Games
We speak with RedLynx’s creative director about the fiendish trials riding game’s first year.
The wickedly cruel, controller-destroying, next-gen motorcycle platformer, Trials Fusion, is turning one next month. Yep, that’s a whole year you’ve been attempting to finish those ninja tracks and slowly grinding your analogue sticks to a pulp.
While some of its tracks let you easily cruise through with backflips, supermans and can-cans aplenty, its much more nail-bitingly hard levels usually have you hitting the reset button time after time after time.
Ahead of the launch of the game’s sixth, and supposedly final, DLC pack, we spoke with Antti Ilvessuo, creative director of RedLynx to talk about the success of the game’s first year, its steady string of content and the game’s cryptic secrets. Hint: you might be waiting a long while to crack one.
You’ve been consistently delivering DLC for Trials Fusion for a year now – have you always had this lengthy roadmap planned out for Fusion Ilvessuo: From day one, we tried to communicate that we are committed to this game and we are continuing to support it. So we have six DLC packs done already… and let's see what happens in the future, but there's still a huge team working on the game. Even though it's out, we've not stopped working on it. And now I think people are really starting to notice it – when the first DLC came out, people were like “Okay, this is two levels, not enough", but after a year, you'll notice there's a huge amount of content coming all the time, and there's been free updates for everyone; tournaments and teams, multiplayer and so on. It's a totally different game now from when it first came out.
How has player activity fared since launch? Have people been playing it all this time? Yes definitely. There's active players all the time. You can see that there's certain YouTube videos when there's news coming and there are cool events; the game's very much active and there are new players all the time coming in, and plenty still playing. We planned from day one that this game is a service, and it's really working.
How did you come up with the themes for the DLC packs? What weaves them together? Ideas never end, that's for sure. I can promise that. There's a backstory in Trials Fusion, and each DLC pack is teamed to that backstory. So for example, there's a DLC pack that is happening underneath the main city, and what happens when that city collapses. Every DLC is themed with that back story and it all fits together, and there's a meaning as to why everything happens.
Trials is a game primarily about balancing your bike across a 2D obstacle course. Why include a story in the first place? I think it works really well, because in other games, you might have been forced to watch animations and kind of force-fed the story. That wouldn't work in a Trials type of game, because you want to play and ride, but with our stuff, there's a story and you still notice it, and you can dive deeper if you need to. It’s having that careful balance, and I think we've done it well because, as many players have mentioned, you may have noticed there's something going on that goes really deep and if you want to check it out you can, but we're not really force-feeding it.
The DLC packs have not just included new tracks... Well, there are lots of new challenges and tracks, and riders too. Pretty simple, you could say. And obviously we are all the time supporting tracks that the community makes; it's not just the tracks we do. There’s so many tracks that people are making. When there's new DLC there's only a few days of good stuff that's coming out, but people will use the new objects that's in the DLC in their own tracks and make really creative stuff.
How do you set out to provide something in the DLC that fans haven't created? Well, obviously, the first thing is that when we create the DLC, we have the objects first! That's for sure one thing that people can't make! We just have to step it up and use our imaginations to create new stuff. It's a good race, in a way. We look at what people create, and we have to try and top that!
So far five of the six DLC packs have been released. What can we expect to see in the final pack? Well, it wouldn't be a secret if I said… but it's something about what happens in the city in the future. Maybe dark times are coming… The name gives some hints for what to expect – “After the Incident” – so, what's in that incident. Trials is a mystery world.
Tell us about the new objects in the DLC pack. How do you decide what to include? For the new objects in the DLCs, we add those that are themed with the DLC. So Outsiders, the theme is based on people who live outside the city, so all the objects are related to that. We also look at what people are maybe missing, and try to come up with objects that people need, and the same with DLC under the ground, then objects are tuned where there are huge drills. We've noticed how people use objects and you can use the drill better, for example, and we've checked that people want to use that object in a certain way. The DLC is not just random objects put together – they're contextual, and tuned in a way that's for people to use them.
Dating back to the Xbox 360’s Trials Evolution, fans have created all sorts of insane courses – did you ever expect it to get this big? What are some of your favourites? It's always a surprise what people create, but it's also somehow expected. We haven't force-fed that everyone has to learn it, it's just the tools we provide, and there's a guide on how to use it – people use it and people are smart if you give them a chance and don't kind of hold their hands. I think that's really why people have created such incredible stuff. Firstly that we use the same tools, but it's really like an open world that you can explore as you want. And it's hard to name a personal favourite, but I really like it when people use the physics in really interesting ways.
Be honest. Have you actually managed to finish all the levels in the DLC? Yes, we have really good riders in our office – I'm not great – but the other guys are better. We have five guys that could easily be in the top 10 in the world, maybe, and they are completely finishing levels. They're top level guys. Some of the guys making levels are great too. It's the tools we have though, we're able to see how the floor works. So we can place checkpoints throughout the level and test the flow of a track a bit differently to what you see in the final game.
Which one is your personal hardest track? Inferno IV, maybe! It's like 10 floors or something. I'm not the best player… I'm too old! I'm not as good as some of the guys here. But when I play maybe, the first Trials games, people have played the game differently and have learned techniques we never intended, and sometimes things happen that you never thought would have been possible, but some people make it happen!
One of our favourite Trials skill games is the one which places you inside a massive metal ball and you have to use your balancing skills to traverse the level – how do you guys keep coming up with wild and ridiculous ideas like that? In general… it's kind of like watching UK TV shows…or just running around the office with electrical wire…it's anything! The whole world is a playground, you just have to use it, and effectively translate those experiences into the game.
Have you ever heard of the secret by the way? The 100-year secret? Well, 99 years ago, under the Eiffel Tower, at 12 o'clock, someone brought a hidden chest than you can open with a key – and that's somehow connected to the game. Sure, that started with Evolution, but it might still be there in Fusion…
There are just six bikes in the game, any plans for any more? I would be killed if I was to comment on that.
What's next for Trials? Something surprising. We can't quite comment yet, but we are thinking of new things to do and how to do it. I can't talk too much about it. But we are working on how to do new stuff. That and the 100-year secret – it's really not a joke!
I think the really important thing is that from day one we set out a target that we will keep this game alive, and I think it's showing in that there's a huge amount of content and features – and it's not stopping. Players are now really seeing that, and with the multiplayer, we've got some great feedback. It took time to deliver it, but we think we've nailed it now.
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