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 SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS 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 Twitter 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 Evolution Studios, where he en- joyed much critical and commercial success with heavyweight racing games Motorstorm and Driveclub, 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 ESPORTS 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 Golden Joystick Awards, 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.