Games
Wreckfest is the racing game with an emphasis on carnage. We speak with the developers to find out how they captured the chaos of a destruction derby.
For a whole generation of gamers, the Destruction Derby series still casts a warm, nostalgic glow. Initially hitting the PS1 and the Sega Saturn, before eventually finding its way to the N64, the first Destruction Derby game delivered precisely what its title promised: vehicular-based carnage. It offered racing, but with the crunchy satisfaction of battering your opponent before aiming for the finishing line.
Now, over 20 years later, developers Bugbear, the team behind brilliant racers FlatOut and FlatOut 2, are embracing this anarchic legacy to bring us Wreckfest, the smash-em-up racer where the finish line takes a back seat to the damage you can inflict on your fellow players. After a protracted development process, Wreckfest is now available on early access and we spoke with Janne Suur-Näkki, Game Designer at Bugbear, who tells us more about the long road to Wreckfest.
"Thanks to the extended development time, we were able to release a better game," Suur-Näkki says. "The initial scope of the project was rather limited, but after going public with it, we soon became aware that we should do much more to meet the expectations and create something unique. Back in those days our technology was pretty lacking for what we wanted to do, and during the development we ended up rewriting most of our proprietary game engine, for example adding support for physically based rendering and vehicle physics."
Challenges still remained, however. Namely, how to make crashing as much fun as possible, as Suur-Näkki explains.
"Combining visually impressive crashes with engaging, fun gameplay turned out to be trickier than we anticipated. It's kind of a no-brainer to say, 'Hell yeah, let's make crashes realistic', but for a player whose race is ruined in the first corner due to crashing, it's not very rewarding to see their car mangled beyond recognition. We spent quite a bit of time tweaking things with the community's help, but to have the best of both worlds we eventually added two damage modes to the game. Normal Damage offers more forgiving gameplay, while with Realistic Damage, even one crash can end up in the car being totalled."
Built by community
The mention of community here is telling. During development, a vocal community sprang up around Wreckfest, full of fans eager for a taste of the destruction it promised. Suur-Näkki tells us just how important this is to the game. "The community feedback has been invaluable for us, and no doubt that'll be the case even post-launch," he says. "We've been very fortunate in the sense that we have a superb community that's very enthusiastic about the game so right from the beginning we've been receiving helpful feedback on practically every aspect.
"We've also involved the community by arranging a game music contest so that community members can vote for the music that they want to hear in the game."
Constructive feedback isn't the only thing this community has been offering, however. A quick glance at Wreckfest's Steam Workshop reveals a huge number of mods, some ingenious, some bonkers, all brilliant.
"There are so many outstanding ones that would deserve a mention here, but Sam#223’s Online Bangers and The Very End's The Very Track Pack are very impressive," Suur-Näkki says. "Online Bangers is practically a total conversion, turning the game into a banger racing simulator, with real cars, tracks and, from what we've heard, even some real banger racing drivers playing it. The Very Track Pack on the other hands adds over 40 of new high-caliber tracks, both fictional and real-world inspired. The sheer amount of work that's been poured into both of these mods is just staggering."
That's not to say the game's short of content, though. In fact, Bugbear have been sure to inject Wreckfest with enough cars, modes and customisation to keep you crashing for a long while yet. So what vehicular delights does the game have in store?
"The cars are mostly inspired by old vehicles of bygone times, as well as those used in real-world demolition derbies and banger racing," Suur-Näkki explains. "The heavier cars can deal with a lot of damage, but aren't as nimble, while lighter cars are more agile, but can't take much punishment. In addition to cars, the game also has somewhat wackier special vehicles, such as a school bus, a combine harvester and lawn mower to give the gameplay a new edge."
As well as this glut of vehicles, players will get the chance to tinker to their heart's content in their own garage, with customisation very much key.
"Basically, our idea was that the player should be able to create the car they want to. Not only visually, but by modifying aspects that have a gameplay effect as well, such as performance and the strength of the car," Suur-Näkki says. "To that end, in addition to the usual performance parts, like carburetors and upgrade engines, there are also heavy bumpers, side protectors and roll cages that when fitted make the car withstand more damage on the corresponding section of the car. However heavy parts also add weight so it's always a tradeoff between making the car faster or sturdier, with the decision depending on how you prefer to play the game."
Suur-Näkki says that customisation isn't restricted to practical tweaks, either, with many parts available that are purely visual-only, such as wheels, spoilers, front fenders and more fun parts, like giant axes and baby prams. The player can also customise the car's paint, as well as adjust a number of tuning settings, including gear ratios, brake bias and more.
A game mode for everyone
It seems Bugbear have embraced that old truism that variety is the spice of life, with a wealth of game modes also on offer.
"In addition to the classic Last Man Standing demolition derby, the game also features Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, mixing up the traditional demolition derby formula with respawns and team-based gameplay," Suur-Näkki says. "As for racing game modes, the basic one is Banger Racing, which is basically no-rules racing, with additional points being awarded for causing damage and wrecking other players. In addition to that, there's Team Racing for two or more teams, and Elimination Racing, which sees the last player eliminated at the end of each lap."
All of these game modes are also available in multiplayer, but this amount of choice would mean very little if the destruction wasn't as satisfying as possible. Thankfully, Bugbear have this covered.
"We devised a gameplay mechanic in which the more speed and weight (i.e. momentum) advantage the player has, the more damage they will cause, and the less they'll receive themselves. This makes it possible for the player to cause impressive crashes without getting wrecked by hitting stationary or slow-moving targets. They can also make themselves a perfect target by cruising along at low speed or stopping. It's all very tangible from the player's perspective and, combined with the armor system that breaks up the car into different armor sectors, enables tactical gameplay."
With destruction taken very seriously at Bugbear, we ask about their inspirations for the game, and one answer was somewhat unsurprising. "We all grew up playing Destruction Derby back in the day," Suur-Näkki confirms. "Of course, it's been a huge inspiration for us since it was the original demolition derby game."
"One other important game I need to mention is Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (called Driven to Destruction in Europe). which was, as far as I'm aware, the first game to try to capture the magic of demolition derby in a more realistic manner," he adds. "That game was a direct inspiration for us not only in regards to gameplay, but also mood. Things like the suicide racing-style tracks in Wreckfest also owe a lot to that specific game."
With Wreckfest now hitting early access, it seems the finishing line is in sight for Bugbear. But what does the future hold in terms of console releases? "We love what Nintendo are doing with Switch and it's an exciting, unique device," Suur-Näkki says. "But since we can't afford to spread our few resources too thin, we’re concentrating right now on the Xbox and PlayStation versions, and making them as good as possible."
Wreckfest is now on Steam early access, and is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
