October 16, 2009 

THQ speaks on MX vs. ATV Reflex
By: Dakota Grabowski 

“It’s off-road racing in its full representation. There’s terrain deformation, a new physics engine, and a whole new set of controls that won’t alienate old or new gamers.” 

GameZone had the opportunity to visit THQ and Rainbow Studios last weekend in Las Vegas. Showcasing MX vs. ATV Reflex, THQ is ready to let the cat out of the bag and reveal all the gritty details on their anticipated off-road racer. 

Today, we bring to you our exclusive sit-down interview with Ian Wood, the art director behind MX vs. ATV Reflex. 

How long have you been at Rainbow? 

Ian Wood: A little over three years now. 

How long have you been on the MX games? 

Ian Wood: I joined halfway through the last game; Untamed. 

Were you able to incorporate a lot of the features and desires into MX vs. ATV Reflex?

Ian Wood: I’d like to go further with the vision and what we do with the artwork. I’m really happy where we went with this one [Reflex]. The immersion was my big key word with the team for this project. Everything had to have the immersive quality. Bringing in the environments around the player was important. 

As an art director, how would you recommend a college student proceed in this line of work? 

Ian Wood: You definitely need experience to find a career. My background, I started off in car design and moved into graphic design. I ended up in video games as an artist, or as a concept artist actually. I moved to environments and then to lead artist as I was leading a small group of people. Eventually, I had the opportunity to become the art director. 

Starting as a car designer, what were you actually doing? Were you assisting in prototypes?

Ian Wood: I was originally educated in that. That was the industry I was looking going into, but I decided against that in the end. 

What was your main goal with MX vs. ATV Reflex? 

Ian Wood: My biggest thing with Reflex was to change the environments and that included the terrain. We really wanted to have the ground become the character of the game. Every environment had characteristics of its own. The dirt was so important to get right, or the terrain itself. We wanted to create sand or mud that actually went somewhere, or snow that is hard and packed. 

What was the decision to not use real-time weather effects? 

Ian Wood: It wasn’t something we thought was necessary. It’s not like at GTA game where you spend a lot of time in the level and the weather changes every time. We really wanted to hone down a certain type of feel for each level. So it was much more suitable for us to go with a single weather type for each level. 

Did you ever try to implement graphical effects that have mud or snow thrown into the face of the gamer’s heads-up display? If so, how did that work out? 

Ian Wood: We definitely considered it. We didn’t feel it was a strong enough execution at the time to put it into the game. I won’t confirm or deny you’ll see it in the next game. But we do want to continue to increase how immersive the game is, so we might end up trying it again the next time around. 

Traveling around the game in the Free Ride mode, the levels were quite large in scale. What’s the largest environment in scale within the game? 

Ian Wood: The free ride environments are big, but they are under just a mile in square. We actually shrunk down the size of the free ride in order to put more detail in. It’s sort of a trade off of how much detail you can put it in and how big you can make it. 

Using the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 development tools, how much power were you able to draw from each platform? 

Ian Wood: Massively! One thing we wanted to make sure was that each platform felt as if they had the same quality level. They both are unique in their own ways and have pros and cons. In the end, we managed to really pull it off and have them feel the same on both platforms. 

Where you do see technology going forth for the video game industry? 

Ian Wood: It’s an interesting one. The recession is slowing down the process of new consoles coming in. The PlayStation has further to go in creating a larger install base. I think we are going to stick with this for awhile before we move onto the next one. 

Have you played any recent racers on any of the platforms and if so, could you name a few of your favorites? 

Ian Wood: Absolutely. I’ve enjoyed Dirt 2 and it’s always a visual treat. I’ve just started Need for Speed: Shift. I’ve always been a fan of Gran Turismo and Shift hits on a few of those things. 

If you were to implement any Natal controls for the MX vs. ATV series, what would you like to see done? 

Ian Wood: Fortunately, that’s not my job. We all have input on what we think is right and what we think is wrong. To be honest, I haven’t looked real close at the technology.  

Has Rainbow received any Natal developer units? 

Ian Wood: Yes. Yes, we have. We are going to have a close look at the units for our next title. 

For the last statement of the day, feel free to sell us and our readers MX vs. ATV Reflex and why it’s a game to buy this holiday. 

Ian Wood: It’s off-road racing in its full representation. There’s terrain deformation, a new physics engine, and a whole new set of controls that won’t alienate old or new gamers. It’s a lot more visceral feel with a ton of spectacles to be witness of. I ended up playing the game for hours when I took the game home for closer inspection and realized someone put in a new camera mode, so it has been a joy creating the game. 

Thank you for your time Ian. 

Ian: Thank you.

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---