It's official: the Red Bull Rookies Cup is coming to consoles once more as a DLC pack for this year's MotoGP game. While developer Milestone has been busy with its own new franchise on next-gen, RIDE, it's also been hard at work with this bumper update for MotoGP 15, which adds the 125cc class cup for up and coming young riders to many of the game's modes, likenesses, liveries and all.
You can grab the update now – it's free if you have a MotoGP 15 Season Pass – but to find out more about what to expect from the digital recreation of the Rookies Cup, we caught up with lead designer Luca Simonotti to talk bikes and bringing tomorrow's top prospects to virtual life. Read on for full conversation.
RIDE: Two-wheeled freedom MotoGP 15: The 6 fixes it needsWhen does work start on the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup? Is it as soon as the game hits shelves?
Luca Simonotti: We have started to work on this DLC before the end of the game and we have involved a lot of people in the development for at least three months. The development of the DLC begins with the design department: designers have to think about how the Rookies Cup has to be structured into the game, starting from the physics – close to Moto3, but tailored to the real Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup – to the menus and the systems that manage the bikes and riders' behaviour. Then our services department collects all the references such as suits, liveries and so on in order to include them into the game. After this first phase all the other departments are involved such as graphics, artists, programming and R&D.
How do you evaluate all the young riders for their abilities and appearance? Do you get any of them into the studio to scan or test drive at all?
The system that manages the rider and bike behaviour is very complex. We carefully monitor the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup tests, GPs and so on, in order to collect all the data that we used in the game. Also, we need the visual reference of each rider in the championship, his bike, his team, his sponsors. This is a huge amount of work. As far as concerns the Rookies Cup (but also for all bike categories in the game) we directly went on the track to take all the necessary materials for production. I can confirm that some rider came to visit us in order to give us feedback on the physics.
This isn't the first time the Rookie's Cup has been included in the MotoGP game – can you tell us about the reaction to last year's DLC?
This DLC is much appreciated by users because it gives to them the chance to live MotoGP at its best by using not only the most famous riders of the world but also riders from another category. It is also one of the rosters that give the players the possibility to know and meet the young hopefuls of tomorrow's MotoGP. Let's face it: the riders of the Rookies Cup many are really strong, and they could probably give, in a not too distant future, the MotoGP champions of today a hard time.
What sets the Rookie Cup class apart from, say, Moto3? Is it just the speed of the bikes? Do they handle differently too?
Our aim always is to reach the maximum simulation level possible. Of course the behaviour of the KTM RC 250 R reflects exactly the real one, and it's quite different in terms of performance and speed from Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP. We want to recreate the appeal of the Rookies Cup championship and offer the players the chance to experience the debuts of some of the riders likely to become some of the greatest riders ever.
What have you included to make it as authentic as possible?
We've focused our efforts on the production of bikes and riders of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup but this is just the beginning. The player can use them in quick race, time attack and championship offline and online so, for example, he can replicate the entire Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Championship, with the official riders or with the custom one. Imagine using your virtual alter ego against these fast kids!
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Yeah, for sure. The bikes of the Rookies Cup are similar to the Moto3 bikes, but they still have some differences, especially in terms of handling, thus riding a Moto3 or a KTM in this category is very different for the player.
Obviously, the differences are even greater if the player switches from a Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup bike to a MotoGP bike. The differences are also marked according to the rider chosen in the game, because every rider has his own skills. Rider and machine are replicated 1:1 in order to give the player the feeling of riding with several different vehicles and riders.
Is there any more DLC planned for this year's release? Should we be looking forward to next year's now?
There will be one more DLC. We will announce it later this month, but I can't say too much right now.
The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup will be available from 10 September for PS4, Xbox One and Windows PC/Steam, and on 15 September for Xbox 360.
