Stainless CEO Explains Long Carmageddon Delay

[Andy Chalk]

Stainless CEO Explains Long Carmageddon Delay

Indie studio Stainless Games says gamers looking forward to the new Carmageddon [http://www.carmageddon.com/] title have none other than Square Enix to thank for it.

It's been a long time coming, but a new Carmageddon [http://www.amazon.com/Carmageddon-Pc/dp/B00001QEP6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308755502&sr=8-1] release from the studio that originally created the series is finally in the works. What took so long? Stainless Games co-founder and CEO Patrick Buckland said his studio has been angling for another racing game for chemically imbalanced for the past six or seven years but nobody seemed interested.

"When [SCI] bought Eidos we were hoping to get more Carmageddon licensed work," Buckland told Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35026/Stainless_Founders_On_The_Long_Road_To_Getting_Carmageddon_Back.php]. "We made them offers and tried to buy the license off them, but there was no way that Eidos or SCI were ever going to sell that license."

But then Square Enix entered the picture, purchasing Eidos [and its parent company SCI] in 2009, and suddenly things changed.

"Square... had very valuable IP that they had purchased that they were never going to use, and they took the surprising decision they were willing to sell this IP," Buckland continued. "Most companies would probably just sit on the IP; why sell it? We paid real money for it, though."

He also expressed confidence that the franchise still carries some weight with gamers in spite of the fact that it's been more than a decade since the last game, the poorly-received Carmageddon TDR 2000 [http://www.amazon.com/Carmageddon-3-TDR-2000-Pc/dp/B0000522CC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308755502&sr=8-3], which wasn't developed by Stainless. "There are very few games out there that can really make people laugh their heads off," he said. "It's not a substitute for gameplay - you won't get away with just a sense of humor - but by having a sense of humor that's what makes it stand out, and what gives it a special place in a lot of people's hearts. People remember Carmageddon in a way they don't seem to remember a lot of others games."

Carmageddon: Reincarnation is currently slated for digital release sometime in 2012.


Permalink

 

[Vie]

Ah I used to love good old Carmageddon... ..hum, wonder if I can get it running on this computer?

Original should run in dosbox if nothing else I think?

 

[vxicepickxv]

Ah I used to love good old Carmageddon... ..hum, wonder if I can get it running on this computer?

Original should run in dosbox if nothing else I think?

Hopefully. I need to try to track down a copy of the original. I think it's in a box somewhere. I remember how much fun the pedestrian electro-bastard ray was.

 

[killamanhunter]

Ah I used to love good old Carmageddon... ..hum, wonder if I can get it running on this computer?

Original should run in dosbox if nothing else I think?

if the original DOS-Lemmings game can work on my computer then Carmaggedon should work too. Of course I did have a problem with lemmings having no sound. Best of luck trying to get it to work.

 

[Vhite]

There is a new Carmageddon coming out? How could I not hear about this? Or maybe I did and it just took them so long that I forgot.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Oh hell yes, I was just wondering the other day what the countdown I heard about was actually supposed to signify, and now I learn it was in fact my best possible outcome? So buying this once it's out, Carmageddon 2 was pretty much the only racing game I have ever enjoyed.

Think what you want about racing games, but from my perspective I've never understood the appeal of the vast majority for the same reason I don't understand the appeal of just about any game that simulates something you could reasonably do in real life without being institutionalized, arrested, or killed. I don't need to pretend to drive cars in a video game, I can do that in real life - perhaps not racing, but I find automobile races every bit as boring as any other sporting event so that's still not appealing.

Carmageddon though, well that game let me do something that nobody could ever do in real life without horrible horrible (and probably fatal) consequences: Drive like a complete psychopath, smashing everything in your path for no other reason than shits and giggles. The power-up system and hilarious physics/damage modeling (the way the repair system would progressively fix your car as you held down the key was particularly neat), alternative to racing that let you win by ignoring the checkpoints and killing all the pedestrians/smashing all the other opponents' cars, and zany sense of morbid humor made the whole experience a blast.

Here's hoping Stainless pull a "Serious Sam" and not a "Duke Nukem Forever" with the sequel.

 

[The Random One]

Man, for a game about running over pedestrians to be interesting in this day and age it needs to be really fucking awesome. I can run over pedestrians for points in Saints' Row 2 when I'm done doing all the other things in it.