[Interview] Austin gives a talk to Qubic Games about AiRace Speed, a super-fast-sci-fi 3DS racer that you probably haven’t looked into (but should)
System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: September 19th, 2013
Developer: QubicGames
Price: $4.99/£4.49/€4.99
Author: Austin
Alas, what is AiRace Speed? Those with a notable collection of DSiWare titles may remember a little game called AiRace Tunnel, and this– if you intend to stop reading here– is like a shinier and (hopefully) better version of that. But why am I trying to describe it to you? Let’s take it from the folks over at Qubic themselves:
“AiRace Speed is a futuristic racing game providing a challenging and unique sense of speed and adrenaline. It is regarded already by many as one of the best racing games on Nintendo 3DS, especially at its low price of $4,99 (or 4,99€ or £4,49).”
Because they are such efficient and helpful people, they also provided a list of what you can expect in the game:
• Fly across 18 adrenaline-fueled tracks
• Take control of 5 high-tech jets
• Enjoy stunning graphics and immersive 3D effects
• Compete in online global leaderboards
• Try to unlock 42 special achievements
If you’re intrigued, read onwards! The most important information is right after the break.
“I like this question!” said the guy and/or girl I was talking to over email, “But it isn’t as easy to answer as you state it!”
What question could I have asked them that was both a quality-inquiry AND a tough one to answer? Only the most important question of all:
“What games have you all been playing lately?”
Their answer was somewhat more extensive than I had anticipated:
”I’ve asked each member of the team (although I already knew for some of them) and those are the games that came back to me, which for some reasons I decided to order alphabetically:
“Animal Crossing, Borderlands 2, Civilisation V, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crysis 2, Danganronpa, Dark Souls, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Diablo III, Dishonored, Faster Than Light, League Of Legends, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Rayman Legends, Total War: Rome and Shogun 2, The Witcher 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles. And the best answer from one of us for the end: “my own prototype, fun and confidential!
“For each of these games I’m sure there would be a story to tell but that would make the interview way too long.
“And otherwise from a business-related side as well, we play a lot of Nintendo 3DS downloadable and retail titles and we also play on Nintendo Wii U.
“At the office, when we need a fun multiplayer time, we enjoy playing our game which we developed for WiiWare: Gnomz. This game is really fun and our opinion about it is totally objective of course!”
After that brief diversion, I figured it would probably be a jolly good idea to get back on topic: AiRace Speed, what it was, why we should play it, and other stuff like that. I queried:
Seeing footage of AiRace Speed brings to mind visions of F-Zero and Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. What influenced the creation of AiRace? Other games? Movies, perhaps? Life experience of driving high-speed spaceships?
“The idea of AiRace Speed came to life thanks to the success of the DSiWare games AiRace and AiRace: Tunnel. The latter has however much more influenced AiRace Speed and brought the concept of high-speed racing through tunnels with a sci-fi environment. So the question would rather be: what inspired the creation of AiRace: Tunnel, more than 3 years ago?
“It is important to say that AiRace: Tunnel was originally created as a bonus mode to AiRace. We wanted to give a solo challenge with a good sense of speed. That’s how the ideas of tunnels came to life. But in the last moment we decided to divide the games into two separate products. And the result is that AiRace: Tunnel found a big success on its own. It provided players with a fun and interesting gameplay experience.
“To create AiRace Speed we obviously also looked at what was made in the racing field in general. F-Zero is a classic and we took the sense of speed from it.”
You started the AiRace franchise with ‘AiRace: Tunnel’, which had a futuristic setting and focused on high-scores and leaderboards. After that came ‘AiRace’ proper, which did not have a sci-fi setting and was a more traditional racing game. Is it fair to say that ‘AiRace Speed’ is more akin to ‘AiRace Tunnel’ than ‘AiRace’?
“Like I said previously it’s definitely true to say that the concept of AiRace Speed comes after AiRace: Tunnel. In the series, they are brothers and AiRace is the cousin. However there are some very important differences between the two brothers:
“In AiRace Speed, the pilot can use nitro and brake at any time. The gamer has a total control over the jet. The levels are not automatically generated– they are all designed from scratch. This gives our designers total freedom to create surprising and tricky tracks. The levels give a spectacular gameplay experience and they feature shortcuts and split ways. The only exception is on the two endless levels, which are automatically generated.
“Unlike the DSi titles, AiRace Speed has 3D effects and advanced graphics which deliver a complete immersion, providing a unique feeling of speed and adrenaline.
“The game counts 18 tracks, which is more than in AiRace and AiRace: Tunnel together. These tracks bring the player into two distinct worlds.
“Also, AiRace Speed has online ranking leaderboards and 42 achievements to unlock.”
Just to confirm, then: This is not a game where you race against other, AI-controlled racers?
“Correct. There is no mode that allows players to race together on the same track against AI or other real players.
“However everybody can compete with fellow competitors around the world through online ranking leaderboards. For each level it is possible to upload your score on a table displaying all other scores and the podium of the three best ones. There is also a special functionality allowing players to compare their scores with friends he has registered on his console.”
Do you think a demo of ‘AiRace Speed’ is in the realm of possibility? Granted, I’ve heard from other developers that it’s quite a bit of work to get a demo out on the eShop.
“It is in the realm of possibility. But we can’t confirm yet if this will happen. So we prefer not to say anything more on this topic as we don’t want people to take the risk to disappoint people.”
Can you speak more about the “difficult and adult-oriented” game for home consoles that you’ve hinted about in earlier interviews? You said once that more information about it would come around February 2013, and it’s been quite some time since then! Any word?
“We were really busy with AiRace Speed as we added more features than we originally planned. And we actually figured out that we need more time to announce something because we don’t want to set projects in stone.
“So in fact we are not ready to give more information, unlike what we said last time… really sorry about that!!”
The last time you were asked about Wii U development was in November of 2012, and you said you were looking at doing a project for the console. Now that the situation has become extremely dire for Wii U, has your mind changed about whether to develop for it?
“No we think that the Wii U is a fantastic console and we are confident that sales will increase along with the number of available games, made by big and small developers.
“We are already authorized developers for Wii U. We have the devkits and we currently prepare our own game engine C-Way to feature the proper technology to handle development on Wii U.
“We do hope that we could release a game on Nintendo Wii U in the next 12 months.”
Lastly: Any update on AiRace 2? Should we expect something more like the original AiRace with that upcoming title?
“Creating something of that kind is a serious option for us. But we first want to see how the reception of AiRace Speed is. We need to have players’ feedback before making any new move related to the franchise.
“We want to get games from AiRace series on other platforms, including eventually Nintendo Wii U, and we already began the design and prototyping phase.”
Check out the footage of the game above (thanks, Nintendaan!) and feel free to look into the game right this very moment– it’s up on the 3DS eShop as you read this. Thanks to the nice people over at Qubic and their PR contact– I thought they were all exceptionally pleasant.
