New iGP First Look
By Jack Basford
Last updated: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 19:17
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!
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Well I was chatting on this subject yesterday and thinking on how much time I actually spend on setups. Well, virtually none since I load the last seasons setup, do one test run and most of the time no changes have to be made.
Looking at that, it pretty much doesn't matter if it is three or seven items to adjust assuming the drivers still indicate which way they want to go with the setup. If it comes down more on the manager, then it would be a whole other story.
The graphics look great Jack, but lie others I am a tad concerned with the "dumbing down" of the game. The main reason why I fell in love with this game was the strategy side of things, stops, tyre choices, test runs, fuel calculations etc. that is why I log on several times a day everyday. by dumbing stuff down surely it means people will spend less time actually on the site as set up work and strategies can/could be done in a matter of minutes if they are dumbed down too far.
I mostly agree with what others have said. Some dumbing down is needed to adapt to mobile, but I think this is maybe a little too far. Some individual things are good, but I think overall this is too much.
One thing's for sure though, you shouldn't make desktop and mobile different to each other! There needs to parity between the platforms.
As a whole, I think adding support for mobile devices is very good and as there's room for feedback from the managers, pretty sure it will turn out just fine in the end for both mobile and desktop.
Just as I'm curious, are there active managers involved in the beta testing? And if so, how does one get into that? :)
For desktops I don't really have the need to simplify setups but saying that, with trained drivers it's hardly ever changing as they know what they want and stick with it. It does however give more freedom in fiddling around and still would like that.
But, I also like the suggestion of James Greer with increasing amount of setup possibilities as you progress from Rookie to Pro and Elite. It gives the Rookies time to learn and the more experienced driver a chance to fiddle around.
Visually it looks good and simplifying the settings for mobile devices I can understand as it is now tricky to setup things with the sliders, certainly when you are in a hurry and even worse when it suddenly starts to rain meaning you have to overhaul your setup
@Sean - Test runs are active and visible in the screenshots. I mentioned in the blog that you can now also compare your practice laps (test runs) with other managers before qualifying. As for the setup simplifications, they will be essential on mobile phones, but we can re-introduce more complexity on desktops. Would having the values in 0-100 as they currently are make it more satisfying for you? Or did you have something else in mind?
@Stuart - What would you prefer?
I like the new modern trendy look of the new GUI. Thumps up for that, looks far less dated.
However the gameplay changes concern me deeply.
The "race setup" screen looks like its been designed so a 5 year old can understand it.
I seriously hope we are not thinking of "dumbing down" any of the complexity, in order to appeal to a wider, younger player base.
I had the impression the changes were Graphical and Coding Language changes to work on a mobile platform.
Is fixing "test runs" now dead?
Is this being aimed at Micro Transactions or wait and see?
Hi Jack,
Sorry, I hope I dont sound overly negative. I really am looking forward to seeing how the whole game comes together (and being able to manage races from my phone!).
Can you confirm anything about how the fuel will work in the race? Will you get like a window saying your fuel is on target or anything? If I fuel for say 12 laps, will there ever be a case where you can get 13 if you use a lower push?