How Forza Horizon took on Japan with deep research – and 360-degree cameras
Since the arrival of the original Forza Horizon in 2012, a game that revolutionised open world driving sims by setting players loose in a virtual
Since the arrival of the original Forza Horizon in 2012, a game that revolutionised open world driving sims by setting players loose in a virtual Colorado, British developer Playground Games has promised authenticity with its settings. For each instalment, design teams are sent out on location to take thousands of photos, hours of video, even detailed captures of the sky, before construction of a virtual copy begins. It’s a huge undertaking. But it seems that for much of the past decade, one country remained slightly out of reach – an intimidating prospect. “Japan has been on our shortlist for several games now,” says design director, Torben Ellert. “But we just didn’t feel like we were ready to take on the challenge of building it.” It’s not just about the sheer variety of the country’s landscape. There’s something else going on. Most video game players hold an image of what it is like to explore Japan. It may be inspired by the fictitious rural town of Inaba in Persona 4, or the busy docks of Yokosuka in Shenmue, or perhaps the neon-drenched Kabukichō district of Tokyo, which forms a regular backdrop in the Yakuza series. For decades, gamers around the world have been bombarded with images of the country that are often highly stylised and fragmented, but nonetheless potent and persuasive. As art director Don Arceta puts it, “with Japan there’s such an expectation [of] what gamers want - it’s a certain version of Japan that they picture.” View image in fullscreen New route …a moment in Forza Horizon 6. Photograph: Microsoft Playground’s answer was to get away from the Japan depicted in other games, as well as legendary street-racing manga such as Initial D and Wangan Midnight.
Instead, it hired cultural consultant and one time Porsche ambassador Kyoko Yamashita, who worked with the team for three years advising on their depiction of the country and racing scene. According to Xbox Wire, she was able to point out tiny details, such as the traditional colours of store signs and what they symbolise. The dev team also worked with famed Kyoto-based bodyshop Rocket Bunny and car culture photographer Larry Chen, who appears in the game and fronted a series of YouTube documentaries named Art of Driving, looking at the cars and locations in Forza Horizon 6. “Because it’s a culture we see a lot, there’s a temptation to think you know it better than you do,” says Ellert. “Which is why we tried really hard to get people to course correct us if we were drifting.” On the subject of drifting, Playground has sought to replicate the major elements of the Japanese street-racing scene. Seminal drift and wangan cars such as the Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra and Mazda R 7 are in there, and so are the narrow, winding mountain roads of the illicit touge racing scene which emerged in the 1960s and hit peak popularity in the late 1990s. “We knew we wanted to do a touge experience, but we also knew that if you get 50 people in a room and ask them to define a touge experience you’d get 50 different descriptions,” says Ellert. “We’re imposing some class restrictions, delivering interesting liveried vehicles and putting players on to super iconic roads such as Hakone Nanamagari or Mount Haruna. Someone will go, ‘Oh, that’s not what I thought Initial D would look like in Horizon’ - and it’s like, well, yes, this is our take on that experience.” View image in fullscreen Peak touge experience … Forza Horizon 6.
The BriefWire