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This crazy, over the top, trick-based arcade title based on Japanese trains was one of the highlights at the BCNGF by IndieDevDay, and here both David Caballero and David Jaumandreu shared a ride to learn all about the project.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the BCN Game Fest and I'm here joined by David and we caught up a couple of years ago in Bilbao But now there is a game everybody is telling me about, so congratulations on that, which is Denshattack! Would you say this game is a little bit too much on rails?
It's 100% on rails Not 100%?
Not 100% so the premise is on rails, you control a train, the premise will be a little bit like in a nutshell is Tony Hawk but with Japanese trains So it means a lot of rail going but there's also a lot of off-rail stuff So with your train you will be able to do whatever you would do with like snowboard or skateboard or BMX like 360, wall ride, grind, whatever And it looks a little bit like Crazy Taxi to me, at least in the art style, is that something that is very arcadey?
Is that something that you were pursuing, like the arcade feels from the late 90s?
100%, 100% like we've been taking a lot of inspiration in like of course extreme sports games like Tony Hawk, like the recent OlliOlli World But also kind of this arcade feel that you get in games, Sega arcade classics a lot Jet Set Radio has been an incredible influence both in terms of gameplay and style, like visual style, Hi-Fi Rush So yeah, there's a mixture, a love letter to the Dreamcast era in terms of visuals, in terms of gameplay, direct to the action stuff Yeah, huge inspiration on that How did the idea come up and how important it is to you guys to sort of enter the Japanese market with this game?
Because they love trains, we know that, Germany too but Yeah, the idea came, basically I was, we're big fans of Japan We've been lucky enough to, since the late 90s, been traveling around and visiting tons of places, backpacking with rail pass here and there And one day while playing with a Japanese train toy model, like if it was a finger skate, you know like Oh, it would be cool if trains could just like ollie, if trains could like kickflip And they were like, hey, there's a game in here, you know So yeah, I started like kind of designing on paper and then telling the rest of the team And the rest of the team looked at me like, yeah, yeah, is it really a thing?
Can it work?
Yeah, but they were starting prototyping and it was like, hey, this is real fun So combined with like the old, these aesthetics we talked about and the idea of like traveling throughout Japan by train Using like the whole country as a skate park, something that, yeah, it really made sense And yeah, that's how it came to be Tell me a little bit more about sort of the gameplay loop So it's sort of a racing slash, you know, trick based gameplay What are we going to do here?
So it's really trick based gameplay, but we kind of define the gameplay like with the two layers So the first layer of gameplay is basically reading the terrain, getting through the end So it's all about maintaining the balance, avoid derailing, avoiding obstacles And that's like kind of a first place, a first layer of gameplay Players enter a flow state, like drifting, etc And on top of that, there's a layer of player expression And that is like not only making it to the end, but making it like in a stylish way So adding tricks, like trying to full combo the whole stage, like getting maxing out like your points So that's more or less the gameplay that you'll find So going from one place to another in the least time possible, but making it also in style And I mentioned Germany and Japan So what sort of feedback did you guys gather at both Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show with the demo?
It was actually great, so the game was revealed at Opening Night Live at Gamescom And we had like a lot of people in the booth and that was like really refreshing People were saying like, oh this caught my attention, but let's see how it plays And the feedback was really, really positive It was also the first time that we put it in front of the public And we really wanted to see the reactions Let's see how the game is really fast Let's see if they put a lot of effort in trying to make it very, very exciting But at the same time that the terrain is readable, etc So it was the first time, and so far so good And the same in Japan, like German players were really shocked to see a game so based in Japan Also it starts in a very local place So people are saying like, wow, why is this happening in Beppu?
Why is this happening in Oita, Miyazaki?
And the reception has been really, really cool And we're really grateful of all the people that came to play And you guys are releasing early next year already So what can you tell me about what's left to do and the publisher?
So we still have to kind of finish the whole content We're down to the last chapter And of course there's a lot of polish to do You know how it goes So we're giving us enough time until spring next year To be sure that the whole game is super polished That the experience is really good, really tight for players And we're also starting the QA process in a few months' time Porting to consoles We're aiming to release simultaneously PC and consoles It also will be releasing day one on Game Pass Which consoles?
So far we have confirmed PlayStation and Xbox And your publisher was?
Fireshine Games And you said Q1 more or less?
Yes, end of Q1 probably I will make sure not to miss this train Do you think the Spanish train system has to learn anything from this game?
A lot, a lot I do agree We're getting better, we're getting better High speed in Spain is good It's too shaky as of late, I don't know what's going on I couldn't even work on my laptop It was too shaky and too noisy This is shaky This is shaky, we could learn a lot in style also The Japanese trains are really stylish Yeah, like the Pikachu train for example We could get a little bit more fantasy through our trains And yeah, local railways need a little bit of work here Fantastic, thank you so much for your time David Enjoy the show Thank you a lot"
