Games
R8 Games' Pacer is taking racing games back to the future. We speak with the developers about how they manage to tread familiar ground, while claiming it as their own.
When sci-fi anti-gravity racer Pacer first entered development, it wasn't even Pacer. It was Formula Fusion, and it began its life as a Kickstarter project in April 2015. The campaign was successful; 1,830 backers pledged £79,656 to the game's development, and an early access build of the game debuted in August 2015.
Since then, there have been several updates and additions, but the most meaningful one will happen later this year, when Formula Fusion relaunches as Pacer. Much of the game's underlying code has been rebuilt from the ground up since those early access days; the new, rebranded game is 4K enabled and will run at 60fps. Unlike its predecessor, which was only available on PC, Pacer will also launch on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
The developers have taken time to rectify many of their prior mistakes and omissions. One of the main critiques of Formula Fusion was its lack of any sort of tutorial, or entry point for novice players to sink their teeth into. Now, there's a full tutorial in Pacer, which will take you through the game's basic and advanced controls, and a practice mode that allows you to fly around the tracks as many times as you please. And lastly, R8 Games integrated additional tutorial elements into Pacer's single player campaign.
"The single player takes you through the 10 race teams [and five racing classes], and each team provides its own series of events, challenges, and emphasis on the sport," says lead designer Carlton Gaunt. "Some teams may favour combat. Some teams may favour having a fast lap. Some teams may favour not touching the sides and keeping their shields in tact. This will expose a player to different ways of playing, whilst playing the game."
The developer's overarching goal for Pacer was dual-pronged: to make something accessible and easy to get into, but with a high skill ceiling, should you wish to improve and ultimately excel.
"We've ranked multiplayer with dedicated servers. It's a first in sci-fi racing, as far as we know," says Gaunt. "Having that focus on trying to build a competitive community in an anti-grav racer is new for this genre. There's always a way to take a turn better and shave half-a-second off your lap time."
Pacer also becomes the latest game to embrace the multiplayer Battle Royale craze. Like Fortnite, which has a shrinking 'safe zone' to force the dwindling players into combat, Pacer has a shrinking bubble, in which players must race and battle to be the last person standing.
The multiplayer will also have spectator mode, where you can view the race from every racer's point-of-view (both first person and third person), as well as from cinematic side cameras. You can also customise the tracks. They each have eight 'variants' that can be mix-and-matched. You could race in mirror mode in daytime, or race in reverse mode at night.
Which begs the question, with this more competitive, customisable approach to a typically casual genre, does R8 Games have its eye on esports?
"The esports element was discussed in the conceptualisation stage of the development process," adds Senior Producer Steve Iles. "We're not going to get into esports unless the product flies and does the numbers. It would be decided by the community more than us."
One thing the team wants the community, and the press at large, to embrace is Pacer's original aspects. The comparisons to Wipeout are omnipresent and constant, but both Gaunt and Iles are simultaneously flattered and frustrated. They hope that players will take the time to appreciate Pacer on its own merits.
"We get the comparison a lot," remarks Gaunt. "We're big Wipeout fans, and we make no secret of that, but when people sit down, play Pacer and look through it, they'll see it has its own identity. They'll get to grips with the weapons, the garage, and all the customisation that goes on there. This is something new, different, and fun."
"It's one of the things we worry about – being compared to Wipeout. And not because Wipeout is a bad product," says Iles. "It's a great product that we've all grown up with, but what we don't want is to be called a clone of that game. And with what [Gaunt] has done since he joined us in September? He and the team have put a hell of a lot of work in to ensure that it's not a Wipeout clone.
"This game has to succeed at carving its own identity, and if it doesn't, then it doesn't succeed as a product."
Pacer hits Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2019.
