Forza Horizon 5's Events lab lets you make up your own mini games
And mess with gravity
Forza Horizon 5 was announced during last week's Microsoft conference, and it was among the best of E3. Since the show, developers Playground Games have been out talking, including about the Events lab, a new tool shipped with the game that lets you create your own modes.
"It's actually based on our internal design tools. We've had to take those tools, which were very much meant for game developers and get them fit for consumption by our players," explained creative director Mike Brown in an interview with Eurogamer.
"It's a rule-based system where you put in: when this happens, this is the outcome, when this happens with these conditions, then this is the action. In the video that we saw yesterday, there's quite a lot of rules in play. Some of the ones that are probably easiest to understand is the creator has placed all those bowling pins, and then attached a rule to those bowling pins that every time a car hits one, it adds 5000 points to the group score."
Brown goes on to explain that you can go so far as to modify the physics of the game, creating modes which "make the car get heavier, or reduce gravity." He also says that the development team will be looking out for user-made games that they can promote to everyone playing via other modes like the Festival Playlist.
Forza Horizon 4 wasn't short on things to do - it arguably had so many that it was overwhelming, and Brown also talks about ways the new game aims to do better in steering you through different events. I like anytime modding tools are placed in the hands of players though, even if it's an in-game tool like this, and it'll be interesting to see exactly how powerful it is in practice.
If you're interested in Forza Horizon 5, the full interview is well worth a read, covering their recreation of Mexico, the country's local car culture, and the game's new seasonal weather effects.