Razorworks

Credits

Compiled by
Chow Woon Gan

Background

Razorworks was an internal development studio of Empire Interactive Europe Limited, founded in August 1996 by Kevin Bezant, Todd Gibbs, Dave Proctor and Matthew Smith, who had all previously worked together for the combat flight simulator specialists Digital Integration. The company was based in Kidlington, United Kingdom.

Empire acquired the company in November 2000. On July 2008, the studio was closed due to Empire Interactive's financial difficulties, and later acquired by Rebellion. The staff of 30 people moved across to Rebellion's own Oxford set-up.

The company was especially known for the Enemy Engaged series and the Ford Racing series. The former of which were nominated for several Simulation Game of the Year awards.

Logo (November 20, 2002-November 11, 2008)

• 
• 
  Total Immersion Racing
• 
  Still version (Ford Racing 2)
• 
  Still version (Pipe Mania)
• 
  Pipe Mania copyright screen
• 
  Still version (Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams)

Visuals: On a dark blue gradient background, there is a light writing the letter "R" as the camera moves before it cuts to another shot of the light writes the word "az". It then proceeds to cut to another shot of the light, now draws what seems to be a buffalo. Finally, the screen shows a shot of the light writes down the remaining words and when it's finished, the background then changes to grey gradient and it zooms out to reveal that the entire thing is the company name, "Razorworks", with a buffalo above and a trademark sign beside it. The logo then zooms out slowly.

Variants:

• On Pipe Mania, the logo is still and is seen fading in on a white background.
  • On the copyright screen of the same game, the logo appears with the Empire Interactive logo below the copyright notice.
• On Total Immersion Racing, after the Empire Interactive logo variant, the logo blurs in to reveal an extreme close-up of the metallic logo with a BMW M3 GTR (in its BMW Team M3 Motorsport livery) driving towards to the screen projected inside of it. As the car is getting closer to the screen, the logo quickly zooms out as the footage disappears. Soon as the entire logo is revealed, a white light fades in behind the logo, as "a razorworks production" fades in below it. A light then runs through the text.
• On Ford Racing 2, the metallic logo is still with "a razorworks production" below on a black background.
• On Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams for the Nintendo DS, the logo takes place on a silver background and is above the Human Soft Inc. logo.

Technique: CGI (2D for the normal variant and 3D for the Total Immersion Racing variant), and a still, digital graphic for the still variants.

Audio: Several sword clashing sounds are heard during the drawing of the logo, and finally, a strong whoosh when the logo was zoomed out.

Audio Variants:

• None for the still variants.
• On Total Immersion Racing, a funky electro tune which continues from the Empire Interactive logo variant, accompanied by a whoosh and a clang. A car vrooming noise is heard when a light runs through the text.

Availability: First seen on Total Immersion Racing, and later seen on their Ford Racing games (starting with Ford Racing 2) and the Taito Legends series. It was last seen on Pipe Mania and Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams for the Nintendo DS.