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Shift looks like a drastic change from recent NFS games. The last few games were quite story-heavy. What’s the concept for Shift?
We’ve outlined Need for Speed’s brand appeal with the three games that we’re releasing this year. Over the years, our games have covered three aspects of racing – action, arcade and simulation, and this year we have titles focusing on each of those areas. Need for Speed: Shift is our simulation title for next-generation consoles, but it will retain the signature style of the Need for Speed franchise. In a way, its an extension of what we started with ProStreet. It’s all about professional racing; it’s got a very WTCC, touring car feel to it and with the Slightly Mad engine to power it, we’ve been able to create a very compelling simulation of the real thing.
With such a dramatic change from recent games, how will you retain the signature Need for Speed style in Shift?
Well, we’re doing simulation, but we’re doing it with the style that Need for Speed is known for. Rather than a typical sterile, car showroom look, we’re focusing on a much more cool, progressive style – dramatic angles, dramatic lighting, liveries that are in tune with today’s professional motorsport. Essentially, we’re putting a very cool Need for Speed wrapper on everything, even down to our font selection, the dramatic camera placement, the way our front end is structured, and how our customisation engine works. Overall, we’re just amping up the excitement factor that you see in Need for Speed games every year but which is often lacking in the simulation category.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, where Burnout is 1 and GTR or Gran Turismo is 10, where does Shift fall in terms of car handling and simulation?
Shift employs an all new racing engine that is very much rooted in a real world physics-based simulator. So at one end of the spectrum, this is a very serious simulator. Let’s call it an 8 or a 9. But through the scalability of our physics engine, AI system, and damage model, we are actually allowing players to dial that back all the way to the other end of the spectrum. Let’s call it a…what was that at the other end of the spectrum?
Burnout.
Right, let’s call it a 4 then. While Burnout is very much an action/arcade game, it certainly had a lot of real world physics at play. Shift employs a lot of computer assists as well as manufacturing assists, which are often reflected in the real world, like traction control, stability control, and interlocking brakes. We also have braking assists, steering assists and other elements that run under the hood that really simplify the controls and make the game far more accessible for the traditional Need for Speed fan. So we have options at the front end to let the player get rid of all that down to be a much more serious simulation game, even down to the racing line and braking indicator; you can turn all of that off. So there’s a lot of scalability in Shift depending on your comfort level.
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Tell us a bit about the new driver perspective that employs all these various camera animations when you crash or when you’re traveling really fast. How do you ensure that this makes the game more immersive without confusing or disorienting the player?
Really, it’s just through constant refinement of the system. This is an experience that’s been crafted over a year and it’s been designed in collaboration with real race car drivers. So it does take a lot of tweaking and tuning, but it’s essentially a correlation to the real world and it’s about the violent nature of driving these cars at the edge of control. By modeling G-forces into the dynamic camera system, you’re not only adding a layer of immersion, but also assisting them to a degree by helping them feel closer to the person in the car that’s on that track.
Can you name some of the tracks and circuits we’ll that will be available in the game. Will there be a mix of fictional tracks and real-world circuits?
It’s a mix. The majority of them are real world locations; renowned circuits like Nordschliefe/Nurburgring, Spa, Laguna Seca, and Willow Springs. There are also fictional tracks like the downtown London and Tokyo tracks as well as some GP courses that we’ve designed.
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From the initial screenshots and videos that were released, a lot of people found Shift very similar to Grid. Over the course of development, have you been looking at other games from the genre for ideas or inspiration?
Absolutely. We’re gamers and we play these fantastic games. We consider Grid the high watermark and it’s in many ways a technological feat. So we really look at some of these games with admiration and respect, and we take a lot of cues and draw a lot of motivation to make our game that much better.
Next page: Driver profiles, multi-player, and demo
Let’s talk a bit about the driver profiles in Shift. How does the player’s driving style affect the way the AI responds to it, and will the AI also adopt various driver profiles and levels of aggression?
It’s basically an event to event system, and I like to think of the AI as the third dimension to the driver experience. The grid contains AI with varying personalities based on the situation. For example, the lead car will drive more cautiously. If they’re pressured from behind, they get a little more nervous and if they drive too aggressively they’re prone to make a mistake, miss a corner, or lock up their brakes. They’re also likely to drive more defensively than others. So throughout the field there are various AI personalities that just create a more organic nature.
There’s also a bit of a grudge system at play, and the more contact you make with the AI from event to event, the more contact the AI will make in return. And if you drive clean and precise, they will be inclined to do the same. As you play the game, the AI will evolve and a lot of the jostling and bump and grind you associate with tight grid racing will be in evidence as you play on, but the degree of it will depend on what sort of approach you adopt.
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Will Shift have any offline multi-player options like split-screen and system link? And what are the online multi-player options on offer?
There won’t be any offline multi-player. It is a single-player career experience. Online, there are a number of requisite game modes that have become popular with the Need for Speed community in the past, as well as the new Championship Series. The Championship Series is just one of the exclusive game modes coming to our multi-player, where a whole tournament is created by a game room moderator and the tournament is competed in by a field of racers as they work to move up the ladder.
Slightly Mad Studios is comprised of some of the people involved in great sim titles like GTR2 and GT Legends. How has the involvement of Slightly Mad helped make Shift a more realistic experience?
Slightly Mad has been working on a new multi-threaded architected engine for the past two-and-a-half years, so they brought to the table a brand new racing engine based on their experience and pedigree in the simulation space. They also brought a passion and professionalism from their background in creating these types of games and their participation in car culture in the UK and the rest of Europe. They’re very much akin to the Black Box team and they had a really interest in participating on every level. So it was very much a symbiotic relationship; they had the experience, the engine, and the passion to drive the new era of Need for Speed forward in the authentic racing space.
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EA had announced that they would have two teams working on Need for Speed, and each would release a game every alternate year. Is that still going to happen?
In a way it’s still happening, and the fact that we have three titles locked and loaded for this year is an example of that. There are three teams working on Need for Speed for this year. There won’t be three teams working on Need for Speed next year, because some of these titles will live on. Shift will live on through post launch development and DLC. And the Shift team will be able to spend more than a year to redesign and retool the game and come back with something new and innovative the next time we announce a title.
There won’t be a Shift follow-up title next year?
Not necessarily.
So releases will be more spaced out.
Yes, much more spaced out. That’s what the three-pronged approach gives us. It allows us to unload one team, one design every year. So Shift will live on as our authentic racing experience, our action offering this year is World Online; next year it may be something new on next-gen. Our arcade title specifically for the Wii is Nitro, so next year there won’t necessarily be a Need for Speed Nitro on Wii because we’ve released one this year. It will give the team two-three years to redesign the next Wii title.
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Is there a demo for Shift coming anytime soon?
We’re nearing the end of August, so I would definitely expect it next month.
A big thanks to Jesse Abney, Producer, Need for Shift for his time. Need for Speed Shift is in stores September 17, 2009 on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and PSP.
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