Many fans associate the essence of modern-day games to be AAA blockbusters developed on a massive scale, while some of the best games come from the efforts put forward by independent developers with their passion projects. These projects actually have a huge impact on moving the medium forward, exploring vivid ideas and untimely themes.
One such game is Fabio Fontez's Buck Up and Drive!, which combines racing and arcade fighters in an absurdly genius way. Game Rant got an opportunity to sit down and talk with the developer, who shared a number of insights about customization and balance.
Buck Up and Drive! features a great deal of customization, allowing players to paint their cars as per their creativity. Developer Fabio Fontes talked about how instead of creating a number of skins all by himself, he gave the luxury of choice to players to show off their creative spirits.
It's undoubtedly better than stifling player creativity and forcing a handful of options that prohibit player choice in the long run. Of course, this can also promote community building around Buck Up and Drive! as well, as players share their creations and texture files with others. This is Fontes' favorite part about Buck Up and Drive!, and hopefully fans find something to love with this feature.
"Instead of an in-game editor, I'm just handing people plain PNG textures, so they can go hog wild on them in whatever program they like."
Fighting games are built on the foundation of balance, as it's an element that gives the game depth and freedom of choice. Nailing balance can be a tough job, and more so for a single person. For reference, many studios have entire departments and teams constantly working on game balance, like Street Fighter 5.
While Fontes' choice of making his game completely symmetric might seem questionable to some, but is largely understandable nevertheless. Buck Up and Drive! features only a handful of cars, but they are identical to each other in handling and move-set. This puts freedom of choice at the center, albeit with a compromise to breadth of depth, since there isn't much to learn once players master a certain car.
This sentiment seems to echo with Fontes' answer when asked about the difference between the game's cars:
"Not at all, they're just reskins. This started with just the endless runner mode focused around a high score, so I didn't want to muddle things up. Also I intend to add a lot of cars over time, and managing stats for each could get overwhelming. This also carries over to the 1v1 mode, though I intend to add variety to that mode through other means. On the bright side, this means you can just pick whichever car you like best."
His favorite car is the Bumpster, a heavy yellow vehicle featured often in Fontes' tweets about the game. He likes it particularly for "the chonk."
Buck Up and Drive! releases August 21, 2021, for PC.
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