C.A.R.S - Community Assisted Racing Sim

[Guest Uff]

Grazie ai numerosi interventi di Ian Bell in merito a Shift 2 (riportati anche in questo topic) siamo venuti a conoscenza di quanto costerebbe realizzare un nuovo simulatore con tutte le principali caratteristiche (grafica, fisica, force feedback ecc) aggiornate al giorno d'oggi.

Con un ulteriore messaggio si

[Guest Uff]

In risposta a chi chiedeva come sarebbe stato portato avanti il tutto, considerato che si sarebbe dovuto lavorare anche su console (impressionante sapere che il 96% delle vendite di Shift

[Guest Uff]

We own all of the tech. Starting point would be from our latest engine which effectively means zero risk for investors in terms of us being able to deliver. We'd ship on PC, 360, PS3, WiiHD, Box retail, Steam, App store on Mac. If we can't clear 2 million units we've not marketed it properly. Break even is about 250K units though.

For licensing reasons investors/contributors would get the PC build only each week but their choice of format at the end with a discount to the invested amount.

I get you on investments... I thought property was safe...

[Guest Uff]

The plan is for funders to be intimately involved in every aspect of development throughout. That and the weekly builds and tools is essentially what you'd be getting upfront for your 10 Euros minimum investment.

[Guest Uff]

Ian Bell torna a parlare del progetto.

So yes, the plan is that any investment into the development is exactly that, an investment. You would own a share or shares in the development of the game via a special purpose vehicle we set up with that in mind. Once the game is at the point we are happy to ship (we being all of us, this community, the wider community or non community investors and SMS) we take the game to a publisher to arrange a distribution deal where we negotiate hard on their cut Around the 20% mark to them would be average. At this point the publisher would normally pay a guarantee which should cover the cost of development we've invested. At that stage, we can all get our money back and await a profitable return on the backend via revenue over and above the guarantee. Normally, the smaller the guarantee we seek at that stage, the smaller the slice to the publisher, so we might go with no guarantee at all.

Investors would receive regular ongoing builds (weekly or more often) and can see their suggestions and input being heeded regularly. We will also ship our tools and plugins for artists as well as source code for the gameplay code for those that want a tinker.

The terms and conditions for this project are nearly complete with our lawyers and we'll be rolling it out via WMDPortal.com - World/Weapon/Way of Mass Development (nothing there yet but it's being constructed as we speak).

Actually build game content yes (the 'the' reads like SMS wouldn't). We have 40 great artists at SMS who know the engine well. If anyone involved produces work of adequate quality and all the investors agree we should use it then we should and will. We will treat this as a normal AAA multi platform game development project though so we will need a high level of pre-planning and scheduling. The main hurdle we must clear is ensuring we have strong direction and all the work that we do contributes to that.

[Guest Uff]

Aspettiamo domani per avere altre notizie!

I expect the first draft of the full terms and conditions for WMD from our lawyers tomorrow.

As far as the game goes, it really will be up to the investors (ie, everyone putting in 10 euros or more). My vague plans are to find a way to give people something fun from the get go that they can all play/test/tinker with. We then iterate this based on input and build the game design together. My thoughts on this are a couple of 'genericised' tracks, let's say inspired by real world locations and a car or two. I'm thinking a Formula style car and one other.

Well, the reason is that when you start a game you normally start from scratch with it. I want all the investors to have complete input and insight into everything in terms of the development.

We can't use any Shift cars or tracks.

I suspect the hardcore to ask for that yes. But given that the intention is to take this very wide to the 'masses' the consensus will dictate the structure and design. I do have some ideas I'll be lobbying for though

[Guest Uff]

Ecco in anteprima due screen tratti da un progetto interno degli Slighlty Mad Studios che viene usato solitamente come test, anche se ancora molto da rifinire.

One of our internal concepts atm is Stunt Racer meets Destruction Derby.

This is just a quick build we made to see how it functions. Couple of tracks, few cars. It's very unpolished looks wise but ace fun.

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[Guest Uff]

Altri dettagli.

Yes, it will be open to anyone from anywhere. 10 euros is the minimum investment which will get you access to weekly builds and full input into the game design etc.

We have solved an issue that could have arisen I think. Anyone investing more than 10 euros will have those funds (above the 10 euros) placed aside for the first 3 months and untouched until we are sure we have raised enough for a top tier AAA multiplatform release. Once we pass that threshold the additional will be utilised. I think that will be at around 2-3 million Euros but we'll do the calculations in detail and as with everything about this project, maintain a running tally on the website for everyone to see.

[Guest Uff]

Con una risposta dettagliata ad un ragazzo che mostrava un certo pessimismo di fondo Ian Bell ribadisce alcuni punti chiave del progetto:

The 'plan' is that you get to input and vote on direction at a level commensurate with your level of investment. 10 Euros - 1 vote. We do though fully expect to propose the outline of what we would like to do and given our experience in making racing games I suspect the majority will be happy to follow our suggestions. Where that clearly isn't happening we will change them. Where there is a nice debate over particular features etc, we can call a poll vote.

Regarding the PC hardcore not getting what they want, well that would be awfully silly of us. The only builds we'll be shipping out during the whole of development will be PC builds. It needs to appeal to the punters to continue to grow investment. As of now, we are already working on the tech for the initial builds and the plan if to convert over time to a full DX 11 engine and my remit to the team (including Griff) is to push the PC to the limits. I want a Crysis beater on looks, something truly raising the bar in every other area. Physics will, again over time, be our brand spanking new best in field physics which has been coded from the ground up over the last 4 years. So, you can't get your investment back, but you can withdraw yourself as a member of the team in protest. We'll still send you your profit though

We know almost exactly what we're going to 'propose'. The investors/team members (yes, everyone at all levels of investment will become a member of the team, with access to builds, tools, tech etc) will modify that in their own direction. We don't want you to throw money at us, we want you to throw it at this project. We will be marketing this paradigm shift beyond even games players (banks, VC's companies, anyone interested in potentially realising a profit). Although there are no guarantees, a game that sold say 1 million copies only (across all formats) would bring in 35 million dollars. The dev cost could be around 5-7 million. That's a nice 500% plus return when you add in marketing etc in a short period. Not a bad investment in the current climate... Even if it did disastrously badly at market I struggle to see how people wouldn't at least get all of their money back. On top of that they get to play a new build every week during development, take part in the development, see the inner details of how games get made, get a mention in the credits, get to code or create art for it if they feel motivated to do so, and much more.

I'm on 4th draft of the terms and conditions, EULA's etc with our lawyers now. Expect an announcement soon.

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[Guest Uff]

Interessanti i contenuti aggiuntivi a prezzo umano.

The product plans we have isn't a single product. We plan to target each format with what sells best on that format. We are thinking a free to play base pack with very low priced add ons is the way forward. I'm talking a dollar or so for a great iconic car, two dollars for a great track. Maybe 5 dollars for a complete race series, equivalent to a full game. This is off the top of my head so don't hold me to it but that's the idea as of now