The human story behind Forza 7's customisable drivers

Dan Greenawalt says "we're as imperfect" as the tarmac itself.

Other than the prominence of Porsche, 4K HDR visuals running on Xbox One X, and the new dynamic weather conditions, the main feature introduced to Forza Motorsport 7 is perhaps the customisable drivers that will represent each and every player no matter what game mode they go for.

We wanted to ask Dan Greenawalt, Turn 10 and Forza franchise chief, about this new feature, and it all starts with the upgraded Career mode:

"We also have a new career, The Forza Driver's Cup, and outside your car you can customise the appearance of your Driver," Greenawalt explained during the GRTV interview below. "With that Driver's Cup you get series points based on how you compete, and with 700 cars you can kind of choose your own path as a driver to become the Driver's Cup Champion of the entire career. It's more Motorsport-based, with series points and things like that, we think our fans are going to love it."

But there's more to it than just the player feeling more represented in single-player. Of course, competition and esports are important, and there's also a more romantic approach:

"We thought about esports, streaming, competitive gaming... suits and having a customisable driver kind of gained a little bit of importance", recalls Greenawalt. "Then we started talking about this Forza Driver's Club, 'drivers' in the name, bringing the car and the driver out. But the most important thing is when we started looking at the way that the humanity comes into the game itself. This was a motto for the team, that we wanted the game to feel more human.

"And what makes a human human? We're imperfect. So we looked at the imperfections in tarmac and roadways, and it affected a lot of our graphics. But that also made us think about the driver. What is it at the heart of a race car? It's the driver. So being able to bring that driver out and then add more humanity into the game fit with the entire vision through every part of the game, be it streaming and esports, or the Driver's Cup, or just to look at the game itself".

There's more on esports and competitive gaming, along with the other Forza topics discussed, in the full interview below: