Start Your Engines for the Hottest N-Gage Street Racer, Glimmerati

by Louis Bedigian

“We wanted to create a memorable, distinct identity for Glimmerati.” 

You can’t race with Paris Hilton.  You can’t beat Jay Leno to the finish line.  Richard Petty is out of your league, and completely out of reach.

You can, however, race with Penelope Ashcroft (American socialite), compete against Klaus Staumacher (German film producer), and steal the thunder of ex-formula 1 driver Maxwell McCain.  These fictitious celebrities are just a few of the rich and famous people you’ll come in contact with in Glimmerati, N-Gage’s most anticipated racing game.

Drive to the Alps, cruise Milan, speed through Paris and take a trip to Monaco.  These locations are just what Glimmerati needed to help differentiate itself from console street racers, many of which use generic locals for their race settings.

Excited by what was shown at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, GameZone Online broke laws, defied speed limits and created a massive police chase (see us live on GNN’s Headline Newz!) to speak with Sami Nurmio, Producer of Glimmerati.  I’m sure you’ll agree that the risks were worth taking to bring you this exciting interview.

Glimmerati is a game of cool cars and hot gals.  Talk about this concept and how the game got started.

Sami Nurmio: We've seen many great games involving girls and cars lately. However, we wanted to create a memorable, distinct identity for Glimmerati and we achieved this by creating a setting for a high society racing game. Lovely ladies and fast cars combined with lavish lifestyle gave us a possibility to toy around with various juicy themes. Publicity, power and influence are not usually connected with racing games but we knew we could create something memorable and unique  out of  them. Above all we wanted Glimmerati to be fun and entertaining, getting a laugh or two!

Bugbear Entertainment has been around for several years and they seemed to be the perfect candidate to create a rather unique racing game with a twist. They have years of experience on console and PC racing games and we were confident that they had the skills to make a high quality racing game for us.

In Payload the goal is snatching the fuel source – hold onto it and win.  I assume that Glimmerati's goals have more to do with winning the race.  Could you tell us about this?

SN: In Glimmerati the story evolves around Fame. By lucky chance a player can get a chance to join Club Glimmerati, the racing club of rich and famous. The racing club tours around Europe and you have a chance to compete with various individuals in between the races.

In Glimmerati you have two goals. Win the racing league by gaining points in races and obtain as much Fame as possible. Fame is gained by unlocking and completing challenges, completing missions, and gaining points from your placement in the league. You can also gain minor bonuses during the race depending on how you drive. Challenges are one-on-one encounters against other members of Club Glimmerati or other individuals tied to the themes. Missions vary from shooting a music video, ramming vans to escorting the ladies. 

Some of your opponents include a fictitious German producer and a fictitious American socialite.  Who else do you have to face?  How do their stories come into play?

SN: You race against seven colorful members of the club. These include B Dome, our very own American rap star, and Christos Popoulos, a Greek shipping heir to name a couple . Each of these characters has their own background and intentions and naturally they play a role in the main plot as well. You can find yourself shooting a music video for B Dome or running errands for Club Glimmerati's ice queen Nicole.

In addition the player is be able to face local celebrities or people related to theme. By completing these tasks you gain access to special vehicles and new hidden tracks.

How does the Club Cards / branching story elements work?

SN: Club Card can be described as a profile. It stores your achievements in the story mode, keeps diary and stores your records in Time Trial mode as well. Player can share his very own Club Card via N-Gage Arena or Bluetooth. By comparing other players' Club Cards you're able to spot how others have been able to unlock missions and achieved various rewards.

[The] player is able to choose his very own path in the game by choosing different missions in the game. By gaining Fame player is able to trigger different previously unseen missions and challenges.

How does the multiplayer mode connect with the story?  Or are these separate aspects?

SN: Our approach in multiplayer mode was to focus in racing itself. Our top down camera angle serves this purpose very well.  It's great fun ramming your friends out of the track! A small hint, fastest cars break down more easily ;)

All we know about the multiplayer mode is that it allows for up to four players.

SN: [The] player is able to choose any of the tracks and can race against up to 3 opponents. By playing the story mode player is able to unlock new hidden tracks to be played in the multiplayer mode. Same goes with vehicles. 

The best players can acquire the desired gold trophy, as well as the presidency of Club Glimmerati.  Does the game end after this point?

SN: Gaining the presidency is the last step. However thanks to our branching storyline the player is able to see new missions and story elements next time [he/she] starts over. Hardcore gamers can keep on updating the Club Card and try to achieve more Fame to be the top dog in N-Gage Arena.

From what I saw of the game at E3 the street races appear to take place at night and in the busier parts of town.  Is this always the case?

SN: In Glimmerati we have 5 different locations including Milan, Paris, The Alps, Monaco and the climax is taking place in Malcolm McCain's private island. We have urban environments, snowy slippery roads in the Alps and relaxed sunny boat   races on Malcolm McCain's Mediterranean island.

Is a traffic system being thrown into the mix?  Or are we racing at times when no one else is on the road?

SN: Later in the game there's a lot of traffic present in the game, especially in The Alps and Monaco environments. However depending on the missions you can be driving all by yourself or trying to avoid traffic; for example police patrols. 

The graphics engine seems to be pretty powerful.  What are its technical specs?

SN: The graphics engine was made from scratch. Our assembly expert used several months to optimize its performance. The engine runs around 450 polygons per frame, which is a lot on N-Gage screen.   Also, in 4-player Bluetooth race frame rate is solid and you won't notice hiccups. 

Or else Paris Hilton will get away.

What types of vehicles can we drive in Glimmerati?  How are new ones acquired?

SN: Vehicles range from super cars to speedboats. In few occasions you're able to drive special vehicles including a rocket car, a bus and a limo.

By gathering Fame you're able to unlock challenges against the members of Club Glimmerati. If you're able to win these challenges you can acquire their vehicles.

At E3 I heard that the game might receive a mature rating in some territories.  What could possibly be in this racing game that would compel a ratings board to do this?

SN: Glimmerati is a high society racing game and we didn't want to make any compromises to achieve the atmosphere. In one of the themes you have to achieve the reputation of a viable playboy. A few missions contain sexual innuendo and ESRB saw this to be offensive enough to get mature rating.
 

Thank you for your time.