My cousin worked on this for a little while, I know my crew are going to love this game. Looks great.
Thanks for the feedback you guys. Feels great to finally talk about our game!
Don't know where the F-Zero comparison came from - it wasn't from us, although I'm flattered by it!
Regarding speed, most futuristic racers rely on speed as a core part of their gameplay to make it exciting. Trailblazers isn't really like that. We are about second-to-second strategy, first and foremost. Our core gameplay and track design tenant is about giving players real strategic decisions to make every few seconds. The game throws decisions at you every 5 seconds or so, for example: do I drive on my paint and boost now, or instead paint a fresh part of the circuit and get more boost for later? Do I take the left or right split-route, based on my knowledge of which one was captured on my last lap? Maybe I veer off course to paint off-line for a teammate who is coming up fast behind me. Do I paint over the enemies colour now because I know there's a bad dude following me closely, looking to overtake... But if I paint, that cancels my boost... giving the other guy the potential to drive smart, avoid my paint and boost around me. Do I blast the guy in front of me with a forward-firing paint attack, or save my paint supply to cover the big straight at the end of the circuit? Anyway, you get the idea...
We're injecting a level of strategy into the core gameplay that's pretty different to other arcade racers. Speed is obviously a factor in this, but it's not the only thing that makes our game fun. Hope that goes some way to explaining our thinking!
Ben (Supergonk)
Why is it every time I see someone make a comparison to F-Zero the actual car physics are always closer to Wipeout. I know thats grumpy of me, but I'm so thirsty man. it's been 15 years.
Indie devs inability to just make a straightforward-ass racing game without any "WHA-HACKY INDIE GIMMICKS<3" is amazing. Like, jesus guys, just because indie games are stereotypically gimmicky as hell doesn't mean you have to shove some unneccessary gimmick in your game
Also echoing the sentiment that this is pure Wipeout and looks sloooooooooooooooooooooooooow as shit, like sheesh even WO is faster than this by a large margin
Yeah, I have recently seen that preview of theirs, and it looks like great fun. I definitely see myself keeping close attention to it!I saw the preview on Easy Allies yesterday and it seems pretty fun.
Keeping an eye on it
I was looking at the latest upcoming releases and came across this game. It looks amazing! Does the game feature any kind of "normal" competitive multiplayer and will it run at 60fps on the PS4 Pro?Thanks for the feedback you guys. Feels great to finally talk about our game!
Don't know where the F-Zero comparison came from - it wasn't from us, although I'm flattered by it!
Regarding speed, most futuristic racers rely on speed as a core part of their gameplay to make it exciting. Trailblazers isn't really like that. We are about second-to-second strategy, first and foremost. Our core gameplay and track design tenant is about giving players real strategic decisions to make every few seconds. The game throws decisions at you every 5 seconds or so, for example: do I drive on my paint and boost now, or instead paint a fresh part of the circuit and get more boost for later? Do I take the left or right split-route, based on my knowledge of which one was captured on my last lap? Maybe I veer off course to paint off-line for a teammate who is coming up fast behind me. Do I paint over the enemies colour now because I know there's a bad dude following me closely, looking to overtake... But if I paint, that cancels my boost... giving the other guy the potential to drive smart, avoid my paint and boost around me. Do I blast the guy in front of me with a forward-firing paint attack, or save my paint supply to cover the big straight at the end of the circuit? Anyway, you get the idea...
We're injecting a level of strategy into the core gameplay that's pretty different to other arcade racers. Speed is obviously a factor in this, but it's not the only thing that makes our game fun. Hope that goes some way to explaining our thinking!
Ben (Supergonk)
I am sold. And Im so excited to FINALLY play a fun racer on PS4. Its the one genre Im craving for. Was going to get The Crew, but Im much more on board with this game.
Hey guys, we put out a new Trailblazers gameplay trailer yesterday. It shows some teamwork stuff, but more importantly you get to meet Boo; our nervous space frog driver with daddy issues...
Let me know what you think!
Ben
Awesome, will look out for reviews but gameplay so far looks awesome. Any word on when Switch version will release?Just a quick note to say that Trailblazers is now available to play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, GoG and Humble Store (for Windows, Mac and Linux). There are some launch discounts in place, so pick it up now for less money. Would love to hear what you guys think of it!
Ben
No worries, will definitely be down for this. Looks ideal for taking it to play at a mates house and get word of mouth going. Hope launch is going well for you guys. It really is an awesome concept.Haven't quite locked down the date yet, but it's our number 1 priority right now. Sorry I can't be more specific, but we're still figuring it out. Playing in handheld mode is super fun though, and I want it to be as polished as we can possibly get it.
Ben
No worries, will definitely be down for this. Looks ideal for taking it to play at a mates house and get word of mouth going. Hope launch is going well for you guys. It really is an awesome concept.
Just got in. First up, presentation is absolutely ace; game looks and sounds fantastic. Loving the art, and the characters all seem really funky and cool. Only played a few races so far, but it seems like a lot of fun. Haven't got the hang of hard cornering yet though!
Only concern so far is that upon quitting (had a saving icon that wouldn't go away) and coming back, my progress was gone. It also seems to forget my chosen resolution when I quit and start again, which is a little odd.
How's the controls for driving? I've honestly never been able to play any of these futuristic speed racers EXCEPT for F-Zero; I'm just way too used to that franchise's controls I guess. Any insight would be great!
Thanks for your kind words, and sorry to hear about the save issue. Which platform are you playing on? Steam?
Ben
Yep, Steam. I've started and restarted the game a few times now, and it looks like progress is now saving correctly. I still need to reset my res each time though. Might have something to do with my setup though; I'm running the game on a TV (my second "monitor") at 4K downsampled using Nvidia's DSR thing. I'll try dropping to 1080p and see if I can rule out that last bit out.
Oh, and it forgets my crossplay option too. I set it to on, and it keeps returning to off after closing the game.
What kind of single player events are there?From what i have played so far, the game just oozes charm, the aesthetics all mesh together to create something so vibrant that i haven't seen since 2016's Redout.
The physics to take a bit of time to get used to, with brakes initiating a drift but is more used for tighter turns, turning is best done by letting go of the accelerator strategically for medium sized corners and some wall/vehicle collisions may make you wobble and destabilise more than you'd expect but it isnt completely unfair or off-putting. The sense of speed is nailed quite well too, especially once you reach higher boost chain combos, reaching Boost Max is exhilarating!
The only major issue ive been having that may be a turn-off for some is the strange wobbly framerate that exhibits on the PS4pro, where it cant seem to decide between 60 or 30 fps at erratic intervals, but seems to be more scaled towards the latter when more clashing paint colours are applied on the track, and it can be pretty jarring at times.
Honestly though, besides that the game's been very good so far, and i look forward to playing more, props to making the single-player a great length too, there's a lot to do!
The singleplayer seems to go through each different character for a set of events and then goes to the next, each chapter so far has had one or two events (i can imagine latter ones may have more) but they make you learn the ins and outs of each character's vehicle traits and different game-modes, all loosely tied together by a mostly text-based story (with some sound cues) but the writing's been pretty good too, its light (so far) but its still entertaining.What kind of single player events are there?
How is the a.i?
How is local MP?
The singleplayer seems to go through each different character for a set of events and then goes to the next, each chapter so far has had one or two events (i can imagine latter ones may have more) but they make you learn the ins and outs of each character's vehicle traits and different game-modes, all loosely tied together by a mostly text-based story (with some sound cues) but the writing's been pretty good too, its light (so far) but its still entertaining.
The AI have been pretty competent! even when set to Medium (default) difficulty in custom events, they seem to fare better on twistier tracks compared to wider maps however, and the opponent AI often do their best to paint over your trails and vice versa, its always a shock to see whats happened to the track surface by the time you get to that section again on the next lap, it may look completely unrecognisable!
I havent been able to play local MP yet (dont have anyone thats wanted to give it a go just yet) but it has plenty of options - one thing i did notice was that there was the option of 2-4P splitscreen while playing online (as well as local) which is a nice addition!
EDIT: As for specific event types, there is the standard mode (3v3), there is also time attack (a team works together to set a time, i think the amount of players vary), all against all, partner battle (2v2v2) and Gate Chase (many more paint gates but nobody can paint the track themselves)