Interviews// Exclusive SPOnG interview with Gavin Raeburn
Exclusive SPOnG interview with TOCA man, Gavin Raeburn
SPOnG Tell us a little bit more about yourself ? How long have you been at Codies now? You are pretty well known as being “the TOCA man” but what else would you like on your gravestone? (Apologies for being morbid)
Gavin Raeburn I’ve been working full time at Codies since 1995, but I was working freelance for them since 1986 before that. I must have programmed and developed well over thirty games for them in that time, including Pete Sampras Tennis, Psycho Pinball and all of the TOCA series. I also wrote a lot of the music for their other games. I’m now producing the TOCA and CMR series of games. Not sure what I’d like to see on my gravestone, but “died 2077” would be reassuring!
SPOnG Which other top Britsoft developers and publishers are you personally a fan of?
Gavin Raeburn SUMO because they did a great job of the PSP RD2 conversion! Also Rockstar North, although I guess that working for Take 2 they aren’t strictly British!
SPOnG Here at SPOnG we are big fans of loads of driving games spanning the genres, TOCA clearly being one of them. We are especially big fans of Gran Turismo, Outrun, Burnout and Ridge Racer. What other driving games do you play and enjoy personally?
Gavin Raeburn At home I play mostly console games. I like the Burnout series for a quick pick-up-and-play, energetic blast, but also Gotham for the opposite reason, as it’s nice to sit with a few beers leisurely strolling through the game. I play more sims at work, and I’m currently playing GT Legends, which is not exactly mass market, but still great fun.
SPOnG Whats been your favourite non-Codies game of 2005? And what’s your most anticipated non-Codies title for 2006?
Gavin Raeburn God of War as it had a well thought out design and was technically stunning. Resi-Evil 4 is a close second though. Looking to next year I have high hopes for Shadow of the Colossus and the new Tomb Raider.
SPOnG We know that TOCA is well established in the UK, but how does the series fare in the US and in other territories?
Gavin Raeburn It does well in most of Europe, especially the northern territories. We are looking at ways to grow TOCA in the US as we believe there is massive potential for the series there. Australia is also a very big territory for us as the AVESCO V8 Supercars series featured in Race Driver is hugely popular over there.
SPOnG We know that developing a game as polished as TRD3 must be hard work, but there must be some good perks and some glamorous aspects to the job? Can you give us some anecdotes to make our readers jealous of you - ie the kind of stuff you tell girls to impress them when you are drunk?
Gavin Raeburn Not a lot of glamorous stuff perhaps, but we do get to travel to a lot of championships and races around the world, which is good fun. We also go on lots of track days to learn about car handling, which is also huge fun, if a little scary at times (screaming round the Rockingham Oval in a Formula Ford flat out on a semi wet track is terrifying!). Oh, and we also get to see some stunning cars when we record them on our rolling road facility to capture the sounds of the engines.
SPOnG Its interesting that you are including some great Rally Championships in TRD3. Its one of our favourite genres of driving game and we are huge Colin McRae Rally fans. What are the future plans for the CMR series? Is there not a danger of TRD3 cannibalising sales of Colin Macrae? (ie if you now want a decent rally game why not just buy TRD3 + get all the other genres too).
Gavin Raeburn You will only ever see a very small amount of rally in RD3 for that very reason. We may well put a stage of any future CMR game directly into RD3 so those players who have not bought CMR before can get a flavour of what it is like.
SPOnG Perhaps one idea to extend the gameplay would be to allow the drivers to get a little more friendly with the foxy pit lane dolly birds?
Gavin Raeburn Ha! I'm sure there are quite a few members of the team who would be happy to work on the research for that particular gameplay mechanic. Somehow though, I don’t think Rick would approve. He prefers that his drivers keep their minds on the action taking place on the track!
SPOnG What do you drive? What’s your dream car?
Gavin Raeburn I drive a BMW M3, which I’m very happy with. Perhaps the new Aston Martin Vantage would be nice. In fact it would be very nice!
Thanks to Gavin for his time and to Richard Eddy at Codemasters for helping to organise the interview. Check out SPOnG’s preview of the forthcoming TOCA Race Driver 3 here - http://www.spong.com/detail/editorial.jsp?eid=10109323
Gavin Raeburn I’ve been working full time at Codies since 1995, but I was working freelance for them since 1986 before that. I must have programmed and developed well over thirty games for them in that time, including Pete Sampras Tennis, Psycho Pinball and all of the TOCA series. I also wrote a lot of the music for their other games. I’m now producing the TOCA and CMR series of games. Not sure what I’d like to see on my gravestone, but “died 2077” would be reassuring!
SPOnG Which other top Britsoft developers and publishers are you personally a fan of?
Gavin Raeburn SUMO because they did a great job of the PSP RD2 conversion! Also Rockstar North, although I guess that working for Take 2 they aren’t strictly British!
SPOnG Here at SPOnG we are big fans of loads of driving games spanning the genres, TOCA clearly being one of them. We are especially big fans of Gran Turismo, Outrun, Burnout and Ridge Racer. What other driving games do you play and enjoy personally?
Gavin Raeburn At home I play mostly console games. I like the Burnout series for a quick pick-up-and-play, energetic blast, but also Gotham for the opposite reason, as it’s nice to sit with a few beers leisurely strolling through the game. I play more sims at work, and I’m currently playing GT Legends, which is not exactly mass market, but still great fun.
SPOnG Whats been your favourite non-Codies game of 2005? And what’s your most anticipated non-Codies title for 2006?
Gavin Raeburn God of War as it had a well thought out design and was technically stunning. Resi-Evil 4 is a close second though. Looking to next year I have high hopes for Shadow of the Colossus and the new Tomb Raider.
SPOnG We know that TOCA is well established in the UK, but how does the series fare in the US and in other territories?
Gavin Raeburn It does well in most of Europe, especially the northern territories. We are looking at ways to grow TOCA in the US as we believe there is massive potential for the series there. Australia is also a very big territory for us as the AVESCO V8 Supercars series featured in Race Driver is hugely popular over there.
SPOnG We know that developing a game as polished as TRD3 must be hard work, but there must be some good perks and some glamorous aspects to the job? Can you give us some anecdotes to make our readers jealous of you - ie the kind of stuff you tell girls to impress them when you are drunk?
Gavin Raeburn Not a lot of glamorous stuff perhaps, but we do get to travel to a lot of championships and races around the world, which is good fun. We also go on lots of track days to learn about car handling, which is also huge fun, if a little scary at times (screaming round the Rockingham Oval in a Formula Ford flat out on a semi wet track is terrifying!). Oh, and we also get to see some stunning cars when we record them on our rolling road facility to capture the sounds of the engines.
SPOnG Its interesting that you are including some great Rally Championships in TRD3. Its one of our favourite genres of driving game and we are huge Colin McRae Rally fans. What are the future plans for the CMR series? Is there not a danger of TRD3 cannibalising sales of Colin Macrae? (ie if you now want a decent rally game why not just buy TRD3 + get all the other genres too).
Gavin Raeburn You will only ever see a very small amount of rally in RD3 for that very reason. We may well put a stage of any future CMR game directly into RD3 so those players who have not bought CMR before can get a flavour of what it is like.
SPOnG Perhaps one idea to extend the gameplay would be to allow the drivers to get a little more friendly with the foxy pit lane dolly birds?
Gavin Raeburn Ha! I'm sure there are quite a few members of the team who would be happy to work on the research for that particular gameplay mechanic. Somehow though, I don’t think Rick would approve. He prefers that his drivers keep their minds on the action taking place on the track!
SPOnG What do you drive? What’s your dream car?
Gavin Raeburn I drive a BMW M3, which I’m very happy with. Perhaps the new Aston Martin Vantage would be nice. In fact it would be very nice!
Thanks to Gavin for his time and to Richard Eddy at Codemasters for helping to organise the interview. Check out SPOnG’s preview of the forthcoming TOCA Race Driver 3 here - http://www.spong.com/detail/editorial.jsp?eid=10109323