Lee Mather is a developer truly living his dream. As a lifelong F1 fan and gamer, it’s hard to think of a better job for him to have in his industry than as the senior creative director of the official Formula 1 game franchise.
His passion is obvious from the moment he begins to talk about the beloved franchise that has been working on since Codemasters’ very first officially licensed F1 title was released, way back in 2009.
“We’re very lucky,” Mather says of his Birmingham-based team. “I mean, the majority of us are massive F1 fans. I think some people would struggle to work on a game for as long as some of us have! But it just never gets tiring.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be tied to the sport that I’ve loved my entire life. Gaming and motorsport are the two things I love the most, so it’s the perfect combination.”
A franchise in flux
Early May is a crucial time of the year for the team at Codemasters. As an annual sports game franchise, this is the point when each upcoming release is finalised ahead of going gold for release in late June. But the last few years have brought major challenges for those in game development, with the Covid-19 pandemic and rise of working from home forcing compromises across the industry as deadlines remained static.
The team adapted to its new work environments while tackling sudden changes to F1’s calendar and last-minute livery modifications. But Mather says Codemasters were already used to reacting to the unexpected.
“They’re the sorts of things that we contend with on a regular basis anyway with the sport,” Mather says. “It’s a fast-moving, ever-changing sport.
“Obviously there have been other things thrown into the mix and when we transitioned to working from home, that went incredibly smoothly and we were able to get things done. As you saw with the previous releases we didn’t have any [delivery] issues with F1 2020 or ’21.”
The…