When you think of controversial video games, it’s a safe bet to say that the original Carmageddon is some way near the top of the list. Even Grand Theft Auto might struggle to match its ballsy and bloody violence which comes in thick and fast.
Derided and applauded in equal measure, Carmageddon has gone down as a cult classic for its lack of subtlety and general insensitivity, and rightly so. Games should only ever be seen as escapism; a world far disconnected from your own in which you can be whoever you want to be. What better second life to have than as a pedestrian-slaying motorist (don’t answer that)?
A notorious N64 port and several years later, I was attending Wales Comic-Con when I wandered onto the Gamers Bus and discovered rows of people eagerly playing something unfamiliar. Sitting down next to them, I picked up my controller and realised what it was: a brand new Carmageddon.
Part-funded by Kickstarter donations, Carmageddon: Reincarnation is one of the most refreshingly direct games I have played in a long time. No endless exposition, no prompts to buy a season pass and just brutal fun to be enjoyed from behind the wheel of a moving killing machine.
Ahead of its imminent release, I talked to Nobby Barnden of Stainless Games all about bringing Carmageddon back to a milleniual audience.
Hi Nobby, how are you?
Feeling a bit run down. How about you?
For the uninitiated, tell us a little about the history of Carmageddon?
Carmageddon is a points-for-pedestrians driving game that we call “the antidote to racing games”. It was originally released for PC in 1997 and caused controversy due to the game’s victims being helpless civilians (and animals). Far from intending for the game to be controversial or a “videogame nasty”, we made sure that the violence was cartoony, completely over-the-top and surreal resulting in an experience that was like Monty Python meets Tarantino. However, this didn’t stop the game being banned in several countries and censored in others – including the UK, where we had to replace the pedestrians with zombies in order to get it released with an 18 certificate.
The game was followed by The Splat Pack add-on, and then Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now, in 1998. A third title in the series, TDR 2K (not made by Stainless) flopped, and the brand fell into well over a decade of obscurity until we got the opportunity to purchase the IP when the original publisher was swallowed up by Square Enix in 2009.
When was it decided that you would try to revitalise the franchise?
We always hoped that some day we’d get the opportunity. We realised that Square Enix would probably never revive the IP so there was no hesitation in contacting them and negotiating a deal for the rights.
With some of the original team still involved in the project, does that help keep the spirit of the series?
Definitely. Carmageddon: Reincarnation strongly evokes the spirit of the original, and this comes from us retaining the same dedication to the two core values that the company was founded on: technical excellence and wanton stupidity. The technical excellence endures thanks to the inspired code work of Dr. Kev Martin our physics guru and the dynamic damage code written by Stainless CEO Patrick Buckland. The wanton stupidity endures through everyone being encouraged to throw ideas into the mix, and if it makes us laugh till we’re damp, it goes into the game.
How has the production process been? Any hurdles you struggled to overcome?
Back at the start of the project, we assessed the various middleware options that we could potentially have used for rendering and other core tech, and decided we should update our own Beelzebub core tech instead. The update quickly turned into a ground-up re-write. The fact this was necessary has resulted in a Grand National of a development process. The mass of inter-dependencies that have to be worked into the dev schedule has been one hurdle after another.
What was the general consensus when Reincarnation was announced? Better than expected?
The reaction we got was phenomenally good. Nothing better exemplified this than the Kickstarter campaign we ran to raise $400,000 towards development costs, which raised over $700,000 and got us around 20,000 backers. A fantastic result for a title that was last in the public eye well over a decade earlier. We’ve also had a tremendous amount of support from our community which has grown and is very active on the carmageddon.com forums. Plus the sales of the game on Steam Early Access which have been solid (although we expect sales to really take off when the game launches fully on May 21st).
Which features are you most excited to bring to a new audience for Carmageddon?
There’s a whole range of event types in the new game (as distinct from the original games, where every level played the same way – kill all the opponents, complete the laps or kill all the peds). There’s Classic Carma (the “win however you want” mode that was the only way the original two games played), then there’s Car Crusher which is the car “deathmatch”, Checkpoint Stampede where you chase down Checkpoints as they spawn, Fox ‘n’ Hounds, where one player is the fox and the other players have to hunt them down and catch them to become the fox, and Ped Chase, where everyone is chasing a target ped.
The intention is that this variety of game modes will add significantly to the players’ enjoyment of the game – and they can progress through the career mode by mainly playing the events they prefer, as each of the “Chapters” that unlock through career progression consists of a series of varied event types.
The key feature of C:R that makes it stand out from regular race games is “points stealing”. It’s an option in events, but we would highly recommend players have it turned on, as it’s what turns an event into a truly Carmageddon event… Essentially it means that if you don’t want to win an event by completing laps or chasing Checkpoints or killing peds, you can win by stealing your opponents’ points by wrecking them instead!
I think we all love the massive range of mad PowerUps (PUps) that the game offers – getting on for 100 – which can be used in cunning combinations to really mess up your opponents’ or the peds’ day! They’re all hilarious, mad, spectacular or stupid… Suck peds’ heads or various other body parts off. Toss, repulsificate or fire giant anvils at peds and opponents! Launch across levels with Pelvic Thrust or float through the air in your own personal Bubble Car… Hours of pointless fun for all the family!
Personally, I’m also really looking forward to seeing what the modding community will be doing to the game through generating extra content and playing with the game’s data in our CarMODgeddon mode.
Can we expect to see more from Stainless Games soon?
Of course! Now we own this fantastic brand, our drive to make it a household name will be relentless! We will not rest until the whole world is brought together in peace and harmony through Carmageddon online multiplayer gaming. (And we’re also available for children’s parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs.)
Which other game series would you love to get your hands on and give the Stainless polish to?
Well, generally I think all devs are confident that they’re the best people to be working on their own games, so it would just be idle speculation… But we have a set of like-minded loons in the industry called Running With Scissors and we’ve talked often in the past about doing something together (as co-tributes to each-others’ work, we have RWS logo street signs in Carmageddon: Reincarnation, and they’ve added a Carmageddon billboard to Postal 2, just up the street from the dude’s trailer). Maybe one day it’ll happen…
And finally, why should we pick up a copy of Carmageddon: Reincarnation?
Because who doesn’t want to run over nuns, penguins, cows and old ladies on zimmer frames, often all at the same time?
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