1UP.COM Interview with the Producer

Staff 1up.com
met up
with the game's producer,
Michael Mann, who recently joined
EA Canada (previously worked at
Retro Studios), and assistant
producer Justin Wiebe to talk about the new game and how
previous products in the NFS series influenced its development.


1UP:
The name "Most
Wanted" turns out to have been connected with Need for Speed for a couple of years now–
has work on this project really been going on for a long time? Was it
started even before Underground/Underground 2?


Michael
Mann: Most Wanted
has been in development for more than two years – and it seems like
it was yesterday… time flies so fast. The concept of Most Wanted was
born at the time when work on Underground was wrapping up, and was in
early stages of development during Underground 2. I like looking at
old builds of Most Wanted just out of interest, and I'm always amazed
by the game's progress since then, by how much more polished it has become.


Justin
Wiebe: While
Michael and his team were working on Most Wanted, I was still busy
working on Underground 2. Every month I would drop by to find out how
things were going with his team and to share some knowledge gained in
the process of working on Underground; sometimes I would
come by to borrow some cool design from the artists
for Underground 2. Because our two teams always shared
various resources, Most Wanted became a game I really
want to work on.



1UP:
What was the basis for the idea of
Most Wanted? Maybe just combining Hot Pursuit and Underground,
or something more complex?



MM:
We went much further than
combining two games. Our goal was to find new ideas and provide
fresh and interesting gameplay for our players, even in such an overused
genre. One of the ideas – to make much smarter cops
(who
act more strategically), this seemed to us a natural evolution of
the pursuit game.



1UP:
Since we're on the subject of
natural evolution, tell us, are you using the same designers
as in Underground 1,2? Will people like Habib Zargarpour continue to work
on Most Wanted?



MM:
Many developers from
Underground are now working on Most Wanted. We're trying to give the game
a fresh, new look and partly this is achieved by the game
taking place during the day. Habib and many talented people from the MW
development team worked a lot on concept art and prototypes of how
the game would look. The team did an excellent job creating a vibrant
atmosphere of illegal racing.



1UP:
So if the game will
look "vibrant", how are you going to apply
that same
idea to the gameplay? Will you borrow ideas from Hot Pursuit and High
Stakes?



MM:
The core of the game will be collecting
statistics about your races and reputation points on the city streets in order
to climb higher and higher in the "blacklist" of the 15 most
famous and respected street racers. The ultimate goal – to become
the "most wanted" ("Most
wanted") racer.

1UP:
I see.. that explains
the name.



MM:
Players will have to go
neck and neck with the best drivers in the city, and also think about how
to escape more than 6 cops at once. The game will have a dynamic
open world, new gameplay, and the car tuning aspect will also be
well developed.



1UP:
What cars can we
expect? There were rumors that the game would have something like a confrontation
between tuner cars and exotics.



MM:
Right now I can't talk
about the car list or even the car classes, but it's safe to say
that the game will be able to offer players a greater variety of cars than in
any of the NFS games. We have a very wide range of cars to choose from,
including tuner cars, supercars,
"muscle cars", and sports cars.



1UP:
How well will
the tuning system be developed?



MM:
Tuning remains
a big part of Most Wanted. You will be able to upgrade the characteristics of your
cars for racing against any class of opponent car, and also for racing against
cops. By the way, the game will have a special meter
("heat"
meter) showing how far the cops are from you. One way to shake
them off your tail – drive into a shop and repaint your car.




1UP:
Did you like the open
city structure in Underground 2? Will there be something similar in this game?




JW:
As mentioned earlier, our
teams met regularly over the past years on many issues
concerning design – in order to take the best from each
game.
While Underground was focused on tuning and racing, Most
Wanted will offer pursuit racing in an open world.



MM:
We're building a world that is even
more open than the one you saw in Underground 2. We're going
to allow the player to leave the main road network during a race and cut
through marinas, golf courses and city parks. This can also
prove useful for shaking off the cops. They
will always be around, patrolling the streets, and you'll have to make sure
they don't notice you, because once they see you, shaking them off
won't be easy. There are many levels of cop activity, shown by
a special gauge. There will be many interesting ways to get rid of
the cops, for example, smashing a truck so that its cargo spills out
and blocks the cops from chasing you.



1UP:
Sounds like Burnout.
And what can you say about multiplayer in the game?



MM:
It's still too early to talk about
anything specific, but I can say that we're looking at various ways to
improve multiplayer. The foundations of the game, such as the blacklist and
reputation, will make up a considerable part of the online game.



1UP:
The Underground series pushed
the limits of the PS2's capabilities quite noticeably. Are there things you
want to implement in this game but current technology doesn't allow?




JW:
A game designer's dream
– the absence of any restrictions on what they can
create.
Personally, I would like to create an entire country that you could drive around,
but however, as always, reality comes along and says "Well, that's
simply impossible." So we have to be aware of all the
technical limitations and be able to find creative ways to work around
those limitations. Our development team loves a good challenge and
usually we find a way to give them one.



MM:
New technologies will allow
us to create more realistic and interactive gameplay and, possibly,
reduce game loading times.



1UP:
What do you think of GT4? And
what about Forza?


MM:
Both games are very
good racing simulators.



1UP:
That was very courteous. So
what is the future of racing games? Where is it all going?



JW:
The racing game market can
be very unpredictable, but there are several key elements
that will always allow them to secure their place in the gaming industry.
The main key to long-term survival is constantly producing
new,
original content – finding ways to provide
players with
fresh racing gameplay. In general, racing games are
simply
driving fast cars on cool tracks. There will always be
room for that in the market; the goal is to have
something new around every corner – a new competition or new gameplay.