Gas Blog

Right from the start of the development of Wrecked we were adamant that we weren’t going to throw loads of tracks into the games to play a numbers game.  Instead we decided we were going to do a small number and make sure every one of them was really good.  Hopefully we’ve achieved this.

Some tracks came more easily than others.

The first track we worked on was Brockridge Mine.  This was inspired by Tierra Piedra in Mashed.  That was a really playable track and included lots of features that we knew that our engine had to support.  We knew that if we got a track inspired by that to be great fun and look good then the rest of the game would follow fairly smoothly.

It took us ages to do though…  We went through lots of graphic styles, with the look changing significantly many times.

We also endlessly tweaked the shape.  It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing: physics and track shape.  In the early days, is the game not fun because the physics isn’t good, or because the track shape is bad?  They end up feeding off and improving each other, both being polished at the same time.  It can be a slow process, but there’s no substitute for this part of development – endlessly playing and tweaking the game.

We also knew very early on that we wanted a track inspired by Polar Wharf from Mashed, so in some respects the Icebridge track came easily, although in other respects this was the hardest track to do.  Polar Wharf was so insanely addictive that anything less than that in Wrecked would have been a fail, so we endlessly tweaked that track and how the physics behaved on it too.

With Jungle Temple we wanted a really simple track to start the game with – one that players could easily learn and start enjoying the game on very quickly.

That said, we didn’t want it to be boring or a novice player’s throw-away track.

It includes the steepest slope in the game (a real rollercoaster) and although the shape is simple, there’s danger all the way around the outside of the track.

It’s a good track for epic weapon battles.

Jungle Falls

This is our longest track.  It’s got a section where there are lots of alternative routes – a little like the chase scene in the last Indiana Jones movie.  There’s also a great secret shortcut.

Daredevil Peak

This level is quite short but a real favourite in the office.  It’s really perilous, with thin roads and vertical cliffs all round the edges.  When played with loads of weapons it’s a real multi-player gem.

Arctic Outpost

This is our second longest track and probably the most complex shape.  There are a couple of really nice areas on it: a wide, icy switch-back series of turns and a tight cork-screw that exits through a tunnel.

We think we’ve got a good balance of tracks and although there are only six, they’ve all been endlessly polished and played on.  We get people telling us they still spend hours a week on Mashed – 7 years after it came out.  We really think and hope we’ve got the same longevity and depth of game-play in Wrecked.

Maybe there will be some more tracks coming later…

Merry Christmas from us all! As it’s a special time of year – how’s about this? Do you want a sneak peak of Wrecked in January at the offices of Supersonic Software in Leamington Spa UK or 505 Games in Milton Keynes? We’ll be opening our doors in January for a special one off event for the very biggest fans to exclusively play Wrecked. You’ll have to make your own way there – but If it’s something you’d be seriously interested in then let us know why with a PM!  Please email wreckedrevenge@gmail.com

The game went into Microsoft for the 360 submission about the same time as the PS3 version. We’re fully approved and ready to launch on PS3, but still working on the 360 submission.

It came back from MS about 3 weeks ago with a technical issue to do with the submission procedure, rather than a particular problem in the game. We’ve been talking to them to resolve this for the last few days and think we’re now of the verge of a solution. Consequently, we’re hopeful that the game will be going through the rigorous approval procedure in the next few days.

As I’m sure you’ll have worked out by now, this all means that the game will be released in 2012. Early 2012.

We really are very close now…

In other news, we’re in the process of setting up a competition in conjunction with 505 Games, with the prize being a trip to our studios for some lucky winners to be the first to play the game.

More on this to follow soon (pre-Christmas).

We’ve just heard that the PS3 version of Wrecked has gained first party approval from Sony!

This means that it’s been tested to death and passed all of their certification tests and as such is ‘ready to go’.

It’s been a tough old journey getting this far but the release date is almost in sight now.

Both ourselves as the developer and 505 Games as the publisher very much want to release both the PS3 and 360 versions at the same time. We can’t quite give you a definite release date just yet as we’re still waiting for final certification from Microsoft on the 360 version.

Hopefully we’ll have an update on that very soon and we’ll be really, really close to announcing the release date.

We’re very excited about this news. We can’t wait to share the game with you.

Thanks for your patience.

Sorry we’ve not posted for a while. We know that the lack of news is very frustrating.

We’ve been going through a rough time getting the game into and through submission.

We’re almost there now.

The PS3 version is going into final submission this Friday. The 360 version is going through what we hope is final QA testing with a view to it going into final submission before the end of the week too.

No definite news on a release date yet, but we’re working hard on it…

Sorry for the silence! We’d love to give you definite news but it’s not possible unfortunately.

The game has been in for first submission and (as is normal) came back with a few issues to be resolved. We’re ironing these out now and hope to be into the platform holders for second (and hopefully final) submission very, very soon.

At the point it passes submission 505 Games and the platform holders will agree a release date and we’ll let you know as soon as we can.

We’re more eager than anyone to have a release date and see the game out there!

In the meantime, we’ve been working with 505 on some cool new trailers, which we hope to be able to share with you very soon.

We would love to give you an official release date for the game, but unfortunately that’s beyond our control.

The game has just entered its approvals stage. This means it’s pretty much finished and almost ready to go! The platform holders have to run tests on the code before giving the publisher permission to publish. This normally takes 4-6 weeks.

After that, the choice of release date will be a decision made between the publisher and the platform holders.

We’re keen that it’s as soon as possible.

As soon as we know more we’ll keep you informed.

Thanks for your patience and support.

Here are some pictures of a car.  Cars are very customizable in Wrecked.  This is one of thousand’s of possible setups.

If you love them, great news – they’re back! If you hate them don’t worry, they can be turned off…

Having decided to include these though, we thought it would be great for you TO BE PART OF THE GAME! Simply – we want you to come up with a short one line taunt that you would love to hear in game. We will pick the best one, get it recorded by the VO team and you will live forever in Wrecked history! How cool is that? The only bad news is that the closing date is Friday 1st April at 12pm. (And no this isn’t an April Fools joke!) Nothing offensive please! Post your lines as comments below - and only one entry per person please.

We’ll announce the winner on Monday 4th April. We’ve got a special, unique piece of Wrecked artwork, signed by the team for the winner.

UPDATE (31st March 2011): Thanks for all the great suggestions so far.  If you’ve suggested something and it hasn’t appeared in the list - sorry but that’s likely to be because it’s a bit on the adult side.  We’ll more than likely be going for a broad rating for the game and so won’t be able to include any adult taunts (amusing as it would be…).  Feel free to suggest something else.

UPDATE (5th April 2011): we’re going to extend the closing date till the end of this week (8th April).  Not because we don’t like any of the great suggestions on here already, just because we have a few more days before we need to get the actors in the studio to record them, so we thought it best to take advantage of that…

UPDATE (11th April 2011): thanks everyone for your very creative entries.  The competition is now closed.  After much deliberation, the winning phrase selected is: “As useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker”.  Congratulations John, your phrase will be immortalized in the game and we’ll be sending on your prize very soon.