Want a full 3D racing game on XBLA?

[DenisDenis]

Hi I'm Denis from Load Inc.
We're a small Paris based developer and we are developping "Mad Tracks".
Now that you know me, you're welcome to:
chit chat
ask questions
insult us
come for a drink
tell us how it's done
congratulate us
give us your money
All of the above.

Check some visual of your next XBLA game here:
In game 360 screen shots.

Have a great day,
Denis (GT DenisDenis)

Load Inc.
***100% Fat Free Games***

"Ethernet, is it really something to catch the etherbunny??"

[undeadkid]

Screen shots look nice. Looks like it could be a fun game to play.

[Nino]

SPAM! (just kidding )

Welcome to the forums, great to see people like you here. The game looks amazing, I'll add you on Live so we can have a little chat

[Curry]

Hey DenisDenis, welcome to the forum If you head over to the User Control Panel you can set your signature and gamertag, saves some typing.

Game looks interesting, reminds me of Micro Machines with the small-cars-in-living-room setting Is the Foosball intended as a kind of mini-game?

[Studley]

I saw the title and I was going to say "micro machines please", and it looks like this is what we're getting really Looks like there's a good level of detail.

So it's 4 player over Live? And also offline split-screen?

What game modes are there? (Tournament, Single Race, Time Trial?)

I've just seen there's a PC demo, I'll probably give that a try:
http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/gamespa...=6142182&mode=

Mad Tracks is a Car Arcade Party Game
100% party games (fun & frustration free)
Pull back friction vehicles, Acrobatic Tracks
Easy handling, Rewarding gameplay
Multiplayer (split screen, Network, npc)
46 Challenges (23 Mini games, 23 races)
12 Pick ups and Power ups, 12 cars
Pull back friction engine
‘Nitro’ Effect, Crazy overtaking
Spectacular jumps


Mad Tracks is available :
on PC from february 2006
on Xbox 360 Live arcade from March 2006

It includes:
3 challenges (Training day, Foosball & Rock and Race).
3 different environments,
3 cars (German team).
4 pick ups (Oil, Rocket, Turbo & Freezer).
Multiplayer & solo.
Demo will NOT run under Windows 98SE and Windows Me (the game does, don’t
worry).



By default, AI is easy mode, so if you think you are the best at playing
Mad Tracks, create a new profile, change the AI to Hard mode, and play the demo
again !

Game System Minimum Requirements

Windows® 2000, XP, 98SE, ME
Pentium® 1 Ghz or equivalent
GeForce 3, Radeon 9200 (64 Mb and vertex & pixel shaders 1.x)
256 MB RAM
300 MB available hard drive space
Game System Recommanded Requirements
Windows® 2000, XP
Pentium® 2 Ghz or equivalent
GeForce 5, Radeon 9600 (128 Mb and vertex & pixel shaders 2.0)
256 MB RAM
800 MB available hard drive space
DirectX sound card

What is the spring at the bottom of the screen ?
The spring represents the available energy. It goes down when you accelerate,
and up when releasing the accelerator. Note that being stopped or going
backwards will make the engine recharge faster.
What Internet port Mad Tracks uses ?
Mad Tracks uses UDP & TCP on port 3404
How to unlock battle modes ?
All battles are locked. You will need to find golden flags hidden in regular
challenges. Make sure you look everywhere as they might not be close to the
regular play area. Note: you might have to unable the ‘auto respawn’ option to
get out of the beaten track. Battle mode is not available on the demo

Battle Mode, w00t

[Curry]

Battle Mode? That sounds like Super Mario Kart?

[DenisDenis]

There are a number of difference between the PC version and the 360 XBLA.
Here are the features you might be interested in:

- Multiplayer up to 4 only split screen (we promise the next title will be live, we have been working on it).
- 12 cool achievements
- High rez HDTV real time 3D & optimized frame rate (thanks to the Xbox pa-wer)
- 15 challenges (races & mini games - yes, you will play foos ball & pool)
- 12 pick ups - remember ReVolt? Well in Mad Tracks, you can stack them up and switch.
- 360 specific menu & interface
- 48 leaderboards to see who's got the biggest
- Modes will include: Championship & Arcade
- Less than 50M (we're turning into demo makers here)
- Developped by the coolest French XBLA studio (as long as we're the only one saying this...)

Cheers,

[Rival24]

So when's it coming out?

[DenisDenis]

Originally Posted by Rival24

So when's it coming out?

We try to pass a first certification mid July.
Of course, we're like you! We want it out now. But we also want to make things right. A subtle mix between taking our time and rushing.

The bottom line is that MS has a final word on release. After all it's their agenda (you wouldn't want Mad Tracks and Hoopworld coming out at the same time - would you?).

[Nino]

Originally Posted by DenisDenis

We try to pass a first certification mid July.
(you wouldn't want Mad Tracks and Hoopworld coming out at the same time - would you?).

Yeah I would if that time was in the next 5 minutes, make it happen!

[Studley]

It'll probably still be out before Street Fighter

Sounds like you've squeezed a lot into 50MB, shame there's no Live play but leaderboards are cool, and it sounds more fun than a lot of the XBLA games so far.

Do you set the price/marketplace points too? Any idea how much you might be charging?

[DenisDenis]

Mad Tracks is a full game squizzed in 50M thanks to the Xbox. This thing can eat, digest, process and dispose of about anything. The original was more than 300M, we managed to enhanced all kind of things, add achievements, make it pretty for HDTV and still have room to put 10M of music!!!
The price will probably be 800MP (we don't favor 1200MP), again, we will listen to Microsoft expertise on this field.

Cheers!

[Rival24]

Originally Posted by DenisDenis

Mad Tracks is a full game squizzed in 50M thanks to the Xbox. This thing can eat, digest, process and dispose of about anything. The original was more than 300M, we managed to enhanced all kind of things, add achievements, make it pretty for HDTV and still have room to put 10M of music!!!
The price will probably be 800MP (we don't favor 1200MP), again, we will listen to Microsoft expertise on this field.

Cheers!

Oh well, I assume you'll get us a couple of MS points so we can review the game ?

[Nino]

Originally Posted by Rival24

Oh well, I assume you'll get us a couple of MS points so we can review the game ?

Fuck it, I'll buy it anyway. Arcade games for the win!

[Rival24]

Originally Posted by Nino

Fuck it, I'll buy it anyway. Arcade games for the win!

I won't for 1200 points

[Nino]

Originally Posted by Rival24

I won't for 1200 points

That's cold...

[Rival24]

Originally Posted by Nino

That's cold...

But true, 1200 points for 'small' game that doesn't have Live multiplayer is just too much Even though it has some cool features.

[TRIGGER M4N]

No Live play? Any reasons?

[Curry]

Originally Posted by DenisDenis

The price will probably be 800MP (we don't favor 1200MP), again, we will listen to Microsoft expertise on this field.

I'm pretty sure 1200MP pricepoint will yield a third less sales, thus making no net difference

[Studley]

I played the PC demo and it's pretty good fun. Foosball is BRILLIANT, you've got two teams of cars trying to hit the ball into the goal, crazy fun. Shame it's not on Live.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by Studley

Foosball is BRILLIANT, you've got two teams of cars trying to hit the ball into the goal, crazy fun. Shame it's not on Live.

LOL that sure does sound fun

[DenisDenis]

Originally Posted by TRIGGER M4N

No Live play? Any reasons?

Several reasons.
1. just like all dev team, we're on our learning curve. Meaning even if we did extensive dev on PSX, PS2, Xbox and GC, we're still noobs on 360 .
2. Money - I mean time - no, I mean money - oops, nope, time. Whatever. It takes a while to implement Live. It takes time to test it. It takes time to do it right. We don't have the money (I mean the time).
3. We love to frustrate players (my AD told me to say this).
To make it up, there will be 48 Leaderboards.

The main difference with an XBLA title is that we are both Developer and Publisher. This means we have to fund the game. That's ok when you're ID or Blizzard, but for us, it's a tremendous effort (can you see the tear on the corner of my eye?). We don't want to juggle with too many balls.

Cheers guys!

[Curry]

Originally Posted by DenisDenis

2. Money - I mean time - no, I mean money - oops, nope, time. Whatever. It takes a while to implement Live. It takes time to test it. It takes time to do it right. We don't have the money (I mean the time).

A certain publisher that's been taking 4 months now to put Xbox Live support into a certain 15 year old classic beat-em-up can vouch for that I'm sure

The main difference with an XBLA title is that we are both Developer and Publisher. This means we have to fund the game. That's ok when you're ID or Blizzard, but for us, it's a tremendous effort (can you see the tear on the corner of my eye?). We don't want to juggle with too many balls.

Cheers for being fair and square on this! Really good to see that the concept of Live Arcade is working as intended: to allow smaller developers their shot at eternal fame as well by taking care of platform, distribution and everything.

What was the reason for you guys to take a hack at Arcade instead of the more common, easy-to-develop PC you were used to?

[DenisDenis]

Originally Posted by Curry

What was the reason for you guys to take a hack at Arcade instead of the more common, easy-to-develop PC you were used to?

Well, anyone would if they were given the chance. We did!
Plus, we're not giving up PC, we're actualy trying to find a partner in North America to get this game on shelves.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by DenisDenis

Well, anyone would if they were given the chance. We did!

Well not if you don't expect the revenue to outweigh the costs, and the main problem I see with Arcade development is that 360 devkits are bitching expensive. How many you got?

And do you actually have offices in Paris or is this a classic "few guys in their garage" product?