Interviews// F1 2011: Senior Producer, Paul Jeal

Codemasters is about to unleash F1 2011 on the world, and what a ride the British outfit has had with the license. In the space of two years, its Birmingham studio has managed to transform the series from a stagnant simulation to a sexy, relevant racing experience.

Of course, that doesn't mean to say that Codies has skimped on the realism of the title - its big franchise debut, F1 2010, was considered one of the most authentic games ever made.

After an explosive launch that has led to massive interest in F1 2011, it's hard to think that back in 2008 enthusiasm was at an all-time low. Senior producer Paul Jeal remembers that all too well, as he chats to SPOnG about the history of the F1 license and the role the community has had in the game's development.


SPOnG: You guys have already had a bit of a history with the F1 series before Codemasters picked up the license, right?

Paul Jeal: Yeah, well Steve (Hood, lead designer) worked on the series when he was with Sony - he worked on F1 2001 I think. My first job in the games industry was on Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix 3 as a QA tester, so both of us have a bit of experience at Formula 1 games and we’re both massive fans. We both joined Codemasters for the F1 franchise.


SPOnG: So you must have a unique perspective of the franchise. Has there been any real difference in making these simulation games between then and now?

Paul Jeal: Yeah, it’s massively different to be honest. Back in the early days there was less sponsor input and less... politics, shall we say. It was much easier back then than it would be now. For example, I don’t think certain sponsors would want to see Lewis Hamilton drive in another car - so that all starts to get a bit complicated.

But the biggest difference I would say is our relationship with Formula 1 and the teams. We signed the license back in 2008 and made a company decision not to do a next-gen version of F1 2009, which gave us the time to achieve what we wanted to do with F1 2010. During that time we were able to form a decent relationship with the teams - helping them understand what we wanted to do, why we were asking for the information that we were, that sort of thing.


SPOnG: Was it that difficult for them to be on side?

Paul Jeal: Yeah. They’re not obliged to give us any data, after all. We had to prove ourselves somewhat. But we managed to get reference photography maps, driver photos, driver interviews, drivers to play in the game, engine audio equipment on the cars themselves... all sorts of things. And because of the success of last year’s game, the teams are really keen on providing us with data again this year, so that’s really helped us.

We’re advancing on the kinds of simulation feedback we’re putting into the game this year too off the back of that success. There’s now feedback from race strategists and engineers this time - they’re going to set you target lap times, let you know who’s on the track set, and tell you what position you’ll be in if you go to the pits. We’ve been lucky enough to get all that key information from our partners and be been able to implement that into the game.


SPOnG: I guess you’re in a better position than anyone to have an idea about this - what happened to the F1 license for so many years? Sony let go of it back in 2006, and it was a long time before Codemasters picked up the slack.

Paul Jeal: It’s a good question, actually. I think it’s really difficult to know why F1 games haven’t done better, why they fell off the radar and didn’t come back until now... We did a lot of market research back when we got the license, and the results weren’t particularly positive either.

Especially when you consider that games are massive in America, maybe that’s why nobody really picked up the license - because there’s so many sales that you would need to generate from the States and they don’t really get F1 at the moment. That’s changing next year though.

So, there’s a lot of factors but a lot of the feedback we got was that people felt F1 was dry and boring. Almost everyone thought that they actually had two hours to complete a race! They weren’t aware they could skip that and shorten it to a three-lap race.

But the biggest thing that stuck with me was that people don’t buy F1 games because they already know what the next one’s going to have in it. It’s going to be ‘a season with some cars in it.’ So straight from the off we realised we couldn’t be just another F1 game. And that’s why we didn’t do a 2009 game, because it would have just been meaningless.