What a gorgeous featurette. Slightly Mad Studios put up a new developer feature discussing some of the things that make Project CARS stand out from the competition, as well as what makes them unique in the current landscape of simulated racers being made available in today's market climate.
So for those of you who don't know, Project CARS is a crowd-funded game. That's right, it was funded by gamers and designed by Slightly Mad Studios. It's been a very, very, very tight-knit community and collaboration between the core racing simulation audience and the developers. What's come out of it all is an amazingly gorgeous title that made headlines throughout development thanks to slick promotional trailers shot, cut and distributed by the community. That's right, about 90% of Project CARS' promotion and marketing was done by the community.
Andy Tutor, the creative director at Slightly Mad Studios, talked up the importance of the game and the innovative approach the studio is taking to developing and distributing an independent AAA title, saying...
“Project Cars is the first triple-A game to ever be done this way. There have been other games; there have been other success stories on Kickstarter and things like that, but not to this magnitude.“We are the first game to do a boxed product on the shelves, in the stores that you can go and actually physically buy. Where-as many of the other games are maybe iPhone games or a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade or Steam game. We are the first one of this magnitude. And I think maybe all eyes are on us, you know? And there might be some people who are hoping we succeed – and might be like waiting to do something similar with their projects – but are waiting to see how successful we are with ours.“I firmly believe that any game in any genre can benefit greatly from talking directly to the players, rather than maybe talking to suits around a table.”
It is true that this is one of the few crowd-sourced games where it's getting the same sort of physical release treatment on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U like any other Need for Speed, Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo title.
Bandai Namco is currently handling the distribution of the title and had their fair share of controversy due to the delay of the Wii U version, which won't be arriving on store shelves until some time in 2015.
The game isn't just basking in visual excellence, though, it also sports online multiplayer, vehicle livery customization and enough tracks to keep most simulation fans busy for a long while to come.
Project CARS is due for release this November on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You can learn more about the game by paying a visit to the game's official website.
