Slipstream: Reimagining Classic Arcade Racing by a Brazilian Solo Developer

Making games and realizing it was possible to make a living from it

My name is Sandro de Paula, from Brazil, and I’ve wanted to be a game developer since childhood. I had my first real contact with game development tools when I was 14, but it didn’t seem like a viable career for me back then. There weren’t many opportunities in my country, so I decided to pursue other interests, such as music and journalism. When the first international wave of indie-failure games became commercially viable, I felt it was possible to do it solo. So, around 2012, I began learning more and trying out different approaches. My first “real” project was a mobile runner pixel art game called Meow Sushi NightThis was made available for Android by me in 2014 and I began to develop it. Slipstream soon after.

Slipstream: The Origins

It might seem strange, but it is the truth. SlipstreamIt started out as a curiosity. It was something I just finished. Night of Meow Sushi and I felt I understood how 2D graphics worked reasonably well, but I kept wondering: “How did those classic racing games create a 3D perspective in pure 2D hardware?”. It was fascinating to see the pseudo-3D method, so I decided to do my own implementation. From there, the project developed. I was familiar with classic racing games such as OutRun, F-Zero Top Gear, but it didn’t really become a passion until I started working on Slipstream. Lots of racing games focus on creating a realistic physical simulation of how cars work, but the racing genre also lends itself very well to a more stylized, expressive approach, and that’s the direction I tried to follow. My goal was to create a fantasy world of colorful road trips around the globe. OutRunDid back then.

Evolution of the Mechanics. Slipstream is an Arcade Racer that’s Different

The drifting and slipstream are essential elements of the game, I believe. My 2015 demo had none, which made the game feel too simplistic and basic back then. Despite being the name of the game, the slipstream mechanic wasn’t there from the start, but it was a natural fit. Both the drifting mechanic and slipstream ideas were inspired by OutRun 2006/Coast 2 CoastSega tried to modernize Sega’s original gameplay with a new name,. OutRun. Although I dislike the manual transmission system in racing games of old, it is tedious to switch gears manually. It’s also not fun for me in real-life racers. I have never thought about using this mechanic but I felt the game required something else. Rewind was the most recent addition. I believe it is a great mechanic. The player has the option to reverse a difficult turn or to undo an accident. All the mechanics were added very naturally, I didn’t plan too much, I just tried stuff out and iterated until it felt fun or satisfying.

The Slipstream Soundtrack & Its Inspirations

The music in SlipstreamThis is one of my favorite parts. Stefan Moser (aka Effoharkay), my American friend, created it. Meow Sushi Night. It was composed in tandem with the game. This allowed it to have a direct impact on how the game came out. There were times when I felt I was writing the soundtrack for the game, and not the other. Without those songs, the game wouldn’t be what it is today. From my perspective, it’s a mix of influences, from80s synthpop, 2010s vaporwave and synthwave to jazz fusion and eurobeat. The soundtrack is a diegetic part of the game, it’s the music you’re playing in the car while driving, so it isn’t made to fit a particular track or place, but to set the atmosphere and tone for the game as a whole.

“Music for Slipstream was composed over the course of development, which was cool in that requirements, inspirations, and references kept changing,” says Stefan. “At first we were really into synthwave/synthpop that was popular around 2009-2015. Then, of course. OutrunOther driving simulators and classic games were added. We eventually trailed into vaporware, eurobeat, jazz fusion, etc… The idea of having a radio playing the music from the car made it pretty easy to imagine the game as an album rather than a soundtrack.” As for media references and inspiration, Stefan says, “I remember the hard hitters like Driving OutrunBut I can remember at that time trying to really look at art, writing to gameplay, and feeling invigorated by it. As for other artists, I was listening to a lot of Com Truise, Electric Youth, Jean Luc Ponty, Casiopea, and plenty more at the time .”

It features a great soundtrack, and the game mechanics bring classic arcade racing to life in a modern setting. Slipstream combines nostalgia and challenging gameplay for lots of fun – and it’s available right now on Xbox!

Slipstream

BlitWorks

☆☆☆☆☆
1

★★★★★

$9.99

Slipstream, a racing video game, is inspired by visuals, music and cars of the early 80s and the early 90s. This game has a retro vibe and distinctive graphics. A soundtrack that combines jazz fusion with synthpop creates the atmosphere for racing across exotic places around the world. This includes cities, deserts and forests as well as mountains, beaches, mountain peaks, rivers, lakes, and other locations. Driving is exciting and challenging thanks to slipstreaming and drifting.