You gotta wonder about a group of developers that has a pet goat. It is just one tidbit of information we learn from Vassos Shiarlis the Lead Artist on the recently released, Crash 'n' Burn. It's racing carnage and we get the skinny on the game engine, the level of realism, multiplayer, and the ease at which the project was completed. Thanks for your time, Vassos!

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Crash 'n' Burn Q&A with

Vassos Shiarlis Conducted by Omni

What name appears on your driver’s license?

Vassos Shiarlis.

What is your role on Crash ‘n’ Burn?

Lead Artist.

And how long have you worked in the games industry?

5 Years.

Crash ‘n’ Burn reminds a lot of gamers of the Burnout series. What separates Crash ’n’ Burn from the Burnout series?

I can understand why people would make those comparisons but once you get your hands on Crash ‘n’ Burn you soon realize that the two titles are very different in their approach namely in the fact that you will never race the same race twice. As the race progresses any component or wreck will remain on the track, fuel will ignite creating firewalls, oil will spill from ruptured engines and it soon becomes more like a war zone then a race track none of which are scripted allowing the tracks to evolve of the course of any given race. You are never taken away from the action if you crash and survive then you won’t see a re-spot it’s up to you to flip your car back onto it’s wheels and resume the mayhem.

Is the game engine built from scratch or has it been licensed? How versatile is the engine? (Provide examples.)

The engine and tools used were all developed in house by Climax. Primarily this particular engine was geared towards racing games.

How long has Crash ‘n’ Burn been in development?

12 months.

How many and what kind of vehicles will be included in Crash ‘n’ Burn?

You will have 4 vehicle classes to choose from which include a compact, pickup, muscle and sports car, to compliment this fully customizable body kits, paint jobs, vinyl sets and performance modifications will be available to purchase through the game giving each and every car its unique appearance.

Nowadays, racing games concentrate on realism. Does the team worry about meeting a certain level of realism? (And how was that level of realism decided on?)

Making an environment look good is easy – making it look good without destroying the frame rate is another issue. The biggest problem we faced with realism was not compromising on any of the car effects, destruction, customization and number of players the title would support online, which are currently 16. This was the single

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biggest reason why we needed to keep the environments in check in terms of detail and realism.

Getting the sounds right are important for a game like this. Is this audio team going out and capturing new sounds or pulling elements from an existing library and mixing them?

All our sounds came from actual stock car racing events that we personally captured – ranging from crashes, skids and engine sounds.

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To get the “feel” right has the team spent any time bombing around in high-performance sports cars? What about watching lots of test crash footage?

I guess the biggest source of resource came from visiting stock car events that allowed us to see first hand how cars behave in such extreme racing conditions.

I have this picture of cardboard cities and piles of Hot Wheels, but how are the tracks/levels designed?

The most important aspect of out track design was to insure that you were never too far from the action. Long point-to-point tracks just simply wouldn’t work as you would soon find yourself racing empty tracks – not the best thing for a destruction game. Small oval’s, figure of eights and crossovers were the order of the day allowing maximum contact and interaction with other players and wrecks.

What racing modes will be found in Crash ‘n’ Burn? Any online plans?

Aside from a championship career mode and straight races other modes like Kamikaze, Last Man Standing, Bomb Tag and Assassination will be available to play – if you want to know what the hell I’m talking about then you know what to do. All features that are supported in the single player game are fully supported online and yes that does include 16 players online.

Will there be different views (dashboard, helicopter, etc.) to choose from during a race?

The user will be able to choose from either bumper cam, near or far chase with the option to view left, right or behind at any given time.

Have there been any bumps along the road during Crash ‘n’ Burn’s development?

No way we are pros – it was a breeze.

Not like the team has a lot of free time, but what games get played between 12-hour workdays?

Whatever FPS was fashionable at the time.

What’s one bit of trivia about Crash ‘n’ Burn’s development that no one outside the team is likely to know?

We had a pet goat called Bradley.

(November 17, 2004)


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