Hey everyone! I'm a developer at Aquiris Game Studio (I've posted here before about my other works here and here. I'm here to tell you about one of the most important projects we're working on in the studio, Horizon Chase (TRAILER). Me and Jesús Fabre, our Community/PR guy, we'll be sharing our progress and giving you some details on how the game progresses in this thread. As you can probably tell, it's been heavily inspired on classic racing games like Top Gear and Outrun. By paying homage to those awesome classics, we hope to bring back that straight-forward and fun racing experience! We're trying to make it as authentic as possible, so we're actually simulating the limitations racing games had back then, so the visuals should really be in that style. And, to top it off, we managed to get Barry Leitch, the composer for the original Top Gear soundtrack, on board with us! So if you liked Top Gear's music, you'll feel right at home here! The game will be out soon for iOS. Later on we'll be publishing on PC and consoles. For more info about the game or our company, you can check out the devblog, newsletter, facebook page and Aquiris' website. UPDATES: [August 2015] With only few hours until release (yeah, we're eager too! dunno the times when each country store updates though), we thought about doing a small article about something that makes Horizon Chase pretty unique, colors. The colors in Horizon Chase elements are really important, the sky, background, cars and all kind of objects you pass by during the race. Behind each of them there is a really laborious process to find harmony in the whole picture. [July 2015] More than 40.000 views in 7 weeks, that's a great mark for a new game's teaser (and an unknown IP). To make that possible we needed two weeks of coordinated and exigent work. This week we've interviewed our Sound Designer and Video Producer Giovane Webster to know more details and curiosities about the production of this beautiful work. [June 2015] What does a tool programmer do? It's quite an invisible job for players, but it's pretty important for the development. Our coder Gustavo Dort answers and shares some practical tips: This week on our devblog thought it would be nice to give some insights on the technical and artistic aspect of Horizon Chase. We talk about the rain effect and other technical particularities of racing games with our Art Director, Amilton Diesel. [May 2015] Our veteran composer Barry Leitch sat down with us to go into details on how he made music for videogames in the 80s and early 90s. From ZX81 soundchip to Super Nintendo Entertainment System's SCP-7000. We were having a look at Uluru circuit once finihsed. It reminds us to Top Gear 2 Australasia stage, we promise its 100% pure coincidence! We ask our composer Barry Leitch about how was the creative process behind Top Gear's soundtrack. You may be surprised with his very pragmatical answer. In future posts well be digging more into his amazing 30 year long career. [link] Registering the best times is key to find the optimal order in circuits, so we can ensure a smooth game progression curve. GO GO Carol! [link] One of the most relevant points in our creative process is defining a personality for each circuit. For this, we are playing with colors and contrasts, highlighting the horizon and trying to tell a story only from the game visuals. After winning the Acropolis circuit, in Athens, you are rewarded with three more circuits. There you will be enjoying the gorgeous sunset in Santorini. A set of circuits that has a surprising chromatic scale compared with what the player has previously seen in the game. Enjoy a sky full of different tones of yellow, red and magenta, all coexisting in harmony. [April 2015] Debugging the detection of turns on the spline that which represents the track. Early prototype:
Woah this looks great! Im a huge fan of Spooklands, so im really looking forward to this one! Will there be MFi controller support? Coz playing a game like this with a controller i think will make it very nostalgic
Hey Psience! Good to see ya! I think this hasn't been discussed yet, but it's a great idea! I'll definetly talk it over with the team, thanks a bunch!
Outrun is one of my favorite games if all time! I can't tell you how many quarters my parents spent lol. Every arcade had it! This will be an INSTAbuy for me! Where is that Maglor cat? Lol I can't wait! Billy
Oooh yeah. I'll be all over this one when it hits! Can't wait!!! If it's anywhere near as playable as 8-Bit Rally, I'll be in retro-racing heaven.
Outrun style racers are an evergreen genre for me. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Vexille, I noticed that Battle Rides, Flap In Time, Spooklands, Pocket Goal and Yink Yang have no In-App Purchases. Do you think you will continue that philosophy in Project Retro-Racers? Just based on the screenshot, the game looks really slick, the controls for L/R and gas look to be setup just right. Beautiful art style and like everyone else, i am also looking forward to the release.
Can't wait!!! Looks Like the mobile racing game I've been waiting for. Will you be asking for beta testers?
That's a good observation! As of right now this is yet to be decided, but for now the idea is to make it with a freemium model. You'll be able to buy new cars with in-game coins, which in turn will grant you access to new racing cups. So we're thinking maybe allowing the player to buy cars faster with IAP and/or making it ad supported. There's been some talk among the higher-ups about making it with a premium model, but no promises there. As I said, that hasn't been entirely decided yet, so I'll keep you posted. I hadn't thought of that yet, but it's definetly a possibility! I'll let you guys know!
Oh and I have some new screenshots of the current state of the game for you guys: Now the track editor allows our designers to place props and define the track texture and number of lanes for each section of the track. If you guys are interested, I can post some more technical updates about how we're doing things! On another note, the game progression will take place through tracks around the world, so our artists are already creating some awesome backgrounds for the tracks. You can already see some of them in the screenshots above. I'll have one of the artists come here later on and show you some of those backgrounds!
Where's the Maglor INSTAbuy cat? I'd pre-order this sucker if I could. This game actually reminds me of a game way back on the NES called "Rad Racer" it was actually in 3d if you had the glasses. Even the car looks similar and is red. As to the freemium model, I hate ads and expensive IAP. If you want to be successful I would do a single IAP to unlock the game and it disables any ads. This type of IAP is most popular. I would pay it. You then should have an IAP for a coin doubler. Make all cars and levels purchasable with in game currency only. DO NOT make them purchasable with real money only. I promise you if you follow this you will be successful. If your higher ups don't then people see it as nickle and diming us to death or pay to win. You really really don't want those words associated with your title. You can take your awesome game and ruin the experience for a lot of people, including myself. I hope I get to play this game soon! Billy
Wow, this looks neat! Now I've got Magical Sound Shower running through my head... Bonus points if you keep the "low-poly" mode in as an option so I can pretend I'm playing Race Drivin'
I just have to share this taking-a-leak-in-the-rain gif with you guys. In other news, the monetization model is being discussed among the higher ups and it seems very possible that the game will be indeed released in a premium model. It's not for sure yet though, so we'll see!
