With GRID just around the bend, the excitement is definitely turned on high. One of the coolest things about GRID and previous Codemasters’ racing games has been the awesome job they do on crashing the cars. We’re gamers and gamers love when things smash. With the technology getting better and better, components like damage are following suit. We decided to ask Senior Producer Clive Moody some questions about their damage system on GRID to help field our curiosity.

Game Informer: Why do some developers claim that major auto companies do not allow them to crash cars in the games?
Clive Moody: I can’t really comment on other developers or their relationships with licensors, but there are two reasons why we are able to show the level of car damage that we can.
The first is that GRID is a game about motorsport, and all the cars in it are racing cars. Auto companies recognize that crashes, and the resultant damage, are an inevitable part of motorsport so they allow us to depict this in-game.

Secondly, we’ve been making racing games with full damage modeling for years so we’ve built up a good relationship with the major manufacturers who we know take safety very seriously. All our cars have a roll-cage which keeps the cabin intact and protects the driver, so there is never any suggestion that he could be injured. That’s also why we don’t show fire or explosions in the game. The manufacturers trust us to represent the way a race car gets damaged realistically, which is what we try to do.

GI: Was there ever a temptation to create a crash mode?
Clive Moody: Absolutely – it was something we looked at closely for GRID because we wanted to show off our damage system as much as possible, but unfortunately it was something our license agreements precluded. Crashes which happen as a legitimate part of racing are one thing, but a separate mode in which you just smash up licensed cars was always going to be a bridge too far as far as our licensing agreements were concerned…
GI: Why spend so much time working on a system that rewards people for crashing?