, on display at CES 2010. Developed by United Front Games, the kart racer was on display at Sony’s massive booth at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. Mike Olson, lead artist of the upcoming racer, talks about how this game is fueled by user-generated content in this exclusive interview.

 
 
 
 
 
What videogames did you work on before ModNation Racers?
 
I’ve shipped eight racing games. I started back in 2000 making NASCAR games. I worked on several Need for Speed titles, and now I find myself here at United Farm Games.
 
How has that background helped with what you guys are doing with the car racing?
 
It’s actually an interesting contrast to what I’ve done before. Whereas on NASCAR and Need for Speed we were always creating a very realistic project, now I can kind of break free and do something a lot more creative.
 
What kind of different vehicles do you have in this game?
 
We have a great selection of vehicles. We’ve built the title on the basis that you’re actually building on the same chassis. Everything is sort of bolt-on. I’m not sure if the non-gearheads out there understand the concept of bolt-ons, but we have the same chassis and we’re bolting new engines, new bodies, and new wheels onto it. The cool thing about it, it’s not destructive. If I have a particular body, and I built a full car around that body, and I’ve changed the body, I still maintain the integrity of my original design. My vinyls, stickers, ornaments, wheels, engines, and seats are all maintained. It’s very cool.
 
What types of body types do you have?
 
We have everything from tuner cars, to muscle cars, to classic exotic cars, to modern exotic cars, to silly stuff that you would never actually see on the road.
 
How customizable are these cars?
 
We’ve built the system so a player can be as creative as they want. They never have to worry about their design actually coming back and affecting the performance of the game. We have a full line-up of engines, wheels, steering wheels, different types of suspension, spoilers and other things to customize. Our decal and sticker system is incredibly advanced, and incredibly deep.  I think people will be very impressed when they start playing with it. They’ll see that the sky is really the limit.
 
What’s surprised you about what people have already done with the vehicles that they can build?
 
We found that the decal and our sticker system is incredibly adept. We’ve built a library of stickers that the player can put on, but also we’ve built a series of primitive shapes and gradients. If you find something isn’t even there in your sticker system, you can take combinations of simple shapes, and simple gradients, and adjust opacities, adjust height layers and specularity, and you can actually create your own sets of decals. 
 
What are your thoughts about the fact that people will be able to not only create, but share these with others?
 
That just opens up a whole new can of worms that as a developer, I’m very excited about. I can only imagine so many possibilities, but once players start getting this in their hands, it’s going to be completely amazing.
 
When it comes to racing, are there particular strategies that you see people employing the vehicles with various weapons and drifting that you guys have in there?
 
It all depends on what the player wants to do. I think we’re going to see a lot of different types of players when this game hits the shelves. You’re going to see people that are inherently creators. They’re not going to be hardcore racers, but they’re going to want to build cart designs, and they’re going to want to build character designs, and they’re going to want to build track designs, and they’re going to put them out for the community to download and play. Then on the other hand, you’re going to have people that are just racers. They’re going to want to download these creations and race them. They’re not going to want to put the time in to actually building the assets themselves, so I think you’re going to see all types.

 

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