New iGP First Look

Steady progress is being made on the new iGP, though it is arriving a little later than originally hoped. I had mentioned our intention of launching at the end of September, but it is clear that this will not be possible now. Provided nothing unexpected happens, we will be launching in Q1 2016. With that announcement out of the way, let’s move on to the good stuff!

Today I am going to show you the first detailed screenshots and descriptions of a page in the new iGP Manager. We would love your feedback on what you see, but remember that the new game design is primarily aimed at mobile and tablet clients. The flexibility of mobile will revolutionise how we play iGP, and to accommodate these new platforms, the level of complexity will shift in various areas of gameplay.

The page I am demoing in this blog is the new race preparation page. As you will see, the process of setting up a car is more streamlined and efficient than it is today. There is even an option to purchase the ideal setup using Tokens (Tokens are not a new feature, they are the new name for the existing ‘Reward Points’ system). While preparation is simpler, the complexity of live races will remain or even increase in some regards, with more variables influencing performance in the race simulation.

New cross-platform, cross-device GUI design

The first thing you will probably notice about the new iGP is the totally new interface design. In previously released screenshots this was still in its infancy, but it is now reaching maturity and the images you see are pretty much how the finished game should look. This new GUI (graphical user interface) has been designed for and tested on everything from an iPhone 4 up to a 24” desktop monitor, as I will demonstrate in the screenshots.

New artwork

As you will also see, there is new, rich artwork for driver and staff faces, bringing the characters behind your team to life. A variety of faces and ethnicities are available, which we will expand further over time.

New streamlined race preparation

On to the race preparation itself, and the first tab is the ‘Race’ tab, demonstrated on a desktop monitor. This contains a breakdown of information for the upcoming event. The circuit attributes are displayed along with two buttons, one containing the familiar weather forecast, the other a new feature: Practice results. Clicking the ‘Practice results’ button launches a table of all practice lap times set by participants. Yes, this means that practice lap times are back in the new iGP. It also means you can compare your practice times with your rivals before qualifying!

The second tab is the ‘Setup’, demonstrated here on an iPad screen. This is where the practice laps are conducted and the new simplified car setup can be seen. It is most likely that a total of three practice laps will be granted per driver. If you are really pushed for time you can use Tokens (currently known as Reward Points) to purchase an ideal setup.

The final tab is the strategy tab, shown below on a Samsung SIII. Constructing a race strategy looks very different, but acts in much the same way as the current system. The tyre compound is the focal point of each stint but fuel is now specified in laps, rather than litres. This will make it more straightforward to calculate strategies, while continuing to offer maximum strategic variability. You can also select how many pit stops you want to schedule, and the table will update to reflect that, which is much cleaner than the current add/remove procedure.

If you’re wondering where Car Assembly and refitting parts has gone, it has been moved to a separate screen for managing your cars.

Simpler car setup and race strategy is not just making everything mobile-friendly, though it helps serve that purpose. Our long-term ambition is that a simplified race build-up will allow us to build in friendly races, which can be organised quickly, for friends to race together at any time. A friendly race feature will not be included in the first release of the new iGP, but we hope to add it in a later update.

We would love to hear your first impressions and feedback in the comments below!