MISCELLANEOUS


BHMS: Who are you (previous work, education, other professions etc.)?

Eric Bailey: I started my working life in 1988 as a messenger in the Advertising industry. I was "promoted" to a Visualizer Artist before I left the industry about three years later. I started in the Computer Games industry in late 1992. My first game was the Incredible Hulk. Its all been downhill ever since! :-)

Scawen Roberts: Haha :) I must add that Eric's games industry experience before this has been as a talented animator and he was responsible for nearly every animation in Lionhead's Black and White. My own history is - after leaving half way through a computer science degree course which was only partly interesting, my first full-time occupation was as a motorbike courier in London which was great and taught me a lot about life and bikes. I left that to work as a programmer in the business sector for 6 months before moving to Digital Integration, and after a gap then to Lionhead Studios.

Victor van Vlaardingen: I got interested in making music around 12 years ago. First being a drummer in several little bands that never got anywhere, later on I started to make music on computers only in the so called demo-scene. This is where people come together and compete in groups with each other to make the best looking and sounding 'demo', which should be seen as a show-off video clip, played (calculated) in real time. During these demo years I met some very talented people who got jobs in the gaming industry and later on hooked me up with Scawen and Eric to work on Live for Speed. In the meantime I had moved from pure computer music to using real synths and instruments and have been doing music for commercials, little game projects and released some mixes of dance tracks as well as some tracks of my own. I have learned a lot during this 12 year period, by 'doing it yourself' and following sound engineering courses. I have been chief of sound in a big club here in Rotterdam and worked on big festivals around Holland. But working on this game has been the best thing yet!

BHMS: I read that you worked on Hind and B&W. Did that have anything to do with the incredible physics model you built for LFS? In other words, is this your first physics engine.

Scawen Roberts: On Digital Integration's Hind helicopter simulator my main work was the AI and animation system for the articulated foot-soldiers. In Lionhead's Black and White my main responsibilities were the morphing, animation and route planning for the creatures, along with the physics and destruction systems, so that was my first physics system.

BHMS: How could 3 guys come up with such a good game, and the major players can not with their army of people?

Eric Bailey: We dont have a hierarchy of people to make decisions and we dont have long meetings to discuss little details. We are free to just get on with our work. If we have an idea about anything, we are free to experiment with it to see what results we can achieve.

Scawen Roberts: From a programmer's point of view it's much quicker to add new features as a single programmer, for example one new feature may need a small update to the physics system, the AI, the editors, the graphics, the data files and the interface. In a large company where there is a separate programmer on each of these modules this will take meetings and discussions and then trying to get all people available at the same time when they are already probably being pressurised from some other direction.

BHMS: How long has the game been in development? Is the core design finalized?

LFS Team: We've been developing the game for over a year and a half. The core design of the game was decided on very early. At the moment we are concentrating on the HARD aspects of the game. :)

BHMS: How much time does the team devote to this title per day and what keeps you motivated?

LFS Team: We are motivated by results. We spend alot of time developing all parts the game, whether it's Scawen sorting out a difficult bit of Multiplayer code, or Vic tuning the sound effect of a cars engine, or Eric tweaking the camber angles of a bit of track, we just keep working all hours until we feel we've acheived a decent result. Even when not making notes or working at the computer our minds are often occupied with the game.

BHMS: What is the most difficult aspect of developing LFS?

Eric Bailey: For me, it has to be the tracks. When we started development on LFS, I was hoping that we would be able to just use real life tracks. Unfortunately things aren't that simple. I had to build my own fantasy tracks to speed up the production of LFS. Our philosophy is to keep things as real as possible and I tried to apply that to the LFS racing circuits.

Scawen Roberts: For me it's possibly the multiplayer code which gets very complicated when trying to make computers communicate through packets while one computer can join or leave or disconnect at any time, or perhaps the AI drivers as it's very hard trying to make them drive a physics car against real people using ONLY the same inputs that the real player has. They have two advantages over real players - they can feel the forces in the seat of their pants and have lightning fast reactions - but they are disadvantaged by having no brain. :)

BHMS: How open is the project (retail/community) (set/expandable)? Will the game be upgradable and modifiable as GPL/Nascar Heat is? In other words, will the code be opened up to the public to be able to add tracks and other cars to the game.

LFS Team: We can't discuss this now as we don't yet have any solid plans about how the game will be going out, all in one piece or as separate modules.

BHMS: What makes LFS unique? We all know it has great physics and multiplayer but will there be more innovations?

LFS Team: Yes there will be much more to LFS! There are more features we can add but just in case time restrictions dont allow us, we'd best not say anything at this time. :-)

BHMS: Are you (or have you been) active in the GPL community? How do you view LFS in comparison to GPL and Racing Legends?

Eric Bailey: I've been playing GPL a bit, but I got to admit, I didnt really start appreciating the handling of the cars until recently. I was a bit put off by the the whole old 1967 era actually and I really dont know why! :) We cant really compare LFS to RL yet because there is no demo for RL yet. I'm certainly looking forward to playing it. I guess the main comparison with the three games is that we all try to keep the physics as real as possible.

Scawen Roberts: I haven't personally played any modern sims or racing games for any long periods of time. I want to be influenced only by the real world rather than having my judgement clouded by other games in the same genre. But of course I do recognise that there are things to be learned from other games so I always take a look, just not for too long.

Victor van Vlaardingen: To be honest, the last games I ever drove were carmageddon 1 and wipeout! Meaning I am (was?) not at all familiar with any racing simulation at all! But when S. and E. approached me for this game, I got me a wheel and started to open up for racing sims and got to know them a bit more. But I have never been active in any community in any way and cannot really compare the inner details of the 2 games mentioned with LFS.

BHMS: What is the purpose of this demo. Do you want to develop an open racing engine for which we all can make add-on tracks, cars and mods? Or did you only want to hear a reaction on your developing game and are you planning to get a license for a racing series and will you have it published by a game company.

LFS Team: We mainly wanted to test it over the internet and see what type of reaction we can expect from the sim racing community. It has no real-life tracks or cars and we weren't sure if people would accept that. We don't know if we will publish it with another company, we haven't looked for that yet and our general impression is that the longer we stay independent the more control we will have over the content. We are likely to market the game in such a way that we can remain 100% independent.

BHMS: Do you have a set date for a final release (sorry, had to ask this)?

LFS Team: Possibly about 6 months to a year from now for a release. But since there will always be more to add, we are doubtful about calling that a "final" release. :)