While developing the prototype of Shadow Racers I had other ideas for racing games and wanted to make use of the vehicle models we'd already produced in alternate games featuring wildly different gameplay from what you'd see in Shadow Racers.

Being a huge fan of the Burnout games I was massively inspired by the Crash sections and started putting together ideas for how I could replicate that core gameplay but on a limited scope with close to no budget (as all my games are currently developed). Crash and Burn was born, and I soon got to work on a prototype featuring real-time mesh crumpling for our vehicle models which worked well. This was a couple of years ago though and I don't think the damage modelling will be enough for fans and instead we'll likely need the cars to actually come apart which also means having interiors modelled.

More importantly however, we need the scenarios in which you'll be trying to cause havoc. In the prototype I used a level from Shadow Racers which was built for racing and was only a test of vehicle-on-vehicle destruction.

Going back to Burnout, and in particular Burnout Revenge, I really liked how they would re-use the same environments but reverse the direction of traffic or bring in traffic at different speeds, stop the lights in different orders etc,, to change the way the pile-ups would happen. I'm wanting to create a few environments like this featuring complex grids of intersecting roads, bridges, overpasses, and most importantly a variety of buildings around to make it look like a 'real' city, or at least not look like they're just some textured cubes stuck around the place.

So I recently was contacted by a 3D artist who I think is the ideal candidate for working on this as there's no specific timeframe for the game to be finished in and I like to take on people who are looking to develop their skills and want to challenge them a little. Seeing their creations in-game can really spur them on to do better and improve their skills.

As reference I've been working through the Crash levels in Burnout Revenge again not only to refresh my own memory of the game and take down notes but also as reference for those working on the game. We want to capture the spirit of Burnout without cloning it and purely sticking to Crashes, no racing will happen in this game!

So, I thought I'd share some of the footage I've captured to remind everyone just how awesome Burnout Revenge was (for a game made in 2005, 9 years ago!) and if I can make a game even half as good as this it'll be something special: