For the past few months, we’ve been working with a long-time member of the GeneRally community, who has brought his expertise in the 3D/artistic realms to the table. Whilst Kimmo has only been with us for a short time, we feel he’s made a fantastic impact upon the work we’re doing – and you’ve already seen an example of his work in the last two developer blogs. So, by way of an introduction, we thought we’d give you a short “interview” with Kimmo, to find out a bit more about him and his work on the Sequel.

So, Kimmo, tell us a little bit about yourself…

“Hey everyone! I’m Kimmo, a 25 year old motor racing enthusiast from Finland. I’m currently studying game development at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. In University projects, I’m usually the guy responsible for design, programming and 3D stuff. Naturally, I’m also a gamer and I’ve spent most of my gaming time behind the wheel with GT Legends, Gran Turismo, rFactor, GeneRally, FlatOut and other similar racing games. I also occasionally play the guitar and football (or soccer if you’re from the US). I don’t have a cat.”

What made you want to get involved with the Sequel?

“GeneRally was, and still is, one of my favourite ‘small’ games and it’s also one of the games I’ve been most involved with modding-wise in the past. So when I read that a sequel was in the planning, I asked the guys if they would have any use for my 3D work, as it would be a great opportunity for me to work on a real game development project – it turned out they did, and here we are. I used to make a few tracks and a bucket-load of cars for the original game a few years back, and I bet most of you would instantly recognise my forum nickname if I said it here and now… but that would be too boring, so I’ll leave the guesswork for you guys!”

What are your primary responsibilities at the moment?

“At the moment I’m mainly responsible for updating the objects (you know, our beloved soft walls, sunk tyres and whatnot) and the original cars, but I’m also helping the guys with ideas regarding gameplay and other stuff as well. Later on, I might want to work on particles and other visual effects such as dust and water spray – we’ll see what happens.”

What can we expect from cars in the Sequel?

“Well, one of the most requested changes over the years has been an increased poly limit. For various reasons, I understand this wasn’t really possible in GeneRally, but for the Sequel we wanted to allow a greater degree of creativity. Whilst nothing is set in stone, the work we’re doing at the moment is based on a 400 poly limit, excluding wheels/tyres. Even though this is ten times the GeneRally poly limit, I know it will still provide a challenge for car designers (and it’s a lot of fun, too). Other than that, we’re working to allow car makers to design livery textures to include with their cars that will be affected by in-game player colours, instead of having to colour each poly individually – colouring 400 polies would take forever.”