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We got the opportunity to ask some questions to Rafal Kemnitz, lead designer (and more…) about 80’s Overdrive, the new arcade racing game for Nintendo 3DS set in the eighties. Rafal was kind enough to share some thoughs about his game, the past and the present of racing games.
NintendOn: We know the idea was born in early 2015, but which was the spark that made you decide to create an 80’s racing game?
Rafal Kemnitz: I think it always was in me. I used to play a lot of 2d racing games when I was a kid. Also, I adore the cars of the 80s. I used to have an Alfa Romeo 164, which I got after the more modern 147. This exchange was completely nuts… but I loved this car. It had a crazy interior full of buttons and LCDs. Perfectly 80s. What was the spark that told me to start this project… Mostly other indie-retro racers that started to show up. Those made me think that there will be some audience for a retro, 2d, racing game and making such won’t be only something that you will end up hiding in your drawer, because nobody wants it.
NintendOn:
What is your opinion about simulative racing games taking over games such as OutRun and Daytona in the last few years?
Rafal Kemnitz: Being honest, I don’t think that the mainstream modern racing games are simulative. There are a few that can be named sim-games (Assetto Corsa for example) and for me, they are a separate market niche, that will always have some amount of hardcore players. Not big, but steady. They will be always ready to replay same track for million times in order to perfect it. Don’t think that, for example the Need for Speed series are for such players. They are like prog-rock fans in music and mainstream racing games are the pop music. We might say that Need For Speed is the Call of Duty of racing. All the games are starting to look and play the same. They are, marketing wise, safe, they try to appeal to the most of the players. They follow the path that brought the most money to the companies that made them. This is how, in my opinion the design of modern racing games evolved. Design ideas of games like Outrun and Daytona were just lost along the way. Doing 2d-oldschool or even 3d-oldschool racing game is business wise very risky.
NintendOn: What kind of features an arcade game should have in order to appeal to the hardcore gamers market and, at the same time, be interesting for a casual gamer?
Rafal Kemnitz: Being honest with you, the question you asked, is for me a typical design question that for example EA tries to answer designing their games. I don’t want to answer this kind of questions with our game… sorry. We don’t want to please all. For me, that won’t work in a nostalgic project. Our process is a little more different. Well… as you play the old games they often don’t match what your brain remembers about them from your childhood. After replaying them nowadays, you often feel disappointed. About the frustrating gameplay, about the graphics, about the sound. But, there is still something that works right. The simple but addictive gameplay mechanism, controls and so on. What we do is trying to match the good things and minimise the bad. This is what you will get.
NintendOn:
We believe your game is somehow a spiritual sequel of Rad Racer, an old NES glory. What other games inspired the development of this project?
Rafal Kemnitz: Hmm… all of the 2d racing games of the 80s and early 90s. Especially OUTRUN and it’s style. As a kid I used to play Lotus 3 a lot. Loved the track editor and music there. What else… Crazy Cars/Lamborghini American (the career mode there), Top Gear Series on SNES, Chase HQ, Cisco Heat, Jaguar XJ220 game. Modern indie games like Oh Deer! and Drift Stage.
NintendOn: Why did you choose to develop the game for Nintendo 3DS? Do you think this hardware could express better your gaming vision?
Rafal Kemnitz: During our careers we developed a few 3ds/DS/DSi games… So maybe it’s a matter of experience and probably some kind of bond to this console that developed along the way. Second thing is… the screen perfect for pixel art game. They say more DPI is better, not here. You will get “pixel perfect pixelart” here.
NintendOn:
Are you already planning your next project or are you having a break before? Should we expect a sequel of 80’s Overdrive? Or maybe a conversion for Nintendo NX? (wink,wink)
Rafal Kemnitz: When it comes to me, I plan a short break after releasing the game to gain new ideas and make plans for the future. Being honest with you, before 80s OVERDRIVE I did Hazumi, worked on League of Heroes for 3ds. What is more, I still have a other day job, so I’m working my ass off currently. This is the first project that is getting noticed by the community, which makes me happy, but I think I deserve a short break after. What other members of the team would do… probably the same… Ports for other platforms? Time will tell… Sequels… don’t think so.
NintendOn: Make us buy your game! We got Out Run 3D classic on the e-shop, why should we buy 80’s overdrive?
Rafal Kemnitz: Why? That’s simple, one of the reasons for us, to make 80s OVERDRIVE is that we already played the shit out off OUTRUN for 3ds and wanted MORE! It is like the extension… you will be hungry for such games after completing OUTRUN. And for new players, who don’t like arcade racers… 80s OVERDRIVE will be a pretty-looking game to watch, it will have a fair price and we put our hearts into it. This is not another shovel-ware title flooding eShop. It will be worth having on your console, a reasonable choice if don’t know which game to get next.