An Interview with Reiza Studios’ Renato Simioni - Big hint at new content!


Renato Simioni of Reiza Studios, best known for the Automobilista titles, sat down for an interview to talk about the origins of Reiza, the state of Automobilista 2, and even an exclusive teaser of what's coming in the near future.

I recently had the chance to sit down remotely with Renato Simioni of Reiza Studios to discuss the history of Reiza, the development process and current state of Automobilista 2, and what's coming in the future. for AMS2.

Renato was very candid about the challenges he and his team face as a smaller game development studio, while at the same time proud of the work they’ve produced in the past and more recently. He spoke about the journey from being an employee of a well-known racing game developer to having a major platform as an independent studio.

Renato Simioni Interview 03.jpeg


We also spoke about the utilization of the Madness Engine for Automobilista 2. The move to use the gaming engine that Project CARS 2 used was a surprise to many, as Reiza had deep ties with the ISI / rFactor engine and had even collaborated with Studio 397 to release a DLC pack for rFactor 2. We discussed the rationale, challenges and advantages of the deal that was reached with Slightly Mad Studios for the use of the engine.

Another hot topic Renato opened up about was the polarizing nature of the driving experience in AMS2. Many in the sim racing community has expressed frustration with the feel of driving in the title while others enjoy it. We discussed why this could be and whether Reiza Studios has plans to make improvements on this front.

Be sure to check out the full interview on the RaceDepartment YouTube channel or watch via the embedded player above. A huge thanks to Renato for taking the time to chat with us.
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Mike Kadlcak, Dann Murillo, F2020 and 44 others
About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

More in Automobilista 2

Comments

Tarmac Terrorist
Great interview Mike! Really good questions and geared to things community has been asking. Renato seemed very honest and open about his answers, you could tell he was thinking about the questions without just answering with some pre concieved generic answer and he came over like he does on the forums, very fair and considered. Really enjoyed that, thanks!
 
Cote Dazur
Thank you mike, very balanced and pertinent questions. Thank you Renato for taking the time replying to those questions with an open mind and sharing your hopes and plans.
Overall very good interview.
Even though AMS2 is a disappointment to me, I have no regrets acquiring it and giving it a chance last year.
From this interview I am not expecting it will ever be more than a SIM I might launch every once in a while.
One question I would have expected would be, in light of the wide offering but at the same time sparse in many series, how important moding is as complementing missing content to get complete grids and might be a reason AMS2 as a very small player base.
 
Last edited:
WALEAD99
i tested all reiza studio games this my review
-all games good in graphics but ams2 better
-driving its ez expect ams2 hard to drive expect formula v10
-great physics
-great multiplayer specially ams1 most players from south america (brazil and argentina)
-a free game (copa petrobas ) isnt bad but no multiplayer in this game
-you can run on your low end pc all reiza games expect ams2 need a meduim to high end pc
-a lot of mods specially stock car and ams1
-the loading time is fast in all reiza games
-the price of dlc is high but no problem
my review for reiza 10/10 i hope players play reiza games specially automobilista 1 and 2
 
D

  • Deleted member 241736

Very interesting. The interview sounds like the Marco M. AC interviews back in 2015. High motivated to set the perfect racing sim. But then ONLY money was the prior for the AC guys and they sold their soul and theirselves to 505 and left one genius (Kunos) behind

Keep on Reiza m
 
leclettico
I really appreciated hearing Renato admit the mistakes Reiza made in the early access phase.
I take advantage of Renato's interview to criticize (in an absolute sense, and not only referring to Reiza) this contemporary way of approaching software, especially simulative games.
AMS2 didn't really come out of the early access phase at the proper time, but it seems to have ended only recently.
As much as I can understand the difficulties of a small development team, this procrastination in releasing a sufficiently stable version that doesn't require resetting setups or considerable changes in force feedback, doesn't allow to "be able to play" titles that use this development scheme.
Everything becomes suspended.
We are always in a testing phase that requires the indirect support of the players, and also of an economic nature, since it is clear (and I think Renato admitted it with great honesty even on this forum several months ago) that the release of DLC also serves to finance the development of the title.
Of course releasing new content means more things to fix, maybe for a group of cars, which introduce more delays.
In fact I drove very little with AMS2, not only because of the overall lack of feel and physics behavior of most cars, but because I knew that everything I would learn would be invalidated by a new update.
 
Last edited:
M
leclettico said:
I really appreciated hearing Renato admit the mistakes Reiza made in the early access phase.
I take advantage of Renato's interview to criticize (in an absolute sense, and not only referring to Reiza) this contemporary way of approaching software, especially simulative games.
AMS2 didn't really come out of the early access phase at the proper time, but it seems to have ended only recently.
As much as I can understand the difficulties of a small development team, this procrastination in releasing a sufficiently stable version that doesn't require resetting setups or considerable changes in force feedback, doesn't allow to "be able to play" titles that use this development scheme.
Everything becomes suspended.
We are always in a testing phase that requires the indirect support of the players, and also of an economic nature, since it is clear (and I think Renato admitted it with great honesty even on this forum several months ago) that the release of DLC also serves to finance the development of the title.
Of course releasing new content means more things to fix, maybe for a group of cars, which introduce more delays.
In fact I drove very little with AMS2, not only because of the overall lack of feel and physics behavior of most cars, but because I knew that everything I would learn would be invalidated by a new update.
Click to expand...
Hasn't been the case that there were big changes in physics since March... Even more time for FFB... The first year was much more the case but lately it's been quite stable. I developed a lot of setups for myself and even with all the improvements and tuning that came after March all of them are pretty much still very valid.
 
N
leclettico said:
I really appreciated hearing Renato admit the mistakes Reiza made in the early access phase.
I take advantage of Renato's interview to criticize (in an absolute sense, and not only referring to Reiza) this contemporary way of approaching software, especially simulative games.
AMS2 didn't really come out of the early access phase at the proper time, but it seems to have ended only recently.
As much as I can understand the difficulties of a small development team, this procrastination in releasing a sufficiently stable version that doesn't require resetting setups or considerable changes in force feedback, doesn't allow to "be able to play" titles that use this development scheme.
Everything becomes suspended.
We are always in a testing phase that requires the indirect support of the players, and also of an economic nature, since it is clear (and I think Renato admitted it with great honesty even on this forum several months ago) that the release of DLC also serves to finance the development of the title.
Of course releasing new content means more things to fix, maybe for a group of cars, which introduce more delays.
In fact I drove very little with AMS2, not only because of the overall lack of feel and physics behavior of most cars, but because I knew that everything I would learn would be invalidated by a new update.
Click to expand...
I think if you are into simulations you sorta have to expect the wip element, even FS2020 with all its resources is really a beta wip. In all fairness its been fairly straight forward with tweaks here & there on the tyre mod & some physics, i stopped deleting my settings some time ago its just update & test.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Mike Smith
Article read time
2 min read
Views
24,423
Comments
77
Last update

Share this article

Do you prefer licensed hardware?

  • Yes for me it is vital

  • Yes, but only if it's a manufacturer I like

  • Yes, but only if the price is right

  • No, a generic wheel is fine

  • No, I would be ok with a replica

Results are only viewable after voting.
See comments…
Back
Top