El33tonline Exclusive: Interview with Stephen Viljoen on all things SHIFT 2 Unleashed - Part One

The next awesome racing game from Slightly Mad Studios releases around the world next week in the form of SHIFT 2 Unleashed, and it would be an understatement to say El33tonline is looking forward to this title in the mightiest way!

So it was with both hands that we grabbed the opportunity to speak with Chief Operations Officer and game design contributor at Slightly Mad Studios, Stephen Viljoen, to find out (a lot) more about SHIFT 2 Unleashed, as well as how he got his start in game development.

El33tonline: First of all we would like to find out more about you! Could you tell us where you’re from, where you are now, your path to working at Slightly Mad Studios through 10tacle Studios (and other endeavours), your current title and responsibilities, and why you enjoy working on racing games so much!

Stephen Viljoen: I was born in Nelspruit, grew up in Natal, lived in the USA (Atlanta, GA) for nearly a decade, and now I call Hermanus home (for the last 9 years).

A few friends and I started a ‘mod-group’ in the late 90s. We were all very passionate about racing and felt that there weren’t any commercial racing games that really ‘hit the spot.’ We thought we could do better and set out to prove ourselves. We started hacking existing games apart, completely modifying them by replacing all tracks, cars, physics, sounds, etc, and then released these ‘mods’ for free.

We did this for a number of years and even won a ‘mod of the year’ award. We had professional gaming magazines review our mods and call them better than what was commercially available. At this stage we knew that we were on the right track and just had to make sure we had enough visibility, then it would just be a matter of time before someone with the money to fund us took notice.

This happened in 2003 and eight months later we released our first commercial game, GTR. The game proved very popular and received many awards. We then moved on to GTR2, GT Legends, BMW M3 racing, and a number of other projects. Then a few years back EA was looking for a studio to take on their ‘serious’ Need For Speed series, they did their due diligence and decided we were the right studio for the job, and the rest, as they say, is history.

My current title is Chief Operations Officer at Slightly Mad Studios. I’m responsible for 3rd party relations (Microsoft, Intel, Sony, nVidia, and so forth) and am on the design board for our games. I’m tasked with heading up the Career mode design and implementation, and I also do all design and implementation of cinematics in our games (such as the replay cameras when you watch a replay of your race).

I’m extremely passionate about racing games because it’s one of the very few gaming genres where you can transfer real-world experience directly into a game, providing you’ve driven a car in real life and you use a steering wheel when playing the games. Working with real-world race drivers is extremely rewarding precisely for this reason as you can take a complete non-gamer (as many professional race drivers are), put them down in front of our games, and within a few minutes they’re completely at home and pushing good laptimes.

I’ve had feedback from so many people who’ve played our games and then comment on how they were able to take what they’ve learned in our game and actually apply it to their real-world driving and so improve their driving skills. There aren’t many gaming genres that can claim that!

El33tonline: When SHIFT 2 Unleashed was first announced, there was a bit of confusion over where the ‘Need For Speed’ name had run off to - SHIFT 2 Unleashed is still billed as a ‘Need For Speed’ game, but not outright in the title.

Stephen Viljoen: The name is still there. EA’s just decided to make it much less prominent and to put the focus squarely on the SHIFT part, so as to emphasize that we’re pushing a new brand here; one that takes its subject matter seriously and aim to provide an immersive and thrilling experience to the player. One that above all else provides the player with a true racing experience, throwing straight into the player’s face the full intensity of what it is like to race in a car at neck-breaking speeds.

El33tonline: Does this point to a strategy on EA’s part to essentially split the franchise between ‘realistic’ and ‘arcade’ entries in the future, with SHIFT representing the simulator genre and Need For Speed continuing to represent the ‘arcade racing’ genre?

Stephen Viljoen: Correct. Our friends at EA Guildford are doing a great job with the arcade part of the franchise, as can be seen in their recently released Hot Pursuit. Our focus is to provide as thrilling an experience, but on the simulation side of the scale.

El33tonline: Leading on from this, one aspect of Need For Speed: SHIFT that El33tonline enjoyed was the ability to race in the way that suited your own style – you could either try to be an expert racer and edge towards ‘realism,’ or you could simply try to get to the end of the race in any way possible, edging you more toward ‘arcade,’ with points for both approaches.

Can you confirm whether or not this system will be included in SHIFT 2 Unleashed, and whether or not this game will focus solely on simulation?

Stephen Viljoen: SHIFT 2 is still pretty much open to how you wish to play it, but this time around we’re not rewarding you for driving badly. That simply does not fit in with real world racing. You can configure the game’s ‘driving mode’ and assists so that it plays much easier than if you were doing it in the new Elite mode (a more hardcore simulation mode).

The game still tracks points for how much you ram and spin other cars, but now it’s used as a match-making tool when you play online. This will help match up players who prefer a similar driving style and should go a long way to help remove the frustration experienced by players who want to race seriously online, when they’re constantly being rammed off the track by players who prefer a wreck-fest.

El33tonline: SHIFT 2 Unleashed is billed as ‘the most authentic racing game,’ which is an interesting position. How has Slightly Mad Studios ensured that this claim can be held up once SHIFT 2 Unleashed is released? (With things like the helmet camera, real-life drivers contributing to the title, instilling a sense of speed with visual tricks like NFS: SHIFT, etc.)

Stephen Viljoen: There are a number of racing games nowadays that can claim to have convincing driving mechanics. That’s pretty much a given in this day. What they all lack though is the ingredient that makes it true ‘racing.’ When you race a real car at insane speeds around a twisty track, it is most definitely not a pedestrian, clinical experience, which is unfortunately what you find in your typical driving simulator.

To the contrary, real racing is violent and intense. Your body is shaking around in your seat, your head bobbing violently, parts of your car are vibrating to the revs of the engine and to the bumps in the road, your ears are filled with incredible noise from not just the engine, but wind noise, mechanical vibrations, stones striking the underside of the car, and so forth. The car builds up dirt as the race progresses, oil, dirt, and bugs splatter on the wind-shield. And when you crash into another car or the barriers, the result is an explosion of noise, car body parts, cracks rippling through the glass, smoke, and dust everywhere. All of these elements are simulated in SHIFT 2 and that’s what makes it the most authentic racing game.

El33tonline: Would you say that SHIFT 2 Unleashed is an alternative or replacement for other racing simulation games?

Stephen Viljoen: I would say that it’s the logical evolution of the current racing simulation status quo. We’re taking it to the next level by not only properly simulating the physics of a car, but the thrill of racing it. Once you’ve done a few hours of driving like this, it’s really hard to go back to the typically clinical experience you find in other simulations.

Huge thanks go to Stephen Viljoen of Slightly Mad Studios for taking the time to answer our questions!

Here is part two of the interview, where we find out how Slightly Mad Studios has implemented Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’s Autolog system in SHIFT 2 Unleashed, the crazy world of car manufacturer licensing (and manufacturer’s reactions to in-game car damage), what Stephen thinks about the ‘hundreds of cars’ debate, what core improvements have been made to SHIFT 2 over the original, and how this new game relies on expert use of next-generation rendering technologies to bring the racing experience to life!