The PGR2 Team Talks!

It takes a great team to build the year’s hottest new racing game, and for fans of the Project Gotham Racing franchise, the good news is, Bizarre Creations has a fantastic team indeed. Recently, we were able to sit down with some members of the crew—city artists Julie McGurren and Peter Roe and programmer Paul Kerby—to talk about what it was like to take an excellent game and make it even better.

Xbox.com: Tell us a bit about the Project Gotham Racing® 2 team. Who are the most notable personalities, and what are they responsible for?

McGurren: There are 29 people on theGotham team: 17 city artists, two car artists, two front-end/2-D artists, three sound guys, and five programmers-all led by the most annoying member of our team, Roger Perkins, who is usually found here in the office until the small hours of the morning.

Roe: The art team is split into four groups, with a lead artist for each one. My lead artist is Julie, who looks after us and isn’t afraid of the big bad programmers, especially Roger. Roger is the head programming guy, whose main job is finding out ways to make the game run with the one million polygons we artists have thrown at each city.

McGurren: There is also a group of three people working on design and balancing. This is where you will find the most famous member of our team: Chris "The Boy" Pickford, who also happens to be the youngest member. We have our producer Peter Wallace, who has just got married and is currently sunning himself on the island of Mauritius. We also have a guy named Chris out in Australia modeling cars. The core of the team has been working together since Metropolis Street Racer, so we know each other pretty well, and we brought in a new group of artists when we started on PGR2.

Xbox.com: As you get closer to releasing the game, what’s the atmosphere among the team? How tense, exhilarated, and exhausted are you guys feeling?

Roe: The atmosphere has remained remarkably upbeat throughout the entire production of the game. That’s not to say that we haven’t had our arguments, nor is it to say I haven’t wanted to attack people with axes during the busy periods.

McGurren: We have some off days where things get a little hairy and the tension is pretty high, but there’s usually something to laugh about. There’s a lot of banter that goes back and forth between the artists and programmers. We have a love-hate relationship. Seeing the game together as a whole is great after working for so long on your own little part of the project. What really is a great buzz is reading the great reviews we seem to be getting and seeing some of the video footage Microsoft produced for X03. It's then that you really realize what we as a team have produced.

Xbox.com: There are 10 new cities for racing. Why did you scrap all of the old courses?

McGurren: We wanted to give the player something fresh. Three of the Gotham cities were originally fromMSR, with the addition of New York. They had been around for more than three years, so not only did the player need something new to look at, we did as well. One of the cool things about making a city-based racing game is the research trips! Last year I went to Barcelona, Florence, Sydney, and Yokohama. Visiting all those places was just a fantastic experience and gives you a real buzz about recreating them for the game. Although it took nearly two days to get to Sydney, seeing the amazing harbour view of the bridge and the opera house made the grueling trip worthwhile.

Xbox.com: What is your favorite form of XboxLive racing? Would you rather win a head-to-head battle or reach the top of a leader board?

Roe: I personally enjoy racing head to head, and the office can become quite loud sometimes, as the racing can get very intense. But, it’s also very satisfying to climb the leader board, and that’s an added incentive to try a difficult circuit one more time. That’s the beauty with PGR2: There is so much to do and something to please everybody.

Kerby: For a quick fix, beating somebody in your best car on your favorite circuit is brilliant, especially if it's a really close race, and they’re giving you loads of banter over the Xbox Live Communicator. But, for a long-term thrill, it has to be being at the top a leader board because you know that everybody on Xbox Live is seeing your name on their TV up in lights.

Xbox.com: What’s your favorite car to drive? When you’re driving to work in the morning, do you ever find yourself fantasizing that you’re behind the wheel of one of the PGR2 muscle cars?

McGurren: For looks, it would have to be the Ford Mustang. I like the old classics. They have more character. I struggle with the really fast super cars; they slide around too much for my liking. I enjoy racing the Mini or the Beetle, cute girly cars, because I can actually control those. I usually get chosen to test out the novice and easy levels.

Roe: I must say, the cars in PGR2 are simply gorgeous, with so many different categories and styles. My dream car would have to be the Aston Martin Vanquish; it has the best look of any car. I’d say my favorite car to drive is the TVR Cerbera Speed 12. It’s just so fast and feels great around corners. Racing a whole lap of the Nurburgring with 8 Speed 12s is very, very intense; you can reach some incredible speeds. Of course, racing the TVR around Yokohama is slightly more enjoyable than driving to work in my car (a 1-liter affair), but who knows—if enough people buy this game, maybe I can buy my dream car!