| A Tour of Gaming Heaven Ever since they were known as Ultimate Play The Game back in the dark ages of the 1980's, Chris and Tim Stamper have done a marvellous job of keeping their company away from the ever-watching eyes of the public. Rare Ltd, as they are now known, continue to keep the gaming industry guessing, and perhaps for this reason finding out what goes on behind their hallowed walls is such tempting endeavour. In this special editorial, Rarewhere delves deep into the inner workings of Rare, taking an in depth look into the multi-million dollar complex where Rare crafts its masterpieces time and time again. Out with the old, in with the new Prior to 1999, Rare tapped away on its titles in a 300 year-years-old farmhouse. Surrounded by several barns, outbuildings, and a group of chickens, Manor Farmhouse served Rare from 1985, right through to the late 90's. Soon after Killer Instinct was released in arcades, Rare realised that Manor Farmhouse was too small to accommodate their future aims. With Nintendo hurling money at Rare, the Stampers brothers were able to develop plans for a new multi-million dollar complex. Rare needed space for its rapidly increasing staff, and designers of the new complex took this into account, creating the spectacular complex where Rare now resides. Keeping its name of origin, Manor Park was born.� Change of Scenerey Situated in a 70-acre block in the tiny village of Twycross, Warwickshire, a large building stands on a hill, overlooking the beautiful countryside. Manor Park, at a size of 40, 000 sq ft, houses the 200 strong development staff of Rare, working feverishly away on multiple titles for Nintendo's next generation consoles. Manor Park was built over several years, adhering to strict guidelines that suited the company, while at the same time preserving the lush surroundings. The building was completed early in 1999 with an estimated budget of 6.5 million dollars, the majority of these costs paid from Nintendo's own pockets.� Manor Park is a cutting edge complex that provides Rare with the perfect environment to develop their brilliant games. With such features as an internal climate control system, an in-house cafeteria, a huge motion capture studio (that doubles as a cinema room), and the awesome sound studios responsible for such award winning titles as Conker's Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark, Rare is one of the best equipped development houses in the world. |
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| The building was completed early in 1999 with an estimated budget of 6.5 million dollars, the majority of these costs paid from Nintendo's own pockets.� Manor Park is a cutting edge complex that provides Rare with the perfect environment to develop their brilliant games. With such features as an internal climate control system, an in-house cafeteria, a huge motion capture studio (that doubles as a cinema room), and the awesome sound studios responsible for such award winning titles as Conker's Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark, Rare is one of the best equipped development houses in the world. Dream Palace After passing through the electric gate, guarded by a stack of security cameras, you are greeted with the sites of a tranquil lake, lush countryside (perhaps inspiration for worlds in the DKC series) and an impressively landscaped driveway. At the end of the long winding driveway, you find yourself in the car park right outside the main buildings. Glancing around, ridiculously expensive cars sit side-by-side, sporting number plates that read "RARE" and "R4RE" among others. The entrance to the administration building is guarded by two sets of glass doors. Anyone may enter the first set, but only once the receptionists identify you are you gained access through the second set of doors. To the left is the reception desk, home to several attractive young receptionists, and to the right a set of sofas are located in front of a wall size tapestry, given to Rare by Nintendo's former president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, as a sign of their partnership. On the opposite side, near the reception desk stands a seven-foot tall stuffed Banjo model.� Directly across from the two sets of doors is another sliding door that leads to a man-made lake. The reception area is three stories high, with overhead walkways linking the two sides of the building to one another. (Reminiscent of the main area in Base, a multiplayer level in Perfect Dark, with its overhead glass walkways). Inner Sanctum The main administration department, located on the first floor, houses the employees at Rare who are not directly involved in game design, such as public relations, recruitment offices, and the one and only Leigh Loveday, Rare's brilliant website editor (supposedly). Also situated on the first floor are two conference rooms, used for meetings between development teams. Nestled into the main building are several fully equipped sound studios, where all the brilliant sound and music is recorded for all Rare's games. The sound department contains several personal offices for all the musicians at Rare, and all musicians share a main sound recording room. A well-known fact of Rare is their incredible sound quality, and this may be attributed the very special sound recording techniques that are installed within Rare. In the main sound studio, six holes are situated in the floor. Rare's sound musicians can fill these holes with whatever they like, and then record people walking on them, among other things. So all those different sound effects that Joanna's steps make in Perfect Dark came from that very room. If you want to walk in puddles, a volunteer walks on the special floor, possibly filled with water, and extremely sensitive microphones record every single sound.� All microphones used within the sound studio have to be packed up after every use, simply for the fact that they cost 2000 dollars each! Downstairs from the sound division is the motion capture area. In this room are many different cameras' recording precise angles from adjustable positions. This is where death animations for Perfect Dark and Goldeneye were recorded. The unfortunate "victim" stands in the middle of the room, wearing a skin-tight suit of sensors. Every movement the person makes is recorded by the cameras and is transported directly to extremely powerful computers within the administration building. From there, artists take over and create 3D models from the information provided. The motion capture studio can also double as a cinema room where Rare can showcase its games. There is a massive projector situated in front of a 12-foot screen, perfect for presenting unheard of titles to the industry insiders and Nintendo executives.� Rare's own personal canteen of sorts is located in the main administration building, and serves meals to the hard working Rare staffers. The eight enthusiastic staff organises special meals, such as barbecues in summer and special celebrations upon games being released to the public. Due to a lack of eateries in Twycross, all staff frequents this canteen daily. The peaceful environment of the canteen looks out into the beautiful countryside, and this would certainly be a peaceful environment to enjoy a Coke over lunch.� Gaming Heaven So where does all the game developing action take place? Locked off from the outside world are four large development wings. Each development area is protected by glass links, which only allow members with certain keycard access to enter through. Each building is two stories high, with one development team on each floor. In some cases, a floor can be split into two, allowing two teams to work on the same floor. GBA teams usually do this. Each floor is compromised of several small offices that can hold about two team members comfortably, and a large room at the back, where most of the work is done. (If you ever happen to break your way into Rare's HQ, that is the place to go). Most of the designing, drawing, and programming take place in that room, making it the most secured part of Manor Park. The development wings are state of the art, offering Rare every single tool they need to create brilliant games, and with a newly founded Rare hardware team, graphically-wise, games can only reach new heights. Rare's dedicated Research & Development and hardware team departments are located in the main building, alongside the separate Testing department building. The R&D team consists of four dedicated members, lead by the former lead programmer of Starfox Adventures. The department's aim is to create new software technology that can be utilised by Rare's game development teams. Research & Development is intent on creating new game genres, while enhancing present genres so their full potential can be reached. The Heart Lie's Within.... The hardware department is approximately the same size as the R&D team. Once again, the hardware teams aim is to help out the development teams, in the areas of technical and hardware support, whenever problems may arise with development on games for GameCube or GameBoy Advance. The hardware department also maintains the company's immensely powerful computer network, and the large rendering machines. The testing department is located in a separate building attached to the administration area. Here, specially trained testers bug test games prior to release or E3 shows. The department's main job is to locate bugs and glitches in the game it is testing, and report back to the games lead programmers so the problem can be immediately fixed. The testing department is lead by a man who has been there since the very beginning. In the beginning, Rare's testing department had just 2 members. But with the swelling numbers of games being developed by Rare, the team has now increased to around 15 members. This number will surely rise in the near future, depending on Rare's future plans. Fort Knox Rare has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that no one gains access to something they shouldnt. Within Manor Park, every third door requires a different keycard, and administrations members are forbidden to go anywhere near the development barns. Strangely, not even development team members are permitted to see what other teams are doing. For example, the Starfox Adventures team cannot see what is happening with Kameo. If these guidelines are broken, consequences are strict, some situations even end with expulsion from Rare. This is unique, because even Nintendo shares development around. In the case of Mario 64, Wave Race 64 developers sat merely metres away from Mario 64 developers. Rare however, doesn't believe in this form of game design, preferring to keep every detail of a game top secret from anyone other than people directly involved in the tittle, until the time is right. Thus meaning people within Rare are just as clueless as Rare fans everywhere. Although frustrating from an outsiders perspective, Rare's management team are happy with the way Rare is run, so expecting any public tours of Rare, or even early details on a game in development, is nothing but foolish. The future's hazy... With a fourth development wing recently completed, Rare will be increasing the number of titles in development, and hopefully as a result of this we shall never again see 14 month release droughts. Manor Park is an incredibly interesting building that sadly, 99% of us will never experience. Hopefully, with Rarewhere's insightful look into Rare's state-of-the-art complex, some of us can experience Manor Park in all its glory, possibly the closest we shall ever come to finding out what really happens behind the well guarded walls of Rare's dream factory. Tim Schaefer - We would like to thank Raretopia for providing a large amount of information for this special. You can find a Tour Of Rare editorial by Raretopia right here. |
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| Reception |
| Car Park |
| Administration Building |
| Barn 1 |
| Barn 2 |
| Barn 3 |
| Cafetaria |
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| The Reception area. On the right wall the tapestry can be seen, as can the receptionist and overhead walkways. |
| The development wing seen in this picture houses the Perfect Dark on the top, and the Jet Force Gemini team on the bottom.. The curved building on the right-hand size is Rare's cafetaria. |
| (Right) Barn 2, which houses the Starfox Adventures team on the top floor, and the Kameo team on the bottom floor. |
| (Left) Barn 1, closest to the right, contains the Conker team on the bottom, and the Banjo team on the top. |
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| - Special - Tim Schaefer |
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