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Mark Bracken from Ratbag Games has graciously granted me an interview to give us some insight into this over-night success story that has brought us Dirt Track Racing, and DTR-Sprint Cars. Mark's a busy guy and I'm glad he finally had time to sit down to inform us about his company.
DBH: Tell me a bit about yourself. Hobbies, interests, home life...
MB: Outside of making games there isn't a whole lot of time, as it has the habit of being all consuming. But as time permits, I'll squeeze in stuff like, playing computer games (what can I say. passions die hard!), swimming, playing squash, playing guitar and bass... primarily at church. In the case of the stressful moments at work, I've got this nylon string guitar sitting beside me that I can pick up and pluck at, or thrash. Whatever the situation requires. ;) I also don't mind the odd romp through our very own picturesque hills surrounding Adelaide in my much loved '91 Alfa 33 Boxer. She hugs those corners so sweetly. . Today is one of those days that would be perfect.
DBH: What is your position at Ratbag and what are your responsibilities there?
MB: Background, daily routines at work, what is it that gets you up in the morning and excited about going to work?
I'm the lead artist for our PS2 Sprint Car game, which encapsulates a wide variety of tasks ranging from:
- scheduling art tasks and keeping people true to the schedule;
- production meetings;
- liaisoning with the programmers for developing artist tools, and ironing out art related problems;
- 3d modeling + some texturing;
- casting a watchful eye over the other artists and their work.
My daily routine typically goes as follows:
- get up at 5:30am; go swimming for an hour;
- be at work just after 7am;
- deal with work email;
- depending on the day, meetings crop up on a regular basis where design / art / production issues are brought up and discussed / resolved
- Modeling tracks based on piles of track reference / specifications.
Regularly dropping in on the programmers checking progress on desired tools / bug fixes... they love it! =)
- The middle of the day is always broken up with a break for a toasted sandwich (i.e. toast... or as some people lovingly call it, a toasted sanaga), with a coffee during mid-afternoon to tide me over till the evening.
- Usually I'll finish anywhere from 7pm - 10pm. This will vary though depending on whether I've got a squash court booked, or whether I'm required at music practice.
The day usually finishes off with me zipping home on my trail bike to make tea. Watch some news or maybe even some Buffy or Star Trek: Voyager followed by a much-needed rest before starting the routine all over again. The fact that I'm making computer games is what gets me exciting about getting up and going to work. I never would've dreamed that there could be any sort of stable career based in computer games... especially here in Adelaide. It's so cool to be able to go back to my small hometown of Bordertown (pop: 2500) and talk of my "job" making computer games. It just blows people away. More often than not, they just plain don't believe me. Speaking of Bordertown, I used to go to the speedway there when I was young to watch the junkers and Sprint cars, and as such, I recreated the track in DTR. I can't for the life of me remember what track we named it though. It maybe Can-Am Speedway? Apart from the fact that this was made as an egg shape, where in real life it's an oval, it's an nearly an exact replica.... Just a bit's trivia for you.
DBH: Could you give me a brief summary of your goals for Sprints and future projects.
MB: Hmm.. In brief, our goals will always entail bringing the intense excitement that is associated with the sports. We're trying to simulate onto every race fans computer with the view to creating a game that is both easy and absorbing for the casual gamer through to an experience that will challenge even the most hardcore sim driver.
DBH: What was the major goal for Sprints? Realism or gameplay? Could you explain this from a Marketing standpoint as well as your personal desire?
MB: This is, and always will be a balancing issue. Making a game too realistic can suck a lot of the fun out of it for a majority of gamers out there, while only satisfying a smaller market of hardcore racers... but softening the Realism too much can draw from the excitement associated with driving such powerful machines. This is the reason we include the realism slider bar, like in DTR, which alters all sorts of aspects from the handling through to the AI difficulty. We believe this has helped us to achieve a very good balance that will satisfy anyone's preferences thereby catering for the whole market. From a marketing standpoint, this means that we can push the fact that the game can be as real as you want it to be, but you needn't be scared if you only want to jump in for a quick spin cause we cater for all playing styles... Accordingly, both our personal desires and our marketing requirement are met very satisfyingly.
DBH: How difficult was it to secure the World of Outlaws backing for Sprints?
MB: Actually as with most licensing deals, there is always a lead-time. However the World of Outlaws where wanting a game for some time so the process was relatively painless.
DBH: Were the drivers as cooperative in your desire to have their names in a Sim/Game? Was there any input from open wheel/sprint car drivers regarding physics modeling?
MB: Yes, the drivers where very co-operative and we received some very valuable feedback from them. We also had a number of drivers beta testing the product, so we could ensure the authenticity.
DBH: How many of the WoO drivers were involved or had experience with Sims/Games?
MB: The drivers on the whole, where not versed in computers or games for that matter. However the drivers children where quick to brief their dads.
DBH: Why were certain tracks that submitted release forms to Ratbag not included in the game? How were the tracks selected and why?
MB: Time is the main issue, plus there's always future releases, or freebies that can take advantage of the fact that we've got a few track authorizations up our sleeves. The tracks selected were based on recommendations from JD Kramer (he's been an amazing resource of information), newsgroup and email requests, and the resource material available (www.stevehardin.com has been awesome!).
DBH: What were the criteria for tracks to be included in the sim aside from the fact that they would be run at sometime by the WoO's?
MB: The main criteria was the availability of reference material / specs, plus the blessing of the owner of the track.
DBH: What process is involved in duplicating a track for inclusion in a sim such as Sprints? Video, camera shots? Aside from the legal work, what goes into making a track appear real in a sim?
MB: Once we've collected the various track Specs (e.g. banking on the straights and corners, lengths of front and back straights etc), and found enough photo reference we usually make a start in building the track. Any other reference, such as top down photos, diagrams and blueprints received are very gratefully received as it makes our job of reproducing the track and it's surrounds so much easier... i.e. we can place lights, grandstands, buildings, roads, trees etc very accurately. This sort of stuff is even more important in our current PS2 title as we're able to do reproduce everything in so much more detail. Inaccurate material means an inaccurate reproduction. An example of this is in Williams Grove for DTR-SC, more recent material we've received has shown that the main grandstand has changed as well as some inner buildings. It's a shame we didn't have this stuff sooner so that the track would look right up to date. It still looks great though. ;) The steps followed in building the track usually involves building all the track-side objects first, then the track surface and it's variations (plus the associated terrain files), then the inner and outer ground, followed by the placement of the track-side objects and finally the lighting of the track.
DBH: Could you give a little history of Ratbag?
MB: Oh boy. I could write a small novel on this. The company started off as Emergent Software with around eight people who developed a prototype demo for Powerslide to take to E3 in 1996. GT Interactive took us on and enabled the publishing of Powerslide in 1998. The 9-month development cycle for that was some of the most intense ever. almost like crunch time for the entire period. The lost time was in negotiating contracts etc. I came on board about 1 month into the project with the view to create some material that Ratbag had the option to buy if they wanted but ended up coming on full time as the deadline started to slip. In the end we produced something that I still believe is one of the best looking, fastest running games out there... I still love to crank it up every once in a while just to have a look at what we had achieved. Keep an eye out in the future, beause between us and Randy Williams we'll probably re-release the Powerslide tracks unsupported for DTR - DTR-SC from our web site... may I say it's really an interesting experience hooning round those tracks in a sprint car... will require some interesting setups.
DBH: What are the min/recommended requirements of the game?
MB: Same as DTR I think... i.e. p200 with 3d acceleration, 32mb ram etc. Anything better and you'll be rocking!
DBH: How were the physics developed? Are there random breakdowns?
MB: Not to my knowledge.
DBH: Have the tracks been modeled to have multiple grooves?
MB: This has been done a little better than in DTR I think, but the user community has proven that with a bit of perseverance you can create much more distinctive multiple grooves.
DBH: Do the grooves change during the duration of the race?
MB: Nope, just between races... i.e. same as DTR
DBH: Does the tackiness of the track change during the course of the race?
MB: see Q.17
DBH: Without divulging any company secrets, what's on the horizon for Ratbag Games Ltd.?
MB: We have a number of PC and PS2 titles in the works. Leadfoot, the stadium off road will be making its debut in April. All the latest news and info will be made available to Ratbag members.
DBH: Is Ratbag going to abandon the PC market in favor of gaming consoles?
MB: Definitely NOT!
Mark,
I want to thank you for the privilege of your interview. I think it lets us all discover just how much work and background that goes into creating a title for the PC. I wish you had gotten back to me when you promised initially because I wanted to make this interview timely with the release of Sprints. However, like I said earlier, I realize that you are a busy guy and probably have better things to do with your spare time than answer questions from me. I do appreciate the opportunity to let our readers get an inside look into one of the key people involved with what I'm sure will be a huge success. Very nice interview!
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