My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 10...

For the Kickstarter backers there had been a growing sense of unease about the things they had been promised. Audiences knew that it might take weeks before they got their physical rewards. Some things had to be ordered from a local business, or from China where they would be manufactured, and shipped months later. Whether it was a survival kit, a card game, tee shirt, or other ephemera. These weeks turned into months, eventually stretched into years. Patrons began leaving queries on each Kickstarter update without getting too many responses from the studio. Of course some electronic rewards were available right away. People could access the beta trial, they could turn in their codes for games from Steam. One of the nice surprises came in the form of a comic book for certain backers. Concept artist Daniel Tejnicky had originally done a series of fan comics years ago. He was contacted by the studio to produce the art on an official comic. It was scripted by Neil (Nobby) Barnden. It filled in a lot of the back story for the new tournament, and helped flesh out the world of Carmageddon. Many of the details that audiences were noticing in the game levels were explained in the comics. The art was top-notch, and the comic was filled with gore, nudity, and crass humor. It was everything audiences could ask for. Unfortunately, the comic was not what thousands of sponsors had paid for.

A handful of concerned sponsors turned into dozens upon dozens calling out the studio with every Kickstarter post. Many had not gotten the physical rewards they had paid for. They were looking to get their money back, and many complained to both Kickstarter, and Stainless about it. It got to the point where Nobby had to post an update, and say they were going to look into the delays, and apologized for not being more proactive with physical rewards. The studio was running on a razor-thin budget, and crew. All hands were cranking on getting Reincarnation finished, and out the door. What the studio needed was a full time person handling the PR, and following up with all the clients. They didn’t have anybody for that, and as such many queries were left unanswered. Stainless completely ignored the backers asking about the Linux, and Mac ports that were promised. People still went to the Kickstarter page almost a decade after the campaign ended to call out the studio. The lack of transparency only served to build distrust in the studio, and the Kickstarter process.

There were many things that were out of Stainless’ control. For example one of the tiers was to receive a 3D printed model of the classic Eagle, and the TEZ Eagle. That was the one I had signed up for. Some people, mostly in England, posted that they had received their model. They said when it arrived it was tiny, and brittle, like a dry cracker. Very few received one that wasn’t misshapen. It turned out that the company responsible for printing them went out of business. They dumped a bunch off at Stainless after their promised date, and then disappeared. I never received the ones that I had paid for. It seemed that people outside of the UK, or the EU were out of luck as well. Other reward packages had gotten out. My wife’s with a tee shirt, and post cards did arrive eventually. There was no 100% guarantee for any sponsor, and Kickstarter had a policy asking that clients reach out to the publisher first to remedy any complaints. I knew that Kickstarter campaigns could sometimes be a gamble. I’d rather have my cash go into guaranteeing a new game, if it meant I might not get my physical rewards. I was willing to bite the bullet, but I knew that thousands of backers did not have that luxury.

Stainless Games moved forward as if backers weren’t growing despondent. The studio launched a website in 2012; Carmageddon.com, which is now closed. They posted news, new builds, hosted a forum, and shared links to mod updates. They proceeded with their business as if there wasn’t a problem for backers. It was disheartening knowing that hundreds of long-time fans were getting nowhere with the company. While at the same time the game was earning a new audience. We may never know if the studio didn’t actually care, or because they were advised by their lawyers not to say anything about the crowd funding. The Kickstarter campaign ended in May 2012, and Carmageddon Reincarnation came out for Steam in May 2015. In May 2013 Bullfrog studios founder Les Edgar invested an additional $3.5 million into the game to help with console development. He was rewarded with a playable character Ed Lesgar driving the KVN Toucan, a play on the TVR Tuscan. It was an incredibly tight development cycle, from a very small team. The title was also a flop in the eyes of critics, and audiences. Despite all of the advances in technology, and a return to form it seemed like too little, too late for the franchise. The studio redoubled their efforts, and released a version for the Xbox One, and Playstation 4 in July 2016. This version was a free update for PC’s called Carmageddon Max Damage. It added approximately 40% more content to Reincarnation. It too was snubbed by the gaming community. It seemed that they had moved on.

The studio seemed undeterred from the cold reception. They did not want to waste all of the work they had poured into rebuilding the franchise. There were literally thousands of assets that could be used to create new games on other platforms. One of those was Carmageddon Crashers, a mobile game that came out in August 2017. The mobile game featured the rides from Max Damage, with simple controls, and new gameplay. Instead of an open world game the title had players going head-to-head in drag races. This was not the type of drag racing where cars were side by side, the cars were literally heading at each other. What else could you expect from the franchise? The graphics were brilliant, with lots of details, cars to unlock, and upgrade. There was tremendous replay value here. Like many mobile games, it was the perfect way to spend time while waiting in a queue. The one thing Stainless did not say was when there would be another sequel. Things were quiet for about a year when THQ Nordic announced that they had acquired the rights to Carmageddon from Stainless in 2018. That news came to a shock for many in the community. They knew how hard the company had fought to build a franchise, lose it, get it back, only to have to see it go again.

Kickstarter backer Mikko Rasa summed up the theory for Stainless ghosting patrons, and then selling the IP. “I still suspect that the name change from Reincarnation from Max Damage was done so that somewhere down the line they can just drop the promises of delivering physical rewards and ports. After all, those were promised for Reincarnation, which at some point will be obsolete and no longer supported. Max Damage is a different game and no such promises have been made for it.” I’m not sure if there is any legal standing for Mikko’s assumptions. If THQ is on the hook for any broken promises, or what else might happen in the future because of the sale.

I did remember hearing something about the success of the original game, and how Stainless never hit the big time. The first Carmageddon sold about two million copies. Which was not bad for a developer that nobody had ever heard of. We did get the award-winning Splat Pack, and Carmageddon II, both of which also sold well. The studio was nebulous about what happened when they lost the rights. Whether they were contractual, legal, or other issues, it turned out that nobody on the team struck it rich. That was a damn shame. All of the bad press following Reincarnation, plus never getting my pledge rewards left me cold. I steered clear of the series for five years. Then on a whim I picked up Max Damage for the PS4. You couldn't blame me. Four years of dealing with Donald Trump, and an ongoing pandemic brought me to the brink... What I saw gave me a change of heart.

I remember reading things about how difficult the cars were to control, how crap the graphics were, how the physics were broken, how much the music sucked. Some even said this was nothing more than a prettier version of TDR 2000. After I actually sat down, and played through it I’m not sure what those people were griping about. Carmageddon Max Damage was so much better than they gave it credit for. I’m going to give my impressions on it in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon, part 9...

Stainless had already started work on Carmageddon Reincarnation before the Kickstarter campaign in 2012. They needed to have a proof of concept, or at the very least a few renderings, if not a partial engine built in order to get investors on board. The art, and models of the Tez Eagle were just the beginning. The studio wanted to make sure that the next game took advantage of all the processing powers of modern PCs. This included physics, lighting, textures, environments, and other visual flair. Some pre-alpha footage was ready for the campaign kick off. The studio would show off progress, without giving away any real secrets on the Kickstarter updates. Not that they were excluding the backers. They were actually allowed to take part in the beta process. Crowd sourcing some of the QA, and online multiplayer testing in the process was an added benefit of self-publishing.

Speaking of the visuals. The studio had a goal to give every character a complete rebuild from the ground up. Working closely with Doug Telford’s new character art, the studio modeled actual bodies for every driver in the game. The last time the company did this was in 1998. The graphics engine didn’t really support unique driver models in Carmageddon II. The drivers were a universal shape, wrapped in a different texture. The humans in Reincarnation had different builds, from the obese like Don Dumpster, the malformed Stig O’Sore, to the paraplegic Screwie Lewie. Even the robot Ed 101 got an actual metallic body. Each driver was wrapped in high resolution textures, and had basic animations. They really came through if you were playing the game from the driver’s point of view. You could see opponents turn their heads, move their shoulders, and steer in close combat. In a high speed wreck both the player, and their opponent could go sailing through the windshield. It was a violent, yet amazing accomplishment from a technological perspective.

All of the technology for Reincarnation was ground breaking. Stainless Games did shop around for off the shelf physics, or graphics software that they could use. It would help streamline production, and help with budget costs. Unfortunately there was nothing on the market that did what they wanted. So as they had in the past, they built it themselves. From 2012 through 2015 each revision of their physics engine became greater, and greater. The vehicle damage engine was quite amazing. It would be studied, if not used by other studios. The cars themselves were built from individual parts that could be deformed, or even broken off depending on the severity of a hit. It was similar to what the studio had achieved in Carmageddon II. Only this time each car had a thousand times the detail, and complexity. How advanced was this technology? A tire could actually be deflated. It would flex, and fold realistically, spinning on the hub. It could also slide off the rim completely. This would affect the performance of the car in real time. Nothing like that would have been possible 15 years prior.

As if writing the book on vehicle damage wasn’t enough, the studio also rewrote the book on in game suspension. If you were to take a good look at the vehicle suspension for the cast you would be amazed at how realistic they were. This included the tank models. Shock absorbers, and coil springs actually compressed, and extended. The drivetrain rotated, and axels turned in realistically too. To be fair the car physics in other games had been done realistically as well. Yet those cars rarely had exposed suspensions. In this game you would be able to shear off a fender, expose the frame, and see the shock absorbers still working. It was an obscene amount of detail, but one which helped the cars perform better than in any other vehicle combat game. The team seemed to be working from a checklist of things that they always wanted to put in their game. Full 3D driver models? Check! Realistic vehicle deformation? Check! Realistic physics? Check! Working suspension? Check! What else was there on the list that they needed to address? Ah yes, they had always wanted to get trailers working properly. You could almost get a sense of shame from the incomplete Tanka they included in the original release. The studio would avenge themselves.

Not only were trailers supported, but every car could pull almost any trailer that was parked on a side street. Some of these trailers were empty, some were loaded with pipes, and barriers. Some were campers that actually had interiors. These all mirrored the car physics. Their tires could go flat, their panels could be broken off, or deformed. The items they were carrying could call off. To hook one up all a player had to do was back into one. Then whenever they wanted they could detach the trailer with the press of a button. They helped absorb the blows from opponents ramming from behind. They also came in handy when they were swung at opponents, or pedestrians while going at high speed. If only the revised Tanka had been included in the game. Thankfully Toshiba Core created a mod for it so that players could download it, and add it to the lineup. As much progress as the studio made they still had a ways to go before completing the checklist. Some of the things they accomplished in this Reincarnation weren’t really stated outright. They were mentioned as a feature in new car. One of their goals was the inclusion of a functional jet car.

There are three jet-powered rides in Carmageddon Reincarnation, but only one of which completes a dream they had since 1998. Nobby, and the team knew their cars, and their car history. It was how they were able to create a massive library of rides within the first three titles they developed. One of their stated goals in Carmageddon II was a working jet car. The texture of a jet exhaust on the back of Vlad’s Annihilator from the original game didn’t count. The studio was inspired by the atomic age promises of General Motors. Stainless Games said in Carmageddon II you would be able to drive this car by pedestrians, and they would catch fire from the exhaust. They also said that the sonic shockwaves from the Street Machine driven by Wide Boy would blow up pedestrians. I was excited by the possibility. To me it was as interesting as Ed 101’s flying concept car. When I was able to purchase Jenny Taylia’s (oh grow up now!) Jetcar in game the afterburner was negligible. Yes the car really took off like a rocket, and handled as well as a car from the ‘50s would have, but the promises of combusting pedestrians wasn’t there. Whether I drove by the peds quickly, or slowly it didn’t matter. I literally had to back into one in order for anything to happen. Of course it was impossible for victims to just stand around waiting to get run over. Nobby had an absolutely mad idea for Reincarnation. He wanted a huge turbine wedged in between two separate cockpits. To complete the theme there would be two pilots.

In typical Stainless fashion it wasn’t enough that there were two separate fuselages, and pilots. The drivers, the Terrible Twins, were formerly conjoined. They had an operation that had separated them. Yet their flight suits had a zipper to allow them to reconnect. It was bizarre, and yet it fit in perfectly with all the other weird characters in the series. The Siamese Dream was actually based on the Silver Fox concept car by Officina Stampaggio Industriale (OSI). The company wanted to set speed records using their uniquely aerodynamic body. They even wanted to get it into the 24 hours at LeMans in the late ’60s. Nobby never forgot this odd car, and came up with the idea for the Terrible Twins as well. Their disproportioned bodies were mirrored in the actual model. Each fuselage was from a different jet, so that the car was slightly asymmetrical. The ride height was matched by different sized tires, and landing gear. It handled as well as you could imagine a jet car would. It screamed in a straight line, but turning was tricky. You had to learn how to work the throttle, and not give it too much power. The massive intake insured that any pedestrians nearby would be sucked up. They would be cut to pieces by the front splitter, or when they hit the fans. Any close to the exhaust caught fire. You could leave a trail of burning corpses in your wake as you plowed through the streets. I could imagine the satisfaction that the studio had when the Siamese Dream came to life. It was clearly a front-runner for the best new ride in the game. Now if only they could invent a car whose speakers were loud enough to explode nearby pedestrians… but I digress.

Stainless never forgot the demand that fans had for the armored police vehicles from the first game. Carmageddon II had standard police cruisers, and it really wasn’t the same. They didn’t fit in the science fiction future of the series. The newly minted police units for Reincarnation were some of the best updates in an already great library. Something that audiences noticed was that the new heavy hitter did not have six wheel like the original model, not only that but the name had been changed from Suppressor to Subpressor. This was a surprise because from the earliest Carmageddon Reincarnation art the six wheeled version was promised, and now the studio would be cheating fans. The reason for this change was due to the physics engine. According to modding community member Alex Darby “The engine's car physics simulation was initially developed in conjunction with the Pro Drive rally team for a realistic rally simulation. As such the simulation seemed to be designed solely around 4 wheeled vehicles and not having to support arbitrary numbers of wheels obviously made it a lot simpler and more efficient to develop. It was an oversight that it wasn't changed earlier in C:R's development, which Nobby obviously was very annoyed about when he found out as the Suppressor was always in the game's specs.” This news actually made a lot of sense because of how the cars responded in the game. 

Each vehicle was all-wheel drive in Reincarnation. That is to say that all four wheels had the power to move the car. In the original game they were rear wheel drive. Cars could sometimes be stuck trying to climb a steep angle as the rear wheels spun. In Reincarnation if a car was cleanly cut in half, lengthwise or widthwise it would still be able to steer, and drive. Audiences appreciated this update, but they wanted the six-wheeled beast they had known. Once again the modding community came to the rescue. The fantastic render from Alex (TEZ) Tsekot was adapted for the game. The new build of the Suppressor was awe-inspiring. It took more than three years for all of this work to appear in game. During that time backers were trying out new builds in the beta test group. Despite early access, there was a problem rising in the Kickstarter community. Fans were beginning to show displeasure for Stainless Games. Their shouts became louder, and could not be ignored once Reincarnation went live. The studio was accused of defrauding many of the backers. We will talk about the fallout this caused in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 8...

I went from computer lab tech to Instructional Associate II during my time in college. Getting to eventually run a lab, and classroom. The Mac lab was where I started a daily blog on 1UP. It was there where I made many lifelong friendships, and even met the woman that I would marry. The Mac OS had gotten to the point where it would no longer support old games. It had been years since we last played Carmageddon there. Roger, one of our friends in IT, made an image in an emulator for us in case we ever felt like firing it up. It just wasn’t the same without my old coworkers. My time at school was coming to an end, and I needed a better job with benefits. So I would commute to JPL part-time, and eventually work there full-time. There was no game playing at JPL, as you could imagine, but the boss didn’t mind if I updated my blog during my lunch break. That was how I kept my daily posts going. Things had pretty much settled into a routine, until April 2012 when the news dropped. Carmageddon would be getting a reboot, or rather, a Reincarnation. I just about lost my mind.

We all knew that Square Enix would never bring back the title. It turned out that the studio was selling off some old IP that belonged to Eidos at the start of the 2010’s. Stainless Games found out about it, and fought hard to get the rights back. They were in a bidding war against an unknown company. Thankfully they won, but the money they had went into acquiring the rights took a big bite out of the studio. They needed more cash to actually start developing a new game. Stainless Games senior members: Patrick Buckland, Ian Moody, Steven Haggerty, Neil (Nobby) Barnden, Russell (Rusk) Hughes, Kev Martin, and Will McCourt looked at their options. They saw that crowd-funding had been successful for other companies, why not give it a shot here? Most developers asked for a few thousand, but Stainless had an ambitious goal. They wanted to raise $400,000 in a month. They made the announcement, and thankfully just about every gaming site spread the word. The most controversial game of the ‘90s, was coming back! Nobby became the spokesperson for the reboot, and would post video updates on their Kickstarter page. The studio raised additional funds by selling limited edition tees on their store, plus they set up a way to donate on Facebook.

As with other Kickstarter campaigns there were multiple tier levels for audiences. Anywhere from $1, to $10,000 was available for backers. A few of people actually took advantage of the $10,000 level! They also set up stretch goals. If it passed a certain amount Stainless would see to getting a build on Linux, and the Mac. I was pretty sure that my old Mac at home would not run it, but I believed enough in the project that I was in for $150. My future spouse wanted to surprise me for my birthday by also pledging $150. I also ordered a shirt, and made sure that all of my friends online knew about the campaign. I provided updates as they happened on 1UP. They were several of my last blogs before the site closed down. Nobby made all of us believe in the campaign. He did so by appealing to our nostalgia for it. The studio wanted to bring back all of the elements that made their games work. It turned out that no detail was too small, and no callback was too dated. In fact he asked old friends Tony Taylor, and Faye Morey to do a little promo work for the studio. The pair had played Max Damage, and Die Anna in the Prat Cams some 15 years earlier. Seeing their pictures instantly aged me. Tony now had wrinkles, and gray hair. Faye was all grown up. Audiences learned via the Kickstarter blog that she was only 14 when first played the character! 

Although the new game would not use Prat Cams, it was the fact that Tony, and Faye were referenced that made fans celebrate. The studio was going deep into their history. Doug Telford the artist who helped with the promo art, and original concept art for Carmageddon returned for the project as well. He created new driver, and car renderings. They kept their look for the most part, with some updated details. His renderings for Max, and Die Anna set the tone for the rest of the cast. They weren’t as cartoony as the driver profiles were in the first game. They were serious, but not dark, or grim like they were in Carmageddon TDR 2000. Max sported a new robotic arm that was made partly of old car parts. Plus he seemed to have a cybernetic red eye. The past decade had taken its toll on him. Die Anna on the other hand looked fantastic. A face texture of the adult Faye actually appears on the new Die Anna model. She has officially been immortalized in 3D form.

Stainless promised to bring back a lot of the classic opponents as well. They too received new art, and updated vehicles. Of course Stainless made sure that they didn’t stray too far from their original looks. In an early update Mr. Telford created a new rendering of Screwie Lewie that looked on point with his original design, as well as the Twister, a sports car on monster truck wheels. Screwie always looked like a crazed pilot, only now he was legless, and using a four wheeled, drill enabled mobility scooter to get around. Just like Max there were many things that had happened to him since his last appearance. At some point we’d see other changes to the rest of the cast. Concept art was one thing, but the modelers at Stainless were showing off how much more detail the new vehicles had. They recreated The Bear, the Russian off-road car used by Ivan the Bastard. The new rendering was amazing. It captured the look of the original perfectly. It also showed how much more powerful the 3D tools were for this generation. Audiences knew that this was not the final design of the updated Bear, but it was hard to contain our excitement with the news.

It wasn’t the biggest reveal that Stainless dropped on the community. The Eagle would get a complete redo by Terry "Tez" Lane. The new eagle was still red, and had the classic blade running down the center. Only now all of its body angles were much sharper. From the headlights, to the rear bumper, every edge looked just as lethal as the blades up front. When it came to specific references it looked as if Terry had found the sweet spot between the first design, and the bruiser that was in the Splat Pack. It certainly undid the mess that was the Eagle in Total Destruction Racing 2000. Tez actually worked from original concept art from the team, as well as feedback from Nobby.  With that said however I would like to think that the new design was heavily influenced by the Spectrum Patrol car. It was featured in the Gerry Anderson show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. 

Gerry Anderson had tremendous success overseas with his marionette shows including Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray Thunderbirds, and Terrahawks. Even his live action shows grew a cult-following. The vehicle designs from his studio were a study in science fiction coolness. Whether it was a spy car, monorail, spaceship, tank, submarine, or rocket jet, there was nobody creating models from the late '50s through the '80s that were half as brilliant as those coming from Anderson. He undoubtedly influenced several generations of artists the world over. The split window, sharp angles, and scoop above the cockpit of the Spectrum Patrol were touches that could be seen in Tez's design. The final version of the new Eagle was not far removed from the concept rendering revealed on the Kickstarter blog.

The studio would refine the model to fit in the game. They would extend the blades up the windshield, and roof as they finalized the body. The game engine allowed blades to work as scissors on the hood. This was a feature on the Shredlight, a sports car driven by Madam Scarlett. The studio made the hood blades oscillate on the Tez Eagle as well. Nobby reached out to his team with a crazy proposal. Something he’d always wanted to see the blades double as a chainsaw. Specifically on the Eagle. Was it possible to get that working in the new game? The staff had always been good at figuring out new ways to get things done with a game engine. Before too long they figured out that they could animate all the blades. They turned this feature into a reward for backers. Donate a certain amount, if I remember correctly it was over $100, and you would get a code that allows you to have the exclusive model in your garage. Imagine how jealous other people online were of this ride. You can bet that my tier included this upgrade!

As a sign that the studio was in it for all the right reasons. Stainless released an HD remaster of the original game for the iOS once they hit their stretch goals. It was actually free to download for 24 hours. It brought back all of the sights, and sounds of the game exactly as I had remembered them. Plus the graphics had a greater fidelity than they did on the Mac 15 years earlier. Who would have ever thought that a mobile game would be better than the PC version? Critics, and fans seemed to agree. Slide to Play gave it a 70, Quarter to Three, and Pocket Gamer UK both gave it an 80, and AppSpy gave it a 100. The aggragate score on Metacritic from fans was 8.4 out of 10. This release was a thank you to the people that believed in the game enough to back it. The Kickstarter campaign ran during the month of May, 2012. Stainless Games was diligent about updating the public each time the developers hit a milestone, whether it was a technical one, or one that revolved around the amount that the backers donating. The updates were sometimes funny, sometimes candid, but always interesting. 

At the end of the month they had crushed their goal. They raised $625,143 from 15,736 backers. This was a quarter million dollars over their original target! Stainless Games was back in business. They would keep fans abreast of all the news over the next few years. There was a long way to go in completing the Reincarnation, the technical heights that Stainless was shooting for had never been tried before in vehicle combat. We will look at this in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!