Archer Maclean is the big boss man of Awesome Play and he's been in the industry for a while. His latest project doesn't involve snooker balls though as he's opted to create the best racing game Wii's ever seen. How anyone can top Mario Kart is beyond us, but we'll give any game at least one chance. Archer, over to you.
How long have you been working on the title and where are you in the dev cycle?
Archer Maclean: Wheelspin has been in development for over a year and evolved into something bigger than originally intended. We're close to finishing the game.
You're famed for creating snooker games and now you're going to make the best racer Wii has ever seen. Why the change of direction?
Maclean: Over the years I've had a go at Fighting games (IK+), Shoot-em-ups (Dropzone series), puzzley logic games (Mercury 1) and off course half a dozen Snooker and Pool games, but never a racing game despite my interest in objects with wheels and big engines.
Back in 2007 I bought a Wii for fun and played most of the other racing games and was convinced I could do a driving game with a an excellent 'feel ' to it, and making the Wii-remote feel really responsive.
What can Wheelspin bring to the racing genre that's new?
Maclean: One unique feature of Wheelspin not seen on the Wii before is our support of an eight-player multiplayer mode, as well as the more usual spilt and quad screen modes. To achieve this we split the screen into a 3 by 3 grid with the mini-map in the middle. Obviously getting this to work with 8 controllers was pushing the machine and we had to cut some corners, but testing this has been a hoot in the office.
Also, players can earn credits allowing them to add some power and handling upgrades, which in turn will make some of the cars feel extremely fast to the point where blinking is not an option.
The various game modes take place on a variety of unique interplanetary tracks, often inspired by various famous films over the past 30 yrs or so. We didn't want to produce another racing simulation around a familiar real world track.
And in order to give a convincing feeling of speed, especially in single player full screen mode, it was imperative that we maintained a smooth 60 FPS in 480P mode without sacrificing graphic quality too much. There's no point in doing beautifully rendered scenery with 30fps or less, when the game is all about outright speed around a track.
You said that the game is "pushing the hardware further than any other Wii racing game to date." How are you doing this on Wii?
Maclean: We set out to make an ultra fast and challenging racing game specifically for the Wii that would provide a smooth and fast 60fps experience on a big screen, without which the feeling of speed just wouldn't work.
This meant we had to push the Wii's abilities to the limit without loosing graphic quality, and also optimise the steering input using the Wii remote so that players could 'hang on' at speeds of up to 400mph and control their car. Unlike other high speed games where you merely float around the tracks, our vehicles are simulating real world physics (suspension characteristics, weight, centre of gravity, and so on) therefore allowing the cars to behave in a familiar car-like way.
We also wanted to optimise the feedback from the Wii-remote to give near instant steering response with no lag, although its important to stress that the Wii video cable must be connected direct to the TV input since AV processors and video recorders tend to add a delay of up to 0.5 seconds to the video signal therefore destroying the visual response to steering inputs.
Depending on upgrades and car type, we feel that Wheelspin gives the best Wii-remote handling response of any Wii driving game yet, and its easy to learn how to pull off decent drifts, skids, jumps and other stunts.
The game allows players to use Wii remotes, gamecube controllers, classic pads, nun chucks and best of all, the Logitech Force feedback steering wheel.
What's the most challenging aspect of developing on Wii?
Maclean: Getting the most out of the available processing power.
If you want to make a game that pushes hardware why not go for the 360 / PS3 option?
Maclean: Because the PS3 / 360 market is full of very established driving franchises costing tens of millions to develop.
And why choose Bethesda as a publisher when it's not released a game on Wii before?
Maclean: Bethesda liked the look of the game and believed in its ability to be a fun and successful game experience.
The press release mentions eight player split screen but not online. How is that possible?
Maclean: The Wii offers quite a variety of input devices, with up to 12 running simultaneously. If you include the USB inputs using an external hub, this goes even higher. But one afternoon we decided to investigate what would happen with steering a car using just a Nun chuck, and found that it was possible to do everything as well as a Wii remote.
So that naturally led us to think beyond the conventional 4 player split screen and so we linked 4 nun chucks to 4 Wii remotes to get 8 player inputs, and then had some fun trying to do 8 separate viewpoint renders. The final game allows any combination of 8 controllers so long as there are no more than 4 of any one type.
And for the record, we even experimented with linking a Wii fit to the steering, but your body just cannot shift weight anywhere near as quick as a Wii remote can be tilted, and the people who tried it complained of muscle cramps the next day!
With hindsight the biggest issue was how to create an 8 way multiplayer set-up screen catering for all combinations of controllers, game modes, and name entry, and allow for players to plug controllers in and out whilst still on the set up menu.
What are your thoughts on the Wii's online offering?
Maclean: Building games for online play means designing it in from the start, and we didn't do that. Plus, there are all sorts of complications when it comes to needing really fast game play reactions that can be hindered if there are any online delays.
Look at the state of it, your big boost is 2 get this s**te 2 run at 60 FPS. Sit down and have a cup of T Archy. U must have a few m8's here to get this on the site
I say kudos to them for trying to pick up the F-Zero mantle since Nintendo seem to have given up on it. It doesn't look great, but it's not out yet - solid frame rate is more important than polycount in racing games.
Look at the state of it, your big boost is 2 get this s**te 2 run at 60 FPS. Sit down and have a cup of T Archy. U must have a few m8's here to get this on the site
Haha, I laughed at this but I've got big respect for MacLean. Game looks like it could be fun. He should really be developing bigger projects though, the guy's a legend.
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