EXCLUSIVE: Why 'Rewarding Failure' is Crucial to Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Star Wars: Galactic Racer has one major difference to the majority of racing titles on the market right now, with failure being rewarded in a mechanic that is crucial to the flow of the game.
Releasing October 6, Star Wars: Galactic Racer offers frantic action behind the wheel of heavily customizable vehicles from the iconic franchise, where causing havoc on the track is not only possible, but actively encouraged.
During a preview session provided by Fuse Games, the chaotic nature of the title and its Burnout-esque feel was a major hook, and Creative Director Kieran Crimmins explained how “rewarding failure” is a key element of the title.
Star Wars is ‘Perfectly Matched’ to Burnout-Like Mechanics
Calling back to the Burnout franchise, which Crimmins and many other developers on Galactic Racer previously worked out, he told Insider Gaming what made them so significant.
“The thing that those games did very well is they rewarded failure in a way that was exciting and cool. That has been something that has been part of the DNA of people I’ve worked with in previous roles for a long time, who are now working here.
“I don’t think there’s a game where we wouldn’t put some of those elements in, as we love that type of rewarding, exciting failure loop.
“This was an excuse to put it in a place that is perfectly matched to that kind of situation. In previous games, like Burnout, we used lots of different film references, and one of those was [Star Wars] Episode One, so, in a weird kind of way, it’s come full circle.”
Crimmins added that the risk-vs-reward approach is core to the signature of the game, and the team has worked hard to make every moment on the track matter.
“It comes down to the ethos of the game. If there’s no risk, the rewards are lower. If you take away a lot of the risk, then your decisions don’t matter as much,” he explained, “Sometimes we say, if you’ve got a rewind button, then none of your actions really have the same kind of impact.
“For a game like this to work, every choice has to matter, every upgrade, every corner, every race, so there has to be an element of consequence.”
To balance that out, and to ensure players who end up in a fiery wreck don’t find themselves hovering in the middle of the pack with nothing to fight for, Galactic Racer utilizes two boost systems, one of which also matches the risk-vs-reward strategy.
“There’s an innovation with the boost systems, the RamJet boost where it’s risk vs reward, and if you keep it on too long, you’ll blow up your vehicle, and your afterburner, which is like a traditional boost system.
“It means that in any race, you get a lot more push-pull, you get way more overtaking than you would in other games, where you usually leapfrog to the front and stay there.
“There’s loads of back-and-forth, loads of interactions, and the rerason we designed it that way is so you can have as many battling opportunities and exciting finishes as possible.
Check out the Star Wars: Galactic Racer official gameplay trailer below.
