Sumo Digital hopes to blend the chaos of battle royale games with a love for classic kart racing.
Sumo Digital development director Paul Hollywood worked on many racing games during his career. When he was at Evolution Studios and Sony, he created the first two games in the MotorStorm series: 2006’s MotorStorm and 2008’s MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.
Now he’s at Sumo Leamington and working on a new game called Stampede: Racing Royal, published by Secret Mode. The game was revealed at the PC Gaming Show 2023 and is billed as Mario Kart meets battle royale. With the widespread appeal of Nintendo’s cart racer with the fun competitiveness of battle royale games like Fall Guys, it’s astonishing that such a combination of ideas hasn’t been done yet, right?
Hollywood sat down with Game Developer to talk about Stampede: Racing Royal and its mechanics.
Sumo Digital was looking for a void in the market, and the cross between a cart game and a battle royale one was just ironically obvious that Holly was surprised that there wasn’t a game like it yet.
“These were the right key drivers for bringing something new to the market. We're not defining a new genre. We’re defining a new sub-genre and melding these two different game mechanics,” he explains. “As that progresses over the lifecycle of the game, it's about bringing in the community and understanding what's working.”
Hollywood emphasized the fun factor of Stampede: Racing Royale, noting that some studios go through the entire development journey trying to find the interesting hook or the compelling narrative in their games. However, with Stampede Racing Royale, the mechanic is already there.
In fact, the team made sure not to add too much to the game as that would detract from the core gameplay. Each match has three rounds and starts with 60 players. After every round, the bottom 20 players get kicked out until the end when a victor is crowned. There were two game modes that Hollywood showed, which were the standard cart race and a vehicular combat one. The biggest difference between a race in Mario Kart and a race in Stampede was simply how chaotic the latter was.
As part of the demo, Hollywood added 59 additional bots in order to fill up the match. When the game officially releases, there'll be 60 human players, of course. Hollywood also confirmed with me that if there aren’t enough human players, then the remaining slots will be filled with AI racers.
The game also includes a power-up system with three types: offensive, defensive, and speed. Similar to how other car racers work, players drive into them to obtain items. Those falling behind will be given more opportunities to catch up, while the middle of the pack can receive a mix of both offensive and defensive items.
Players can also drift around corners, build up nitro to get an extra boost, and unleash it when needed. Hollywood adds, “This is a great way for us to avoid using any rubberbanding.” This refers to the technique that racing games use to keep AI drivers near players in order to keep races exciting.
When an AI-controlled vehicle gets in front of the player, then it'll slow down to allow the player to catch up, and vice versa. This makes AI drivers appear “rubber-banded” or attached to the player, never straying too far away. Having power-ups and items allows participants to catch up organically.
One of the most important aspects of the game is its customization. It’s all about joining the game’s community and showing off skill mastery. Hollywood explains that players earn in-game currency by taking part in events, and the better they perform in races and battles, the more they’ll receive—it’s a level playing field for everyone.
Hollywood also emphasizes that cosmetic items don’t affect performance. “We did not want a place where players were at a disadvantage if they did not spend enough money,” he says.
Like many other live-service titles, the game will feature many different seasons, events, and challenges that offer new rewards. The battle royale aspect of the game can also help it go viral in an age where a single clip online from someone playing the game could make a huge difference in exposure.
In 2020 Fall Guys became a runaway sensation, and the makers of Stampede: Racing Royale hope they can tap into that same kind of excitement. “This game is set up to be streamable and for content creators so they can really bring in a new audience,” says Hollywood.
Stampede: Racing Royale is set to release in Early Access on Steam sometime this year, with console versions coming later. While the team at Sumo Leamington has many ideas cooked up for the game, Hollywood wants to test them with the community.
“We’ve got game modes, different types of power-ups, cars, and maps,” he explains. “We've got this huge swath of content and opportunity that we can bring. It's a very exciting place to spend minutes.”
Sumo Leamington is at the beginning of a long journey with Stampede, where they’ll be working closely with the community to evolve and expand the game. Steam Playtests begin this summer, where players can try out an early version of the game.
Afterward, the game will be in Early Access on Steam later this year, where the development team will act on player feedback and introduce new features. Hollywood says, “We’ll continue to evolve Stampede and deliver fresh experiences, as we work towards global launch and bringing the game to more platforms.”
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