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Parcel Corps
Parcel Corps Interview: A game about bike-kour and back-biking that delivers an important message
We once again caught up with Billy Goat's Will Barr, this time at Level Infinite's booth at the SGF in LA, to grind more about this sort of "Crazy Taxi meets Jet Set Radio meets Toni Hawk" now that its release is around the corner.
Audio transcription
"Alright, we are at the Level Infinite booth at the Summer Game Fest in L.A.
and we're taking a look at a very colorful, as you can see, very colorful game with Will.
It's a little bit like, you know, to me, Crazy Taxi meets Jet Set Radio meets Toni Hawk on a BMX."
"Is that a correct sort of approach at it?
Yeah, well, that's our elevator pitch, basically, whenever we were trying to get the publisher on board and now that we're trying to get people ultimately to buy our game.
So, yeah, we would like to think that if people enjoyed those games back in the day, that, you know, maybe they'll think this is alright."
"A few things to talk about here. I played a little bit.
Of course, the main gameplay loop is how you control your BMX, how you sort of navigate the map and can grind around, can jump, you can use the walls to your advantage.
So what can you tell us about the main gameplay mechanic here?
Yeah, well, so I guess what we wanted to give the player in the game was that we didn't want to complicate things with this."
"We don't have any, like, balance mechanics or anything like that.
It's about trying to get into that sort of flow state.
So where, you know, you see something off in the distance.
I don't know, on top of a tower or something like that."
"You think, ah, I think I can probably, you know, get up there to get that.
We try and give the player the tools to do that.
So, yeah, it's all about sort of trying to find the quickest routes through the city.
And we allow you to do things like, you know, wall ride to get, you know, traverse, like, gaps and get over obstacles like this."
"You can grind on railings and this kind of stuff.
So it's sort of a, it's all stuff that, you know, in theory you could go out and do on your bike if you were, you know, good enough or whatever.
But, yeah, it's trying to get people into that flow state."
"Something even similar to, like, a Mirror's Edge type game.
So, yeah, so it's that sort of parkour or, I don't know, bike-core, if that's a thing.
Bike-core.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure."
"It's a thing now, it's a thing now.
It will be a thing.
Yeah, well, yeah, I would like to think so.
After this game comes out, all the kids will be at it."
"All the tabloid newspapers will, there'll be some moral panic about our game influencing all these children going out and horrifically injuring themselves and I will count that as a success.
The more you grind, the more you do tricks, the faster you get to your, to your, the point you get, you have to get in the map."
"You have to deliver a package.
So that's the crazy taxi part of it.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
So how does it work in terms of, you know, being good with tricks will get you faster to your destination?
Yeah, so, well, firstly, we have sort of an adrenaline mechanic."
"So the more of these, like, different tricks that you do, so the more wall rides you do, the more real grinds, this kind of stuff.
We've got a little adrenaline bar that fills up and whenever it maxes out, you can trigger a sort of a sprint."
"I missed it.
I missed it.
Well, yeah, but trust me, it's there.
It's there, it's there.
It's there."
"Yeah, yeah, I'd take my word for it.
I'm a developer.
I wouldn't lie.
I know we've just met, but, you know, I'm a very, I'm a very honest."
"Friends already.
Yeah, exactly.
We really hit it off.
It's been a great time.
But, yeah, so that's one of the ways."
"But other than that, it's just being able to find these shortcuts and, you know, like climb up the side of scaffolding and use, like, the side of buildings to get over the roads and this kind of stuff."
"It's just you're trying to shorten your route to the different, like, pick up and drop off locations and whatever.
And, yeah, a big part of the game is trying to discover those routes and, yeah, just learning the map."
"So, yeah.
Speaking about the map, what can you tell me about, like, the open world?
How is it being designed?
What can we expect in terms of how the city is structured, what you can do, the size of it, sort of the way you're going to navigate it through the story?
Yeah, well, so the game itself, we split the, I think it's eight different zones of the city that we have."
"So you can cycle, you know, from one side of the city to the other.
But we do, it's designed to be more sort of, like, level based.
It's something like a sort of a Metroidvania kind of type thing where you, there is, yeah, sort of like a doorway or whatever that you cross between, like, you know, one part of the city to the other."
"But we try and encourage people to then come back to previous zones.
Back biking.
Yes, back biking.
Yeah, there you go.
Back term."
"Yeah, we're going to have a full dictionary full of new words at the end of this interview.
But, yes, we try and encourage people to come back and play the same zones they were in before with the new stuff that they've learned so they can hopefully find, you know, new unlockables and this kind of stuff."
"Okay, so you mean with abilities, like with new abilities, same as any Metroidvania, that you get new ability that, for example, you can jump higher and get to...
No, the only thing is that we don't, so each character in the game has their own perk which you can, well, you can max out and then whenever you've maxed out, then you can basically transfer that ability to one of the other characters as well."
"We don't actually change how the physics and stuff works, so there isn't, like, a double jump or something that gives you, like, a speed boost or whatever.
And the reason for that was just to keep the physics consistent between all of the characters just because, oh, if one character has, like, a higher top speed, for example, and therefore they can jump a little bit further, it's just a lot of level design work that we just don't have the time for."
"So, but the way that those perks work, it's more stuff like your carrying capacity, so how many in our delivery rush mode, which is similar to a crazy taxi kind of type game mode where you have a limited amount of time to complete as many deliveries as possible, but each time you successfully pick up and deliver something, you get a little bit of a time bonus, so you want to try and keep your clock, keep getting extra time so you can keep playing the mode longer and you can get a higher score."
"So, yeah, getting, like, a slightly higher capacity is helpful for there because you can carry, say, four packages at a time instead of three.
So, yeah, it's more stuff like that that just assists in those.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it does make, you know, a big difference whenever you're actually playing the game for real."
"Yeah, yeah.
And then I asked you before when I was playing about the, I think it's very interesting, the comments feature.
How did you guys sort of program that to make sense?
I mean, is this a bunch of scripted, like, if you're doing bad, they're going to be, like, throwing shit at you?
Of course it's not live comments, it's not, like, on Twitch."
"This is pre-prepared, right?
Yeah, well, look, the thing is that, although it mightn't come across, and all the Vaseline that's been smeared across this lens, you can't see all of my wrinkles and my crow's feet, but I'm actually quite an old and haggard and cynical individual."
"But in the office, back at the studio, we've got a lot of Gen Z, you know, sort of people working for us, and they're all over their, you know, their Twitch, and they understand the lingo, so I don't know."
"Half of this stuff is all written by those guys.
It might actually be horrifically offensive, I have no idea.
You know, it just all goes above my head because I'm just some cynical millennial, you know, so, yeah."
"It's good to be.
And speaking about messages and being, you know, offending other people, I love that it's got a message to it.
It's got a message."
"You want to send a message with the story, with how these guys work, with what you have to do in the game.
So what can you tell me about that message?
Well, I mean, it is supposed to be a bit of a satire of the gig economy."
"So, yeah, basically being a video game developer, being in the creative industries, kind of, you know, we're familiar with this, like, sort of gig economy where you're sort of going, like, sort of struggling between one job and the next and whatever."
"So, yeah, we feel that we empathize with our friends in the services industry.
So, yeah, I mean, like, in real life, you know, the guys for their, like, Uber Eats or, you know, Doorstep or, you know, whatever."
"Globo.
Yeah, yeah, whatever your go-to career of choice is.
Yeah, I mean, like, all these guys, they're treated terribly.
You know, they get paid next to nothing."
"And we kind of make a joke about it in our game.
So, for example, whenever you finish a mission, you get your score summary, which is like the, you know, the money that you've earned."
"And so it comes up on the screen and it looks great, but then all the deductions come in, how much the company takes, your city tax, and all this stuff comes out to the point there where you're left with pretty much nothing at the end."
"So it's kind of meant to be a little bit of a, like I said, a little bit of a satire.
We don't offer any solutions to this.
You know, we are, like, all satire."
"We're just putting it out there, showing people, hey, this is terrible, isn't it?
And we have a laugh about it.
Yeah, yeah.
And then you get the, like, oh, but this guy is coming by bike, so he's so eco-friendly."
"Yeah, yeah, well, of course.
It's also a good message to send when the dev industry is having a weird year, to speak the least, right?
It's a difficult year for the industry in general."
"Yeah, no, 100%.
And, yeah, and again, obviously a lot of those, like, but, again, a lot of those guys that have sort of found themselves out looking for work and whatever, yeah, I'm sure that, well, hey, I mean, maybe they'll have some time to play our game."
"I don't know.
It's a matter of time before we join them as well, so.
It's not that we're saying developers, video game developers are going to end up delivering packages, but, yeah, it's good to have a satire about all this."
"I mean, like, that was a large part of the reason why we started making this game was a bit of research for myself for whenever ultimately, you know, the company goes bust and I've got to find a different career."
"You know, this was just, yeah, this was just something that I was doing a bit of research on.
It sounds like a terrible option, actually.
Yeah, it'd be even worse."
"So, yeah, no, I'll avoid that.
I'll try and do something else.
100%.
So, Bars and Corps, when is it releasing?
What's the status of it right now?
On which platforms can we expect it to be playable?
I have been informed by our publisher that it's September 3rd, 2024, is whenever it's going to be out, so do wishlist it today."
"And, yeah, it's going to be on Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 5 and Steam.
No Switch?
Looks very colorful and interesting for the Switch, you know, on the bus."
"Yeah, well, you can play it on your Steam deck on the bus.
Yeah, so we don't have any plans for Switch at the moment.
You know, maybe after we sell the first, like, one, two million units, then we can, yeah, three, sure, why not?
Yeah, around then we'll speak to the publishers and see if they'll maybe let us look at some other platforms as well."
"But certainly at launch, it's going to be on those three, so yeah.
Good luck on that.
And perhaps it releases on the Switch too, who knows?
And publisher is, of course, level infinite."
"So thank you so much for your time, Will. Enjoy the show.
Thank you, it's been a delight. All the best.
Ciao, ciao."
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