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Three months ago, Slightly Mad Studios’ Ian Bell shared his vision of a community-funded simulation title right here on VirtualR. What many may have dismissed as a very much utopianklar vision has gotten extremely real as the studio has been hard at work for the past few months to turn a great idea into a working project.
Named Community Assisted Race Sim, or C.A.R.S. for short, the project will allow ordinary sim racers to become investors in a racing simulation title and get a share of the profits and unmatched access to the development process and a say in the title’s direction.
For the past few months, the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have been hard at work on all fronts as Ian Bell has revealed some exclusive details on the team’s progress. The legal work on the project has just been completed and SMS is ready to launch the project’s website and accept investors within the next 2-3 weeks.
The studio will be offering investment options that will fit any budged, starting out with a 5€ option ending with gold-level commitment of 1000€ and beyond. All investors will be getting access to downloadable development builds throughout the development process, the level of investment will determine the amount of influence each member has though.
While every investor will get to vote on the direction the new title will take, gold members get to participate in board meetings where the bigger calls will be made, always considering the requests from the regular investors. Gold members will even get source-code access to the simulation while smaller investors will be given script access to play with.
Slightly Mad Studios promise a completely transparent development process as all investors get to follow every single bit of progress and every single discussion the developers will be having. The SMS team will work out in the open for all investors to see, there will be no closed-off development forum as all investors get to follow everything the development team does, “even the arguments,” as Ian Bell points out.
C.A.R.S will be used the stripped-down Shift 2 Unleashed engine as starting point, as the team will be adding new modules to it during the course of the development process, including a new DirectX 11 renderer, a new physics engine and new AI. Slightly Mad Studios expect a development cycle of at least 12 months until the finished product is ready, however all investors will be getting access to development builds throughout the process to keep everyone entertained.
Below is a first high-resolution preview, showing an immensely-detailed historical Lotus Formula One car in the garage. SMS is planning to release the first build shortly after the first investors joined, the first release will include a handful of cars and tracks to try out. The base content won’t be too advanced though as the investors will have the final say in the direction that the title will take and what content will be included.
SMS is planning to have fully-licensed content in the finished product, the team may be dealing with generic content in the development builds though while the licensing is being finalised in the background.
For years now, sim racers have been bemoaning the publishers lack of interest in sim racing and the missing influence on developing titles. It looks like Slightly Mad Studios will be changing all that with C.A.R.S.
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Slightly Mad will take 30 per cent of profits with the remainder divided up amongst the community based on the amount of shares in a game they own.
Slightly Mad is targeting individuals and fans with shares in the games priced a $5 and $10, $250 options for groups, $1000 for small businesses and large companies and investors can get involved with contributions of $100,000. Longer-term, subscribers can also benefit when PC games are ported to other formats.
Based on a two year development cycle at a cost of $5 million, Slightly Mad estimates that a $10 share will return $35 if the game hits a $25 million profit, or 657,000 traditional retail sales. A $250 share will return $875 and a $100,000 share $350,000.
Slightly Mad is targeting three million sales of C.A.R.S., a 90 per cent Metacritic and a profit of $52 million. The free-to-play game will include microtransactions priced from 10 cents to $10 and the company has already licensed a number of tracks and manufacturers.
In the long run, C.A.R.S. is only the beginning though as Slightly Mad Studios are looking to push their innovative concept way past the confines of the virtual racing genre. Called “World of Mass Development”, the service will be offered to other developers as well who can fund their own titles without being restricted by a big publisher and giving investors insight into a transparent development process while providing a solid financial return for shareholders.
“Traditional development puts developers at the mercy of publishers,” Slightly Mad Studios commented. “Although it supplies the necessary funds to develop games with proper QA testing and development cycles, it also makes the development cycle subject to business matters such as financial quarters, company profits and marketing budgets. The development process offered by WMD shifts the focus back to creating great games that your target audience wants to play, whilst still offering the chance to get proper funding for development and testing.”
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How can I invest?
Everything will be explained soon on the website WMD Portal
What platform will it be developed on?
The game will be developed on PC, DX11, and back-ported to DX9 and consoles.
Will it be a hardcore sim or arcade?
In the end that will be decided by the community/investors, but the initial aim will be a full/hardcore sim with aids and adjustments to cater for the casual player as well.
Will the game have surround sound?
The game will use a 3D Sound system is using fmod so 5.1 and 7.1 are supported.
What will the graphics engine look like?
The graphics are DX11 including FXAA, depth of field, screen space ambient occlusion, motion-blur and shadows will be improved in DX11 initially, with appropriate back-ports to DX9 and consoles. The engine will use deferred rendering like in Shift 2.
Are those screenshots really in-game graphics?
Yes they are, they show the actual game rendering engine at work with the car in the pit/garage.
What cars will be in the game?
The game will provide a base car from each of the main types (single seater, endurance, historic etc, asphalt racing only) so the investors can feedback on input, handling FFB etc. After that, additional content will be decided on by the investors.
As for the car brands that will be featured, this will also be depending on licensing (=money).
What tracks will be in the game?
TBA
Will there be a demo?
The base game will be free-to-play, so no demo is required. Additional content (cars, tracks) will be paid content.
What will be in the first build, what graphics/wheels/sound systems/etc. will it support?
It's a surprise. And it's a first build, so things will be missing or not working properly. That's where the community/investor testing and input comes in.
Three months ago, Slightly Mad Studios’ Ian Bell shared his vision of a community-funded simulation title right here on VirtualR. What many may have dismissed as a very much utopianklar vision has gotten extremely real as the studio has been hard at work for the past few months to turn a great idea into a working project.
Named Community Assisted Race Sim, or C.A.R.S. for short, the project will allow ordinary sim racers to become investors in a racing simulation title and get a share of the profits and unmatched access to the development process and a say in the title’s direction.
For the past few months, the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have been hard at work on all fronts as Ian Bell has revealed some exclusive details on the team’s progress. The legal work on the project has just been completed and SMS is ready to launch the project’s website and accept investors within the next 2-3 weeks.
The studio will be offering investment options that will fit any budged, starting out with a 5€ option ending with gold-level commitment of 1000€ and beyond. All investors will be getting access to downloadable development builds throughout the development process, the level of investment will determine the amount of influence each member has though.
While every investor will get to vote on the direction the new title will take, gold members get to participate in board meetings where the bigger calls will be made, always considering the requests from the regular investors. Gold members will even get source-code access to the simulation while smaller investors will be given script access to play with.
Slightly Mad Studios promise a completely transparent development process as all investors get to follow every single bit of progress and every single discussion the developers will be having. The SMS team will work out in the open for all investors to see, there will be no closed-off development forum as all investors get to follow everything the development team does, “even the arguments,” as Ian Bell points out.
C.A.R.S will be used the stripped-down Shift 2 Unleashed engine as starting point, as the team will be adding new modules to it during the course of the development process, including a new DirectX 11 renderer, a new physics engine and new AI. Slightly Mad Studios expect a development cycle of at least 12 months until the finished product is ready, however all investors will be getting access to development builds throughout the process to keep everyone entertained.
Below is a first high-resolution preview, showing an immensely-detailed historical Lotus Formula One car in the garage. SMS is planning to release the first build shortly after the first investors joined, the first release will include a handful of cars and tracks to try out. The base content won’t be too advanced though as the investors will have the final say in the direction that the title will take and what content will be included.
SMS is planning to have fully-licensed content in the finished product, the team may be dealing with generic content in the development builds though while the licensing is being finalised in the background.
For years now, sim racers have been bemoaning the publishers lack of interest in sim racing and the missing influence on developing titles. It looks like Slightly Mad Studios will be changing all that with C.A.R.S.
************************************************** ************************************************** *********************
Slightly Mad will take 30 per cent of profits with the remainder divided up amongst the community based on the amount of shares in a game they own.
Slightly Mad is targeting individuals and fans with shares in the games priced a $5 and $10, $250 options for groups, $1000 for small businesses and large companies and investors can get involved with contributions of $100,000. Longer-term, subscribers can also benefit when PC games are ported to other formats.
Based on a two year development cycle at a cost of $5 million, Slightly Mad estimates that a $10 share will return $35 if the game hits a $25 million profit, or 657,000 traditional retail sales. A $250 share will return $875 and a $100,000 share $350,000.
Slightly Mad is targeting three million sales of C.A.R.S., a 90 per cent Metacritic and a profit of $52 million. The free-to-play game will include microtransactions priced from 10 cents to $10 and the company has already licensed a number of tracks and manufacturers.
In the long run, C.A.R.S. is only the beginning though as Slightly Mad Studios are looking to push their innovative concept way past the confines of the virtual racing genre. Called “World of Mass Development”, the service will be offered to other developers as well who can fund their own titles without being restricted by a big publisher and giving investors insight into a transparent development process while providing a solid financial return for shareholders.
“Traditional development puts developers at the mercy of publishers,” Slightly Mad Studios commented. “Although it supplies the necessary funds to develop games with proper QA testing and development cycles, it also makes the development cycle subject to business matters such as financial quarters, company profits and marketing budgets. The development process offered by WMD shifts the focus back to creating great games that your target audience wants to play, whilst still offering the chance to get proper funding for development and testing.”
************************************************** ************************************************** **
How can I invest?
Everything will be explained soon on the website WMD Portal
What platform will it be developed on?
The game will be developed on PC, DX11, and back-ported to DX9 and consoles.
Will it be a hardcore sim or arcade?
In the end that will be decided by the community/investors, but the initial aim will be a full/hardcore sim with aids and adjustments to cater for the casual player as well.
Will the game have surround sound?
The game will use a 3D Sound system is using fmod so 5.1 and 7.1 are supported.
What will the graphics engine look like?
The graphics are DX11 including FXAA, depth of field, screen space ambient occlusion, motion-blur and shadows will be improved in DX11 initially, with appropriate back-ports to DX9 and consoles. The engine will use deferred rendering like in Shift 2.
Are those screenshots really in-game graphics?
Yes they are, they show the actual game rendering engine at work with the car in the pit/garage.
What cars will be in the game?
The game will provide a base car from each of the main types (single seater, endurance, historic etc, asphalt racing only) so the investors can feedback on input, handling FFB etc. After that, additional content will be decided on by the investors.
As for the car brands that will be featured, this will also be depending on licensing (=money).
What tracks will be in the game?
TBA
Will there be a demo?
The base game will be free-to-play, so no demo is required. Additional content (cars, tracks) will be paid content.
What will be in the first build, what graphics/wheels/sound systems/etc. will it support?
It's a surprise. And it's a first build, so things will be missing or not working properly. That's where the community/investor testing and input comes in.