We ran an AMA with Sumo Newcastle!
Recently, the team at Sumo Newcastle hosted an AMA over on the Secret Mode Discord. The developers who took part were as followed:
Andrew (Andy) Willans – Game Director
Sean Oxspring – Senior Game Designer
Robyn Collis – UI Designer
Emily Knox-Wilson – Lead Level Designer
Sophie Slimings – Associate Producer
Corry Young – Sound Designer
Question from BarelyMagicMike - Hi devs. I've played a couple hours of DEATHSPRINT 66 and honestly, I LOVE what you've created here. But I'm concerned about what feels like a poor launch. Not only are there frequent lag issues when playing with others, but the community is incredibly small. It's hard to find any games to play with anybody other than bots. How are you guys planning on addressing this?
A – Andy: Thanks! There are a few things to unpack here.
If you have any lag issues, please drop us a message and we can look into it. Remember to provide the spec of your hardware, the mode/map where you experienced the lag, and ideally a bit of footage. The first thing our tech team will suggest is dropping your graphics settings, but with a decent rig, you shouldn’t be seeing any lag.
We agree that the best way to play this game is with other real players and are already looking into our matchmaking to see how we can improve things further to get more people in races together. There is always a trade-off when you don’t have huge numbers to play with, so each solution comes with a tradeoff e.g. longer waiting times when trying to join a match. But we’ll have some info soon to share on this.
In terms of the player numbers, yes… we’d hoped for more. As the word spreads and we continue to harden the game, this should improve. If you know any top streamers and need a key, give us a shout.
Thanks for the feedback and most of all, I’m glad to hear you enjoy the game!
Question from ZaaZoJo - I feel right now the hitboxes on the mines are way too high and should be lower to the ground. I have had times where I should have cleared a mine with a jump and still get clipped by the top of it.
Also, I have had moments where I bop into the side of a grinder and don't die, lose all momentum then I’m just walking around. Would it be better if a player dies instantly if they bump into the side of a grinder, or put spikes on the sides of grinders.
A – Sean: We’re in total agreement with you, the hitboxes on the mines have been adjusted and you should see a vast improvement when they're added in the next update! As for the grinders, we’ll look into them too and see what we can do.
Question from Iltyebni - Right now it seems like using boost on the ground is drastically less effective than using it midair/wall running. Would you consider balancing this? I'd like to see the boost have a greater effect while drifting especially, as it might improve the flow of the game.
A – Sean: Hey! So, the main reason for this occurring is that the air has no friction, whereas the ground does. We'll look into it though, and see if there's anything we can do on the ground.
Question from Slade - I want to inquire about seeing our speed while we play. Also, can the EMP be less frequent or strong, it just destroys seven other players for barely a gain on the guy that used it, it feels too strong for everything it does, slowing you down, taking your speed, stopping your drift, and kicking you off walls and grinds. I’m a potato at that point!
A – Sean: We're working on the EMP at the moment to make it a little less annoying and constant - we definitely don't want you to be a potato! Current speed is an interesting
idea, we'll consider it!
Question from ZaaZoJo – Are there plans for Twitch integration such as Twitch viewers dropping power-ups in the game, or a point-integrated system where how much HYPE the player earns is given out to viewers?
A – Sean: We threw around some ideas about Twitch integration as we were prototyping the game. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to get them in for the final game, but we really liked the idea!
Question from BvT JamKo – Can there be a game mode with no powerups?
A – Sean: We're not looking at splitting the player base between two different game modes right now, but it’s something we're thinking about!
Question from Hareezy – Do you think DEATHSPRINT 66 could be an Esports title?
A – Sean: Oh, we wish! It’d be an amazing thing if it takes off as a competitive Esport!
Question from Jeraco24 - I love, and I mean love the lore of this game. After watching the Dev Diaries, I found a new appreciation for your game, and I just want to pick your brain more about your world. What else is there?
A – Sean: Thank you so much for all the lore love, we’ve worked hard to establish the brands and history of the DEATHSPRINT 66 world. We’ve got a bunch of documentation on our side to make sure it is all consistent and realistic. If you’ve not done so already, I’d recommend dropping into rRehearsals mode and checking out all the advertising plastered across the maps, they are all beautiful and full of little tidbits of lore.
I really hope you liked Glocctopus, that’s my favourite one. 🐙
A - Robyn: This was probably my favourite part of working on the project. During the early concept phase, we spent time coming up with company logos, animated idents, and advertisements - studying old corporate identities from the mid to late 20th century, sprinkling in references to other sci-fi dystopian media. It all had a slightly more tongue-in-cheek vibe before we settled on the direction we have now, which I love. Honing and focusing on the direction of the backstory was super fun.
Question from Slate – At the moment, if you try to skip parts of the track like other racing games, you just die, or the game doesn’t register where you are and tanks your race; I shouldn’t be dying a centimetre off the map when I could potentially be back on the track. It seems that the game tracks where you last touched the ground, so if you spend a lot of time in the air before you die, it sends you way too far back, ruining your lap and momentum.
A – Emily: If you spot any egregious kill volumes, please share these with us via Discord and we'll definitely take a look!
You are correct, the respawn system tracks where you last touched the ground, but it also traces to the ground from traversals such as wall runs in order to find a safe place to respawn you if you died on a wall run.
Similarly to the above, if you find your respawn points were poor or unfair please share them with us in Discord so we can investigate and make potential fixes.
Question from Zick – Does the dev team plan on updating/patching DEATHSPRINT 66 in the long term? (Over a year.)
A – Andy: All based on numbers. We love the game, we're incredibly proud of it, and see the potential for the future. We just need to back that up with a healthy community, of which you are all helping us to create right now!
A - Sean: Firstly, we need to build a community - we think we've made a really good game that feels great, and now it’s a case of getting it into as many hands as possible.
As for what comes next, that's currently a secret... but it's pretty fun.
Question from Jeraco24 – A lot of people here have their own ideas and things they want to be added, myself included. But what are some things your team wants to add? Even if it’s something so off-the-wall weird.
A - Robyn: It's not really a mechanic, but I would love to add a news anchor character, like in F-Zero GX.
A - Sean: I would love to add more traps, ones that encourage players to do different types of traversals, to increase the skill ceiling.
Question from OldManMachiTV – Could we get a standing relative (how far people are from each other.)
A – Andy: A nice idea, and another feature which we couldn't get in for launch. Being a huge racing fan, I totally understand the desire for this. It does get a little trickier for us though, since our tracks often branch over multiple vertical and horizontal paths, so we'll never be as accurate as something like Forza.
Question from ZaaZoJo – Are you looking at reworking powerups?
Enraged Charge - Right now, it feels broken around corners, sometimes getting stuck, and slowing players to a crawl.
EMP - I feel it sucks to slow down to a slow jog. Instead, perhaps drain someone’s boost temporarily. The EMP causing people to fall off rails and walls is fine though, and it gives some strategy on when to use it.
Mines - The hit boxes are way too tall and hard to jump over.
MAG Shield - Shield feels fantastic, probably my favourite power up.
Seeker Drone - Feels good, and effective counter at destroying mines/players.
Buzz Saw - I feel the buzz saw is underwhelming and the weakest power-up overall. Perhaps if it was a super-fast style Giga Saw (with a smaller hitbox) that might work better overall.
Giga Saw - It feels bad when your own saw kills you and forces you to go slower when throwing it forward. Instead, have the player phase through the blade.
Some ideas for other power-ups:
Storing a second power-up -. This would offer more strategy on when to use certain power-ups at different times.
Tether - A rope or lasso where you can whip a player slightly behind you or into a grinder saw.
Gigaboost - Massive boost of speed! Unlimited boosting while it’s active for 10 seconds.
Nuke Missile - Rare power-up, that specifically targets and destroys the person in first place. (similar to the blue shell from Mario Kart.)
A – Emily: We're aware of the issues you've described with Enraged Charge, and have seen footage of this shared on Discord. This helps us a great deal with bugfixing issues for this ability.
I love the ideas for other abilities!
We're also aware of the issues with Mines and are looking into this ASAP.
Question from Zick - Is it possible for us to get leaderboards for times set in rehearsal matches? An alternative to this would be creating a time trial mode that acts as a designated place for solo speed running.
A – Sean: Because of the way that the data is currently stored and transferred on the backend, we can't currently make a leaderboard for those modes. But it's something we're looking into!
Question from OldManMachiTV – Can we have an Elimination Mode?
A – Sophie: Very cool idea! Adding this to the ideas list.
Question from Zick - Considering the current player count, would the devs be open to adding a feature that allows players to change which region they matchmake for, or even allow the selection of multiple regions at the same time? This allows players who are not able to find populated lobbies in their home region to queue in a different region where they are more likely to find players, ultimately enhancing their experience with the game.
A – Sophie: It is something we've discussed but not something we're considering at the moment due to problems with game performance between regions.
Question from ZaaZoJo – It would be cool if there’s posters of top players with their avatars and display their lap records in the city.
A – Robyn: That sounds like a really cool idea! It's something we did look at in the prototype stage.
Question from Lupus – Hey Devs! What is your favourite map?
A – Sophie: I love Radioactive! It’s simple and smaller than some of our other tracks which gives players more of a chance to have some 1-on-1 contact.
A - Robyn: It’s so hard to pick just one favourite, but I always love racing in Downtown; just being in that gritty cyberpunk setting is always fun.
A - Emily: Probably Heights, I really enjoy the alternate route jumping left/right between the wall runs, it feels really rewarding when you get it right. I love Skyline as well, having a few big jump pads at the beginning is such an exciting way to start a race.
A - Andy: Pipeline, because I've demoed it for the past year at various media events and had the most practice!
A - Sean: My favourite is also Pipeline. It’s the map where we did all the speed balancing for the game because of all its turns with sheer drops.
Question from Kat – Do you have plans for better accessibility settings? You cannot turn off vibrations, and no easy way to turn off motion blur. There’s also no way to turn off the bright flashy VFX that surrounds the player at high speed, or the flash when you pick up a surge bolt.
A – Sean: We’re pushing to get motion blur and controller vibration toggleable in an upcoming patch. Letting you play for longer and be comfortable whilst doing it is vital to us, so expect to see them in the options menu soon!
As for the VFX, we’ll look into it and see what levers we can pull to make it easier on the eyes.
Question from ZaaZoJo – Are there plans on bringing DEATHSPRINT 66 to consoles and there being multi-platform? Xbox Game Pass, PS Store, Switch etc.
A – Andy: We are focusing on PC first, but when we have something more to say on that topic, you’ll be the first to hear about it. If/When anything like that were to happen, Cross-Play would be top of our list. This has been true of the last two games from Sumo Newcastle, so we are well used to bringing the parities together.
Question from ZaaZoJo – It would be very immersive to have proximity chat if players are near you during gameplay, also a lobby feature in main menu to talk and chat with other players.
A – Andy: These can be fun, but often divisive features. The whole game is built around the notion of Fame and peacocking, and things like proximity chat really tie into that vision. However, they are also costly to develop (tech, testing, players opting out etc) so it needs weighing up against more urgent features/fixes. Sorry I can’t offer anything concrete on this one, but it’s definitely on our radar.
Question from Jeraco24 - What made you go the route of a free-running racing game? I love the idea and it feels a lot like Sonic Riders in terms of controls and feel - which gave me the idea to add hoverboards and also to expand on the idea of parkour, so things like mantling wall riding but you’re going up instead, grapple ropes so like a rail you fly or run into it and it swings you in the direction you're moving.
A – Andy: Originally this concept came off the back of Hood: Outlaws & Legends. We had a great time developing that game and wanted to push 3C’s (character, control, camera) as far as we could. In Hood, we had stealth movements, combat and light parkour elements, so part of the early conception was to push this way beyond what we’d seen in other third-person action games. This coupled with the desire to do something not bound by historical accuracy took us down a more sci-fi-focused path. So, in many ways, we built the game fantasy around the almost superhero-like gameplay we wanted players to experience. There are so many games that do this in vehicles (cars, bikes, snowboards etc) but not many attempt to make a competitive on-foot racing game. So, it felt like an interesting genre to explore.
Question from Jeraco24 - You already have good maps in the game, and I was wondering if you have a process by which you make maps. Is it an idea or theme you want to do or is it kind of random and you make the track as you go. To me, some tracks feel like they were built with speed in mind and the traps are not much of a problem, then you have other tracks where the traps seem to be the main focus and are placed in spots to surprise and kill you.
A – Emily: The maps go through five stages: Spec, Placeholder, First Iteration, Potentially Launchable, and Polish. Each stage requires sign-off from specific people, but we’ll typically invite anyone on the team to play levels at different stages and provide feedback.
Initially, for a map, the Level Designer will write a spec, this is loose but sets out the intentions of the level - is it a Circuit or a Sprint? Are there particular traps and/or traversals that will be focused on or avoided? We’d also try to illustrate a layout idea, which could be a rough side or top-down, whichever conveys in the intention best.
After that, we build the Placeholder version as soon as possible so we can get eight people running around the level, able to complete laps, die and respawn appropriately so that we can start gathering feedback from the team. At later stages, more of the level becomes locked down, and the changes we make ideally become smaller and smaller.
Question from Bebar - Hi, are you going to put a ranked mode in the future?
A – Andy: Short answer is we’d love too.
The longer answer is that we need a healthy community to make this a must-have feature. Right now, the best way to play this game is against other players. It was designed as a competitive PvP experience, and the last thing we’d want to do is separate our matchmaking pools until we can get the numbers to ensure that everyone is having a great time. We already have a design of what Ranked play could look like, including progressions and rewards that increase/decrease based on performance. But first and foremost, we need bums on seats. So spread the word!
Question from Hugo - What is counted into generating HYPE? Airtime doesn't seem to generate hype at all (based on the surge PvE mode, but maybe hype there works differently from races), but if I were a viewer seeing someone just suddenly fly for a long time and land safely, it would be pretty cool and make me more hyped about that person.
Based on the surge PvE mode, going very close to traps and barely passing by them also does not increase the hype, but again that might just be the separate PvE mode.
A – Sean: HYPE is generated in a variety of ways; by collecting the pickups in the game, traversing the map in interesting ways and scoring kills. You get a combo bonus if you are doing HYPE scoring events in quick succession of each other, so the more you do during a race, the more HYPE you’ll gain.
As for airtime and getting near traps, we did originally have these as scoring events, but they were quite broken. As you can imagine, in a Bloodbath level you’re passing a lot of traps and that HYPE score can go a little crazy!
Question from ZaaZoJo – Could we have gameplay replays of photo finishes and social media integration? This feature would be amazing and go with the theme of the game.
A – Andy: Another great idea that unfortunately we didn’t have the development bandwidth to act on. With so many (non-client-based) ways to capture and upload media, it wasn’t that high on our list to be honest, which is why we focused more on the gameplay to ensure the footage was worth sharing.
I’m going to sound like a broken record today, but if we get the numbers then we can look at this again.
Question from ZaaZoJo – It would be a very cool feature to have users create their own maps. This will keep a lot of variety in the game and keep it fresh, with the community active for years.
A – Andy: User Generated Content, and specifically a track editor is something we’d been asked about and discussed continually over the past year. It’s a great idea and a very powerful tool. It’s also a tonne of development work - not just to release the tools in a user-friendly interface, but also to curate the content that is created by the community. If this game gets the audience it deserves, then this will be high on our list of major features to consider.
