We chatted with Florent Castelnérac, one of the founders and director of Nadeo, who tells us about his goals with this return of the saga.
The TrackMania saga is back. Not with a new installment, but with the remake of the work that started it all. Ubisoft Nadeo, studio responsible for the saga and connoisseurs both this and the ShootMania saga since its foundation in 2000, has been growing and understanding what its players are looking for; a dedicated, faithful community that will now have the opportunity to return to its origins with a video game that is clear about what it wants to be and how it seeks to establish itself in the market. We have interviewed Florent Castelnérac to tell us more about the work.
A videogame lover since he was a child, Castelnérac founded Nadeo with the intention of combining the craziest speed simulators with the most competitive side. For this reason TrackMania has always opted to measure times, being demanding at the controls. Before July 1, when it will be released on PC through the Epic Games Store under a free to play model, the title will have a campaign model with rotation every three months. To this we must add the circuit editor (which we can share with others), 25 well-known tracks and the League of Nations, a competitive mode that will be renewed every week. Those who prefer it, will be able to pay 10 euros a year for Standard Access and 30 euros a year for the Club Access pack, which will give access to more tools, competitions and circuits without waiting for the quarterly rotations.
The TrackMania team is made up of approximately 50 people, a large team that is allowing them to be more ambitious and aspire to a title that is not only more polished, but bigger and constantly evolving. A reboot.
Florent Castelnérac, founding member and director of Nadeo
TrackMania wants to be more than a remake: improve the original title
“My main goal with this game is to give the opportunity to have a deeper game with which to continue inviting us to trace each curve in order to remember thousandths of a second. We still like the tracks we designed in 2006, ”he begins, saying, one of the reasons that the idea of remaking the original title fourteen years ago didn't seem like a bad idea.
"I think we can get stronger now that we have a bigger team. We also have the opportunity to take a step forward with the TrackMania series this year 2020 and do something more complex than in the previous installments. In other words, our goal is to make an episode that is better than the original game ”after learning from the latest iterations. More and better.
Our question is clear: why a remake instead of an entirely new chapter? Castelnérac is clear: “When we make a new episode of TrackMania, what we want is to do something different; and we didn't want people to believe that replacing things with others wasn't going to be enough. If playing basketball or soccer games, improving as usual is enough. In our case we need to reinvent ourselves, it is somewhat complicated. It is normal that we wait longer when we have better technology, so we wanted to take a new step by improving the original game, to modernize it and equip it with that more capable current technology. ”
The director of Ubisoft Nadeo also confirms that the 60 FPS are not debatable: "It is something very important, it has to be that way", so the future players of the title will not regret this aspect even on low-end computers. “This installment will be purer and will have a more sense of scale, with more emphasis on detail. Everything will look better because we have designed the game with a clearer interface without losing sight of the small details: the lighting, dust particles… We are paying more attention to the definition of each detail ”.
Launch on consoles (PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch), soon to know
Although it does not know if in the future they will launch a version of the game on consoles such as PS5 and Xbox Series X, the new generation machines from Sony and Microsoft, it is something that they will consider once they are on sale. For now, however, this option is not on the table. "We would like to be able to launch TrackMania on consoles. Now is not the right time to explore it, but we will do so soon after evaluating the reception of the game within the community. First we have to launch the game, take note and observe. Making games for more platforms extends their potential, but right now I don't know what TrackMania's future is. ”
To extend the popularity of the game over the months, Ubisoft Nadeo will publish rotating content every quarter. In this way, at each station we will have news apart from their campaigns. They will also incorporate in this installment "the track of the day", with which everyone should try to get the best possible score. “It is going to be a very dynamic game, with changes every hour. Like when you access an information journal, where you always find news on the cover. ”
Completing development has been “a challenge” during the coronavirus. Working from home has been a challenge because there were “many new employees” not so familiar with receiving remote feedback, working alone. But the director of Nadeo describes the final result as satisfactory.
Why the name change? From TrackMania Nations to TrackMania
“We had many names on the table for the game: Clubs, Sports, Nations, Seasons… The idea is that this TrackMania felt as pure as the original TrackMania; that when you picked it up you knew it was just that: TrackMania ”, he begins saying. "We wanted a timeless name that continues to be valid over the years because this title will be constantly evolving." Therefore, the main idea is to remove surnames and make a kind of reboot. "I loved the name of TrackMania Nations, but for all of us it's better just like that."
All in all, next July 1st the traffic lights will turn green with the biggest game in TrackMania history to date: content, renewal and evolution.
