Stock car racing has some of the most dedicated fans in sports, a fact EA Tiburon doesn’t take lightly when designing their annual NASCAR series for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. With a dozen titles under their belt, the studio has recently refined the gameplay to a new level of realism with their latest entry, NASCAR 09.
The game’s presentation has also received a significant polish this year, and helping the studio revamp the visuals is Full Sail graduate Josh Stachowski who jumped on the game right after completing his studies. As the Lead UI Artist Josh was responsible for creating the in-game displays, menus, and transition screens, offering one of the most in depth racing sims you’ll play this year.
“I’m really proud of how the game turned out,” Josh shares. “When I got out of Full Sail I was like a Swiss Army Knife, so I could pretty much handle anything related to my department right away. I ramped up quickly, and within my first few weeks I was designing the in-game HUD and style guide for the UI. Being my first title, I was very excited to give them my best work.”
The game’s visual layout goes a long way in capturing the spirit of the sport, complete with broadcast-quality stat reports that cover everything from how many gallons of gas you’ve used to the number of tires you’ve shredded. The angular design of these tables even give you a sense of speed, and are just one of the unique touches Josh and the UI team added for 2009.
“One thing I worked on that I’m really proud of is the map that you see when you get into the Challenge mode,” he explains. “Because we were using Flash, it’s not 3D at all, but I was able to create a 3D map experience through various different tricks and animations. Almost every tool I learned at Full Sail is being utilized here at the studio, and working with the feature designers on that was definitely a cool learning experience.”
That kind of experimentation is one of Josh’s favorite aspects of his job at EA Tiburon, and as he works on a secret new project for the studio, the integration of 3D graphics is only one of the ways he hopes to see his area of game design evolve.
“I think we’re going to have a lot more content-rich user navigation systems for games – interfaces that adapt to the user so we can automatically direct you to the places in the game that you use most often,” he offers. “The menus should be there for the purpose of supporting gameplay, so they’re going to be more useable, more immersive, and provide for a greater user experience overall.”
“And every day here we really get into learning what the new trends and technologies are, and what should be possible five years down the road,” he adds. “So when I get up in the morning, I'm excited to go to work because I'm challenged every day to push the boundaries of our existing technologies to create bigger and better things. I can't wait to see what the future has in store.”
