VANCOUVER, British Columbia – ModNation Racers  already made an impression with Sony – so much so that the game was featured in its 3D presentation this past July. This December, PlayStation 3 gamers will get their first hands-on experience with the debut title from Vancouver-based start-up development studio United Front Games. Sony is releasing a three-track Beta version of ModNation Racers to anyone who buys the latest retail version of LittleBigPlanet, as well as other PS3 gamers. The final boxed copy of the new kart racer will ship in Spring 2010. But since this game, like the aforementioned LittleBigPlanet, focuses on user-generated content, Beta players will be able to start creating custom tracks this year.

Judging from how easy it is to create characters, karts and entire tracks from a recent press event at United Front Games, that Beta program will be generating a lot of replay value. William Ho, game designer at United Front Games, talks about ModNation Racers and what gamers have in store when they pick up this very unique PS3 kart racer in this exclusive interview.

What are the game options in ModNation Racers?

We have multiple skill levels for various players, so you can tailor quick races to the appropriate skill level.  This allows players to make it easier for kids or harder for adults, or vice versa.  There is going to be a single player campaign, which introduces you to various levels of AI opponents, so you can figure out what level you want to play at.  Also, when you go online, we automatically tailor the difficulty of the AI opponents to the skill levels of the players and the matches.  You can either set it yourself in single-player, or online we will actually do the work for you.

What are some of the weapons that are in the game?

Weapons galore

With the weapons we really wanted somewhat familiar player mechanics that you have in your standard shooter like your bombs and traps.  We also wanted to introduce a number of weapons that we’d not yet seen in an arcade kart title, so we went with more bad-ass weapons.  We have lots of missiles, we have secret missiles, we also have ripple effect bombs like a sonic boom.  We have grenades that you can lob. We also have a weapon called “the portal” which actually teleports you from one part of the track to another, so it has a bit of a sci-fi bent.  We didn’t feel limited by current weapons.  We really tried to brainstorm about some that look and feel fresh to the genre, but are still really easy to learn and fun to play.

How does the shield work in this game?

Sometimes it’s frustrating in these games where you’re leading a race, and basically you’re defenseless.  You’re a sitting duck when you lead, and there isn’t really an incentive to lead. So we invented the shield, which lets you use energy that you pick up.  You can drift, you can catch big air, you can do spins in the air and it all gives you energy. And you can choose to use that energy to either boost your kart, or if you’re in the lead or want to protect yourself from incoming weapons, you can just hit the circle button and protect yourself.  Someone who’s in the lead can do all these tricks, they can do all these stunts, and they can protect their lead if they can time the shield right.

Can you talk a little bit about the drifting and what the strategy is with that?

Yeah, absolutely.  Drifting has always been fun.  People love drifting.  Drifting lets you carry more speed into turns, and also gives you more control like getting through tight turns, but also the longer you hold the drift, the more energy we add to your meter.  There’s a bit of a risk reward because the longer you hold the drift in the turn, the more energy you’re gonna get, but there’s more of a chance that someone’s gonna hit you with a weapon, or you’re gonna hit a wall.  In which case, you actually lose the energy that you’ve earned on that drift.  There’s a bit of a risk/reward mechanic there.

Racing action

And you reward expert drifters visually, as well, correct?

Oh, yeah. We have these flaming trails that follow your kart.  We just thought that looked cool.  [Laughs]  It means that you’ve sustained your drift long enough that we felt, you’re on fire. It just looks cool.

How many karts will be racing in this game?

Right now we have 12 carts on the track in single player.  It’s a full field of customized characters and karts.  Online, we haven’t finalized the number, but we want a maximum number of players in online races.  Right now we have 12 running really, really rock solid.  We hope to add more, but we’re gonna finalize that number in the months to come.

If you’re playing through a career, are there any types of attributes that you acquire that make your vehicle or your driver better?

Not really.  We really wanted to keep it as simple as possible.  We didn’t want a game where people have to tweak this attribute, or go into an RPG kind of depth.  We really want people to express themselves, but not feel like they’re painting themselves into a corner if they make the wrong decision.  Also, having parity in races means that everyone has a chance to finish well, and win the races.  It’s more about your skill within the race, and less about your skill about tuning, and tweaking, and playing with points and attributes.

Sony just announced Facebook will connect with trophies. What are your thoughts about that aspect of being able to brag about what you’ve done in the game?

We have a number of social network features on the go right now, but we’re not ready to announce any of that yet.  We’ll definitely talk about it in the coming months.

What impact do you see the user-generated content meets the social networking phenomenon?

Track Editor

Philosophically, to me, I love it because it’s a way for players to remain connected with their games, and with those game’s communities even when they’re aware from their PlayStation 3.  I could be at work, or I could be at Starbucks on my laptop, and I can still tap into that community and feel like I’m participating in it.  It pulls me back to the game, so the next time I’m in my living room on my couch playing my PS3, I know exactly what I want to do next.  It just keeps me engaged in that game.