Mantis Burn Racing is an arcade style, top-down racing game from developer, VooFoo Studios. This game is VooFoo’s first racing game and is currently available on Steam Early Access.
We had the chance to interview Shaun Read, Creative Director at VooFoo Studios. We spoke about his inspirations for the game, challenges in development and why the game is called ‘Mantis Burn’ Racing.
Ready to use the vehicle's boost
GameWatcher: Could you introduce yourself and just give us a brief overview of the game, please?
Shaun Read: Hi. My name is Shaun Read and I’m Creative Director here at VooFoo. Mantis Burn Racing is an arcade style racing game viewed from a top-down perspective. It uses what we call ‘fun physics’, which basically means it feel’s tactile and weighty to play but at the same time, is intuitive and easy to pick up.
GameWatcher: Why did you choose the title ‘Mantis Burn Racing?’
Shaun Read: Ha, a question we’ve been asked many times. As with all of our games, Mantis Burn Racing has been developed using our in-house engine, Mantis. Mantis Burn (as it was once called) was our internal project name intended to be used until we came up with something we liked more. We must have spent 2 months trying to think of an alternative name, the result of which, we stuck ‘Racing’ on the end. We’d just used it for so long, it kind of seemed a shame to change it (and we like it!).
GameWatcher: This is a pretty big departure from your other titles (Pure Pool etc). What made you want to branch out into racing games (specifically a local multiplayer focused game)?
Shaun Read: It kind of is and it isn’t. Although VooFoo aren’t best known for racing games, our Technical Director and founder, Mark Williams had only made racing games before forming the studio. Mark worked on titles such as the Juiced games, Max Rally (for anyone old enough) and Ford Racing. Personally, having worked in the industry over 20 years, racing was one of the few genres I’ve not been involved in (unless QA on Diddy Kong Racing counts). We have a strong reputation for making great looking games, so we sat down and thought what type of game could 8 devs (we’ve grown a bit now) apply our trademark visual fidelity to? The top-down racer genre has been slightly stagnant of late so it just seemed the right thing to do.
Drifting can be tricky on these sharper bends
GameWatcher: What is your favourite feature in the game?
Shaun Read: Personally, I would have to say it’s our upgrade system. Racing games have been using a very similar style of system for a long time now, so we decided we wanted to mix it up a little. The system itself is actually very simple, the player being able to upgrade 5 key areas of their vehicles performance. What’s slightly different is that the vehicles themselves have an ever increasing amount of upgrade slots. What this means is that the player can fine tune their vehicles to perform exactly how they want depending on their driving style. We’ve done a bit of maths and we reckon there are around 300,000 combinations of potential upgrade possibilities on the top vehicles while at the same time, the whole process is very intuitive and easy to grasp.
GameWatcher: Which games inspired you to make Mantis Burn Racing?
Shaun Read: Nearly everyone that plays Mantis Burn says it brings back memories of games they used to love. Mashed, Motorstorm RC and Rock n’ Roll Racing have all been mentioned, but I would have to say my personal inspiration would have to be the big daddy of top-down racers, Micro Machines. Back in the day, I started out as a QA tester and whenever we didn’t have a game in test, it was day-long sessions of multiplayer Micro Machines. I can’t think of a game that has created more competition (or arguments!) than four players sitting in front of a single TV playing Micro Machines.
GameWatcher: What do you think makes this game stand out, compared to those games?
Shaun Read: Well, I guess our visuals have come on quite a bit since then! Graphics aside, as mentioned before, we’re very happy with our upgrade system and that coupled to a 20-hour plus single player career, we think we’re providing a level of depth and longevity not really seen in this type of game before. It’s not new, but whenever we mention we’re four-player local split-screen, players get really excited and ask why games no longer support ‘couch’ multiplayer. We’re also one of the few games currently supporting native 4k on the PlayStation Pro console, another feature we’re pretty excited about.
GameWatcher: What has been the most challenging part of development so far?
Shaun Read: Every game has its own challenges, but I would have to say Mantis Burn has had one of the smoothest development periods of any game I’ve worked on. I guess one of the biggest challenges has been publishing our first ever title in-house. Previously all of our games have been published by external companies, but for Mantis Burn we’ve taken the big (and slightly scary) step in publishing it ourselves. It’s been a learning curve but we’re very happy with the way things are going.
Overtake five cars to win in this mode
GameWatcher: The feedback on Steam Early Access has been very positive so far however, quite a few people have said that the camera currently feels awkward. What steps do you plan to take to address this problem?
Shaun Read: Yes, we did get some feedback on the camera at the start of our early access time on Steam. We took this on board and re-wrote the camera system from scratch. The player now has four different camera options including a static camera should they prefer it. As far as I’m aware, since we made the changes, the feedback has been very positive.
GameWatcher: On Steam, you’re promising regular updates along with paid and free DLC post full launch. What content will you be releasing free of charge and what content will players have to pay for?
Shaun Read: We are indeed. We’re already working on our first update that will include a whole new location with another 4 tracks. This update will also include a further 2 seasons in career mode and a brand new event type. This first DLC will be completely free to download. After that we have many plans for new content both free and premium. We hope to be able to release further details about these soon.
GameWatcher: Mantis Burn Racing is currently available on Steam Early Access. When do you expect the full game to release?
Shaun Read: Soon! We don’t have an official release date as yet, but hope to announce one in the very near future.
It sounds as though VooFoo have a lot more in store for us, especially with regards to DLC! We’re interested to see what Mantis Burn Racing’s full game looks like when it releases soon.
