Driveclub

In DriveClub kun je met zes virtuele clubleden tegen de rest van de wereld racen. Ben je een hopeloos geval op de weg en is winnen onmogelijk met jouw gebrekkige snelle skills, dan is er nog geen man overboord: er is genoeg te doen om voor je club punten te verdienen.

Gebrekkige race-skills? Dan moet je bij mij zijn. Daarom ben ik uitverkoren om een presentatie over Driveclub bij te wonen, en mogen we na tien minuten de game uit proberen. Auto kiezen, beetje het uiterlijk customizen en de moeilijkheidsgraad op normaal, want ik voel me scherp vandaag. En warempel, ik win race op race. Of dat door mijn vaardigheden komt of dat de AI van deze demo nog niet op peil is, laat ik even in het midden. Helaas was het niet mogelijk tegen de overige aanwezigen te racen, want waarschijnlijk zou ik dan worden afgedroogd.

Driveclub

De auto is in ieder geval prima te besturen, iets wat bij mij een racespel maakt of breekt. Geen gezwabber op de weg als je eens wat bijstuurt, je hebt gewoon het gevoel de auto onder controle te hebben. Het is arcade, dus verwacht geen realistisch weggedrag. Driften is belangrijk om snellere rondetijden neer te zetten en het beuken van tegenstanders wordt alleen in je score bestraft: de schade doet niets aan het weggedrag van je auto.

Onderweg kom je allerlei challenges tegen. Op de weg staat dan bijvoorbeeld een opdracht als ‘verbeter de driftscore in de komende bochten’ of ‘volg zo veel mogelijk de ideale lijn’. Het einde van de opdracht is ook duidelijk aangegeven. Dus mocht je door een rottige beuk gespind zijn, dan kun je nog punten scoren voor je club door dit soort opdrachten te doen in die race. Zeker handig, want niemand vindt het leuk om voor spek en bonen mee te rijden.

Driveclub

Grafisch ziet Driveclub er fantastisch uit. Zeker als je tegen de zon in rijdt, wil je eigenlijk een zonnebril opzetten. Dat is dit keer niet omdat er halo’s over het scherm vliegen, maar omdat de zon bijna in je ogen prikt. ‘Schitterend’ mag je dit keer letterlijk nemen. Het ziet er ook niet té vrolijk uit met pastelkleurtjes. In tegenstelling tot de schade probeert Evolution Studios grafisch gezien wel realistisch over te komen. Na een paar potjes racen, mag ik de lead community manager van Driveclub bestoken met vragen, om wat meer te weten te komen over de game.

Why should we pick Driveclub instead of all those other race games that will release these months?

We hope you choose Driveclub not only because it looks impressive, but also because it feels good to play. But more importantly, we hope you choose it for the connectivity between you and your friends. It is fun to play if you are an arcade racer like I am, or a simulation racer like our game director. We play together in a club, and moreover, you can play together in a race, because even though the game director kicks my ass in every single race that we play, I play for the challenges and I’m scoring points for our club. Afterwards we talk about everything what happened and you can send out challenges, to spark a new event. It can go viral when a lot people play that event.

Driveclub

What will PlayStation Plus members get when they play the free version?

Players and communities are the heart of Driveclub: we need a lot of players playing the game so there is more fun. The more people join, the more clubs there are and the more fun. The players of the free version won’t get all the tracks and cars. You’ll get eleven of the fifty-five tracks in the game. Those are the tracks in India, the easier tracks of the game so you can keep up with ten of the fifty cars in the game. There is just one option to upgrade to the full version, to keep it simple for the gamers and manageable for us.

Can you tell us more about your DLC and patch plans?

The goal we always wanted with Driveclub is to build a connected community and keep them in the game for a long time, creating a kind of social network. So to achieve this, we can’t just launch the game and then leave it. Players are expecting a lot more than that these times.

Driveclub

But more importantly, to keep players engaged it needs to be fresh, it needs to be exciting every time they come back to it. So the game is designed to recommend things to do when you come back. At the same time we are going to be working with the community and designers and the team to continue to add to and expand to that game experience as well. Obvious things like new cars and new tracks will be available. Tracks in Driveclub will always be free.

But also we will be responding to the community, reacting to their feedback. We are already doing that with the private community that is already playing the game. We are removing things that are frustrating and are making it easier to enjoy and easier to connect to other players. There also will be new game modes and features that the community suggests. That’s a part we can’t predict right now, because we need feedback when the game is out. We have the flexibility, support and the infrastructure to keep that community alive and to respond to that feedback.

Planning

With a lot of cars coming out with DLC, aren't you afraid that people just want the fastest car and will ignore all those new cars if they are not any faster or better?

Absolutely. And we learned a lot from the racing games that we developed in the past and learned a lot from playing other racing games as well. When DLC car packs are released, people will buy them for the cars they have a feeling with. There will be new challenges and events around those cars, but we also have those other challenges for the slower ones to keep them in the game. It's different and unique and the challenges and events that come with it, enhance support as well. It’s always adding to that sense that there is something new to do, something more to play for.

With micro transactions you can unlock cars faster. But do those cars have better statistics, so people can buy the fastest car?

There were microtransactions for each car and event. There aren’t anymore. It was that time saving element, to jump in the game and race with a decent car against your friend that plays the full game. The reason we thought it over is twofold. Reason one: the game is designed so you build you skill gradually. If you get your hands on a super car, you can control it if you play the game. If you just buy the car, it is possible you won’t have that skill and you just spin out, get frustrated and maybe you won’t even play the game anymore.

The second reason is that we wanted to make it easy for PlayStation Plus members to jump to full game, instead of making them buy each car and track separately, because a dialogue pops up every time you don’t have a track or car when you want to play against a friend that has the full game. It’s much easier and cleaner this way.

Driveclub

In which ways can you personalize your own club?

You can choose a name and create a logo. We don’t give you the possibility to upload your own images, because you know what people are capable of, unfortunately. So we give you a broad set of tools and assets to create your own identity. If you customize your own vehicle, and if you are the club leader, you can share the design with every car within the club and with other club members. They don’t have to try to recreate it, or to download it.

Is there any integration with social media?

We are looking into it. We connect to the PlayStation 4 app on mobile devices. We are looking into Facebook, but we want to do it in a meaningful way. If we do it, we want relevant updates about the game. We don’t want to spam.

Will the size of a club grow in the future?

It could, it has been designed to be flexible. We think that six is a sweet spot. We have done a lot of research, we spent a lot of time to get this right. We talked with people that developed social networks like Facebook and did a lot of research reading a book that’s called Grouped by Paul Adams. It's about social network connections and managing those connections on a smaller scale. His theory is that a group of six to ten people is manageable and you feel important to the other nine people in the group. When it gets bigger, you start to lose the strength of those relationships.

Driveclub

When we did a club with unlimited number of players, it was no fun. So we said, let’s try 24 people. But that’s weird because we have races with twelve cars, so half of your club is missing out. Then we did twelve, but you want to be able to race against other clubs. That’s why we have this sweet spot of six members. It gives a much stronger relationship with other members of your club.

Will we ever be able to drive off-road?

No, it’s all on-road. You know where the track is, you will get more competitive, fiercer and more aggressive racing. It gives people the focus and discipline to improve their skills as a race driver. It just doesn’t feel right for Driveclub. Maybe in the future, but maybe something else that really plays with those off road strengths.

Will Morpheus be supported in the game when the device will be released?

So there are no plans right now to make Driveclub a Morpheus title. Evolution Studios does have its own department that works closer with the Morpheus team, so it is something we experimenting with, but certainly not at launch.

Thanks for your time and answers and good luck with the release of the game.