Codemasters Looks to Future of GRID

A chat with Race Driver GRID producer Clive Moody reveals what might be in store for GRID 2 or possibly some downloadable content for the stunning racing title.

By Alan Boiston, July 25, 2008

	Clive Moody, Race Driver series Senior Producer, Codemasters

There are some developers who have so much experience within a genre that when they launch a new title, the industry takes note. For Codemasters that genre is racing, and the huge acclaim given to its recent Race Driver GRID back in May shows that the UK studio is at the top of its game.

Eight-year Codies veteran and producer of all Race Drivers to date is Clive Moody, who recently spoke with us about his passion for racing, the development of GRID, and what we could see in the future.

"I'm a big racing fan, I love all elements of the sport, and that's why for me it was great to get all styles of racing into one package. For us it is a big new thing, a new franchise and we wanted to move a little bit away from our TOCA roots which have always been grounded very much in the touring car angle"

Perhaps the biggest reason for GRID's success was the teams decision to go back to the drawing board of the racing genre. "Our whole philosophy is that it's about the racing. That's what's we're all about," explains Moody. "When we first set out to make the game we took a long, hard look at what was happening in the world of racing games at that time, and what we saw was a lot of games doing modding, a lot of games about creating your car and putting pretty patterns on the side of it. None of them appeared to be focusing on the core, which is fast, exciting, aggressive racing. We decided that was what we wanted to do and wanted to try and distil that into your 5 to 6 minute experience and get back to what racing is all about."

In our view, and of the view of the series' massive fan base, it's an approach that paid off. But where is the racing genre heading next? "It's a big question and there's quite a lot of diversity coming in, especially if you look at games like Burnout and Test Drive - they've brought the whole open environment angle to it, and they have their place. Games like GRID also have their place in terms of traditional racing, but it's full on, it's exciting. I think it's all about exaggerating the experience to some extent, certainly something we tried to do with GRID - it's almost hyper real.

"The EGO engine is evolving all the time - it's was in development for over two years before the launch of GRID. I think we've taken a real step up from what you saw in DiRT, even with just a year between the two titles. There are always going to be new features and improvements that we can make. We've had 50 to 60 engineers working on EGO over its two years, so if we can continue at that rate, the sky is almost the limit. I'm of the opinion that it is absolutely the finest racing game engine in the world today, and I think that if you look at the visuals in GRID it'll be hard for anyone to argue."

Meanwhile, TV features in games like PGR seem to be conspicuous by their absence in GRID. We at Kikizo think that seeing winners actually racing each other would be a great thing for the competitive community. That's the thing with tournaments: even if you can't get into the lobbies with the top players, you can still watch them play, and watch your friends play. Replays can be so entertaining that we sometimes spend as much time watching as we do playing. Could this aspect come into GRID next?

"There's a dozen things we can do online, we've got literally pages and pages of great ideas of how we can do that. Certainly with a game like GRID you've got the team aspect in there; we haven't got the team aspect online in this version, but looking ahead that's something which would be a really cool thing for the game - to have race teams that are literally online, racing against each other.

"My personal goal for that if we've got it would be to get their ghost laps and make them uploadable, so the world could upload that lap and it would be a challenge. They could see how they did it and have a go. I think that will be cool - if only to see how much better they are than me!"

So, these could be some hints about what's on the way in GRID 2, or at the very least, in downloadable content form. Whichever it is, we're certain that more is in development on the GRID front - we've seen it! When we briefly spotted the easily recognisable, all-new Mitsubishi Evo in wireframe form on the one Codies staffer's computer, their PC screens were promptly switched off.

And coy as Moody tries to be about the series' future, we're also betting Formula One cars might be joining the GRID line-up as well. He wouldn't officially commit to it, but sometimes, developers just offer that knowing smile.

Stay tuned for more on all racing fronts, including the latest on Midnight Club Los Angeles, a game we already told you looks stunning and which we were just last week given an updated look at.