Autosimsport interviews Jack Basford

QUESTION: There have been F1 manager games in the past. What was the motivation for you to take on the challenge of entering this genre, and what separates iGP from its peers?

Being a petrol head and a web developer it was a natural progression. I think the key difference is, we’re ambitious and not afraid to think outside of the box. It’s our goal to make the things you would normally mention wishfully to a friend actually happen.

On my own I wouldn’t be able to do that, but working with Andrew we cover all bases. Whereas I can build solid brands and web systems, and I’m bursting with ideas, I can’t always make it happen on my own. For example, I couldn’t build our simulator, Java applets or install and set up a web server. That’s stuff that Andrew does well, and together we compliment each other nicely.

With this initial release we’re scratching the surface of what is possible. Through the support of our users we want to gain enough momentum to continue making bigger innovations.

There’s a reason others aren’t going down the same path: it costs a lot more time and money. But we have the passion to pull through and get the job done.

QUESTION: iGP is, at its heart, a strategy game. These tend to require a lot of fiddling and tweaking to get the balance correct. What areas have provided the greatest challenge in terms of striking a balance where success can be achieved by pursuing different strategies?

There wasn’t really a toughest part, but this was one of the challenges we faced throughout the beta. We overcome it by always paying close attention to any feedback we get. I think listening to your users makes it a lot easier.

QUESTION: The game has had a fairly extensive testing program, something which is critical for a game of this nature. Have there been any surprising responses from the testers, and what have been the biggest game developments to come out of this process?

Testing actually went on for over a year, and we transformed the game completely during that time, sometimes rebuilding features from the ground up several times over in response to feedback. Now, we’ve reached a very good place where the whole experience of managing a team is enjoyable.

QUESTION: F1 is an incredibly complex and intricate sport. Obviously simplifications have had to be made to make it workable within a gaming framework. What have been the biggest challenges in this respect, and what further complexity can players look forward to in the future?

We recruited several beta testers who loathe motorsport and think it’s just cars going in circles! They know nothing of the technical side of the sport but were great for simplifying things and keeping it grounded. Once we reached a point where even they found the game enjoyable, we began to gradually layer in complexity and technical information on top of that. I think this has resulted in a fundamentally easy to understand interface, but a technically rich game.

In terms of future features to look forward to, there are all of the flags and safety car situations which are a strategic goldmine. They will certainly spice up the racing from a managerial standpoint.

QUESTION: Which areas of iGP are you most proud of and do you think are key to its success?

If the key to success is anything, it’s building a strong overall package. Compliment that with a unique selling point like the live race engine and I think it’s a recipe for success, but no single aspect is a key that will magically unlock success on its own.

QUESTION: Have there been features you have wished to include but have found are either too complicated or simply haven't worked when it has come to the transition from theory to practice?

Of course… we actually had/have plans for a third kind of subscription. But it had to be postponed because the development is quite a monumental task for a small development team like ours without much funding. I’ll leave it to your imagination what that might be, and we’re still working on it.

QUESTION: In terms of longevity, what do you think will keep players hooked and want to return for season after season?

iGP Manager is different things to different people, and that’s the beauty of it. For some it will be grouping together with colleagues for workplace battles, for others it will be meeting up with friends and racing casually, for others it will be the aspiration to top the hall of fame.

QUESTION: It is known that iGP is doing a lot of processing on the server side compared to other games of its ilk; running the races in real time as opposed to simply using look up tables to calculate results. Can you please give some details of what is being calculated and how, for example in terms of tyre temperature/wear and fuel use, car physics and interaction/overtaking, individual components etc.?

Races are simulated in real-time 24/7, with the status of every car, every driver, the environment, the track surface and the timing screens (personal bests etc.) all being updated with up to 1 millisecond precision.

Each part of the car is simulated in detail using a real-time physics simulation. For example tyres alone are impacted by ambient temperature, how the car is being driven by the driver, friction levels between the tyre and road surface, the impact of temperature and friction on the deterioration of the rubber etc.

The drivers evolve throughout a race too, with dynamic attention spans, energy and health. All of the driver skills are factored in to these calculations. A driver may lose his focus more often if he has a low focus attribute, and his health will decrease faster during a race with a low stamina attribute. He might not be so good off the start line if he has poor composure and reaction times. I could go on, but I think that’s enough for this answer!

QUESTION: On the same topic: what real world data have you chosen to use and how close to reality is the experience? Did you find you had to tinker with data in order to create something ‘playable’ of have you tried to retain as much real-world information as you could: and also could you perhaps give us an example, in terms of tyres perhaps?

We use a lot of real data to determine how our simulator operates. From location data, to tyre data, fuel data or even weather data. It all comes from the real world and is factored in to the simulation for the most authentic grand prix racing experience.

In a couple of places we’ve made things more fun than they would be if they were exactly like reality, such as KERS which has been redesigned to work well in the context of an MMO game. But otherwise it is essentially a fully-fledged race simulator.

QUESTION: The drivers in the game. How crucial are they to success? In real F1 of course they have become perhaps 20% or less of the whole – is it the same here?

It’s probably closer to 60-40 in iGP Manager. The designers are still king, but the drivers can make a significant difference. There are more teams on the grid in iGP Manager than in reality, and that is also a factor in this. A step up in any area of the team can be reflected in the race.

QUESTION: The game seems 'simple' in terms of a winning strategy: get the best crew, get the best engines/tyres and drivers, and victory is guaranteed. Is this too simplistic a way to see the game and, if so, can you explain the subtleties? In other words, is the idea that all players land up with the best of everything and the fight each other on strategy?

I can only urge you to race some of the guys in my league and see how simple it is! Even as a developer, they have me racking my brains to figure out how they get these tiny advantages. I’d say that’s true to reality too, when you get to the peak of performance, then the smallest things can make a big difference.

QUESTION: Tying in with issues of longevity, you have announced your pricing structure for the game as being free to play, with a paid subscription unlocking "premium content" (including the 2D race view- highly recommended and a lot of fun!). Can you please shed some light on what the premium content consists of, how you derived the pricing structure, and what you see as the long term benefits from being a paid subscriber?

We always wanted to make the game free to play, and we were very happy when we could finally make that a reality. We checked what all of the competition were doing, factored in our server costs, taxes and fees from payment processing and got it down to the most reasonable level. If you subscribe for a year it’s just £3.49 per month. If you race once a day, it’s less than half the price of some other sites which give you a non-live refreshing HTML page for a race. That in itself is quite a technical achievement.

As for the benefits of long-term subscriptions, they are also a commitment to future development. The advantage of sticking around for a while is you will get to see all of the benefits that each quarterly patch brings. The gameplay is continually evolving, and if you like what you see today then I would urge you to invest for tomorrow, because we are fully committed to developing iGP Manager for years to come.

QUESTION: The game comes into its own within the league play, with players free to join an existing league, or create their own. Can you discuss the flexibility and options available within the leagues structure and how you've gone about ensuring there is something to suit everybody?

With iGP Manager we wanted to make it so that people on opposite sides of the globe have an identical experience, no time-zone favouritism. We value our users all over the world and put their experience ahead of what might be convenient for us to develop. It would have been so much easier to demand that everyone race on a Tuesday at 5pm, or whatever, like pretty much every other game does. But that just wasn’t going to cut it.

So we have a league system that is totally flexible. You can choose to race once a week, every day, or on selected days of the week and at a time you specify. You can choose the duration of the races, have one car or two cars per team, pick who you race against (local friends, family and colleagues or people from all over the world). This means that everyone can find something for them, as we accommodate their schedule and lifestyle in to our leagues.

QUESTION: What is the key to success in the game? For those who are useless, how would you suggest they go about creating a team? What are the biggest things to focus on and what are the least important?

My biggest tip would be to stick at it if initially you aren’t competitive. It’s a very detailed system that rewards patient learning and persistent improvement. Learn from your mistakes and use them to better yourself and your team. Talk to others, find a group or a friend and learn from them.

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Reproduced with permission, courtesy of AutoSimSport