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Get the lowdown on Riders Republic from Ubisoft in the new Levels episode
Conquering the mountains is the name of the game in Riders Republic and we take a peek behind the scenes of Ubisoft's latest extreme sports thriller in the latest episode of our gaming show, Levels.
If you've ever done any downhill-based sports, you know exactly what it's like to fly down a mountain with the wind blasting past you. Whether it's dirt kicking up or the cracking snow under your snowboard, there's a unique feel to conquering a mountain. That feeling is exactly what Ubisoft is trying to replicate with their latest free-roam sports game Riders Republic.
Riders Republic comes from the creators of the successful 2016 sports game, Steep. Ubisoft wants to take the free-roam sports genre to the next level with their latest instalment, with more sports, a deeper storyline and more skill expression as you barrel down the mountain, mastering your equipment of choice. From an ice-cream cart to a jet-pack, in Riders Republic there's something for everyone.
In the latest Levels episode, we get the chance to dive deeper into the design philosophy of the game and take a peek behind the curtains at how Riders Republic was developed.
16 min
Ubisoft's Riders Republic
Take a peek behind the scenes of Ubisoft's latest extreme sports thriller, Riders Republic.
Gameplay
The biggest pillar in every game is – you guessed it – gameplay. Sports games have a long history dating back all the way to 1958, when William Higinbotham made the game Tennis for Two. Since then, sports games have been one of the biggest genres in video games. By their subject nature, sports games are competitive, often pitting two players head-to-head to see who's best.
But the biggest difference between games like SSX and Riders Republic is the amount of freedom that players enjoy. In SSX, there's a track that goes downhill from a start to a finish line. In Riders Republic, while there are races and tracks set up, there's no real need to abide by those limits. Players get to fly, board or drive to any point on the map and start their run from there, giving players back the freedom to go wherever they please.
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It's great to have the freedom to go anywhere, but it wouldn't be much fun if the playground or mountain was dull. To make sure that Riders Republic featured great environments, Yann Fieux, the World designer for Riders Republic, used real-world geography to create Riders Republic's world. "If you’ve been to one of the places featured in the game, you should be able to recognise it in Riders Republic," he says.
The mountains
Riders Republic features seven of the most iconic National Parks in the United States – all featuring distinct flora and fauna to make the parks as lifelike as possible. This includes tourist spots that you might never have been to, but can now visit and ride over them. In-game racing events are also based on their real-life counterparts, like Red Bull Rampage held in Zion National Park, Utah.
If you've been to one of the places featured in the game, you should be able to recognise it in Riders Republic
Sound design
Suspension of disbelief is what makes extreme sports games so much fun. Actually feeling like you're on that snowboard or on bike can get your heart racing. To make the game as realistic as possible, Ubisoft employed a variety of different techniques to design the game's sound. François Dumas, audio director for Riders Republic explains in the video that they designed a new mountain bike to record the sound of the wheels. "The bike helps us record different sounds of the wheels, like the freehub," he explains.
Real-life skiing is one of the examples that Dumas gives, pointing out that it's difficult to replicate, because real skiing doesn't make enough of an impact to make it sound realistic for the player. Instead the team used a foam bowl, which gives that characteristic crackling snow sound when scratched.
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Physics
Animators and programmers also used real-world recording and motion capture techniques to make the stunts and player movements as realistic as possible. Julien Beilles, lead animator, says: "For Riders Republic, we developed a new piece of technology, which consists of a physical layer on top of an animation that runs in real-time."
This means that every frame that's played on screen is calculated using their new ragdoll system, helping to give the animation a more natural feeling. Seeing your character make the same duck animation 50 times in a row would get old quite quickly. This programme circumvents that by using a more life-like system to calculate the movement of the body on the moment of impact, adding a ton of extra realism to the game.
Riders Republic will be released October 28, 2021. If you'd like a closer look at how Ubisoft filmed the crazy stunts, or if you're curious what the special-designed audio recording bike looks like, then watch the latest episode of Levels above.
