Thanks to Marcus Kollmann from Speedmaniacs.de for the interview.

MK: Your previous racing title Rally Trophy was highly respected by the fans of realistic racing sims, thanks to its physics. Do you expect the simulation crowd also to enjoy FlatOut which is more about action and crashes?

JL: We were very happy to get so many loyal fans for Rally Trophy and for the positive feedback for the realism we tried to achieve in it. FlatOut is an evolution of the technology built for Rally Trophy and a full simulator system is an essential part of the game engine. Still, FlatOut is a different kind of game from Rally Trophy. FlatOut focuses on being fun and enjoyable for the first moment onward, and it leans more to the arcade genre than to the simulator genre. FlatOut is a lot of fun because you are able to demolish anything (cars, tyre walls, water barrels and buildings) and thus change the track for any subsequent lap! The game is alive on every lap and you never know what you are going to run into after the next corner!

We have let loose with FlatOut and we are not trying to produce a 100% realistic simulator. I'm sure that fans of realistic racing sims will find FlatOut a lot of fun! I know this because the whole development team consists of fans of best and hardest simulators around and we enjoyed making and playing FlatOut!

MK: The latest screenshots of FlatOut look outstanding, especially the graphics quality of the cars is really impressive. Can you already give us some information about hardware requirements?

JL: Thanks! We have put in a lot of effort into making the game visually stunning and we are confident that it will be one of the best looking racing games so far. The game will be released on PS2, XBOX and PC. On the PC the hardware requirements will be reasonable as we have put in extra effort to optimize the graphics system. Final recommendations are not yet ready but I can tell you that game is running fine in 1024x768 resolution with my laptop (Centrino 1,5 Ghz, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, 512MB memory).

MK: Can you tell us something about your in-house developed graphics and physics engines that make the spectacular features of FlatOut possible?

JL: I'm glad you asked about the technology, because we are very proud about having one of the best in-house developed technology around. Our lead programmer is simply a genius when it comes to game technology and it shows! He and the other programmers have been building the technology since Rally Trophy. It has since been ported from PC to PS2 and XBOX.

The graphics engine supports a wide variety of features from special effects (e.g. skid marks, particle effects) to full scene anti-aliasing, visibility optimization, multi-texturing, realistic lighting with shadows, grass and vegetation and so on. On the performance side you will be very impressed with up to eight very detailed cars racing in a complex, realistic environments!

The physics engine is definitely something that sets the game apart from the competition. Where other games treat e.g. a tyre wall consisting of 100 tyres as a single inanimate object, FlatOut treats this as 100 different tyres. When you hit that tyre wall each tyre will fly off individually in its own direction creating a simply superb effect! When you drive into buildings or fences or objects you will see each of the objects reacting realistically: doors will crack and splinters will fly off, pieces of wood from wooden fences can get stuck to your car, warning cones fly off when you hit them head first!

The amount of physics detail in FlatOut is simply the best you will find any game at the moment. Oh, did I mention if you hit a light post the wires hanging from it will start swinging?

MK: How many game and also minigame (like the "Ragdoll Olympics") modes will there be in the final product?

JL: The game has a number of game modes to keep you glued to your seat for hours! You'll find hours of fun in the single player Career mode where you earn cash by placing well in races. This cash you can then use to upgrade and buy cars. In single player mode you can also go for a quick race or practice in the time trial mode. On the PC you can enjoy multiplayer racing in a LAN, on the XBOX over Xbox Live and on the PS2 in a split screen mode.

In addition to this we have a number of bonus modes including last man standing in destruction derby tracks and the Ragdoll Olympics, which are simply hilarious! In the Ragdoll Olympics you take the poor driver and catapult him from the car in crazy sports like the Long jump, High jump, Bowling, Darts, Bullseye and Clown's face. You can of course play the Ragdoll Olympics also in a turn-based fashion with your friends!