This interview with Stéphane de Bank was conducted during a visit to the Kylotonn studios (find the introduction here). In his position as Lead Level Designer, Stéphane leads a team of five people, the "LD", responsible for designing the levels and therefore, for WRC, the tracks.
We will leave aside the case of super specials, very short races, lasting one to two minutes on average, which are recreated on a 1-1 scale. These layouts require little design, unlike the enormous work carried out on all the others, to define their own identity. Indeed, KT has decided not to reproduce these routes identically, in order to offer a short and entertaining experience to players, and not the often repetitive tens of kilometers imposed by the local road services.
The first step is to find out about the destination. All sources are good to take: shots from inside the vehicles during the WRC races, images on Google, videos on YouTube... A country-specific trend emerges. For example, the very clean side of Japanese roads. The specific Mediterranean vegetation of Italy, Sardinia or Corsica. Then, you have to highlight the key moments of each plot. A collar. A turning point. A building. It is often these passages that are shown on television, amateurs must find them in game. It is also at this time that the characteristics are defined. Because even if, unlike many games, the designers rely on immutable rules, without any progression because they are taken from the official FIA regulations, the destinations must vary the pleasures and modify the game parameters. the route will be rough (Turkey), slow, smooth, fast (Chile), difficult... What will be the distribution of the surfaces (gravel, earth or tarmac)? Will the feeling be that of a vast open space or, on the contrary, enclosed? Will the route evolve in the middle of nature (Finland), in a forest, or in a city (small or large)?
Different possibilities are explored and conceptualized on plots made in 2D, before being transposed into the 3D editor. Then begin the tests at twenty km/h, track by track, to check that the feeling is good at every moment of the four to five minutes of the race. Ensuring consistent quality across all routes proved to be a real challenge. With twenty-two countries and an average of four to five routes per country, this gives end to end eighteen hours of driving necessary to discover the whole (imagine not exceeding twenty an hour). Difficult to get a good overview.
The LD works closely with several other teams within KT. On the engine and gameplay side, they respond to their specific requests, such as adjusting the way vehicles and/or scenery react (rolling), or creating tools to facilitate design. The graphic designers are responsible for creating the visual elements around the plot and defining the overall colorimetry. Anything within a meter or two of the road falls under the immediate responsibility of the LD. The placement of each element is done by hand. When you roll, you can tell yourself that every obstacle you run into, be it a wall, a haystack, or a barrier, was placed there by a vicious developer! Beyond that, the vegetation and the general decor are created by the graphic designers, with here less manual tools, and more procedural generation, while always remaining within the overall theme. In order to preserve this identity specific to each route, down to the shape and density of the vegetation and the urban landscape.
If you feel like an explorer, know that the team had fun hiding many private jokes... if you have the time, and the motivation, all you have to do is look for these references in the vicinity of the routes. The challenge is on!
