Festival Director Campaign

Lore & Background

Forza Horizon 3 is set in a fictionalised Australia, where the player is the leader of the titular Horizon car festival. Unlike previous Forza Horizon games which depicted the player as being one of the racers, the player is now the director. The campaign emphasizes the legacy of past festivals while pushing boundaries. Creative director Ralph Fulton felt that Forza Horizon 3 was a 'generational leap' over its predecessor. The game was designed using the ForzaTech game engine, and the development team started conceptualizing the game in 2014 after Forza Horizon 2 was released. The team desired to give players more freedom and sought to optimize gameplay and graphical aspects, including minimizing loading screen time to maintain a persistently high quality impression.

Reader's Guide

The campaign begins with the player as the director of the Horizon Festival, tasked with expanding it throughout Australia by completing events to earn fans. Three types of racing modes are available: Exhibition (a single race at one location), Championship (multiple races dispersed throughout the gameplay world), and Rivals (a time trial against an AI opponent). The newly introduced Horizon Blueprint feature lets the player customise races and Bucket List Challenges.

As the player progresses, they can receive rumours of barn finds to uncover and restore. Performing stunts awards 'skill points' which can be used to purchase perks that may award cars, experience points, in-game currency, and driving advantages. The player can also participate in Forzathon competitions, which provide weekly challenges. Drivatars, a vehicle AI that learns and mimics the driving abilities of Forza players, appear in races as opponents and can be challenged to head-to-head races.

If the player wins, they can recruit that Drivatar onto their racing team, which allows the player to earn additional experience points, fans, and in-game currency. The player can also recruit Drivatars in a car convoy, where they will follow the player and can be upgraded by skill points. The gameplay world is about twice the size of Forza Horizon 2 and consists of six distinct regions based on real-life Australian counterparts, including the desert town of Coober Pedy, the Great Ocean Road, Byron Bay, Ormiston Gorge, and Surfers Paradise.

Did You Know?

• The game's setting is a fictionalised Australia, chosen for its variety of regions; a team was sent to Australia to take reference photos of plants, rocks, and road details.
• Forza Horizon 3 features a vehicle AI called Drivatars, which learns and mimics the driving abilities of Forza players and can be recruited onto your racing team.
• Due to licensing issues, vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen are absent from the game.
• The development team tested an HDR sky system by sending three teams of two to Braidwood, New South Wales to capture Australia's skies, clouds, and weather patterns.