Interview with Scott Naylor, Designer on Wipeout 3 & SE

[infoxicated]

For those who don't memorise the credits from the game manuals, Scott Naylor was one of the game designers involved with the production of Wip3out and Wipeout 3:SE.

Scott has kindly agreed to an exclusive interview with WipeoutZone to answer any questions you have relating to these two titles. 8)

Want to know why track pads are placed where they are? Or why the handling was so sweet?

As soon as we have a good bunch of questions, I'll grill Scott and get your answers back to you. So, ask away below - and, as always, keep it sensible! :)

[Lance]

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at approximately what date did the Leeds studio get the directive to develop this third installment of the game and when did concept art begin to be produced?

how long a period was devoted to concept development before the game began to take concrete shape?

who was responsible for the 'city and industrial park' look of the game, which is so different from the 2097 predecessor? [this is not a negative criticism; i like both looks]

why was the development of WO3 given to Leeds instead of being continued with the previous team? did Sony just want a different take on the game? were they impressed by a concept shown to them ''on spec'' by the studio?

did one person do all the designs for the new ships?
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[xEik]

keep it sensible! Sorry to disappoint you Infoxx but WipEout insanity drove me mental long ago. ;)
Now the questions:

-Is it true that nobody ever noticed that it was originally Piranha instead of Pirhana during development? (if it has already been confirmed drop this question)

-The 'cloak question'. Does it really protect you in the same way as a shield, appart from preventing the enemy from locking you? I mean true invulnerability to mines and no loss of energy when wallbanging.

-Why did they change the weapon announcer from what is shot to you into what you picked up? Did they consider it was more useful?

-I want to know a bit more about the origin of prototypes. Where they rejected as normal tracks? Were they originally conceived as prototypes?

-Why did they make LS4 so difficult? A prize for top racers?

-Why are there different handlings (appart from different timing, that's unavoidable) for the different versions (PAL, NTSC, SE)?

-Why did they enhance Assegai in SE?

-I have always wondered why wall scraping boosts your craft.

-How is it that having link mode, which is an added value to a game, it isn't even mentioned into the original package? They could have mentioned it, even if it was hidden.

-Why did they drop the display of contrails in NTSC version?

More to come...

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Wiseman]

1)When the team was designing the tracks that ultimately ended up being prototypes, where were they supposed to take place at? Like LS104 is obviously in the city's downtown area, like Stanza Inter, but what about the others? LS103 looks like an old amusement park ride, LS101 looks like an old earthquake ridden subway system, etc etc.

2)The colors for the prototypes, was there any thought that went into them, or were the colors just chosen at random? Why did the team choose those colors? (I think that red was a perfect color choice for LS103)

3)On tracks that could work in both directions, like Stanza Inter and Terminal, was there ever any point in the process of creating them were you thought about making them go in the other direction instead?

4)LS104 looks a lot like Stanza Inter (as far as taking place in the city's downtown). Was it thought up as a possible replacement for Stanza Inter?

5)Who was the person who originally thought up Manor Top, or was it a team effort?


More to come from me as well....

[Hybrid Divide]

What was the inspiration to do the intro from the craft exploding and going backwards.
And, why don't the craft explode in the game?

Than-Ku!
VL

[Piranha Advancements]

- Why drop the idea of having team pilots?

- What type of "surfaces" were used on the tracks? Like in the original Wip'Eout" which had reclaimed titanium,carbonic iron etc.

That's it.

[Task]

1) Why can't I change an option or enter a cheat code to make all the opponents as good as the LS104 opponents? Why are they only good on that one track? I get the impression they wanted to put in a "difficulty" setting (easy/hard) and on the hard setting all opponents would be serious instead of the pushovers they normally are...

2) Who is the mastermind behind the "hyperthrust"? The dropping of the "Turbo" weapon and the addition of the glorious "Hyperthrust" was a master stroke that added strategy to an already great racing game, and these people deserve recognition.

3) Why is it that when an opponent hits my Force Wall, 9 times out of 10 they'll then hit me? I mean, these craft have long pointy noses and are all angles, and they always hit me dead on? And hitting a Force Wall should do serious damage, much like hitting a normal wall head on, but nobody's ever been killed by it.

4) How is it that a game can rock so hard, and yet be recieved by the western public so badly? I know that the cover art is truly horrible, but the eastern half of the world liked WO3 so much that they made SE, and over here nobody even knows what WO3 is...

[Wiseman]

- Why drop the idea of having team pilots?I think that's a question you should ask Nick Burcombe, not the Wipeout 3 team. 2097/XL dropped the pilots, 3 just chose to keep it that way.

Or a better way you could ask it, that would apply to the Wipeout 3 team, is why didn't they bring the pilots back, or did they ever think of bringing the pilots back, or something.

[AmishRobot]

1. Did you consider doing any real in-game advertisements, similar to Red Bull or *shudder* Kappa?

2. Not meant to be a criticism, but the intro movie always seemed unfinished to me. Was there ever supposed to be more to it?

3. What kind of things were considered to be put in the game, but left out for any reason?

4. I second the question on the weapons announcments. Always seemed like a strange decision to me. Was it because the new icons were more difficult to identify at those speeds?

[stin]

Interesting Questions stuff!!......

1, Ok from the original Wipeout which does not count but Why whoever you are chose this game and became so sucessfull and how did you do it?? Thats included WO3 &WO3 SE.

2, Did YOU enjoy it and why you chose this game? Which we are totally HOOKED on this game!!!.

3,How did you came up an idea from originals games??

stin :)

[jmoid]

i'd like to know if there were any particular influences for the sleek, futuristic (and very cool!) look of the game, which imho was way ahead of it's time.

also this isn't a question, but thanks for helping design one of the greatest games ever :)

[Hybrid Divide]

What made you guys decide to use the (in my opinion) not so good looking trails. As compared to the nice looking "2097'ish" trails seens in the betas?

And why did they change the colors of the Assegai craft from the original blue colors?

Than-Ku!

[Dragon]

When is the next wipeout comming out?

[Lance]

.
Dragon: ''Scott Naylor was one of the game designers involved with the production of Wip3out and Wipeout 3:SE''
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[jmoid]

another thing i'd like to know, if scott has time, is a little about what the whole project was like - what the atmosphere was like, was it fun, was it stressful, and just generally how it felt working on the game - that would be fascinating, for me at least.

[infoxicated]

I'll be wrapping up these questions in the next day or so and asking Scott for all your answers. So if you have any last minute requests, now is the time to speak up. :)

[Wamdue]

oh!

1. Who came up with the name Goteki in Goteki 45? and why?

2. Who made the intro? Are there any storyboards that could be posted for viewing?


:) I hope i made it in time

[Roger]

I have always wondered why wall scraping boosts your craft.
This one I'd really like to get an answer for. Scraping seems to be one of the more controversial techiques of getting ahead (although not as much as those half mile long jumps at P-Mar...)

[rhys]

How did you come up with some of the names, for example, P-mar, assegai (sp?)? Are they just made up? inspired? translated? Yes, these things interest me...... :)

[Lance]

.
rhys: an assegai is a spear thrower, in the form of a short stick with a large specially shaped head on one end where you rest the end of the spear. not the blade end, of course ;)
using one hand holding both the spear and the assegai touching along their length, and with the butt of the spear in the groove/pocket of the assegai head, you throw the spear forward, releasing the shaft of the spear as you allow the assegai to pivot as the spear moves forward. so you throw the spear with the assegai, the whole idea being to have the effect of a longer arm for throwing and thereby gain greater speed and range in the spear's 'flight'. more effective for killing game animals or enemies
.

[Task]

Actually, Lance, what you're talking about is an Atl-atl. The spear itself is called an Assegai. Also known as an Assagai. Slender, like a javelin, metal tip, shaft usually made of dogwood. The atl-atl is used to hurl such spears longer distances and with greater force, as you described.
- J, who plays too many RPGs.

[Lance]

.
actually i am wrong :D
that will teach me [i hope] to rely on a thirty-year-old memory of seeing a diagram of how the thing works. i should have researched first. it seems that the 19th century Bantu assegai itself is a relatively short spear [compared to the old greek ones used as defenses against horsemen] of about 9 feet length. [i imagine that modern-day ones favoured by the survivalist cult are much shorter and relatively heavier]
an alternate version of the thrower name that i found when i looked while ago is Atlcatl. i wonder if that means that Aztecs also had spear-throwers. their language group is the one where one you usually find the atl letter combination
.

[infoxicated]

Erm... quite.

That's it folks - the window of opperchancity has passed - I'll be getting those questions answered as soon as I can now - thanks for taking part :)

[stin]

Is the reply coming yet? :-?

stin :)

[infoxicated]

I keep pestering him for it and apparently he's "working on it".

He is contacting people he no longer works with (and maybe hasn't seen in a while) in order to answer the questions more fully, so that's what's taking the time :)

[infoxicated]

Finally, Scott has furnished me with the answers - they can be found in the features section of the main site... or you could click :

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/features.php?action=display&featureid=86

But that'll open in a new window :)

A very big thank you to Scott for taking his time to do this - he's been a bit jaded these last few months, so to put the effort in for us is fantastic.

Hope you all enjoy it :)

[FoxZero]

very interesting, esp the part about the cloak. im gonna have to try that sometime..

big thanks to scott for the info!

[Lance]

.
thanks to Scott for his patience in pursuing the answers.

the Wip3out team did a great job to turn out such a complete game with so few bugs in only 7 months. so many good decisions made, including the prototypes!

i found out about that aspect of the cloak when i was too unskilled to maneuver around the opponents all the time [okay, it stiLL happens sometimes] and just crushed through them, it was fun! now i sometimes do it on purpose
.

[Task]

A marvelous first-person look into the software development environment for WO3...

Yay Scott!

[xEik]

Very instructing.
Big thanks to Scott.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[zargz]

cool pic in the beging of the interview!
ok now i'll read it .. :P

[infoxicated]

cool pic in the beging of the interview!

Erm... yeah... sure!

All I had time to knock up in my bleary eyed state before bedtime last night. I'll probably pad it out with a couple of choice W3 screens at some point :)

[jmoid]

Asolutely spot on, thank you Scott, and thank you Infox for organising it!