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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I hear the concerns from desktop users about setup complexity, and anticipated this. For that reason, we kept all options behind the GUI, and we can re-implement as much complexity as we need. Alternatively, we could split the way setups are handled on desktop and mobiles - although this seemed somewhat pointless, as mobile users would still get an ideal setup with the simpler options. We are listening though, and thanks for all the feedback, it's very helpful.
Race together at any time. Does this mean we have the ability to do quick races on any track at any time between daily league season races?
I am another who is underwhelmed with this. While I welcome the tablet interface, because my lifestyle causes me to be on an Ipad for some of the live races, making the PC version operate and look the same as a tablet will turn me off this game. I would have liked the setup options to expand a bit more, not be limited to low/med/high, something that would make this more "management", and less "angry birds". The improvements to the visual look of it is nice however.
Thanks for the preview. While I like the new layout/design on the screenshots, I don't understand the logic behind simplifying the setup and strategy choices. After all, in the current version of the game both are already quite easy to understand.
rly? sry, but i dont want simpler car setup. +1 to Uncle Albert
v I have to agree too, gaming isn't as fun on mobile. Big screens where you can know where you are ect. Plus I don't even have a mobile device. It would suck to have all this new mobile game play while the Web users are still waiting for that BIG update that may come this year or even next year. Practice laps are an absolute must, running fast laps with a set-up will show it is a great set-up. Spying would also mean being able to sneak and take a peek at the other teams practice times,.
hm, i must say, i like the design changes, but i dislike the simplcity in options.
By that, i mean the for example the change from litres to # of laps. This really is a point where you can try to beat your opponent. the same for setup. going from a range from 0 to 100 for each part to a simple low, middle, high range really would make the whole game more simple and give me much fewer possibilities to be setup the cars
Sorry to say this, but I agree to Uncle Albert!
If the focus is just on mobile gameplay, that is nothing I will continue.
Looks like LEGO or Playmobil, but not like an online racing Manager!
Make a mobile and a (non tablet) PC version please.
Appearances look good, Setups seem very simple, Just select the options closest to or best match to the track information screen? That's what it looks like.
No chance of running out of fuel with auto fuel calculations?
it looks really good. Also the improved strategy tab sounds great. Looking forward to that.