Forza Horizon 2 - Ben Penrose Q&A
Ben Penrose is the Art Director of “Forza Horizon 2” and leads a team of artists and creatives at Playground Games in Leamington Spa, UK. “Forza Horizon 2” uses the next evolution of the best-in-class Forza graphics engine to deliver full day and night cycle with spectacular weather, lighting, and visual effects.
What can you tell us about Forza
Horizon 2?
Horizon
2 is an open world racing game set in southern Europe. Specifically in areas
based in Northern Tuscany and the South of France. At its foundation, the game
runs on the core engine developed for Forza 5 by Turn 10 studios. That means as
well as our open world you will enjoy a best in class physics model and
incredibly accurate car models.
Ben Penrose, Playground Games |
You’re the art director of the project. Have you been involved in other Forza Horizons series – if so, what did you specifically set out to do this time around?
I joined the
Playground team during development on the first Forza Horizon title as a
concept artist, so I would be interpreting research photos from a location into
designs for the games open world. Since then, I worked up to Associate Art
Director and am now the studios main Art Director. In this role it was
generally my job to define how the game should look and set out a plan for
achieving that through the course of its development. It also meant steering
the art ship to maintain that course and communicate our art intentions to the
rest of the studio.
This time the game’s more Europe based, what was the reasoning behind that decision – and also what were the challenges?
Europe gave
us some great driving roads to use as inspiration. As an art director, it also
gave me some stunning environments that we could draw from to produce that
signature ‘Horizon Beauty’.
The weather’s the big thing in this game – you’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to get it right?
Yes, weather
is obviously a big deal to Forza players because this is the first time it has
featured in franchise so we really felt like it was something that we had to
get right and treat with as much obsessive attention to detail as we do every
other aspect of the game. That meant working out the difference between the way
a car drives when the road is drying, verses how it drives when the road
initially gets wet.
It’s the first time that such a system’s been employed in Forza – how did the team achieve that?
We spent a
long time prototyping various solutions until we found something that ticked
all those authenticity boxes.
I think to
achieve it in the manner that is executed in Horizon 2, it was only possible
with a move to the new hardware. Effects like the real-time road reflections
are something we wouldn’t have dreamt of doing previously.
How do you rate the next gen consoles – what’s your experiences of them, both as a gamer and as an art director?
I think as
with any tech upgrade it allows for a whole new raft of artistic opportunities.
I think specifically it allows you to get even closer to a desired vision than
you might have been able to before. I think as a gamer it’s difficult to
evaluate. Once you work in development, it becomes the real game changer with
regards to how you experience games yourself.
You’re based in the Midlands in the UK (near where I went to Uni), is that starting to become a thriving ground for game development now?
I also went
to Uni there… how interesting, Birmingham to be exact. I think actually this
university’s response to training requirements for students looking to get into
the industry is really driving a lot of that uptake in the video game industry
in the UK. I think that for some fairly random reasons the Midlands has been
the origination point for many studios. I think for that reason, it will always
be a thriving development hub in the UK but I also see a lot of growing
influence elsewhere, especially towards the capital.
How do you rate the current gaming environment – what have been your favourite games to play in recent years?
I think the
shift to the new consoles has been as interesting/exciting as it is always is.
I think as it usually happens there will be some huge leaps in all kinds of
aspects with regards to the new generation of games. My personal highlight so
far has been Wolfenstein and Destiny – that game is so pretty.
As Digital Nationz has shown, there are plenty of gamers out there – what advice would you give to those who want to get involved in the industry?
I think the
industry is increasingly multi-faceted and the key to entering the industry is
to find which aspect it is that excites you and consume that subject in a way
that constantly tailors to your skill set in the way that makes you an exciting
candidate to a developer. It might be art, design, engineering, audio - the
avenues the vast!
Just finally – give us a secret about Forza Horizon 2 that you’ve told no-one yet….
Ahhhh… unfortunately
it’s been reviewed now so it’s all out there. Nice try though. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment