Lead designer Colin Berry of WipEout HD at SCE Studio Liverpool takes time to answer an exhaustive list of questions where we find out who the best player on the team is and what exactly makes the game tick.
GamesRelay: How many people do you have working on WipEout HD?
Colin Berry: We started with a very small team in spring 2007 of around 6 people. We are now up to around 25 or 30 to ensure the final code delivers all the great media feedback we've had so far following E3 and the Leipzig Games Convention.
GamesRelay: Is there anyone who's worked on all the WipEout games since the start of the franchise?
Colin Berry: There are a couple of people yes, an Artist (Darren Douglas) and a Producer (Paul Tweedle) who started out by QA'ing the first WipEout!
GamesRelay: What do you think makes the WipEout team so special?
Colin Berry: There is a good team spirit; we all help each other out as much as possible. Also there are lots of people on the team who are fans of the series so there is a high level of care and attention to detail and it helps having talented designers, artists and coders on the game.
GamesRelay: What was the one thing the team wanted to change/or introduce most for WipEout HD?
Colin Berry: We wanted to provide a good solid online experience for a television based WipEout game. We see online play as a big feature in HD. Also 60 frames per second full 1080p was a day one priority. We also wanted to make it a great addition to PlayStation Store by offering it as a downloadable title.
GamesRelay: How long has it taken to make WipEout a full HD game for the PlayStation 3?
Colin Berry: We started work on the artwork around about February 2007 and the code around April, so just under a year.
GamesRelay: Would it be fair to consider HD as a port? Apart from 1080p visuals and 60 frames per second animations, what makes it different to Pure and Pulse?
Colin Berry: Firstly people should not underestimate the changes that 60 frames per second and 1080p visuals make to the game. Sure the environments are taken from the PSP versions initially but so much work has gone into hi-resing them up, every building model, and every texture. The game looks so much richer. All the ships are new hi-res models with hi-res texturing and improved lighting too, so the visual changes are dramatically enhanced. The game also has a sleeker new HD front end, the handling model has been refined to fit the Sixaxis controller also the collision system has been improved. Then of course there is online multiplayer which fair enough appears in WipEout Pulse but it is great fun. Playing WipEout against other people on a big TV, it is a lot of fun. In some terms its easy to say 'it is a port' but that is something of a disservice, the game has had an overhaul and a freshen up in many little ways which combined give it a strong identity and make it a solid game in its own right. We certainly don't regard it as a port. Then of course there is downloadable content, which depending on what we settle on, can further push the WipEout HD experience. We are hoping the initial release of HD will be a starting point. We really feel that WipEout HD will be a great addition to PlayStation Store.
GamesRelay: Do you think full HD has brought about a big change in the game?
Colin Berry: I am proud of Pure and Pulse and what we have achieved with them, and WipEout Pulse is a damn good PSP game and experience, it is featured packed and will not disappoint. HD though offers something different, it offers the WipEout experience on a big screen for the first time in a long time, it looks awesome, it plays nice and feels smooth. It is a different experience for people who have maybe forgotten what WipEout on a big screen is like. And of course, 1080p visuals and 60 frames-per-second clearly combined with online play clearly make a big difference on a TV screen.
GamesRelay: Tell us a bit about the game - is it for established fans or new owners of PS3?
Colin Berry: Hopefully WipEout HD will satisfy the core WipEout fans and also be accessible to people who maybe have not played any of the series before. WipEout has always been seen as a hard game, a gamers' game and that is something we have to cater for and so we have to have a blisteringly frightening speed class within the game and hard competitive AI opponents. But we also want to attract new players and appeal to people who maybe have not tried a futuristic racing game before who are used to their racing games involving cars. As such we have introduced 3 difficulty levels to accompany the 4 speed classes in the game, thus people can start at a beginners' level if they are new to the game, or start straight off on the hard difficulty if they are a long time fan of the series.
