Vroom! Obstacle Racing: Exclusive interview with the developers

When I was browsing news posts in our podcast Discord, someone dropped a YouTube trailer for a new upcoming game that immediately drew my attention. Is this really a game?, I thought, there is just no way it can look this good!?.

To get to the bottom of this and find out how good the game really is, I decided to dig a little deeper and talk to the developers in an exclusive interview.

In this interview, I spoke to Adam Bernath, the solo-dev who made this work of art in only two months’ time. But let’s first show you the game in action so you understand what all the fuss is about.

Having seen this, chances are big your inner kid wanted to come out to play. As that’s undeniably the effect it has had on pretty much everyone that has seen the VROOM! reveal trailer and the reason where’s asking the developer behind it some questions today.

A little more about Adam, the developer

• Is this your first game? From the look of your site, you normally focus more on design and other services.

I’ve made a few interactive apps in Unreal Engine before, but this is the first game I made. I’m a designer by profession and picked up other creative and not so creative skills online in the past 10-15 years including video animation, 3D illustration, and front-end development.

• From what I’ve heard, you’ve made this in only 2 months. How many hours on average did you spend per day?

Yes, I’ve started to plan the game after I’ve seen that the Unreal Engine 5 early access was released. I think I’ve spent an average of 10-12 hours a day on making the game for those 2 months, pretty much every day.

• Are you looking to expand the team or are you more of a solo-dev by nature?

I can do a lot, but finishing the game is not something I wish to do alone. I’ve been working solo for the past 3-4 years and I honestly had enough of that. I’d like to build a team that can help me finish the game. But I’m also just an average guy with a crazy work ethic, I don’t really plan to change much.

Unreal Engine 5 is making the impossible, possible

• The realistic graphics almost made it impossible to believe I was looking at a game in action. Has it always been a focus to make the game as realistic as possible?

Yes, my primary goal was to make the game as realistic as the current technology allows it to be. After seeing the Unreal Engine 5 presentation* running on the Playstation 5, I felt that this is the right time for me to jump into game development. A lot of previously existing technological barriers disappeared with the new consoles’ computational power and especially with the tech that UE5 will bring to the industry.

*Here is that presentation again for those that may not have seen it yet:

• Do you think this would have been possible without the Unreal Engine 5 technology?

I don’t really have too much experience with other engines, so I can’t really judge them, but what the Unreal Engine team delivers is really impressive!

• Everything in your trailer is actual gameplay? Nothing pre-rendered? What kind of black magic is this?

The video is actual gameplay. From the technical side it’s very much possible now – only in UE5 though. The amount of geometry that a game in UE5 can have with Nanite enabled is pretty much close to infinity – it’s probably dark magic that they built in the new engine.

This also works with unique geometry meaning those models can be anything and each different, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1million of the same or 1 million different 3D models – without much performance impact!

• You say claim that it will be a multiplayer game with 60+ online players. How difficult is it to achieve this with real-time physics shared across all players?

The physics engine in the game is the new Chaos physics that the Unreal guys developed for Fortnite. It is pretty much built for online play, but I do still have to test it in a real-world scenario and check just how hundreds of flying toys will affect the network performance. Luckily it is not something that the game mechanic relies on too much, it is an added extra that can be limited as much as is needed to have smooth network communication.

Only on next-gen platforms

• You’re planning to release the game by the end of 2022 on PC, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S. Would the game be too demanding to run on previous generation platforms?

Vroom! is going to be a truly next-gen game and it very much requires the hardware of the new consoles. The underlying technology that allows to have thousands of different very high polygon assets in a single level is also only supported on the new console generation. I would love to have the option to release it for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, but it is just not realistic.

I haven’t had a chance to try out Vroom! on the new consoles yet, but there was a demo Epic gave away with the UE5 and that was said to be optimised for PS5 and new Xbox Series X to run at 4k 60fps – that project was producing around 20-30fps on my pc, Vroom runs at 60 so that means its gonna be insanely smooth on the new consoles.

• I’ve seen people (myself included) call this Fall Guys + Toy Cars. Has the success of Fall Guys been an inspiration to make this an obstacle course type game versus a more traditional racer?

I love Fall Guys and I can’t deny it was an inspiration. On the other hand, I wanted to create a game that has its own identity, caters for the latest gaming trends, is streamer friendly and what I would want to play with friends. I like racing games, but I was more interested in creating something that adds extra challenge to it.

What about the marketing plans?

A huge element of Fall Guy’s success has been its brilliant marketing strategy, focussing on Discord and Twitter first and foremost. When I tweeted about the trailer, it accumulated a huge number of views in a short time so it left me wondering about the developer’s marketing plans.

• Are you currently looking for a Publisher? What kind of support would you mainly like to receive from them, beyond funding or marketing?

I am currently looking for grants and funding to secure the game’s future, but I am also open to speak with publishers who can offer help with both funding and publishing. The most important thing now is that the development of the game can continue as soon as possible. We’ll also make a Twitter account for the game soon*.

*EDIT: They just did. Go give them a follow on Twitter.

• Are you looking to make this a premium game? Or is the focus going to be on unlocking cosmetics or purchasing seasonal content? 

The pricing is yet to be decided. I plan to expand the game after the release with new game modes and seasonal progression and rewards.

---

We’re very grateful that Adam took time out of his busy work schedule to talk to us about Vroom! Obstacle Racing and will be keeping a close eye on the project going forward.

Should the game explode in popularity, we hope he remembers us as one of the first to interview him and that he graces us with a review copy. We can’t wait to talk more about the game here!

Until then, be sure to join their discord for all the latest!