ModNation Racers: Studio Visit Preview - PAGE 1

The United Front Games studio in Vancouver recently invited us in for a chance to take a look at their new ModNation Racers PS3 title  The team wanted to show us what they'd done to make this family-friendly title -- a kart racing game at heart -- something that stand out from the pack.  Not to mention a full tour of the place to see what makes their studio unique.

A few things that will catch the eye as soon as you step into the UFG offices are, first off, the six foot tall beanbag chair-thing. It's so big it has a name! No, I'm not going to tell you what it is; you'll have to visit in person to find that out. Second is the custom UFG DJ table for the DJs who work there - a larger number than you'd expect! Third is Frankie, the office god, who is an awesome little French pitbull with horrible penmanship.

What won't get noticed right away is the studio's collective organization structure where everybody gets a say in how things are run. Rather than a pyramid with the managers at the top dictating to the bulk of the company, there is a smaller managerial structure that's mostly there by necessity to help support the 230-person team and keep them organized -- an upside-down pyramid if you will.

Here's a look at our tour of the United Front Games offices with Dan Sochan... Or at least the top floor!

Right now the studio is split into two floors with the upper one having just wrapped ModNation Racers and the lower one working away on Activision's upcoming True Crime title. The lower floor was mostly locked up with the exception of a few things.  A few surprises waited for me, like this wall of luchador wrestling masks and the handmade 'El Diablo Mecanico' arcade box the team built to spice things up. The recurring luchador theme also included the meeting room names Dan talked about in the tour: Dinamo and El Guapo and a display case of masks mounted into a wall. Not shown is the under-construction spiral staircase that's going to connect the two floors when it's finished. Right now it's rubble of the unsafe variety though so it's boxed off.

After the tour, we sat down with Dan and a couple of the developers for a look at what's being done to separate ModNation Racers from the pack.  The social environment, incredibly robust modding tools for building custom tracks, karts and characters, and Dan talks about what it takes to have your custom creations become part of the shared gaming environment!