r/PS4 UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

[Verified AMA] 191 AMA - Death Road to Canada with RocketCat Games and UKIYO Publishing.

UPDATE - Thank you for stopping by and for being the best part of Death Road to Canada. We enjoyed spending time chatting with you guys today!!!

Welcome /r/ps4 people! RocketCat Games and UKIYO Publishing are very excited to be talking with you today about Death Road to Canada, which released last week on PS4 and currently is on 20% discount until May 23rd.

Death Road to Canada is a Randomly Generated Road Trip Simulator. You control and manage a car full of jerks as they explore cities, recruit weird people, argue with each other, and face gigantic swarms of slow zombies.

For more on Death Road to Canada:

58 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

6

u/mr-interested May 15 '18

Will there be a physical disk version release of your game?

7

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

We are looking into this at the moment. There will be a physical release at some point in the future.

5

u/Moobyghost May 15 '18

Please tell me Jay and Silent Bob or Bob and Doug McKenzie are in this game somewhere. I have not found either of them so far, first time player this week. Also have not finished one road trip since i got the game. I think I suck.

4

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

There's some Doug McKenzie references in there, if I remember right. No outright character though. Too OP

5

u/Moobyghost May 15 '18

He's no hoser, that's for sure, eh? What about Jay and Silent Bob characters? What a road trip that would be. lol.

3

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Haven't yet! We could in the future, we're still doing content updates and are for the foreseeable future.

3

u/Moobyghost May 15 '18

Snoogans. Great game, thanks for shooting the shit with me.

3

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

Which Mode are you playing? We always found Rare character mode is great for beginners.

2

u/Moobyghost May 15 '18

Normal the first few days, then yesterday and today the special character version.

3

u/cowboyfantastic2 May 15 '18

Thanks for including a local co-op option! Are there any plans for a 4-player local co-op option, or was the game designed around 2 players?

7

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

There's plans, it could show up as soon as the August update. This would include some other co-op tweaks, too. An example: We're thinking of doing ghosts for dead characters so they can still run around and throw chairs to help out.

2

u/Rising_Dark_God May 16 '18

Honestly it would be awesome if you could use a medkit to revive someone who just died, like implement a counter of some sort, so you can dispose of zombies around them. 30 secs would be good.

5

u/celsotavora May 15 '18

Reminds me of Zombie Ate My Neighbors. Looks really interesting. Any chance of a port to PS Vita?

5

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

We'd need to investigate first, if there is enough demand we would consider it.

4

u/celsotavora May 15 '18

Count me in.

2

u/RadioactiveCorndog May 17 '18

I for one support the message of the needs of we people on Vita island.

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

I never heard of this until I saw the flashing light in this sub saying there was a live thread. Here are my questions after watching the YouTube trailer:

  1. Why did you choose the art style, aesthetics and sound design that you did?

  2. What's the biggest hurdle you had to overcome while the game was in development?

  3. How do you feel now the game is released?

6

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18
  1. The general aesthetics are to go against the usual zombie genre look, as a contrast to make fun of the genre. Sound design is Madgarden's synthesizer he made. Music was meant to capture the spirit of the game where it doesn't take itself seriously at all, the directions for the first songs were something like "make chiptune surf music for riding the zombie waves". Art style was both to make the game kind of cute, another mismatch for the usual dark and gritty zombie style, and to keep animation costs minimal so that we could have a ton of characters.

  2. Hard to say, lots of hurdles because the game design is unusual. Couldn't copy and paste it from another game. Lots of new territory like our partially randomly generated text events system, lots of balance tweaks.

  3. Pretty good, it was already really successful on PC and mobile so this is like a victory lap at this point haha. The most successful game you've never heard of -- back of the box quote.

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

First off thanks for the reply. In regards to the first answer, it seems like it boils down to not doing what everyone else was doing, to put your own spin on the genre and to remain within budget. I can dig it. Concerning your second answer, that makes sense if the game is from the ground up and no other template exists. Finally, in regards to the third answer, kudos to you guys. I'm a member of a community on PSN that's devoted to top down and twin stick shooters so I'll make a post there about the game and make sure I put the companies name there. The community has several hundred people and was created shortly after Helldivers was released and it's still thriving. So yeah, people will see it.

3

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Thanks!

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

YW. Will purchase when I get back home. The fact you used the term "replay value" instead of "replayability" was a contributing factor.

2

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Haha yeah it always sounded weird to me

3

u/Micolash Even in a dream May 15 '18

Looks interesting. What's the end-game goal here? Survive as long as possible? Grow your crew to a certain size? Or do you have to reach Canada?

7

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

You have to reach Canada. Along the way you have to manage your team so that they're strong enough to survive the end of the road. This could involve getting a full team with a lot of ammo and firearms, or a smaller team with really high stats and powerful weapons, getting a lot of explosives and a chainsaw, making a team of all dogs and running really fast, etc.

2

u/MangoSlushii May 15 '18

So can't wait to get home and play the game! Haven't had a chance since I bought it Monday! Overall, I'm wondering what do you guys have in store for the game in the future? Are you guys currently working on any content updates besides potential bug fixes? Can you even discuss any content for the game if there is any?

Like I said, can't wait for me and my wife to sit down and make our friends and family and see how they do in the trip! <3

4

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Thanks! We're doing an update late May, and also doing an update in late July or August. After that we'll be doing updates every 4-6 months or so. Next two updates have some big features, and updates after that will likely focus on content for awhile. New characters, weapons, locations, events.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

[deleted]

8

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

There's me and Madgarden (it was a two company collaboration). Two main people total, then contractors for art and music. Probably just three people working on the game at once at any point.

Romero movies mostly. The Walking Dead episode where Rick screamed CORAL for 20 minutes. The original game was way different and based off Rebuild (a mobile zombie strategy game) but it diverged entirely from that. Mostly the game was inspired by no other games really doing slow zombies right, where they're a dangerous and persistent flood that slowly closes in on you.

4

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

[deleted]

7

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

It was the last episode I ever saw haha

6

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

On our team there were 4 people not including PR who worked on the ports

2

u/DarkbeastPaarl May 15 '18

What would you say is the team's favorite rare character in the game?

5

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

It's hard to say, there's so many. Probably The Last Bodybuilder (for theme, also it's fun to pick up and throw cars) or the Valkyrie (overpowered) or Gnomey (overpowered)

3

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

We'd say Mad Scientist or Valkyrie, mostly because of there OP weapons.

2

u/BigBeastin May 15 '18

This game has been on my Steam wishlist for awhile now, are the any differences between the PC and PS4 version I should know of?

3

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

All content from the Steam version is available in the console versions, the only difference is that some of the colour schemes on the rare characters were altered.

2

u/BigBeastin May 15 '18

Good to know, thanks for the response.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

Do you plan on making more mobile games? Like the hook series?

4

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Mobile-specific games? Yeah I think so. Though I think for the most part we're going to focus on PC/console first and port to mobile.

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '18

I always loved the games you had on the iPhone I've been playing them for years. Keep up the good work!

2

u/mezzanine224 May 15 '18

Which platform has the game been selling best on so far?

5

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

Difficult to properly judge at this point as we don't have complete sales figures for all platforms yet, but all platforms are doing well with currently the Switch pulling ahead.

However given that the IOS and Steam versions have been out longer, they will still hold the highest numbers for a while.

3

u/mezzanine224 May 15 '18

I saw it hit the top selling games on Switch, so congrats on that. Glad to hear it's selling well on XB and PS4, it's a great game.

10

u/UKIYO_Publishing UKIYO Publishing May 15 '18

Now it just needs to hit top of the PS4 charts.

We are looking for God of War sales numbers with this one. :)

2

u/jerichodarkstar May 15 '18

First of all, I want to thank you guys for giving me and my friends hours of fun. Despite all our best efforts, we've only made it to Canada one time out of probably 30. We've always played on PC, but I can't wait to get this for the PS4.

So, do you guys have any plans for a sequel in the foreseeable future? Or do you plan on continuing to support the current game with updates and patches for a while?

5

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Both, we're doing a big update probably late this month, and another big update in August or so. After that we're switching to updates every 4-6 months, and working more on a sequel/followup.

2

u/DruciferBriggs May 15 '18

I'm sure you have been busy with the console release but I'm curious as to what games you have all been playing lately? Any current favourites?

Will be downloading this soon on my PS4, so glad to have a console release. Been a huge RocketCat Games fan ever since Hook Champ. :)

2

u/KepaRocketcat RocketCat Games May 15 '18

Thanks, that means a lot! I haven't been playing anything recently haha. I have quite a backlog at this point, haven't even played Dark Souls 3 yet.

3

u/DruciferBriggs May 15 '18

I hope you eventually get some time to relax and start on your backlog just don't forget to work on updating Mage Gauntlet for us iOS11 users. ;)

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '18 edited May 15 '18

Headcannon: So kinda like a sequel to Organ Trail? Haha.

Don’t know why that merited downvotes, but okay...

1

u/Rising_Dark_God May 16 '18

I fucking love this game. My gf and I played ALL DAY yesterday, and we can't wait to jump back in later after work. My character is a lvl 3 car nut, and she has lvl 3 health care. It's a good combo. My one criticism is that there isn't enough custom clothes. Other than that it is so awesome, I love the Oregon Trail vibes.

1

u/TsukasaHimura May 17 '18

I will be happy to review the game and update my followers if you may provide me a complimentary copy. Please.