The goal, stated Fulton, was to "build our own take on Colorado". Trips were made to the state to take footage and over 50,000 still photos for reference. After initial research, creative director Ralph Fulton stated that there was "one clear winner", Colorado, USA. ĭevelopment of the environment began with research on almost 30 real-world locations. Though Forza Horizon is in the hands of an outside developer, Dan Greenawalt believes such risks are needed to meet the vision for the franchise. Dan Greenawalt, head of Turn 10 Studios on collaborating with the UK-based Playground Games. When free-roaming, the player may encounter discount signs which, when smashed, give a price reduction on all upgrades from that point forwards.
Other aspects of game-play include an auto-show, in which the player can buy or sell cars a garage, in which the player can manually or automatically upgrade their cars, and a paint shop, in which players can create custom paints, liveries, and paint presets for their vehicles. In addition to races, the map is scattered with barn find cars, rare classical vehicles that can be restored and added to the players garage.
Those rivals can then attempt to beat the shared time. Cameras record player times, which can then be shared among rivals. Speed traps are present in the game, and players can challenge each other for the top speed in a given area. Being the main theme of the game, a large focus of the game is on the festival itself and activities surrounding it, rather than just racing. In an interview with Turn 10's creative director Dan Greenawalt, he stated the game was developed in close relation to real music festivals-namely Coachella-and that he envisioned a more relaxed game-play experience than other games in the Forza series, while keeping a more realistic handling style. As a player's popularity level increases new special events are unlocked, such as races against helicopters and planes. These can be chained together in a combo, which in turn affects the money players are paid at the end of a given race. Acts such as drifting, jumping over obstacles and getting a car on two wheels all contribute to the player's popularity level. A skill system is implemented in the game players earn popularity during races by driving aggressively.
The races start at the current location, and finish at a randomly generated way-point, usually more than 500 metres away from the player and their opponent. Players may challenge the other racers they encounter in a one-on-one race to a given location. The roads feature both AI traffic and when playing online, other festival drivers. It features multiple types of races, from drift to rally and point-to-point races. Here a Ferrari F40 races a biplane in a point-to-point race.įorza Horizon focuses specifically on casual street racing, rather than professionally on race tracks, as it takes place on a map of temporarily closed public roads. Forza Horizon features an updated version of the Forza Motorsport 4 engine.