GameAxis: Tell us more about yourself. When did you started up/ worked with Turn 10?

John Wendl: Well, I’ve been with the Forza franchise from the beginning. I was one of the founding fathers of Turn 10. But before that, I’ve been with big and small companies since 1991, particularly with EA on their NASCAR series, and also on the IndyCar series with a Chicago-based company. I eventually joined Microsoft in 2002. Turn 10’s been around the block for about 8 years, working with Microsoft’s games group since the first Xbox launched.

GAX: It seems obvious that you are a racing fan. When did that love of cars and racing come about?

JW: I’ve always been a car nut. I race in real life. I roadrace motorcycles and roadrace cars as well. It got to a point in my life in 1996 that my passion of racing nearly overtook my passion for gaming. I was close to leaving the games industry to work in the motorsports industry. But that was then 3D games were starting to go into vogue and are getting popular.

GAX: Was it around the inception of the PC-Engine CD, the implementation of FMV, or even rumors about Sony’s then-new system?

JW: No, it was mainly around the PC era when those powerful 3DFX graphic cards were coming into play. We get to work with this tech and start making these nice-looking racing games and go “Wow, this is cool. I get to stay in games and work with racing.” Ever since then, I’ve been doing racing games exclusively.

GAX: How many consultants were on board this game for that authentic “car simulation” experience?

JW: Wow. Erm..

GAX: Let’s just list the high profile ones.

JW: Probably the most high-profile ones are like Stephane Sarrazin, former F1 driver who recently drove the Peugeot 908 to victory in Le Mans last year. We’ve also got Gunnar Jeanette (ALMS Driver in the US), RJ de Vera (famous tuner and custom paintjob master in “Trick It Out”), Natacha Gachnang (famous F2 driver in Europe). Gosh, it’s all over the place; there’s so many we’ve gone for consulting or help get audio for the game.

GAX: How about anyone from Top Gear(British TV show for car enthusiasts)?

JW: Yeah, we talked to those guys a little bit recently. I won’t really put them down as consultants. We’ve got such car nuts on the team. We do our research on cars, we sourced them, found out how and where they were built, how to get our hands on them. Because we have to photograph them and record their audio.

GAX: You recently showed off pictures of the V8 Touring series. Just off the top of your head, who are the highlighted brands of Forza 3?

JW: We’ve got Audi; they’re big for us. Obviously, the V8 was a super addition; with the Falcon and the Commodore. We’ve always had Ferrari; we’ve got more Ferraris this time around; more premium brands. Ferrari, Porshe, Lamborghini, Audi: those are the big superbrands, along with a ton of race cars and even SUVs. We’ve got over 50 manufacturers.

GAX: Even the Toyota Yaris?

JW: Yep, even that. But again, because of the game’s upgrade system, you can turn it into a Ferrari killer. Engine swaps, drive swaps; just upgrade it until it puts out a 1000 horsepower.

GAX: How about the lesser-known brands and models?

JW: Well, we’ve added in the Fiat Cupra-R, and also the Vauxhall, Hyundai’s New Genesis Coupe.

GAX: No Proton(Malaysian Car Brand)?

JW: Sorry, don’t think we do. Typically, we go for cars with international appeal, or at least are sold internationally. We spend so much time building this brand collecting so that it appeals to everyone in the world, and not just one specific niche.

GAX: How many hours (or days even) do you think a skilled gamer will take to unlock all the cars in the game?

JW: To get to Level 50 in the game and thus unlocking everything in the game takes probably about 50 to 60 hours, depending on how good you are. Basically, everything you unlock can be done both in single-player and multiplayer; the game counts the same because we don’t want to give gamers a forced option. If you don’t want to play multiplayer, you don’t have to.

GAX: The comparisons between the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 and Forza 3 are inevitable. Was there any pressure when news broke out about Gran Turismo 5 coming out the end of this year?

JW: No, we’re not suprised by that announcement. We’re locked and loaded; our game’s being manufactured and will be out soon (October 23rd). (Sony’s) made some promises, but I know when ours is coming out.

GAX: Need For Speed: Shift. What are your thoughts on that franchise, and its jump into the “driving simulation” category?

JW: I’m a bit surprised by that move, honestly. (pause) Yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see how it does. It’s a great little game, but it’s fairly small and it runs at just 30fps. I just don’t see how you can call yourself a driving simulator when you don’t run at 60fps.

GAX: What are the several things that made Forza 3 tough in the development process? Any brands and licensing you had trouble getting?

JW: There’s always challenges around, whether you’re managing costs or the approval from the manufacturer. Some of these car manufacturers can be very particular about what goes on in the game, especially if you want to paint and color a Ferrari at will.

Sometimes it’s damage, sometimes it’s paint jobs. The bigger challenge is sourcing a car; like the Bugatti Veryon. They’re not that many of those around. Just getting your hands on them’s hard enough. You’ve seen the videos; we had to tape marks and digitally scan those cars. Imagine the pressure the owners go through when they have a bunch of game developers have their hands on a million dollar car, or strap it to a “dyno” to get the engine sound.

The Lamborgini Reventon was also another tough one to source. The Murcielago too; we instead had to source the version of the Murcielago used in Batman Begins. These cars are difficult to track down. Of course, working with Microsoft made our sourcing easier because a lot of them there are millionaires. We just have to make out an email and say “Hey, does anyone have the Porshe 959?” and next thing you know, we scanned Bill Gates’ 959. We also source them region-accurately; when we source the Fairlady Z, we source the one made in Japan, not the US spec of it.

GAX: Last I recall, Forza 2 had a bit of issues with dealing with customized user content. You might remember that whole fiasco a few years back about the “skinhead car”. Does your team have control over content moderation?

JW: Well, there’s no easy way to do this. It’s a manual process that comes in on Xbox Live. You saw the “Pending Review” sign on some of the cars made on the game’s Storefront option, right? That’s when we see if it’s fit to be on the Storefront. If not, it gets yanked, and the user who made that car gets a warning. If they keep doing that, they might get a ban from the game or even from Xbox Live. We also are doing this on a regional basis: if a car that seems sprayed with harmless chinese characters turns out to be actually offensive in parts of China and Japan, we do a ban on it too.

GAX: Pretend you’re just a regular customer who bought Forza 3 for the first time and somehow every car got unlocked through some sheer luck. Which brand and model would be your first pick, and why?

JW: If it’s just one, I’ll have to go with the BMW’s M3 GTR.