BUILD | GAME ENGINES // UNITY UNITY FOCUS Codemasters enters the browser space under its new Racing label with Unity
F1 ONLINE: THE GAME Developer: Codemasters Racing What is it? A new browser-based racing game
www.codemasters.com
F1 Online: The Game in action (main images) and Codemasters Online associate producer Michael Rowland (above)
UK INSTITUTION and long-time console developer Codemasters Racing recently took the decision to try its hand at creating a racing game for the burgeoning browser space, in the form of F1 Online: The Game. Although many of its developers already possess experience in the sector from Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, the team felt it was time, under the new Racing label, to bring its expertise to the internet. “We are building up our supported SKUs
across tablet and mobile, so it makes sense to utilise the skills, tools and platforms available to us,” explains Codemasters Online associate producer Michael Rowland. “Browsers have always been an area we
wanted to expand to outside of the traditional MMO Platforms we’ve previously worked on. There’s so much more potential with the explosion of laptop, PC and tablet sales across the world, all of which are great gaming platforms, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to share the expertise we have within Codemasters Racing Studios for this burgeoning market.” To build this new online and free-to-play
top down racer based on the Formula One license, the studio adopted Unity’s ubiquitous engine to take advantage of its suite of browser development tools and install-base for its browser plug-ins. “We have been keeping close ties to Unity
over the last few years whilst investigating and working with online titles that utilise the Unity engine,” says Rowland. “When conceptualising out our first
browser game, it made total and complete 66 | JULY 2012
sense to work with the Unity team and engine to realise our ideas. That really was when F1 Online: The Game was born. The toolset grew from that point and a lot of our feedback made it into a number of Unity updates.” Rowland says that as well as receiving
support from the Unity team in creating the title and overcoming any development issues, he was perhaps most impressed by the Unity community, which was also on-hand through the forums to offer tricks and solutions to overcome the various development hurdles they ran into.
When conceptualising our
first browser game, it made sense to work with
the Unity team. Michael Rowland, Codemasters
“Unity has been on-hand to support us
throughout the course of the project, whether it be a full-blown technical support on code to needing an add-on from their store,” he states. “We’ve been pushing the most out of the
engine, not only at a game level but also from a development standpoint. Unity has been there to help develop tools supporting development processes that not only our studio has required, but I’m also sure other studios will find useful too.” As well as receiving support from the engine vendor’s community, Rowland says
that Unity provided Codemasters with a platform to start working on the game, and allowing the studio to build up from a base template and grow the title over time. He adds that the developer was also able to import all of its art assets from F1 2011 on console and build them into an engine that can run on a basic web browser. “The result is a visually stunning game,
very low hardware overhead and a quick turnaround in producing a game from concept to launch,” he explains. “We’ve been able to update the physics systems within Unity, tuning them for the unique Formula One experience, and build additional core systems. The result is a host of design tools used for F1 Online: The Game but also for future projects within Codemasters Racing.” Rowland says that, despite the occasional niggles with the title’s creation, the relatively quick development process compared to Codemasters’ usual long and gruelling work for its console titles, the studio would happily use Unity again for its future projects. He adds that the “full-blown” technical
report it received throughout development, as well as the usefulness of the Asset Store in providing much-needed tools and add-ons at the click of a button, means that the racing games outfit has been able to push the engine to its limits to create an exciting and polished gaming experience for its users. Currently in open beta, if its free-to-play
title F1 Online: The Game proves successful, this once console-focused developer could begin expanding its offerings and famous franchises to the browser space on the back of Unity in the future.
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