SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - FlatOut: An Interview with Bugbear

Q. Please tell me a bit about the gameplay / different modes of play in FlatOut. Single player as well as multi (is there a multiplayer?)

A. In single player mode there are three game play modes: career mode, quick race and time trial.

The game comes with 16 cars, which you unlock during your progression through the single player career mode. You gain cash by either placing well in the race or by crashing into trackside objects (and the AI cars). So if you are a poor driver (like I am) you can make up for it by indulging in a crash frenzy!

You start off with a relatively under-powered, battered-up car, which you can upgrade with many different parts including the engine, transmission, exhaust and suspension. Once you have accumulated enough cash you can also purchase a completely new car.

In the quick race mode you have all tracks and cars you have unlocked available, and you go for a quick spin around the tracks. In the quick race and career mode you will always have seven AI opponents battling you to the finish line.

The time trial mode is for perfecting your skills and it is identical to the quick race mode except that there are no AI cars on the track.

On the multiplayer side there are some variety depending on the platform.

On the PC up to eight players can join in for multiplayer mayhem over a LAN connection. The online play support was dropped due to lack of time (there is never enough time to do everything unfortunately).

On the Xbox you can have up to eight player carnage over Xbox Live or system link. You can also play in four player split screen mode.

On the PS2 the multiplayer fun is available in two player split screen mode.

Q. Do you plan any official add-ons after the release of FlatOut?

A. At the moment there are no plans for add-ons, but we are not ruling anything out.

Q. Any thoughts about the possibility of allowing or opening for user-created add-ons, either by providing a "moddable" game-engine, or by selecting a number of user-created add-ons and offering them in future official add-ons?

A. The game engine itself is quite "moddable" as it is based on the same technology as Rally Trophy, which had a moderate amount of fan created content. At the moment we haven't yet planned whether we can put in the required time to release modding tools. If we do release them, we will definitely endorse the best fan created add-ons e.g. on our web site.

Q. What driving views will be available to the player?

A. There are three views: two from behind the car and one bumper cam. We had to unfortunately drop the cockpit view due to the lack of time.

Q. Will we be able to save and replay the most awesome moments in FlatOut?

A. FlatOut was created as a multi-platform game (PS2, Xbox and PC) and with the team of our size (averaging at 18 developers), we had to make the decision to make each platform as similar as possible in order to get the game out in time. Given the limitations of Playstation 2 storage media, we couldn't include a replay saving feature in the game.

Q. FlatOut is released on several platforms. Have the system requirements for the PC version been determined yet?

A. Yes they have. Here are the official minimum and recommend specs:

Minimum:
1.5GHz Pentium 4 or AMD equivalent
256MB RAM
64MB graphics card
DirectX compatible sound card
1.1GB of free hard drive space
Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP
DirectX9.0c (included on the disc)

Recommended:
2.0GHz Pentium 4 or AMD 2000+
512MB RAM
128MB graphics card
DirectX compatible sound card
Gamepad or steering wheel
Windows XP SP2

Multiplayer (LAN 1-8 players)

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