AdrenalinStorm is working on the project of a new race simulation concept. Considering online racing is now a serious competition involving highly skilled drivers from all over the world, AdrenalinStorm is creating the R-concept X.

Blackhole Motorsports would like to thank Juri Brandes from Adrenalin Storm for speaking with us about the upcoming R-ConceptX project.

DBH: First off, give us a little preview of what R-concept X is about. Aside from a press statement, what genre of racing will R-Concept X involve? Will it be modeled after a particular racing series or will it be a combination of racing formats. Such as oval racing, Formula One, Road Racing, Endurance Racing.. Etc..

Juri: Well, R- Concept X is in some ways the name we gave to our global vision of a � Virtual Racing World � project. It's not like it might look, one specific game.
The main concept is a 100 % race simulation, but you will also have the possibility to play around with some new ... hmm, let's say kind of mini-games and extra features. The goal is to give you a real adrenalin rush under all circumstances and not only if you are taking the seat! Now the game itself, whether it should be based on an existing series or not, will allow players to race with not only different types of vehicles or tracks, but also in original challenges, not just your usual races.

DBH: Tell us about your team and what would motivate your team to take on a project of this type. What kind of background does your team have in other racing related or simulation software?

Juri: What motivates AdrenalinStorm is to create what does not exist yet, what lots of players and we would like to find in race simulation games.
This search for new original game features, as well as high quality playability, has always been the main concern of our developers during their work on previous race sims.
Most of our team members come from the modding community and have been working on various race sims for years. Each staff member is a specialist within his domain, 2D, 3D, physics, software, etc and each member has his own idea of the project, and all these ideas are complementary.
This will lead to a game where everyone will find what he or she has been looking for, for such a long time. It is a bit like a dream that we have to materialize, for our own pleasure, and soon for yours.

DBH: Will your title be geared toward the hardcore sim-racer only? Who would you consider your target audience for this project?

Juri: This project is the sum of our dreams and experiences.
It will attract nearly all people that are interested, near and far, to racing. It will not be a compromise, as this leads to a bad mixture.
We want an amazing game where most of the people will find their pleasure in car racing.
This means the targeted audience will be wider, aiming both at occasional players for enjoyment, but also to various special interest groups, like online racers, gamers attracted by the technical aspect or by car design.

DBH: What kind of physics engine will be used to power this game? Is it based on existing derivative of the ISI engine? Can you tell us something about this?

Juri: I was waiting for this one (question), LOL, and the reply is: The best possible engine, which can be provided! Honestly, we do not want to reinvent the wheel and have already gotten support from some major hardware and software companies to improve whatever we will use, but more on this in time.

DBH: The sim-racing crowd is notoriously hard to satisfy. What features can you offer the sim-racer that will propel your title to be accepted by this rather critical yet important group?

Juri: First, it's the merging from the feedback we get from the real racing world and also from Simracers, which will be implemented and stay for the end result. The simulation realism will reach a very high level through various graphical or physics aspects, and we plan to promote online racing to a true international competition status.
More than our dream, it will be your dream too!

DBH: Will this project be sold solely over the Internet or will it be a published and distributed worldwide?

Juri: The question is still open at the moment, and it�s too early to tell more at the moment.
What I can say is that we are currently discussing with distributors, and a full retail distribution worldwide is planned, and a digital distribution may be possible as well.

DBH: What licensing issues do you face in the completion of this project?

Juri: At the moment, we�re in touch with several racing series organizations involving various types of cars and race formats. The goal is to find the racing series that we can best promote while matching our needs in terms of technical aspect. Starting a project from nearly scratch is always a big enterprise, and we have to demonstrate everyday that we are talented, serious, and that our project is solid.
Life is hard, the world is hard, but we have the needed �Adrenalin� to achieve the dream!

DBH: I have read on your site that the end-user will have the opportunity to build and design their own machines. Explain a little about what areas of customization will be present.

Juri: Well, we have many surprises, and we will show them in the due time! To give you an idea, there will be two kinds of possible customization: tuning your existing car to increase performance by several means, which will affect both the car handling and graphical aspect, but also creating custom vehicles designing shapes and technical characteristics.

DBH: Given the recent events concerning modifications of existing platforms, what is your position on the modding of games??

Juri: Pretty difficult to reply to this in a few sentences, as there are so many aspects to look at.
First of all, most of our teammates were modders, so it should be easy to imagine our global position here.
But seriously, I think the mod community enriches the games they are working on, and looking at some older ones, they keep them even alive. Playing a top quality mod is very exciting, and we will support modders to ensure that you will still be able to enjoy these wonderful add-ons.

DBH: Will the development team from R-Concept X supply tools to the modding community to promote modifications to the physics or track building?

Juri: Of course, mostly because R-Concept X will be the support for online championships and we want gamers to have a wide choice of carsets and tracks available, which the modding community can bring.
Keep in mind that the content is rated from pure amateur to almost professional depending on team skills and experience. Each player will even have the ability to be a modder himself using the planned vehicle creation options, which we might extend to tracks whenever it�s possible. Our game system allows virtually full compatibility for add-on material and it is planned to release an SDK and some extra tools.

DBH: What kind of system requirements will be required to run the simulation? Will R-Concept X be compatible with the new available technologies such as SLI in graphics cards and TrackIR in input technology?

Juri: We will take advantage of all new technologies, but we will have to keep compatibility with existing hardware, to allow the most people to enjoy the game(s) both on and off line.
As AMD and nVidia have already given us their support, the product will be optimized for SLI and for 64bit for sure, and some other new technologies as well.

DBH: Is the primary goal of this project to create another online community of racers involved in this project? If so, will your company provide race servers for this community free of charge or will it be a pay-to-play deal?

Juri: Yes and No! I would say that AdrenalinStorm's primary goal is to deliver to the simracers, what we were seeking for ourselves as already mentioned.
This means without giving you all details right now, first and foremost a real race ambiance and game immersion. We wish to provide the current online community with a new gaming platform called �X-Stream� and we�re working on the online racing aspect as one of the main parts of the project.
We are still thinking about several ways to sell the service and game, either by subscription, pay-per-play on particular events or contests, and by selling a basic product both online and on CD or DVD. This might be separated into several car and track sets thus enhancing the player�s choice for racing format. We would like to provide free services, but as mentioned, the world is not free, and to allow you to enjoy the best, we will certainly have to ask for a small charge.

DBH: How much will it cost to purchase/download?

Juri: It will depend on the formula(s) we will use, and what you want to do, play alone or use one or several car sets? Enter an online championship and possibly win prizes or just race with your friends? Please let us know your feeling on this as we would like your input.

DBH: Do you want to add some additional information?

Juri: More than just making a new game, we wish to create a new game concept for both enjoyment and providing online racers tools and support thus promoting �Virtual Motor Sports�.
I hope that the community will support us, and AdrenalinStorm promises, we will give a big gift in return!
Gentlemen, start your engines!!!!

DBH: Thanks to Juri Brandes for taking the time to visit with the community about your upcoming project.

Juri: Yes, I would like to place a big �thank you� here from all of us at AdrenalinStorm, to you for your interest, and also to �Care Racing Development� for their help, and everyone else who is supporting us!