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We speak with GRIP’s developers about the journey to Switch
Everyone has to start somewhere, but GRIP’s foundations come from an unlikely source. We speak with the developers about the game’s journey to Nintendo Switch.
When you think of your favourite games, it’s easy to recall who made them, whether it’s the latest Forza made by a huge team like Turn 10 or Playground Games, an industry stalwart like Metal Gear’s Hideo Kojima, or even the likes of Street Fighter, helmed by the venerable Yoshinori Ono and his cute Blanka toy that goes everywhere with him. It’s safe to say, however, you don’t think of an Ontario roofer who'd turned his hand to home improvement projects after eight years braving the extremes of weather on the roofs of his Canadian locale.
But that’s the story of Chris Mallinson, one of the brains behind GRIP, a frenetic car-combat game released in 2018. He’s a newcomer to the games industry, whose adoration for the beloved Rollcage franchise caused him to make his own game. “In late 2014, my love for Rollcage sparked my interest in searching the internet for some kind of sequel after Stage 2,” Mallinson tells us, “I searched for Rollcage 3 and instead found Rollcage Redux, something Robert Baker – my business partner and programmer extraordinaire – was working on for free, out of his love for the original and kindness of his own heart.”
“Redux was an updated version of Rollcage that was compatible with newer versions of Windows and had some increased visual fidelity,” Mallinson explains, “I thought to myself, 'if this guy is so incredibly dedicated to the original game, I wonder if he'd want to do a new one?'”
One thing led to another and after (in the developer’s own words) his “terrible pitch” he had Baker on board, and GRIP was born.
Despite Rollcage and indeed GRIP’s arcade leanings, Mallinson is actually a big sim-racer fan. “My favourite racing game of all time is Richard Burns Rally, which is pretty telling”, he says. “That game was so realistic for its time, you could pull off a Scandinavian flick manoeuvre and it felt real.” Aside from also loving Star Wars Pod Racer, Flatout and Destruction Derby, the inspiration for his game is clear.
“Rollcage was a phenomenal game for its time as well, with crazy graphics and some of the coolest gameplay ever,” Mallinson tells us. “It was so hard too that I'm surprised I could even win in it. Playing it again in the past few years, I'm pretty terrible at it, but it's still fun.”
GRIP’s exciting car combat is visceral and speedy
© Wired Productions
Trials and tribulations
Of course, being inspired by another game can bring problems. Individuality is vital when a game is such a labour of love, but Mallinson isn’t too concerned about comparisons. “I mean, we came out of the gates with this intention,” he explains, “Rob and I clearly have an affinity to Rollcage and we're honoured to have GRIP called 'its spiritual successor'. Obviously there are differences in game design and gameplay, but the essence and spirit of Rollcage is certainly there.”
Although these days GRIP is being supported with new content and regular updates, the development wasn’t easy. Kickstarter can be a big platform for some games that helps them get made, but it wasn’t fun for Mallinson. “The Kickstarter was a nightmare,” he admits, “But getting money from people for a proposed product is even harder, and it's something we failed at. Mind you, we are first time developers and were asking for $500K USD [€445,000] which was unheard of for the most part.”
Mallinson is candid about all of the problems they had at this stage, too. “We wanted to put up an honest and realistic goal of what we'd need to make the game we envisioned,” he says, “ I think it scared most people off. But we're ever grateful for the people that supported us, as many of them jumped onto our website campaign as backers a month or so later.”
From Kickstarter, the game went into early access, which was a very different experience for the team. “Early access was our life saver,” Mallinson says, “we were able to actually make the game. We had a funding campaign on our website prior to early access too, that really made it possible to create GRIP. It's been a rollercoaster, for sure.” Indeed, the rollercoaster provided its own challenges, as Mallinson explains, “It's a bit like releasing a retail game, but you're not finished. The community feedback and gaining such a great and dedicated fan base, is the biggest win there.”
Switching things up
Then, of course, there’s the holy grail for a game in the modern era: a Switch version, which certainly wasn’t in Mallinson’s thoughts at the start of the project: “We didn't even know if we'd get to a console version, period. It was only when Wired Productions came on board that we were able to push the game onto all three consoles. Prior to that it was myself and Rob full-time and a few other guys part-time that were developing GRIP. We'd never dreamed it would be on a handheld device, especially something like Switch. It's kind of surreal.”
Nintendo’s Switch is still a relatively new platform, launching in 2018, and it’s a lower powered console than the PS4 and Xbox One, so even something to celebrate like a handheld version of the game came with new challenges. “We needed to redesign some UI elements to cater to Switch, strike a balance with visuals and performance, as well as make sure the game was playable on handheld,” he explains, “as it goes so incredibly fast and requires high precision.”
Gripping the future with both hands
Now, with so much development behind the team, Mallinson is looking forward to supporting GRIP long-term. “The fans have loved the DLC we’ve put out so far and we have the next few months planned out,” he says, “As long as we have a community we can support through content, we’ll continue to do so and reinvest the funds for future delivery.” Ideally, then, the game has plenty more coming and he explains: “We'd like to support this game for a long time, but it depends on the reception it receives in the coming months.”
He goes on to reveal how he’d love to have a party, but the party is one where he just sleeps, because, he admits, the game has taken a lot of out of him. But there's more coming, which he won’t hint at just yet, and even a GRIP 2 wouldn’t be off the cards: “It would be the obvious choice, to create a better version of our vision after learning from mistakes”, he tells us. And he’s quite keen on the FPS genre, too: “Something with very intense, tangible shooting in a dark story setting”. Sign us up!
Chris Mallinson is full of energy and ideas, but he's also learned from his time making GRIP. “The post mortem I'm going to write will be longer than a history textbook,” he reveals, “The main lesson I learned is don't sweat the small stuff or the big stuff will crush you later. In the beginning I was obsessed with details, but then I smartened up and looked at things more as a whole. I'm still learning, and there's still much to do.” One thing’s for sure: we’ll be paying close attention to his future projects.
