Slightly

ISSUE 2 | VOLUME 1 | YEAR 2018 MAD W rld

WATERAID,SMS, & WMD INDUSTRY LEGEND BRINGING CLEAN WATER TO COMMUNITIES IN NEED PAUL “RUSHY” RUSTCHYNSKY AROUND THE GLOBE page 3 JOINS

Paul “Rushy” Rustchynsky is the newest high-profile addition to join Slightly Mad Studios this year as the studio looks to strengthen its team and product line. PAUL Paul made the announcement on his feed on August 28th: RUSTCHYNSKY “Today is the beginning of my new adventure at Slightly Mad Stu- INDUSTRY LEGEND BRING- dios! I’ll be joining as Game Director on a project & I can’t wait to ING HIS UNIQUE VISION TO share more about what’s to come,” he wrote. SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS page 4 Paul has been a celebrity game designer within the racing genre for a decade now, serving as director at , where he en- joyed much critical and commercial success with heavyweight racing games Motorstorm and , before shifting over to developing the much-anticipated Onrush that was released earlier this year. PROJECT CARS GO GAMEVIL AND SMS ON THE Paul brings 15-years of top-flight experience to Slightly Mad Studios, VERGE OF REDEFINING RAC- having begun his career in QA, cutting his teeth in game development at ING GAMES ON MOBILE Codemaster’s before his stint at Evolution Studios brought him page 5 worldwide fame. GAMEVIL AND SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS SEE OLIVER ERIKSSON THE FINISH LINE WITH PROJECT CARS GO RALLYCROSS WORLD CHAM- PION & SMS CONSULTANT Pete Morrish, Director of Production at Slightly Mad Studios, took a few page 6 minutes to give a behind-the-scenes look at the current state of develop- ment on Project CARS GO.

The game will be the Project CARS franchise’s debut on mobile. To get it STEPHEN right, the studio is working closely with mobile game specialists Gamevil. BAYSTED Find out about the challenges of bringing the Project CARS franchise to the AWARD-WINNING COMPOS- mobile space along with a new MADNESS Touch engine here. ER WHO SCORES THE MUSIC page 7 Nic Hamilton at the Autosport Awards

Slightly Mad Studios handling consultant Nic Hamilton was at the all-star Autosport gala to pick up brother Lewis Hamiton’s British Competition Driver and International Racing Driver of iOTECH the Year awards, presented by Pirelli Autosport. BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS IOTECH GETS UP TO SPEED “The 2018 Autosport Awards is always a great occasion,” said Nic, “and it was a fantastic opportunity for me to get on stage page 8 in front of the ‘Motorsport World’ and announce my 2019 plans in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). It was a very proud and special moment.” Nic Hamilton has been working with Slightly Mad Studios for close on half-a-decade, and has been 1 celebrated for his inspirational fight against cerebral palsy. SLIGHTLY MAD NEWS SLIGHTLY MAD NEWS FROM AROUND THE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE GLOBE WORLD’S FIRST AT ESPORTS RACING IBC18 SHOW HUB WITH Veloce Esports, a pro esports The global esports market, team and consultancy agency, which is set to be worth over launched their “esports racing $2 billion by 2023, was firmly hub” in London this August. on the agenda at IBC2018.

The challenges and opportuni- Pay it Forward The venue, which runs the ties that global esports repre- Project CARS game, features sent were examined across the SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS DONATES a state-of-the-art 200-degree IBC Show, with events looking full-motion simulator. at media rights, sustainable £48,000 TO WATERAID commercial models, as well as Veloce Esports was co-found- the technologies and services Slightly Mad Studios has donated £48,000 to international char- ed by Formula E champion required to support the rapid ity WaterAid. Jean-Eric Vergne, who uses growth of the sector. the venue to train and lives- The company chose to support WaterAid with this donation in tream elite racing events. As esports engage a younger order to make a positive contribution towards delivering clean (More here) demographic along with rising water, decent toilets, and good hygiene for everyone, every- revenues, traditional broad- where. casters are faced with new, in- dustry-disrupting challenges. The funds were donated through some of the revenue gener- THE ated from a community-based funding system developed by INTER-SCHOOL How esports is challenging Slightly Mad Studios and their WMD (“World of Mass Develop- ESPORTS the traditional sports sector ment”) initiative. CHALLENGE for the elusive 18-to-25 demo- SRI LANKA graphic was paramount to the Members could choose to take the final payment or donate to a discussions, as well as what charity that helps transform the lives of children, and WaterAid The Inter-School esports the future holds for esports was the chosen beneficiary. Championship, organized by partnerships, players, and Gamer.LK and powered by broadcasters alike. Marcus Missen, Director of Communications and Fundraising at Dialog Gaming, was held on WaterAid, said: “We are hugely grateful to Slightly Mad Studios 22nd & 23rd September 2018 Delegates also had the oppor- and the members of their World of Mass Development initiative at the Trace Expert City Bay tunity to take part in the IBC for their generous donation to WaterAid. 7 in Colombo, featuring Pro- esports racing challenge that “Every single day, around 800 children die from diarrheal diseas- ject CARS. This tournament featured a full Project Cars 2 es caused by a lack of clean water and decent toilets. Improving was open to all students in Sri simulator on which visitors, access to these basic services transforms lives—keeping children Lanka, and you can read how delegates, and exhibitors test- healthy and in school, and giving their families the time and op- this initiative combines with IT ed their skills on the Slightly portunity to earn a living. Just £15 can get one person clean wa- seminars to open-up the world Mad Studios-developed game. ter, and so the money raised by Slightly Mad Studios really will of technology and the future (More here) make a big difference to lives around the world.” (READ ON) to Sri Lanka’s kids here.

Stephen Baysted scores the game

Stephen Baysted, Sound and Music Director at Slightly Mad Studios, is an award-winning media composer in the games, film, and television industries. The 49-year-old has composed music scores and designed sound for a string of award-winning games, numerous film scores, as well as for TV for Channel 5, PBS, and the Smithsonian.

Stephen has also composed music for radio adverts, including high-profile campaigns for Budweis- er, McDonald’s, Samsung, and Pizza Hut. He has been nominated for two Motion Picture Sound Ed- itors ‘Golden Reel’ Awards, three Jerry Goldsmith Awards, two Game Audio Network Guild Awards, two , and is the winner of the Best Original Score for his music in Submerged at the WildSound festival.

He is also Professor of Film, TV and Games Composition at the University of Chichester and the Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Sound and Music in Games”. He was kind enough to find some time to share his thoughts on the ever-fascinating world of sound and music in 2 the world of video games for us. You can read Stephen’s impressions here. International development charity WaterAid believes that pro- SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS viding access to clean water and overcoming sanitation issues are the first essential steps to overcoming poverty and creating DONATES £48,000 TO resilient communities. WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and WATERAID good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a gener- ation. The international not-for-profit organization works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginal- ized people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 25.8 million peo- ple with clean water and 25.1 million people with decent toilets.

For more information, visit www.wateraid.org, follow @Wate- rAidUK or @WaterAidPress on Twitter, or find WaterAid UK on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wateraid.

• 844 million people in the world—one in nine—do not have clean water close to home.

• 2.3 billion people in the world—almost one in three— “At Slightly Mad Studios, we have always been inspired by our com- do not have a decent toilet of their own. munity. In turn, we have always tried to give back what and where we can: from recruiting talent from within the community to invit- • Around 289,000 children under five die every year from ing our community to help create our chart-busting games, giving diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. back is an integral part of who we are as a company. That’s almost 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes. “With this donation to help transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest communities, our WMD members have, once again, • Every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of inspired me with their trust, kindness, and commitment to instinc- £4 in increased productivity. tively helping those in need. As a studio, we’re all proud and thank- ful to be able to offer this donation to WaterAid on behalf of our community, but particularly on behalf of our generous WMD mem- • Just £15 can provide one person with clean water. bers. We continue to be inspired by the good that we can create as a community, together.” To find out if countries are keeping their promises von water — Ian Bell, CEO, Slightly Mad Studios and sanitation, see the online database www.WASHwatch.org

SLIGHTLY MAD NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

IS ALLERIC “ULTI” ENSLIN AFRICA’S PROJECT CARS TIPS OVER 3MM FASTEST RACER?

Fighting to be Africa’s fastest esports racer is hard-work: Ask The Project CARS franchise, which saw its initial release in May 19-year-old Enslin, who hammers out over 50 hours a week prac- of 2015, has now netted over 3 million sales worldwide across ticing on Project CARS 2. all major platforms. Project CARS, which stands for “Communi- ty Assisted Racing Simulator”, was created with a budget of just Even more astonishing? The Project CARS World Championship $5 million with funding raised by the community and the studio driver still uses the same wheel he was gifted when was 4 years itself. Project CARS 2, the second release (Sept 2017) for the fran- old! You can read all about his unlikely rise to the top in his inter- chise, continued the franchise’s success-story. The franchise is view with RedBull here. scheduled to debut on mobile in 2019. 3 INDUSTRY LEGEND PAUL “RUSHY” RUSTCHYNSKY

Paul on: the yoyo nature of game dev Paul on: 3 games to I think most people forget that the gaming industry is still take to Mars in its infancy. Working practices, development techniques, If I was on Mars alone, that’d and levels of professionalism have improved dramatical- rule out any online or co-op ly in my time in the industry. Having said that, we’re still games, so I’d want 3 endlessly learning how best to make games as an industry, and part playable games that I could of that is why it’s such an exciting place to work, as things happily play for a lifetime never stand still. My first choice would the ulti- mate form of Tetris, the very I’ve been so lucky to have been involved for such a long recent Tetris Effect, a game time—even with the ups and downs—and being part of that never grows old. I’d play its evolution. Now it’s time for another new chapter for it in VR whilst attempting to me, creating another new game using all of the lessons finally get the Decahextris, I’ve learned whilst also trying to keep up the latest trends in Perfectris, and Ultimatris games development. It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s awards. why we do it, right? Second would be Minecraft Paul on: the future of racing as it’s a platform for limit- games less creativity. Here I could What excites me most about the racing explore, create and survive in genre right now is the sheer quality a world of my own. and diversity of racing games on offer. I don’t think it’s heading in any one And this last particular direction, instead we’re game isn’t seeing growthin all areas, as the au- … the effects that esports is having on both the genre as endlessly dience for racing games continues and real-world motorsports—games are changing the playable as my to expand, which can only be a great face of actual racing, providing new and more previous choic- thing! I’ve had lots of fun making rac- accessible ways to get into the sport... es, but it’s my ers over the years, pushing bounda- favorite game ries and innovating along the way. I of all time. only hope that we, as an industry, can continue to challenge ourselves to make the best arcade and is a game that sim style racers, bringing fresh and exciting ways to race to all players. I’ll simply never tire of, I’ve completed it numerous times already, but could happily run Paul on: racing games for a generation that is turning away from mo- through the stunning gothic torsport world slaying monsters for I absolutely think that there’s space for the traditional racer, there’s a large audience who live and a lifetime on Mars—or even breathe motorsport, so I don’t they’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. And what I find interesting Earth! right now about this space arethe effects that esports is having on both the genre and real-world motorsports, as I’d argue that games are changing the face of actual racing, providing new and more accessible ways to get into the sport.

Like any medium or genre, though, you’ve got adapt to the ever-evolving needs and demands of players. I think SMS are doing a great job of that right now, catering to such a wide audience, with the ultimate simulation in the form of the business-to-business Project CARS PRO and, at the oppo- site end of the spectrum, with Project CARS GO, which is set to innovate within the mobile market.

Paul on: initial impressions of Slightly Mad Studios It has been an exciting few months for me, it’s a completely unique environment, unlike any job I’ve had before. It takes a short while to adjust to working from home after being in an office for all those years, but once you get over that hurdle and realize all the benefits, it’s great.

One of the best things has to be being able to work with such a diverse and talented team from around the world. Plus, I’m amazed just how well commu- nications work despite not being face-to-face with 4 anyone. PROJECT CARS GO PETE MORRISH What are some of the biggest challenges in porting Project CARS to the What did SMS as a mobile space? studio bring to the The two main things were the control system, and the metagame. The control system was all us: project? distilling down Project CARS into something more appropriate for mobile. And we think we’ve A lot of experience in racing done it without losing what the Project CARS franchise is all about. games and racing simulations. We know racing inside-out The metagame is all the stuff outside the core racing and progression—earning money, buying and back-to-front, and al- upgrades, all that sort of thing. And although we knew some of the theory in the mobile space, though we’re a small team, we we’re by no means experts. Gamevil are. They helped identify and design a metagame that sup- punch well above our weight. ported and respected the brand and the gameplay. In the space of two games,

How did Gamevil help find solutions to these challenges? we’ve made Project CARS Simply put, they’ve done this before. A lot of times. When we first started working with Gamevil, something that’s talked about we had a very early proof-of-concept up and running. We knew the game was going to be fun alongside the likes of Gran in and of itself; luckily, Gamevil agreed. They understood what it was we were trying to achieve Turismo and Forza Motorsport. by taking Project CARS into the mobile space, and—as huge fans of the franchise themselves— worked hard on taking their experience with mobile gaming on one side, and our experience with That brings us respect, and it racing on the other. We’ve ended up with something where each benefits the other. brings us business. We have licensors—car manufactur- ers, track owners, etc.—that As a studio, you guys are accustomed to working on your own vision, actively want to work with us, but with Gamevil, there’s a second party involved in the development and that want their products phase of the project. How has the experience been from a creative and brands in our games. We also know what the end viewpoint? result—Project CARS on a mo- On the contrary—we almost always work with external publishers. And Gamevil have been bile platform—needs to look, exemplary. When working with a new publisher, there’s always an initial worry that they mightn’t feel, and smell like. We’ll get be good to work with, or they might be too controlling, or they might just not care, or they might the nuance right in a way that do nothing for ages before suddenly becoming too controlling, or some other developer horror other developers, without our story (and we’ve all got ‘em!), but signs from Gamevil were very good from the get-go. They were experience and background, true fans of the franchise, and were genuinely excited to be working on Project CARS. More than just can’t. that, they respected the franchise—rather than just get into ‘we’re making a car game’ mode, they took great effort to understand why we did what we did withProject CARS, what’s important to us and to the franchise, and to design and position their metagame and feedback as something What did Gamevil that could support and complement the core franchise, rather than just be something that shares bring to the project? a logo. They’re a great partner. They’re experts when it comes to mobile gaming and metagame design, in live Gamevil were very good from the get-go. They were true ops, in community building, and so on. They’ve launched fans of the franchise, and were genuinely excited to be countless very successful working on Project CARS. More than they, they respect- mobile titles to market, and ed the franchise—rather than just get into ‘we’re making so have experience that we simply don’t—and, moreover, a car game’ mode, they took great effort to understand experience that we couldn’t why we did what we did with Project CARS, what’s im- get quickly, and likely couldn’t portant to us and the franchise, and to design and po- just buy in. sition their metagame and feedback as something that They’ve also got technical could support and complement the core franchise solutions for online function- ality, server-side tech, and 5 customer relations. to get the upper hand over my competitors in everything, RX2 WORLD CHAMPION so of course when most of them had already driven on the tracks that we visited this OLIVER ERIKSSON year, I had some catching up Oliver Eriksson was just a fresh-faced, excitable young racer with a to do. This is where Project CARS 2 really helped me. To great career ahead of him when, 18 months ago, he joined Slightly Mad be prepared for every week- Studios as a Handling Consultant on Project CARS 2. end and for every track that we were up against. Oliver contributed enormously to the feel of the Rallycross cars in- game. He also joined the studio at the industry’s ‘ 2017’ Oliver on: how to event, where he demonstrated his immense prowess behind the wheel drive super-quick Give us three top tips that in exhibition races alongside the rest of the studio’s list of world-class sim-racers could use to im- race-driver consultants. prove their speed and their race craft on gravel. The best tip I can give is to In 2018, Oliver had an absolutely phenomenal season of racing. He find that fine balance -be switched focus from the national Red Bull GRC series in the USA and tween being aggressive and moved to Europe to concentrate of the FIA World Rallycross Champion- being smooth. Normally you ship. He started out in the RX2 support class, and put his talents to the just want to be aggressive in the entry of the corner test against the world’s best young Rallycross stars. but as soon as you get the rotation going you have to By season’s end, Oliver was the RX2 World Champion. We caught up change your driving into being smooth to get the best with him for a chat about an amazing year of racing and success. possible exit by maintaining the momentum. Late braking is important too. Just because it’s slippery doesn’t necessar- ily mean it that the braking is less efficient. The car brakes when going sideways so by braking a little later and using a little more rotation, you can become more efficient. Final- ly, in Rallycross I always focus on corner exits. The sooner you can get on full throt- tle, the quicker you will be through the corner, so some- times you should sacrifice a tenth in entry or mid corner to Oliver on: an incredible season of racing get a perfect exit. Yeah, the 2018 season has been fantastic! I’ve competed in three different series. Won two and came second in one. I won RallyXOnIce, I came second in RallyX Nordic Supercar, and I’m now the Follow Oliver’s racing champion of the RX2 World Series. at: This year it really felt like a lot of pieces fell into place. I brought over all of the experience that Facebook: https://www.face- I gained in USA, and of course the engineering communication has been a lot easier since the book.com/erikssonoliver16/ development work I did with Slightly Mad Studios for Project CARS 2. Instagram: https://www.insta- gram.com/olivereriksson16/ Oliver on: the challenges of global competition Twitter: https://twitter.com/ Outside of my own racing career, I’ve actually been quite used to travelling. My dad drove in the olieriksson European Rallycross Championship when I was growing up, so I’ve basically lived in race paddocks And his team channel: around Europe all my life, but of course competing in the world series there are some @OlsbergsMSE longer distances to travel, but I’ve learned some tricks to keep me sharp along the way.

Oliver on: developing the feel of Rallycross Lites in-game The in-game car handles as a winning car in real life should. It’s perfect for me as a driver in the se- ries because I can use the sim driving to be more prepared for the next upcoming race. Since the handling is so good and most of the championship tracks are in the game, I find it easier and fast- er to learn tracks, and I can use the time that I save there to perfect the setup of my car instead.

Oliver on: using Project CARS 2 Preparation is everything in motorsport and as RX2 is a spec series It’s even more impor- 6 tant. We need every little detail to be absolutely prefect, and that includes the driver! I try SCORING THE GAME STEPHEN BAYSTED You’ve composed music for pretty much every industry—adverts, mov- What has been your ies, TV, and games. Which gives you a greater sense of achievement? most satisfying, This is a difficult question as they are all so different. On balance, I’d have to say games. Games proudest achieve- differ fundamentally from the other genres in that games are non-linear and that poses specific challenges for the composer. ment? Seeing Project CARS and Pro- ject CARS 2 released; these are When scoring for games, what’s the “purpose”? Is it unique for every the work of people who I’ve game, or is there a defining goal that you’re trying to achieve? known and worked alongside There’s always a concept, an aesthetic and a goal, and as each game is unique, the music needs for almost 20 years now. to reflect that. ForProject CARS 2, for example, I wanted to explore the range of emotions and psychological states that a racing driver experiences and their responses to them. The music rang- If you had to choose 3 es, therefore, from dramatic, powerful and intense to more contemplative, symbolic of an inner strength and courage that drivers seem to possess. CDs for a trip to Mars, which 3 would they be? Being able to record the score to Project Cars 2 at the Ouch—tough question! What’s a CD? (…only kidding). iconic Air Lyndhurst studios in London, with some of the Off the top of my head right finest musicians in the world from the London Metro- now: Vaughn Williams’s Fan- tasia on a Theme by Thomas politan Orchestra ... Tallis; U2’s Joshua Tree; and Zimmer’s score to Interstellar. Ask me tomorrow, and the an- Scoring for a seems a strange ask for a composer. How swer would be very different I suspect. do you go about this? Where do you even begin? It is even more problematic than the question suggests since in racing simulations, music is never heard during gameplay, so all of the work of the composer and the impact on the player has to What is the stand-out happen during the menu system. I always try to immerse the player in the sound world of motor moment in your ca- racing and prepare them for what they are about to do. This means not only composing music reer? that represents the driver’s battle with his or her adversaries, but the internal, psychological bat- Being able to record the score tle with fear. I also use race day atmospheric sound design to help situate the player more readily, to Project CARS 2 at the iconic and in Project CARS 2 you will hear voice over commentary and reflection from Ben Collins. Air Lyndhurst studios in Lon- don, with some of the finest How did you get into making music for games? And how would you musicians in the world from suggest kids who are interested in this as a career go about dipping the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Thanks Ian! their toes in? Like many things in life, it was a happy accident. Back around the turn of the millennium, dial-up internet was just about stable enough and fast enough to allow multi-player racing online. One of the people I raced with and got to know well was Ian Bell—CEO of Slightly Mad Studios. I can’t remember exactly when a group of us, led by Ian, decided to make our first mod but it must have been 2000 or 2001. By 2003 we were working on our first commercial release: GTR: FIA GT Racing Watch Stephen Baysted at Game. How to get into composing for games is a difficult question; some come from film and TV work at the Air Lyndhurst composition, others from the audio side. Regardless, my advice would be to study music serious- Studio here ly, both composition and music history, and then begin by finding mod teams to work with and try your hand out.

What has been your most challeng- ing composition project? The one I’m working on at the moment, but it’s one that I am not allowed to talk about! 7 project gives us a lot of insight IOTECH’S B2B APPROACH WITH NIMA AZARMGIN into the Chinese market. In fact, the particularly of this ioTech is the B2B branch to Slightly Mad Studios. The London-based en- market is that, although we tity develops applications based on the authoritative gaming technolo- are developing solutions for gy developed by Slight Mad Studios for professional markets focused professional customers, we on two main sectors: automotive, and location-based entertainment. need to always keep in mind end-users’ experience and ex- Nima Azarmgin, COO and managing director ioTech, explains how the pectations. That is the B2B2C approach. And it is a very market is adapting to changes, and how ioTech’s technology is uniquely enriching one, especially be- adapted to meeting the challenges of today. cause we discover an alterna- tive approach to amusement. ioTech is the B2B branch to Slightly Mad Studios. The London-based entity develops applications The project also allows us to based on the authoritative gaming technology developed by Slight Mad Studios for professional develop sustainable partner- markets. In particular, since the beginning, ioTech have mainly focused on two main sectors: auto- ships for the future. Indeed, motive, and location-based entertainment. we are confident that this project will open the doors The traditional automotive market is going through some fundamental changes. On the one to a vast market both in the hand, it needs to constantly adapt its design, production, and marketing processes in order to amusement industry, but also keep pace with competition. On the other hand, it has to increasingly integrate consumers’ in the LBE markets in China expectations and habits in these processes. In fact, globalization and digitalization push for more and in the rest of Asia. mass-customization which, in turn, heavily influence time-to-market of new products as well as new services designed to attract and retain customers. On the automotive side, thanks to a couple of recent In parallel, OEMs are faced with new challenges brought by projects with OEMs, we have the shift toward autonomous cars. These challenges are spe- proven our capabilities in the cific to the design and the engineering of autonomous cars professional virtual test-drive themselves. But they also relate to a totally new ecosystem domain. That allows us to in which OEMs have to evolve, one that relies on mass data provide solutions destined collections and analytics, and in which GAFAs and their likes to design departments for are far more advanced than OEMs. design visualization and val- idation or to car dealerships We therefore see new platforms of cooperation surface. for marketing applications. In complement to that, and in Finally, it appears that the whole business model of the in- collaboration with our SMS dustry is going to change with autonomous cars. Ownership colleagues, we have also built might soon become a concept of the past, being supplanted a major manufacturer’s test by the sharing economy, or the nascent notion of transport- track for design, and alterna- as-a-service which will make what was once a vehicle of tive marketing purposes. We freedom now a mere commodity. are in discussion with other partners for similar appli- In both cases, the market is massively investing time and re- cations, but also for more sources to survey innovative solutions in order to optimize their processes. More specifically, vir- engineering-oriented solu- tual reality or best, mixed realities applications developed in the gaming industry have emerged tions which are more bespoke as being instrumental to the automotive industry. One reason for that is tied to efficiency: -in and require a slightly different dustrial processes need to converge. The more design, engineering, and marketing departments approach. interact upfront, the closer they get to what the market is expecting from them. And current mixed-realities applications are making such interactions happen. 2019 is going to be an exciting year for ioTech with some Also, autonomous cars will never hit the tarmac in mass without consistent testing and validation interesting developments of the sensors they will be equipped with. That is simply because, if sensors malfunction, the car with respect to the projects will literally become a weapon of destruction. And such testing and validations can only be done that are in the pipelines and in virtual environments because they require millions of km of driving. in consequence the positive impact they will have upon Virtual-reality has also been a game changer in the location-based entertainment industry. The the teams. We now have a sol- latter, after the boom of good-old coin machines of the 80s, declined until recently when market id team of developers under players and developers started to see the infinite possibilities offered by VR. New experiences Fabio Corrirossi’s leadership. with enhanced players’ engagement, but also creation of bespoke content to attract new demo- The tech team covers the graphics, have emerged as some of the main trends of a rising multi-billion-dollar business. development of LBE solu- tions. In the automotive area, Simulation games have a place apart in this industry. First, they attract different demographics we are investigating the car than MMOs or FPS or other arcade games of that sort. Then they are readily spectacular and full configurator as part of our of suspense to the general public. In that respect, the Project CARS franchise has seen growing solutions, and will be hitting demand to address the specific needs of the two markets cited above. the market with a portfolio of applications as soon as Q1 ioTech is currently developing an attraction based on Project CARS 2 for a major Chinese theme 2019. We will also have to park operator. While keeping the content of Project CARS 2, we develop the interface as well as build a solid commercial and the logic, allowing operators in the attraction to manage the pods. Some of these devel- marketing pillar to support opments are done on an abstract basis. But most of them require bespoke development. the LBE developments. 8 We are collaborating with a local hardware manufacturer to develop the software. This PROJECT CARS & GLOBAL ESPORTS: McLaren, Logitech, Renault, and A1

The Project CARS esports scene has continued to grow from strength-to-strength in 2018, and shows no signs of slowing. Earlier this year, the A1 esports League, and the Renault esports Series featured great entertainment which both energized race fans and helped to raise the TX3 Storm: Champion of A1 profile of the drivers, teams, esports League Season 2 and, of course, the franchise itself.

Prizes included €15,000 and a much-sought after day of training at the Palmersport race school in the UK. Since the summer, the A1 esports league, in partner- ship with ESL, has returned for a second season, again featuring €15,000 in prizes. The finals were an all-celebrity affair hosted at Game City in Vienna, and the on-track entertainment was absolutely superb, arguably the closest ever in a Project CARS competition, as drivers swapped positions and ran side-by-side, lap-after-lap, until the checkered flag.

The runaway success of this tournament lead to a new partnership with Logitech G and a new series called the Logitech G Challenge. Following a sequence of online qualifying rounds, the fi- nals for this series took place on an incredible stage at Paris Games Week, with appearances from 2019 McLaren Formula One driver, Llando Norris, and the team’s test driver, Rudy Van Buren. Kristian Kwitniewski: Champion of the Logitech G Challenge, and Semi-Finalist … the finals for the Logitech G Challenge series took place on an incredible at McLaren Shadow stage at Paris Games Week, with appearances from 2019 McLaren Formula One driver, Llando Norris, and the team’s test driver, Rudy Van Buren ...

The tie-in with McLaren esports was an important addition to Project CARS esports as it saw the winner of the Logitech G Challenge take a place in the McLaren Shadow Semi Finals, an event that was hosted at the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK.

This multi-game competition is an effort by McLaren to find the best all-around sim-racer to join their official esports team.

Project CARS 2 was the one of the chosen simulators for the Semi Finals live-stream, with the McLaren 720S (which was also featured in the game’s Limited Edition cover art).

The McLaren Shadow Finals, one of the biggest-ever racing esports events, will now be held in January 2019, and will again feature Project CARS 2, this time in VR. This will further showcase the engine that powers the game—the SMS-owned MADNESS Engine—as the industry-leader in Virtual Reality technology and implementation both in the games sphere as well as in the auto- motive industry for B2B experiences. The winner of the Logitech G Challenge secured a place in the McLaren Shadow Semi We are also working to finalize the sponsorship arrangements for the next edition of our major Finals, an event that was series, the SMS-R Championship, which will see past champions and new faces compete for the hosted at the McLaren Tech- biggest title in Project CARS in 2019. nology Centre in the UK. This multi-game competi- tion is an effort by McLaren We are also working on concepts for additional manufacturer esports championships with to find the best all-around our automotive partners. More details will be announced later this year as negotiations sim-racer to join their offi- 9 progress. cial esports team. Warmest thoughts and best wishes for the Festive Season and a Happy New Year

Slightly Mad Studios

Subscribe to our Newslet- ter here