FH3: Hot Wheels (2017, XB1 PC)
Developped by Playground Games & Turn 10, published by Microsoft.
My second expansion as solo Art Director in the Forza Horizon franchise was both an epic challenge and a truckload of fun!
The team was much smaller than the first expansion but the scope just as big, and we had many fundamental questions to answer in a tiny amount of time:
How to make giant plastic tracks look as realistic as the environment around?
Can cars really drive through a loop-the-loop and corkscrew with our physic model?
How far can we push the craziness of our franchise?
Can I really convince everyone that we NEED a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex?
Attached images are in-game screenshots (using the "Photo mode" feature) from the media team at Turn 10.
The shiny and translucent vibrant orange plastic material played a huge part in making our track both realistic and visually appealing. Our Technical Artists did wonders here!
Fire brings the "Hot" back in "Hot Wheels", so we tried to add as much as possible.
Our physic model is designed to be as accurate as possible, but we had to be improved so that the car's downforce and inertia allow them to drive upside-down.
Did you know that a real car only need a speed of 30 mph to clear a loop-the-loop?
The world consists of 5 explorable themed islands repurposed from the main game revolving around a giant extinct volcano.
The track had to be 20 meters wide to accommodate gameplay, which affected the perception of scale and sense of speed. We fixed it by reinventing the track's design with lanes, side lamps, dual color scheme and cat's eyes.
The two exposed engines of the iconic Twin Mill cause an obvious visibility issue in Cockpit Cam.
We tried a bunch of different solutions to fix the problem but ended up keeping it as it was: the authentic and hilarious Twin Mill experience!
Most track pieces are inspired by real Hot Wheels toys, but we had to design our own to solve a few gameplay challenge: here, the "flat" piece allowing you to climb from the ground to the track!
Did you notice the giant connectors under the track?
Watch the epic madness in action: here's the trailer!