In case you missed the previous instalments and haven’t seen Ken’s blog it can be found here, and Romans blog can be found here.
The other 10k Kickstarter Backer to visit the Carma Towers was Ryan, who travelled from Miami to visit us, along with his lovely missus Susan.
Yes you guess correctly the other mystery couple was our third 10k backer and his missus!
Like Roman, Ryan had already been discussing and developing his ideas in the private “Dark Team” Forum on Carmageddon.com. Ryan identified early on what he wanted to accomplish with his driver and vehicle design in quite some detail, and the forum was filled with a variety of vehicle concepts, sketches and reference pictures.
With all that previous stuff in mind we started with a meeting to discuss the concepts and the ideas Ryan had. We also took that opportunity to collect as much new reference material and information as possible as our first face-to-face discussion expanded on the earlier ideas.
So here we are in the meeting room deep in discussion. From left, clockwise: Nobs, Susan, Ryan, Trifle, Sonnu, Me! And Ste Rushbrook.
Turn for a picture :D
After the meeting it was time for Ste Rushbrook to go ahead and start concepting the design. Ryan very much wants his vehicle and character to be a surprise for the player, and asked that the most we reveal is (in his excellent words), a “nipple slip” (always a fun Google image search, says nobs). So, I’m only going to share a little info and that is… the vehicle will make use of Thrusters. Now, this may sound a little reminiscent of our other recently blogged new vehicle design – Siamese Dream. But rest assured, the design of these two vehicles couldn’t be further apart!
Trifle talking to Ryan about the car handling
Whilst we gave Ste a chance to produce the initial concepts Nobby, Trifle and Myself started to discuss the mechanics and extra details of how the vehicle will work and drive. One thing Ryan mentioned was that he really loved Caddy Fat Cat from the orginal Carma.
Next was photoshoot time!
Because Ryan is the Driver he had brought his own outfit which was awesome! So he popped his costume on and then gave us a twirl…
Ryan giving us a twirl.
Susan having her photo taken so she can be a pedestrian!
Once pictures had been taken Ste had almost finished the final concept and started to add colour variations.
Ryan: “ARGH its pink change it quick”
Ryan and Susan here helping to decide the asthetic of the car and final touches. I think Ste’s just run over Ryan’s foot with his chair. Notice the “nipple slip” of a thruster there… ;)
Once Ryan was happy with his colours and theme Ste went ahead and gave it a bloody lovely colouring in.
Again so we don’t reveal Ryans surprise we have revealed a little snippet of the final concept with the thrusters:
You will all just have to play the guessing game, until you see it in game! ;)
Some last minute giggles we had in the professional photography studio aka the dungeon… :)
Well, that wraps up the 10K Backer blog mini-series, and I like to extend a big massive special thanks to Ryan and Susan for their amazing pledge, their great ideas and generally for being such an awesome couple! We really enjoyed spending time with you guys, and it was such a pleasure to have you.
And for all of you out there in Carma Communityland, I really hope you enjoyed these little updates even if you only got snippets of clues as to what you can expect to see in the final game! Anticipation and guessing is part of the fun though!! ;)
I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Ken, Roman and Ryan (and their partners) - you are all a fantastic bunch of fun people and it was really great to meet and work with you, and I really look forward to seeing your ideas come to deadly life and start maiming pedestrians in the game.
Sim xxx
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* Ryan is actually from Tampa! Sorry Ryan!