Found this very interesting article, by Mike Lopez. He addresses some of the challenges modern racing games face.

You think it’s as easy as a, b, c..? It isn’t! And it’s not as easy as “sim” or “arcade” either.

4 pages. Read it. Don’t be lazy.

Anyway, I realise we have to work on ours. Some of the comments made here sort of put Power Racing next to Bigfoot, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Nessie and other believe-it-when-I-see-it objects of our imagination of belief.

However, Power Racing is very much less mythological. I’d say it’s about one hundred percent real.

The reason you haven’t heard from me (or anyone else on the team) in ages is this: we’re constantly working on building the game. And I mean CONSTANTLY, all day, every day, all the time. Believe me, the game is there and it will be released. At this stage there’s a huge amount of time spent on meetings, planning, estimation, retrospections and what have you. I know the guys on the team much rather just get to work, get the code written, the problems solved, the details nailed… bascially do their job. Still they need to put quite a lot of effort into the plan-and-design-process, to come up with some preliminary scope and dates. And if I wasn’t there myself I would never believe how difficult it is and how long it takes.

There are several reasons we haven’t been communicating more regarding release dates, development status etc.

One is uncertainty. We can’t be sure exactly what to release on a certain date. Either the scope or the date has to be flexible. We can’t make any promises, we can just provide estimates based on reality so far.

Another is politics, or marketing strategies. When would be the best time to release this game? Why? How? Business, pure and simple, which is not my cup of tea and someone else’s decision to make.

As this game, product, is being built from scratch we face problems that we don’t have to deal with in Power Soccer. The children’s diseases that only strikes while you’re young. Growing pains, if you’d like. Power Racing doesn’t exist as a product yet, but the game itself does. The people working on it are extremely dedicated and passionate about this becoming the best online racing game ever. This means having opinions on design, how features should be implemented, what solutions would be the best… Discussions and decisions. An entire game has to be thought through, nothing left out. The product managers have to tell us enough but not too much.

Information is a tricky thing. If you have too much it limits you and restrain the creative process. If you don’t have enough you can’t really move forward either.

So, in trying to get the right game out in as short amount of time as possible, we’re walking a thin line that takes us from our product manager’s vision, the producer’s interpretation of it and the developer’s final creation.

And as always I ended up lightyears from the initial subject: is Power Racing just a PR stunt? No people, it’s very much real, happening and coming your way.

It would be nice to show you some new screenshots or an in-game video or something soon. And I know the team would really like to show you our work in progress as well. It’s just a matter of time. So, let’s see shall we, if I can get one of the guys to put together some PR pics or videos soon. But - no promises, just my most sincere intentions.

Do what George Michael would have done, have some faith…

Sincerely yours

/ Linda

Well, if you know me at all, you know the answer to that. There won’t be any completely un-related eye candy in this game. Eye candy as in cool exhaust pipes or shiny rims or super high tech tuning parts - of course. That’s what it’s all about. Cars. Engines. Driving.

But no one has to this point been able to explain to me, the connection between half naked girls - only there for the show, eye candy material - and racing. At least not in a very persuasive way.

“It’s just the way it is” “It’s always been like that” “There are always grid girls at racing tracks” etc etc.

So fine, I get it. They exist. But WHY?

Let’s say racing games and car sports are considered a male area of interest. It’s for men only. What could be considered “female” areas of interest? Kitchen appliances? Washing machines? How often do you see semi naked men posing next to those, to enhance sales? Like…never?

Why do guys need stereotype images of women to focus on something? Why aren’t we seeing an upgraded version of the “typical male” and “typical female” concept? Why are we still living in the 19th century - or worse - when it comes to these things?

I know men/boys/guys who definetely aren’t like this. Who aren’t afraid of real women. Who don’t buy stupid magazines where page 3 girls take their top off to get ahead in the world. Who see through the artificial layer we seem to cover women in (you know what I mean, mini skirts, huge boobs, unbuttoned shirts, flawless skin, neverending legs and a waist so thin she’ll snap if you touch her).

But where are these men when games are being developed? Is the game industry really such an old fashioned environment, with such gutless creatures, that women in games are destined to be no more than cute props on the sideline? Who is gonna take that step forward, refusing to accept “reality” and change the way we portray women?

Stop hiding behind “we’re just giving people what they want”. Change what people want! Show them an alternative. Find another target group, dare to be different.

God these things make me mad… I’m so annoyed I even missed the PS demo which is now taking place in the conference room. Gotta go.

Happy weekend. Be brave. Think differently. Challenge yourself. Play games. Eat fruit. Read a book. And remember, be nice…

// L

Came across this while youtubing for “arcade racing games” and “city racing tracks” and “best online racing games” among others… some german game/site called BET and RACE. It includes a game mode - for all of you aged 18 or above - where you can actually win real money.

Of course I had to look through the site, the info, the tutorial. And two things are striking.

1. They seem to put much of their hope into the hands (or other part of her body) of Jessica The Playmate, trusting the average racing game dude to be so impressed with the Bunny logo that he instantly signs up.

2. The only two cars that seem to be available are some sort of Golf GTI and the Volvo C30. Now, that’s not much fun is it?

Real cities, real cars, different weather, up to 8 players in one race, the possibility to win money…it all sounds good. But it looks pretty sad. Something went wrong on the obsticle filled road that leads from “idea” to “release”. Someone wanted to make money fast and though that showing some Bunny skin would do the trick. Sorry, it simply doesn’t do it for me.

I’m not even sure if the game works. Downloading? Moi? No thanks. Not when I can get the real deal in just around 10 Mb’s…

The iPhone’s technology can be used in clever ways, like controling this racing game for example. Check out the demo Nothing fancy, but nice enough.

One thing that comes to mind though. Or two.

1. Why is there a Barbie looking police officer in the start up sequence? (I’m not genuinly surprised, just need you to explain the need of female semi-nudity in a game that is all about being a good driver..?)

2. The person performing the demo - doesn’t her (it’s definetely a she) hands look totally photoshoped? Have you ever seen such gleaming, shiny nails!? And her entire hands are like…ultra soft.

These details are, I’m sure, meant to be appealing. I’m supposed to be comforted by the clean polished look and poultion free environment. The truth is, it’s superficiality annoys me. The game’s average user don’t look like that. No hands looks like that!

Be real please!

Just spent half an hour or so in the gameroom at the office, doing some racing in Flatout: Ultimate Carnage and HotWheels. Hilarious. It was my kind of game just like I thought! Very forgiving (you crash and burn, then magically “reset”) and more action than actual racing. Colourful, fast and innovative. Someone said it’s a bit like Micromachines but I’ve never tried that so I couldn’t really say. I raced under the bed, avoided the books, the hammer and saw, jumped over some paperclips, got extra boost and jumped over the desk. Actually a lot more fun than the desert track in Flatout…

I don’t enjoy grinding, or being forced to race the same track over and over again. After one or two attempts I wanna be able to try something else. Give me something new for heaven’s sake! No patience what so ever. Which is a bit interesting, cause I have tons of patience when it comes to un-doing knots or listening to people complaining about sad relationships or whatever. But not when it comes to <bad> repetetive gameplay. Can this be taught? Can I learn how to not get bored out of my brains with doing the same track/level time and time again, avoiding those tiny little edges or lines that makes me fail, forcing me to start all over again?

I honestly don’t think so. But maybe I can find some more games out there that I actually enjoy. Next time I go straight to the kids section…

/ Linda

So, the skies are grey and it’s Monday. What do you do? After leaving the car at the garage (yes, needs to be fixed yet again) and managing to do the daily sprint meeting in about three minutes - what’s next? Logging in, spending some time reading more or less important e-mails, putting the not-so-groovy headset on and then tuning into a very casual easy-listened to station at shoutcast.com. After they had to shut Pandora down for everybody outside the U.S. what’s a girl to do? Shoutcast is the second best thing, keeps you surprised through the entire working day. Variato delectat, as the romans used to say. And when you’re in the mood for something, but still nothing in particular, it’s the easiest way.

Trying to focus but it seems to be one of those days when everything is equally important yet elusive. Some documents to read through. Some planning to do, statistics to move from one place to another, phone calls to make.

But what I really really wanna do is gather my entire fantastic fanatic team around me, steel them back from soccer and talk about how to make Power Racing the coolest gaming experience online today. Talk and interrupt and get annoyed and get cool ideas that could never work and do some mockups and sketches and declare them all to be nuts and then come to my senses, re-consider and continue. Moving the game forward, developing, evolving. I want to discuss and laugh and eat chocolate and make great plans. Great Game Plans.

Because, as you know, I’m one of those that rarely is impressed, hardly ever find a game addicting. I’m just not “gamy” enough. So imagine the challenge in making this a racing game that even I take pleasure in playing! Not just find interesting from an academic, media perspective, but really enjoy. A new favourite waste of time. That would/will be so cool…

So, yes. I miss my team, miss the clutter, the mishaps, the endless discussions. Our Big Meetings seem to be filled with creative - and candy. They work so well together.

Soon. Any day now, we’re gonna be a big noisy malfunctional family again. I can’t wait. And in the meantime, well, Excel is also fun!

// Linda

Hello you all! I guess you though the Power Challenge Racing Team had disappeared - but no. We’re still here, writing code, making schedules, drawing trees and what have you. Basically trying our very best to make this the best racing experience ever. Things have just been a bit…upside down around here lately. Everybody is still as busy as ever, no doubt about it, our focus is just slightly altered. There are som really important issues being handled, features being built and changes taking place in the soccer department - and of course we’re all joining in, making sure Power Soccer rises to yet another level.

Well not all of us actually. A couple of us are still keeping the racing game alive and kicking, building new tracks, designing more cars, dealing with network puzzles… All those things, give or take a few, that need to be taken care of before the release!

Another Very Important Part of a quality racing game is… the sound! Nothing gives you that illusion of presence and tingling sensation of speed like raw realistic high quality sound. Metal against metal, flying gravel and shrieking breaks. Of course we only want to give you the very best, and to make sure of that we hired the guys at Pole Position to do all of our sound work. They are complete racing AND music/sound freaks, so there couldn’t be anyone else more suited for the job. We just got some nice recordings from a stock car session - very nice. And in a couple of weeks, there will be another recording session with some serious driving: a bunch of japanese cars - on an airstrip… Hopefully closed off! Like I said, these guys are seriously into both cars and sound.

I promise to write again soon. Yes, seriously, I do. Even though we’re slightly behind the original schedule, we’re still destined to rule the racing world…

See ya!

// Linda

Hi people. Now we’re finally here. Over there. The conference starts tomorrow morning (which should be about about 18.00 or something Swedish time). Jet lag is a bummer but I’m trying to cope with some help from Starbucks vanilla latte…

The whole business/mingeling apparatus starts tonight with some kind of get-together arranged by The Swedish Trade Council. Most of the Swedish game developers attending GDC will probably be there so I’m very much looking forward to it, hoping to speak to some of our interesting competitors, calmly bragging about Power Racing. In a very subtle manner of course.

Tomas Ahlström is - informally - the social and schedule manager of our little group, being in total control of all our appointments and meetings. It seems like it’s gonna be a busy week… We already have quite a few meetings with the press scheduled, and we’re counting on a lot of visitors to the Nordic booth at the Expo area where we’ll be hanging out most of the time. Or at least Tomas & Tomas will, I’m gonna be spending a lot of time at the actual conference listening to some incredibly clever and interesting people giving lectures on agile projects and production do’s and don’t’s among other things.

The website is up, alive and kicking! Make sure to check it out (www.powerchallenge.com/racing). I’m thrilled with the work so far and it’s just gonna get better. My guys on the team are simply the best. Just imagine, in a few months from now we can all enjoy the hottest online racing game ever. And even if our summer release is “only” a first version, barely a Beta release, I’m sure it’s gonna be a great gaming experience for us all.

Ok, time to find out what this city is all about. And yes I’m bringing the camera just in case something unbelievable shows up.

// Linda, with a fanatic attention to bringing some adrenaline to your browser