REDMOND, WA—In a relatively anonymous office park about 30 minutes from downtown Seattle, one headquarters clearly stands out from its neighbors. There are unavoidable glimpses of automobile ephemera—Mazerati, Lotus, and Mercedes flags, particularly—hanging in the windows, and the parking lot contains a significantly higher concentration of interesting cars than one would expect. It's subtle, but to the cognoscenti it signals "interesting car stuff happens here." Welcome to Turn 10.

Ars editor Sam Machkovech and I recently spent a few hours in the game studio's car-culture drenched halls to learn more about how the fine folks at Turn 10 turn out the various entries in the Forza franchise. If the outside features hint to the workings within, the reception area shouts this office's purpose. That metallic burnt orange McLaren P1 hanging out next to the front desk? It was a version of the car that played cover star for Forza Motorsport 5, although the one serving as gate guard here was, sadly, an undrivable shell and not a full-on, 900 horsepower hybrid hypercar. Despite that fact, it still cost more than $300,000! That carbon fiber bodywork didn't come cheap, it turns out.

Sam Machkovech

Quite a few racing drivers have sat there, helping to tune Forza.

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   Sam Machkovech

   Quite a few racing drivers have sat there, helping to tune Forza.

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   Jonathan Gitlin

   The world's most expensive production status indicators? Head and taillight clusters from an Audi R8.

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   Sam Machkovech

   This shrine to a colleague on Sabbatical is the kind of thing that happens if you leave the office for too long.

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   Sam Machkovech

   Turn 10's Top Gear Test Track Times. Try saying that ten times.

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   Sam Machkovech

   The Studio has amassed a few trophies and mementos over the years.

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   Sam Machkovech

   More than one caseful, in fact.

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   Sam Machkovech

    

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   Sam Machkovech

    

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   Sam Machkovech

    

Sam and I were issued visitor passes, and our host for the day, Turn 10 Content Director John Wendl, led us past the studio’s assorted trophies and into his world. There were fewer racing cockpits in the office than you might expect. A three-screen Xbox One setup took pride of place in the center of the office, complete with the rather good Thrustmaster TX racing wheel we reviewed recently. Sitting forlornly under the stairs was an older, three-screen cockpit that appeared to have the ability to tilt the seat around. This veteran of many a trade show was now gathering dust, obsolete with the move from the Xbox 360 (and Forza Motorsport 4) to the Xbox One.

An open-plan meeting area was surrounded on both sides with design boards from Forza Motorsport 5, showing different aspects of the game’s rather incredible attention to detail. Wendl pointed out that "It’s not about polygons anymore." With current generation consoles able to show so much detail, the goal is now to create atmosphere by simulating the same imperfections one sees in the real world. He was particularly proud of the hand-finishing scratches visible on the surface of some alloy wheels and the orange peel effect that even the most expensive automobiles will leave the factory with. Without these extra touches of imperfection, Wendl said Forza's digital cars looked too good and started to display an uncanny valley effect much like that seen in digital humans.

To one side of the room was a time trial lap board that would be familiar to anyone who watches Top Gear, a reminder of the creative partnership between Turn 10 and the BBC’s extremely popular car-based entertainment show. Perhaps sadly, there wasn’t an ongoing intraoffice battle to set the fastest time around the Top Gear track with the "reasonably priced car (AKA the Kia Cee’d);" however, we were told that Turn 10’s fastest employee is Christian, one of their network engineers.

Above one wall, Audi R8 headlamp and brake light clusters served as the world’s most expensive production server indicator lights, brightly blaring the current status of the online Forza experience. These predated Audi’s latest laserbeam headlights, though, which is probably good news for the eyesight of anyone sitting in front of them.

As we wandered around the office, it became clear that some serious car nerds work here. There were lots of Nerf guns guarding people’s cubes. There was plenty of automobile ephemera, including the odd slick racing tire here and there and more than a few (quite intricate) paper model cars that appear to have been used in previous releases (notably Forza Motorsport 3). There was also a culture of office pranks, evidenced by the shrine in the central office area devoted to one of the studio executives who was then on sabbatical. Employees bragged about some elaborate recent pranks, including one involving the installation of radiant underfloor heating beneath the floor of one staff member notorious for always complaining about being too warm.

Although Turn 10’s Creative Director, Dan Greenawalt, was out of town when we visited, I caught up with him by phone a couple of weeks later, and he pointed to the humor of his coworkers as one of the things he loves most about Turn 10. Greenawalt has been immersed in prank culture since his tenure at Microsoft, before Turn 10 even existed, he told me. Not only sabbaticals but even shorter vacations can trigger a prank, such as planting chia seeds in someone’s office.

The office is home to a lot of different subcultures that play, as well as work, together. Martial artists who all train together, a D&D contingent, basketballers, and a track day crowd are all included among the workers. Despite the diverse interests, Greenawalt says every Turn 10 employee has a passion for the player at the core.

When I asked him why he loves working at Turn 10, Greenawalt surprisingly told me first that “racing games aren’t even my favorite genre.” That said, working on a game that combines cars with technology, and maybe making that into a cultural phenomenon, has strong appeal. He told Ars he also loves the humor of the place (those pranks again), plus working with many very smart people who can empathize with different gamer types is a delight.

When Turn 10 was created in 2001, Greenawalt said the employees were mainly people with experience in publishing titles like Project Gotham Racing and Golf 4.0, rather than people with direct development, design, and coding experience. Reflecting on the intervening 13 years, Greenawalt said he can’t recognize the way they used to do things, and the passage of time has led to wisdom (or aging) and therefore better decision making.

Listing image by Sam Machkovech