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Nick Baynes, game director on Split/Second back in 2010 has launched a Kickstarter for his new studio’s action racing game Rage Ride.
The team at IronFist Games is seeking £125,000 by Friday, June 6 in order to fund the open development of an initial PC version. Bringing the game onto console as well as other platforms is the team’s goal, but for now the focus is on creating a core experience and growing from there.
“Rage Ride is all about brutal, fast paced two-wheel action,” explains the Kickstarter blurb. “Selecting a rider, you’ll jump into one of the open environments and race to the finish line using every underhand tactic at your disposal. Baseball bats, chains, fire arms, flame throwers and even remote explosives can be deployed to wipe out your opponents.”
Baynes explains why this Kickstarter is different to the others.
“The big difference between this and a lot of other campaigns is that we’ve gone public at the very start of the concept phase,” wrote Baynes. “Arcade racing is a really hard genre to launch with publishers or investors these days so taking it to Kickstarter first made sense. It’s a great way to gauge interest, and also if the demand is there then it means we can make it directly with the backers and retain complete creative control over the project.
“Something that’s really exciting for the fans I hope is that we’re going to make this a totally collaborative experience for all backers. Normally at an internal studio we’d have newsgroups for idea generation and design discussion, and on Rage Ride everyone that funds the project will have access to these exclusive backer forums throughout. So on this campaign we’ve deliberately left it concept art free and design detail light – I want to shape the ideas and direction with the people who back the project as one big extended design team.”
There is also a big emphasis on modding, says Baynes.
“We’re keeping the file format open as I really want this to be a game that can be heavily modded,” he explains. “This is an approach we took when developing Re-Volt in 1999 and there’s still a small community making tracks and cars for that game 15 years later so I know the value of a great modding community. The concept of a Garry’s Mod type of environment for arcade racing really excites me.”
For more on the Kickstarter and to pledge support head here.
Source: Kickstarter, press release
