When I say “Sega Saturn”, what’s the first game that comes to mind? Unless you’re a huge Deep Fear fan, there’s a good chance you went for one of its excellent racing games. The era of Sega blue skies, mesh transparencies, and incredible music blasting out of your CRT’s speakers made for some of the most persistent nostalgia around. Many games look to capture this era of racing on modern hardware, but few have reached the level of Walaber’s Parking Garage Rally Circuit. We had an opportunity to chat about his history in game dev, current goals and inspirations, and where he intends to go after the game crosses the finish line that is release day.

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Kyle: Firstly, thanks for taking the time to talk about your game with us!  I wanted to go a bit into your past before we talk about your present.  You’ve been in the video game world for quite some time, starting your journey creating games on a TI-85 Calculator.  What initially spawned your want to pursue the world of video games?

Walaber: It started in high school, one of my friends and I loved making creative things together such as short films and animations.  It’s then that we discovered some early game making software like Click n’ Play, which was the ancestor of Multimedia Fusion.  We were both hooked after that!

Kyle: What are some of your inspirations today, be it mechanically, visually, auditorily, video games, et cetera, as you navigate through current day gaming?

Walaber: I spend a lot more time making my games than I do playing other games these days, but I’m definitely inspired by other indie creators.  For example, I recently played Castaway and it starts out with a 1-2 hour mini-Zelda-like scenario where you explore areas, find dungeons, and get new items.  It does all of this without a single word of dialog or text, which is super impressive!

Kyle: Of some of your more underappreciated titles, which one would you say you enjoyed making the most and which do you wish got to see more public recognition?

Walaber: I think Walaber’s Trampoline was one I really enjoyed making, partly because I learned so much while making it and also it was a bit of a turning point where I started to realize that I should be pursuing game development as a career.  My first career after college was in TV show production.  As for a game that I wish got more recognition, that would definitely be Disney’s Checkout Challenge which was a super fun arcade mobile game that I’ve always felt turned out really simple and cool.

Kyle: Continuing on recognition, how did it feel seeing such a warm reception to JellyCar Worlds?

Walaber: It’s very gratifying!  I occasionally still hear from people that JellyCar was a big part of growing up for them, and that’s an amazing thing.  I am really proud of JellyCar Worlds, I think I made the “ultimate” JellyCar game 🙂

Kyle: Let’s switch gears now to your most recent game coming out soon, Parking Garage Rally Circuit.  I gotta ask just out of pure curiosity: why parking garages? *laughs*

Walaber: It’s all because of the Ludum Dare game jam (#54 to be exact).  It had the theme “Limited Space”.  I was trying to think of an activity that normally requires a lot of space, that could be interesting in a smaller space.  Race tracks are huge, and when thinking about how to have a race in a limited space, the idea of racing in a parking garage came to mind and the game just sort of designed itself after that!

Kyle: What is it about the chunky low-poly textures and easy-to-pick-up controls that creates such an alluring dynamic to arcade racers?  There’s a definite labor of love for the racing titles of old within PGRC. 

Walaber: For some reason arcade-style precision driving games sort of had a moment back in the late 90s I think, with Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, San Francisco Rush…

Kyle: …Cruisin’ USA?

Walaber: Exactly!  That moment even branched into the early 2000s with one of my personal favorite games, Stuntman.  I’ve always loved driving games but not so much racing simulation games, so I’ve always gravitated to games like Burnout, Mario Kart, etc.  Since my game has simple arcade physics and controls, it made sense to match it with a visual style of that era.

Kyle: What processes went into choosing the cities, countries, and garages that players will drift through?

Walaber: I wanted the game to feel like a Sega Arcade or a Sega Saturn game, so I felt like they would have set each race in a landmark location around the USA.  So I generally tried to pick locations that are landmarks, tourist areas, or big cities and then come up with an interesting parking garage for that location.  Several real world locations provided the inspiration such as the Marina City Towers in Chicago, and the SEATAC Airport parking structure in Seattle.

Kyle: PGRC also has a lot of dynamic visual flourishes: the camera zoom while drifting, the use of speed lines, etc. How did you determine which techniques to go with?

Walaber: It’s sort of a mixture of what makes the game feel good, and also borrowing references from other games.  Drifting is the main mechanic of the game: both the key to tight cornering and also gaining speed so I really wanted to accentuate the details of the drift mechanics with a lot of feedback, much of which comes from the camera changes.  The speed lines you get when boosting are straight out of Mario Kart by the way! *laughs*

Kyle: I gotta know: what is your current car setup of choice? (Car, Class, Livery, Paint)  I’m sure some avid gamers may want a developer “headstart” on a tried-and-true starting point! *laughs*

Walaber: The game has a very modest scope, so the different cars in the game actually represent different car classes with separate trophy ghosts to chase and separate leaderboards.  I did my best to make the “slowest” car class (Light) still really fun to drive, while making the later cars much faster without being impossible to drive on the small, tight courses.  Of the cars, I think the middle car class (Heavy) is my favorite, both because of its handling and also because it just looks cool!

Kyle: With the title releasing on September 20th, what’s your plans for Post-Release?  Potential content updates or a brand new idea in the Walaber World?

Walaber: It’s a bit up in the air at this point. I’ve said publicly that if PGRC sells 50k units, I will commit to a Nintendo Switch release, and if it sells 100k units I’ll remake a version of the game from scratch that will run on an actual Sega Saturn!

Kyle: I would love to see the game run on a Saturn. *laughs*

Walaber: Other than that, I have plenty of ideas for expansions to the game if there is interest, otherwise I’m excited to prototype some new games at the end of this year as well!

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Thanks again to Walaber for taking the time to chat! Check out Parking Garage Rally Circuit on Steam!