Wrack the Game – Wracking up the Answers
Originally Published on the Official Blast Away the Game Review Facebook Page
All Answers for Questions Provided by Brad Carney of Final Boss Entertainment
Written by Dustin Murphy and Casey Todd
Ever had that one game that really stuck out to you at a convention? We did and the name in particular is Wrack. Developed by Final Boss Entertainment, we got to sit down and see this game that we’d only heard of thanks to Steam’s Project Greenlight, which is where there seems to be plenty of hidden gems within the indie community. Sitting down, we got to sit down with Project Lead, Brad Carney. We decided to ask him a few solid questions, some of them right out of the gate, and some of them a mock-up. What we learned? Definitely impressed us and left us wanting to play the game just all the more and work with them closely in order to help progress this project into a form of finality.
In our interview we decided to take time, approach a few questions, and report back to you, the readers. What did we ask? Well the first out of the shoot was about Nvidia Shield and the compatibility with it, since Shield seems to be taking off. At this time though, we’ve learned that this will not be happening at this time, but is not out of the question. Why? The games development comes as top priority first and foremost. This means for those of you who have purchased the game, it will be getting priority in development and making sure it goes into a form of finalization before it launches in September outside of early access. Those of you who like Leaderboard Status’ are not out of question. Brad informed us that the game does have these in the Score Attack Mode, which allows players to go through each level, get their high score, and have it posted onto the online leaderboards along with their replay. This means those of you that want a form of competition, this is definitely something for you to look into, especially your kill chains as these help boost your score overall. Can you take over and dominate the leaderboards?
In the interview Brad went over why the leaderboards were added and where the interview came from. Thanks to titles such as Mega Man 9 and 10, the gameplay was a high influence in the overall game, which helped them decide as to why they were added. When playing Mega Man 9 and 10, players should be rather familiar with the time attack mode and the fact it had leaderboards. It just seemed like a good idea and fueled the decision to add it in and it just seemed to work out. Taking a small break from the basic questions, there was something that was quite interesting to us: crowd response. According to Brad, the game has gotten a very high response, this being in regards to how much fun they are having. He stated that fans have not stopped coming to their booth and playing the game, some even staying for a few quite a while in order to play it, which is quite impressive. This is the kind of feedback that has helped their game consistently improve their title. The game itself has gotten a lot of positive feedback, which started back in November of 2014. Thanks to this kind of feedback and fan response, the game will constantly improve over time and help gamers keep it going.
The one thing we wanted to know most about is co-op since it and multiplayer are starting to become the main thing. For those of you wanting it, Brad has stated the game won’t have it anytime soon, but would gladly welcome a mod that will help it evolve the multiplayer and or co-op experience. Why? They are very friendly to the Steam Workshop and openly approve of such a thing to help the game change and evolve in the right direction. They do encourage this! So something quite impressive. How much can you experience this game for and see if you have the modding abilities to come up with a quite impressive content add-on? We learned at this time on early access it’s 14.99 USD and may not change from that, but that doesn’t mean it won’t.
We did ask Brad if the game would end up changing up how the leader board plans on being expanded upon and the response was quite understandable. Everything will be streamlined in order to provide an experience everyone can enjoy. So those of you hoping for a weapon or kill style leaderboard, don’t hold your breath at this time. Though this doesn’t mean such a leaderboard can’t be created in the future. We know how crafty you the gaming community can be. Brad did inform us that they are fully dedicated to the PC version of the game, but a console project of Wrack isn’t out of question, it just needs to be polished out and focus on kinking out any bugs that may be there. Something that can truly be appreciated and respected. That didn’t help budge our curiosity on why they chose the cell-shaded appearance and the question wasn’t held back. He explained that the game needed a look that’s unique, especially when a lot of games these days focus on realism, such as the “hey look at how real our sand looks”, approach that is oh-so common now. Instead they decided to do something that most games aren’t doing, and it works. Our team experienced that first hand and actually found it quite intriguing. With having a writer who has epilepsy and there being quite a few of those people out there, we decided to question him on this topic, and the response was something we were well understanding to. The question? How will the game be seizure for those who do have seizures. His answer? The game already seems to be rather friendly to those who have epilepsy and definitely come to mind when working on future additions.
The idea of feedback is important and definitely something we wanted to know more about. When asked about it, Brad let us know that they constantly check the forums, daily at that, and it helps them constantly work on adding new content to it. The vocal groups definitely help them find a medium ground on the changes that need to be made and also on the type of content that should be looked at for future additions. If that isn’t impressive, we don’t know what is.
In our interview, Brad told us that there has been a hard part to developing the title. That there is a disparity between where they want the game to be and where it is now, but what the game can be is what motivates and drives them to push further. The fans definitely being a part of that fuel that pushes them forward and keeping them hard at work with their development of the title.
What’s the hardest part about developing Wrack: The disparity between where they want to be and where they are now. With knowing that we had to know just one thing: do they plan on making future games? They definitely do, assuming lifts off and gives them the push they need in the right direction. With what has been seen and experienced at QuakeCon, we know him and his team will get there, and undoubtedly will see a good reception upon its release. With the idea of future games, he told us that they are exploring possibilities for future titles, but that’s something that is later down the road.
Brad stated over a bit of a laugh after our moment of silence that the team is very driven, they find themselves striving to bring forth product quality and a title that brings their players enjoyment, especially the search for fans that they can entertain. It’s hard not to say that they haven’t already managed to do so. When interviewing him, we learned that their team is from around the world, one of them being based all the way out in Holland, which was impressive. He informed us that they do have to coordinate sleeping schedules, but also figuring out how to communicate at times, which hasn’t been all that hard due to awkward sleeping cycles. It seems worth it by the enthusiasm Brad has shown us this far. When wondering how the team, he informed us that him and Hani actually met through a previous project they worked on together and he was introduced to Remco that way, which just seemed to kind of bring their team together. So far we are glad they did meet up and make this astonishing indie title.
To lighten the mood since it was hot outside in Dallas, TX, we took a step back to what could be something to look forward to. Thinking on just that note, the question of what companies they want to work with was asked and the answer was unexpected: Capcom. He stated that they would definitely like to work with them due to the fact their IPs are unique and very thoroughly thought through. This is because their IP’s they’ve had in the past, but also their work having progressed valiantly over time. We certainly hope here at Blast Away the Game Review that they can do so sometime in the near by future. We could definitely the Wrack team has a lot of hope and determination surrounding them, and that lead us to learning what they are most proud of. He stated the game itself having the replayability that it has. Who doesn’t want to run around, get as many kills as possible, and make their friends work all the harder for higher leaderboard scores? The killchain system is part of what they are most proud of since it’s in a sense, part of the games very heart.
Giving a bit of a hint at modding, Dustin questioned whether or not that they will let the modding community have it it, and he stated something Dustin was very proud to hear. They don’t mind it at all. Instead, the modding community actually inspires them to work harder and think outside of the box and they actually support the modding community since they have some great ideas.
He checks it daily in order to see what they do. That means mods are constantly being looked upon and is a very important part to the very heartbeat of the game itself. After looking at the Workshop on Steam, it definitely is, and without a doubt something that could keep the game alive for a rather long time. In turn, Brad informed us that the modders have actually managed to mess around with the graphics system through shader tools and even the core engine itself.
With the mod community taking a pretty sizable presence to the game, we couldn’t help but ask one thing: do they plan on bringing any of the modders onto their team? Well, the answer is actually something surprising, there is that possibility as the game and the team itself may need to grow in the future. That being said, we couldn’t help saying this, those of you who mod games, definitely stay tuned, try the game, and see where your modding skills can take you in the future. There is an opportunity in that it could help you get onto an indie team such as this one. With that we also learned that they have a message for up and coming game developers. Those of you wanting to get into the industry, it definitely takes a different kind of muscle and it’s something designers should not be scared to flex and work on. So what does this mean? Even if you fall, don’t be scared to get back up, and as he said, work up that muscle in order to get into the field.
He also did state that they have had both good and feedback from players, “when the game first came out, level 1, a player asked where the heck are their iron signs,” he gave a small laugh as if he was reading over the post again. “he or she couldn’t believe there was no sprinting, and that they were going to uninstall the game, this of course being one of our worst and our best, but that wasn’t the best either. Last week at the Screw Tech Convention, Keiji Inafune came by and said it (Wrack) reminds him of a first person Mega-Man.”
The smile on his face told us his honesty and sheer excitement in regards to this. Why wouldn’t it? That alone is a high regard all on its own. We definitely knew there has been hard times for their team and we know developers get frustrated, which lead us to asking one of our last questions for the day having sat with him for almost two hours. So we had to know one thing. What keeps their team going when they get frustrated with their title? Brad smiled a bit when he said his answer. “The Feedback, the reinforcement , and acknowledgement of the game itself.” With that we began to wrap our interview as we asked our final question of the afternoon, the release date, which we learned is coming around the end of September, and will hopefully have a huge following by then in early access. Shaking his hand, we both walked away with a good impression, and quite a bit of surprise from Final Boss Entertainment. From what all of our team experience, the game is highly addictive, fast paced, and definitely has earned the title of a retro-style action shooter, that allows for consistently face paced combat.
For those of you wondering, Final Boss Studios does have a website, and you can visit it over at www.wrackgame.com. There you can learn more about the game, comment, and even directly contact their team. If you are a twitter user, you can definitely head over to their twitter page over at http://twitter.com/WrackGame. If you don’t use twitter? Check out their Facebook page over at https://www.facebook.com/WrackGame.
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