Forza Horizon 2 developer Playground Games was founded back in 2009 in Leamington Spa, a quiet town tucked away in the UK’s West Midlands region. Despite Leamington’s modest size, it actually boasts one of the highest concentrations of games developers in the UK. FreeStyleGames, Supersonic Software, and Codemasters are just some of the teams based in Leamington and the surrounding area.

When Playground first squared away the deal with Microsoft and Turn 10 to develop the original Forza Horizon, there were less than 20 staff. Today the studio boasts over 100 employees, spread across three floors of the charismatic, Regency-style building the team has set up shop in. On the outside, things are still; there’s little activity on the leafy, tree-lined street upon which Playground’s office sits. Past the closely-cropped lawn and through the surprisingly grand doorway, however, and things are a lot more bustling.

The Power and the Passion

Forza Horizon 2 creative director Ralph Fulton.

Yet despite the busy build-up to E3, and with the release of Forza Horizon 2 steadily approaching later this year, creative director Ralph Fulton seems happy and relaxed.

Sitting in Playground’s modern lobby, surrounded on all sides by shelves full of die-cast cars of all manner of models and scales, Fulton explains how the idea of a complementary Forza franchise came about in the first place.

“I think it all has to come from a vision,” says Fulton. “Something that you’re passionate about. Something that you feel you just have to make.”

Check out the reflection in the water. Woah.

“We were really fortunate to get an opportunity to come into the Forza family, and Forza Motorsport has been one of the greatest racing franchises for the past decade. We felt we had to do something different, but we also felt we had to do something we believed in.

“We believed in giving players freedom. We believed in giving them a more fun experience, something action-packed, and that’s what Horizon is. And I think from Forza Horizon to Forza Horizon 2 we’ve really been able to take that to the next level.

“Part of that is about Xbox One. Part of it is about us really solidifying that vision, and understanding what it is we’re making, and I think also being able to deliver something our players really want.”

Holiday Road

The Southern European setting seems like such a logical choice; a no-brainer that really taps into the fantasy of threading absurdly-expensive supercars through the French and Italian countryside. It’s the sort of thing you might see the hosts of the BBC’s Top Gear doing every other week. Fulton confirms these parts of Europe could have formed the basis for the original Forza Horizon rather than Colorado but, in retrospect, he’s glad they waited until now.

“Going between these two countries gives you such diversity in terms of what you see.”

“You’ll see how that’s truly paid off, because going between these two countries gives you such diversity in terms of what you see, in terms of the roads you drive,” says Fulton. “But you’re absolutely right, I think we always went back to those YouTube videos you get – not necessarily the Top Gear ones, which are beautifully shot, beautifully filmed – but some of the Handycam stuff that people have done. Two guys, in Ferraris, just driving around the Amalfi Coast or something like that. You’re like, ‘I want to do that. That’s where I want to go.’”

Fulton explains Southern Europe won out over a wide range of possibilities considered, from California to Australia.

“We looked all over the world,” he says. “I think we auditioned more than 30 locations, in the US, in Europe, and farther flung places. We had a long list of criteria we wanted our perfect location to satisfy.”

Smashing, baby.

“Actually, we had a scoring system; we scored each of the locations based on their relative merits. Southern Europe ticked so many of the boxes we needed ticked. It’s such a beautiful part of the world. It’s unspoilt. It has fantastic driving roads, amazing environmental diversity, and just stunning vistas that you really want to explore.”

“We’ve been driving around North America in open-world games quite a lot over the 20 couple of years. Southern Europe just felt fresh.”

Basically, the team really wanted to go somewhere “fresh.”

“We wanted to go somewhere a little bit exotic, somewhere that felt like the greatest summer road trip,” says Fulton. “I think that necessitates coming away from America. Not because that it isn’t a very fertile place for games; I think because we just thought we’ve been driving around North America in open-world games quite a lot over the last couple of years. Southern Europe just felt fresh, it felt different, it felt new, and it was a gimme for us.”

It’s the world itself that has posed the biggest challenge for Playground Games, Fulton reveals.

“None of this stuff is easy,” he admits. “We spent a lot of time re-engineering our online system. We’ve spent a lot of time on our weather system; that took a lot of technology and art resources to build from the ground up. But I think building the world is the biggest challenge.”

“It’s a massive world, and the undertaking to build not just the roads, but everything off them on either side – farmland, crops, hills, mountains, forests – is a huge undertaking. I think that’s the thing that people will get long term value out of as they play the game. There are always new things to find [and] new places to explore.”