مقابلة Dark Souls من Mario Kart - DEATHSPRINT 66 مقابلة

Audio transcriptions

"Hello everyone, I'm Alex here with Gamereactor. We are live at Gamescom.
I'm here with Andy. We've just checked out Death Sprint 66.
It's a game of death, sprinting, and it's, well, as we can see just out of view here, Mario Kart meets The Running Man, which is something that Andy's going to tell us a lot more about right now."

"Absolutely, yeah. You did well. I'm going to say you did well.
That was a lot to do, you know, first thing in the morning.
But yeah, it's a game show set in a dystopian universe. It's all about on-foot racing.
We embrace the chaos. We embrace the PvP element, as you've experienced against our bots."

"There's lots of shoulder-to-shoulder action. We have a physics system where you can nudge.
You can boost past people and you'll automatically punch them.
We've got deadly abilities that will cut people in half, cut heads off, and just great family-friendly fun, right?
Yeah, a lot of fun."

"I mean, even when you're dying, you're having fun.
What's the approach of going into a game like that where you know you're going to be killing people a lot, but you still want them to have that fun?
You want them to be like, okay, go next, instead of losing their mojo a bit when they die?
Absolutely, and a lot of the influence for the gore that's this memberment system, it was always there to be shockingly funny rather than brutal."

"So we hope that people celebrate those kills.
So when you hear, say, a head spinning across the finish line, or if you see someone run past you and cross the finish line, we explode you in confetti and blood, and that's always a great spectacle."

"So it's a violent spectacle, but it's very tongue-in-cheek.
We'll have a lot of fun with it.
Yeah, and as I said, you just lean into that stuff, right?
And you talked a bit about the physics engine before."

"Is that something that you guys have sort of...
How have you adapted that to work with the game?
Because there's also quite a lot of weight in the jumps, the drifts.
You feel like you're really sort of moving yourself around."

"Absolutely, yeah.
We spent a lot of time with the toy, as we used to call it in my former days.
We made sure that our 3Cs, which is your character control...
I've lost myself."

"Character control.
Another one.
There's another one.
Oh, my God.
Oh, froze."

"All of those were absolutely best in class.
So that fluidity of the movement, 60fps.
It's not just running, as you've experienced.
You're kind of on zip lines, you're on rail grinds, you're wall running, and all of that just needs to feel really free form as you connect these things together."

"And again, as you've experienced here, you're building that hype so that score is constantly giving you more boosts to keep you faster and faster and faster.
So the only thing really that breaks momentum is dying."

"Something I like about this game that I noticed right off the bat compared to other games that sort of kill you a lot or have this sort of emphasis on difficulty is that it does reward you for getting to that point where you know the map inside and out."

"You will be able to sort of feel like you are an ace among your peers.
How did you get to that point of developing this system that rewards the player more so than it does, sort of maybe punishes them for dying?
Yeah, well, I mean, there's a few ways we approached this, really."

"So we wanted a game which was going to be pick up and play.
So there was that level where everyone can feel like they're having fun, but then for people that really want that competitive edge, there is ways that you can push it further."

"So you'll experience again today that you could ride on a rail and you can just ride.
That's fine. You're soft-snap to it.
Or if you lean into the apex of the corner, you'll get a little bit more of a speed boost."

"You might grab a collectible, which puts you at an advantage.
And all of those systems were geared around just different layers.
So even when we finished the race as well, so, you know, in our core kind of showtime game mode, it is about getting to first place. That's the honor."

"But behind that, we have a detailed award system which rewards glory and, you know, kills and score so that you can show off in different ways, so that it's about position, it's about popularity, and it's also a celebration of death."

"And you could die loads, and you'll still be rewarded for that.
And we have a lot of fun with it as well.
I think, again, you saw you got the suit of shame.
Got the suit of shame."

"So if you die five times, the game show, not us, the game show removes your cosmetics and puts you in this, you know, crash test dummy suit, basically, to have a bit of fun."

"Almost the ultimate equality.
I want to point out, the man behind the camera also got the shame suit.
I'm not just, you know, I don't want to feed into the game press about it games, because if a camera guy can do it as well, you know."

"You had hardcore challenges today, though, because you guys played the PvE challenges, which are deliberately tuned to be something above, you know.
So if we've got our core game mode, yeah, that's going to be hard, but the players, by and large, will control the difficulty."

"With PvE, we've, you know, doubled the amount of traps on some of the levels.
You've seen some of the weird and wacky things that we're doing, different metrics for scoring, such as collectible rings or time gates, stuff like that."

"So, yeah, we've dropped you in on the deep end, definitely.
Yeah, but the PvE, as you touched upon there, it's sort of like a limit breaker for you guys.
You've really sort of been able to run wild."

"Could you talk a bit about, like, sort of how you've been able to change, like, levels compared to a regular race?
Absolutely, yeah.
So when we set off to make this game, we were quite sensible about how we approach level design."

"We tried to make kit pieces almost like Scalextric track, so it really liberated the level designers to go far and wide with the circuits and the sprints.
But, you know, the main game, it takes place in a very believable fantasy world."

"The setting is 2066, and it's a dystopian vision of Earth.
So we do have, you know, city blocks, we have, you know, desert wastelands, flooded areas, and it's all visually impressive.
You know, we're in nanite lumens and UE 5.3, so it's beautiful."

"But it's also limiting because it takes a while to create levels of that kind of visual.
So with PVE, we went a little bit more rainbow roadie.
You know, so we didn't kind of worry as much about the biomes."

"We had this kind of what we call our AR levels, which was like imagine an augmented reality level in the background.
And so you'll see these far more kind of esoteric, weird-looking colors in the background and shapes."

"And what that means is we can go wild with the track pieces, right?
So that's why we can say, all right, we're going to make a track that's way longer than a sprint might be in the normal game because we don't have to worry about starting at the highest skyscraper or ending at the ground level so we can go on for further and longer."

"And we can double the amount of traps because, you know, we want it to be difficult.
And the intention as well was also it was like a little bit of a testing ground."

"So when we do ship, you know, if the community is saying, oh, wow, like that's amazing, why is that not in the PVP playlist?
We can bring it across to the PVP playlist.
So that's something that we'll be constantly monitoring, you know, when we launch of like what's resonating with people."

"I also think there's going to be a lot of value in, you know, the time trial community.
I can see some very shareable heart and mouth moments from some of those things just from watching people play here."

"And when you were on your last life, it's like, oh, is he going to make it?
Yeah, that stuff gets the blood pumping.
I think I lost it instantly in my last life.
But there was a few where I was like, oh, I've definitely got it."

"I've got the knack of it this time.
But, yeah, there's also that element I can see of like the PVP being that sort of Mario Kart-esque level of you can just jump in.
You can just jump in, you can have a laugh, and you can all be wearing a suit of shame, and it doesn't really matter."

"But if someone does want to get better at the game without maybe throwing themselves into the PV challenges, what can they sort of expect to sort of allow them to build their skills up?
Yeah, so we have an entire menu which is basically called rehearsals."

"Again, everything's like a TV fantasy for us.
And you can load any map from the game, so anything at all, and you can have AI on or off.
So you could literally just perfect your route."

"So just pick anything and just go for it.
That's exactly where I'm going.
Those are the shortcuts I want to take, get super familiar with every single bit of movement that's needed for all of the traps and then go and take those skills back into PVP."

"And then probably you'll get pumped and immediately lose your route.
Yeah, I think the things for PVP to watch out for are if you're boosting, you're going to be doing the one that's punching.
So it's always remember a boost."

"And there's stuff as well that you won't see if there's no players there in PVE, but like the trails that come off the other contestants, so kind of tucking behind them.
So you're going to get like a slipstreaming boost."

"So actually sometimes some of the best tactics might be to let the chaos happen on the start line and then, you know, okay, I'll give you guys a second and then catch them up quickly.
Seen some interesting techniques with that."

"Yeah, it's like wait for a minute and then get to go.
Is that sort of a way to sort of stop like someone just getting a really easy start and then just snowballing?
Yeah, yeah, totally."

"I mean, we do have the skill start in there as well.
So, you know, it says master both because if you hit the pulley accelerate, so to speak, as the light's turning green, you'll get that boost off the line, which is really useful."

"And, you know, as part of that boost, you'll also reach out and punch your fellow contestants.
Yeah, I think that immediately happened to me on my PVP race.
In the tutorial, I hit the accelerator button at the right time."

"Needs to be recorded.
Needs to be noted.
But, yeah, what can you tell me about like we've talked upon it a bit.
It's all in a show."

"It's like this world sort of what there's a clear inspiration for that, but you've also sort of put your own twist on it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, there's names I can't drop for legal reasons."

"But, yeah, if you imagine a dystopian future where, you know, for us, Braylon Bachman is the tech entrepreneur who's got so much money, money is no object, and he's kind of bought up all of these, you know, cloning technology."

"In our future, we have this thing called the Stem Link, and Stem Link's a technology which is like where I could imagine VR going, you know, so it's almost like a neural connection with an avatar.
And the story behind it is that it was used to control mechs during the climate wars, but now it's being used for entertainment."

"And so that combined with Braylon Bachman, you know, really mastering human cloning.
So these human clones are now just bred for one purpose, and that's to run.
And that's why they're so disposable."

"So you, as a contestant, the fantasy is you're a clone jockey.
So you're kind of dialing into the consciousness of your clone.
You're racing them, and if you disconnect, we instantly fire another one onto the racetrack for you to connect to."

"But, yeah, so we tried, you know, we're not a huge budget game.
We're trying to be very innovative with what we've done, but we've layered a lot of lore and backstory into the game.
We have like a news ticker which is constantly running, which fleshes out some of that within the levels."

"As you play the levels, there's lots of fake adverts, you know, so we've got adverts like, you know, remember beef?
And, you know, headlines about tins of peaches from 2024 selling for billions, you know."

"So we're having a lot of fun with that stuff.
But behind it there is, you know, there is a story, you know, so it is cohesive, that world that we've built.
And it's also a lot of cosmetics as well for players to unlock."

"What's the extent of that, and how can they expect to unlock it?
Yeah, so we have, I think there's probably about 56 or something like unique kind of meshes with all different kind of colors and stuff.
And then we have the emoji feed system."

"So this is your scoring feed.
So as you're doing all these cool actions, we have an emoji system.
I can't remember off the top of my head.
We've got at least 50 odd or something of those emojis."

"And they're like kind of themed packs.
So you'll get your ghosts and your hearts and stuff.
And you unlock all of those.
And I think we've got like nearly over 100 banners or something which you can use, which again is part of the kill feed and part of the peacocking."

"And all of that stuff's in the client at launch.
It's in the game.
So, you know, with this we wanted to put a really good value proposition in front of the players, you know."

"So sensible price around the $20 mark and absolutely everything you need is in the game at launch.
And we're not saying it's fire and forget.
We will be supporting post-launch, you know, but we're actually going to do that once we know what people want."

"You know, rather than us saying, oh, you know what, this is what we're making you for the next three months.
No, you tell us because, you know, we can add tracks to the game.
We can add cosmetics."

"It's really just working out who our community is and what their requirements are.
Perfect.
Andy, I've just got one more question for you."

"When can people expect to see Desperate in 66 and what can they see it on?
We are launching first on PC and that will be on the 12th of September, so three weeks.
And that's scary because I'm stood here three weeks."

"Yeah, scary and exciting.
Andy, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you."