By: Max Cannon
The team over at Warner Bros. reached out to us to discuss the latest game from Avalanche Software, Cars 3: Driven to Win. The game's executive producer, Vince Bracken, took the time to answer some of Kidzworld's questions about the new game. They were also awesome enough to provide us with some concept art from the earlier stages of the game's development.
Early concept art of the Arizona track.
Avalanche Software's Vince Bracken
Kidzworld: What is your personal history in game development and what is the history of Avalanche Software?
- Vince: My name is Vince Bracken. I have been in game development for over 20 years. I have worked with Avalanche Software for since 2002. The first game I worked on for Avalanche was NCAA 2K3 Football. Avalanche has a great history of creating awesome games. Most recently, Avalanche created Disney Infinity before developing Cars 3: Driven to Win.
Kidzworld:What is your role on the team?
- Vince: I was the Executive Producer on Cars 3: Driven to Win working at that Avalanche office. It was a great project and we had a ton of fun competing against each other as we made the game. Sadly, I am not able to say I am the best at the game in the office. We have some really great racers in the office.
Conceptual Art of the game's Arizon map.
Kidzworld: What features of the game are you most proud of?
- Vince: There are two features that I am particularly proud of. The first is how we incorporated the help system. We have learned over the years that the best way to teach a player how to do something is by showing another character in the game doing that same action and displaying the controls the other character is pressing to do those actions. We refer to this as modeled learning. It is something we do in Cars 3: Driven to Win to help players learn the controls and more advanced features of the game. We believe that players who can master all the features in the game will have the most fun, so we set out to teach them about those features using modeled learning. For a simple example, we have an action for driving on two wheels. As the player is racing around the track against other non-playable characters, those characters will drive on two wheels and display the controls used to cause that action to happen. This way when the player is ready, he/she can see the other characters do actions and see immediately how to do them. It’s a powerful teaching method and we think it really helps kids to learn all about the features available to them.
- Secondly, Cars 3: Driven to Win is a blast for 4 players who want to get together on the couch and play together. Specifically, we have a mode called Sponsored Team Play. In this mode, 4 players play together in any combination: 1 v 1 v 1 v 1, or 3 v 1, or all 4 on the same team against the AI. Scores are tallied per team. This is the perfect mode for when mom and dad want to get involved. Mom, dad and the kids can all be on the same team working together, or they can split with Mom and Dad trying to do their best against the kids. It’s really a fun way to play the game. When players are selecting their teams they are also picking their team colors so each team is very recognizable on the track.
An early look at a motel featured in the game.
Kidzworld: What’s in the future for Avalanche?
- Vince: I can’t talk about what we are working on currently, but I can say that I am very excited about it and you should definitely check back when we are ready to announce the next game. It’s going to be awesome.
Kidzworld: Anything else you'd like to add?
- Vince: I would like to give a shout out to Warner Bros., Disney and Pixar. We love working with these guys and are very grateful for the opportunity.
Beautiful art of an in-game landscape.
Have Your Say!
Did you get a chance to check out the latest Cars game or movie? What do you think of the franchise? Comment below!
