Death Road to Canada was one of those games I was very impressed with at PAX 2013. It has 21 days to for its Kickstarter and it is doing quite well. I want to give the game more exposure on the site because this game needs to be made.
I want to thank Kepa Auwae and Rocketcat Games for doing the interview and I wish them to a speedy game launch and Kickstarter funding!
jdodson: For me, Death Road To Canada was one of the most compelling games at PAX. How did your experience at PAX 2013 go and how do you think people responded to the game? Did Tarn and Zach bring the star-power the booth needed?
Kepa Auwae: Thanks, glad you liked it! PAX 2013 did really well. Got to meet a lot of people and other developers, and people seemed to respond well to the game due to the promises of teaching dogs how to drive cars. Tarn and Zach were a huge help, especially since my voice gave out halfway through.
jdodson: Where did the inspiration for Death Road to Canada come from?
Kepa Auwae: Initially it was going to be similar to Sarah Northway's "Rebuild", so that was the initial spark. But then we decided to make it more of a road trip, like Oregon trail but with way more focus on the Choose Your Own Adventure stuff and with new action-adventure city exploration. Wasteland Kings was also an inspiration for the animations, and then there's stuff like River City Ransom and Walking Dead and older zombie movies where you have the group conflicts.
jdodson: Rocketcat Games is made up of 3 guys that all live in different states. How did you guys meet and at what point did you decide you needed to start making games?
Kepa Auwae: We met through an old MMO called Asheron's Call. Long after we stopped playing that game, we still hung out in a chat channel we made for it. I just kind of arbitrarily decided to make games one night, probably due to working swing shifts. I convinced the others and we just went for it. Some time later I learned of Paul Pridham through his work, and we made Punch Quest together.
jdodson: Death Road to Canada boasts that some sections will feature 200 Zombies on screen all trying for your brains. I am curious if the game will require you to kill them before you progress or if avoiding them can be a viable strategy as well?
Kepa Auwae: Avoidance is usually a better strategy than killing them. Killing them can waste time and make noise, attracting more zombies. You really want to dash through the city, fighting when you must, as you grab whatever loot you can. When you get to 200 zombies onscreen you're probably not going to survive, so it's best to get out before that happens.
jdodson: In the Kickstarter video you mention you guys wanted to add more in game content. I am curious what you have planned here?
Kepa Auwae: We want lots of different Choose Your Own Adventure events. We also want to do more survivor personality types, more Unique Survivors, and some rare locations. We'd also like to do rare easter eggs you can find in the cities while exploring. Mostly we want to make it so you can play the game many times over, and still find weird little surprises.
jdodson: One feature of Death Road to Canada is the ability to randomly acquire characters for your party. Wondering if these characters will have set abilities or if they will be randomized somewhat? Also, how will the Mounty, Panda Bear or Elvis play compared to each other?
Kepa Auwae: Many party members are randomized. Random faces, bodies, accessories, names, traits, and personalities mixed and matched to make a person. Then there are rarer Unique Survivors, that have set attributes and names and apperances. These include Mounty, Panda Bear, and Elvis. The Uniques have their own CYOA events and story events, while normal survivors have their events determined by their personality.
jdodson: How did the Zombie-pocalypse come about in the story for Death Road To Canada?
Kepa Auwae: The old classic explanation: no one knows. All the undead simply rose up from the ground, in massive numbers.
jdodson: Any chance Santa Claus may show up as an in game event and fly you to the North Pole? I imagine part of the charm could be a mini game where you make toys for the worlds remaining children. Since the world has been savaged by Zombies I don’t imagine you would have to make many toys.
Kepa Auwae: No minigames, making toys for children would be handled through a complex sequence of decision making through Choose Your Own Adventure events.
jdodson: For you guys, what games are you playing right now? Anything you have enjoyed recently that you recommend people check out?
Kepa Auwae: I haven't really played anything recently but Dark Souls. Check out Dark Souls if you haven't already. Oh and 868-Hack on iOS came out recently, that's a really good strategy game.
jdodson: What is the worst Zombie movie you’ve seen? I don’t mean campy awesome, I mean terrible.
Kepa Auwae: There was a later Romero movie where the zombies were slaves and the lead zombie was wearing a mechanic jumpsuit and leading a zombie gang and they were all slowly learning how to use weapons. That was pretty bad.
jdodson: Death Road to Canada looks like a game that would really work well with controllers, any thought to adding support for them in the PC version?
Kepa Auwae: Yeah, we plan to have controller support. Xbox controller support seems really common now.
jdodson: I have one suggestion for a random character for Death Road To Canada. Canadian born William Shatner. It might make sense to have him in a faux Star Fleet uniform so people could recognize him.
Kepa Auwae: I don't know if we could afford William Shatner. We'd probably need a bigger Kickstarter.
jdodson: When do you anticipate we might see the Kickstarter Beta for Death Road and the final game launch?
Kepa Auwae: We're shooting for the end of Fall for the final game launch, and a late beta of about a month or so before launch. Maybe a little longer beta if there are problems.
http://www.rocketcat-games.com/
I want to thank Kepa Auwae and Rocketcat Games for doing the interview and I wish them to a speedy game launch and Kickstarter funding!
jdodson: For me, Death Road To Canada was one of the most compelling games at PAX. How did your experience at PAX 2013 go and how do you think people responded to the game? Did Tarn and Zach bring the star-power the booth needed?
Kepa Auwae: Thanks, glad you liked it! PAX 2013 did really well. Got to meet a lot of people and other developers, and people seemed to respond well to the game due to the promises of teaching dogs how to drive cars. Tarn and Zach were a huge help, especially since my voice gave out halfway through.
jdodson: Where did the inspiration for Death Road to Canada come from?
Kepa Auwae: Initially it was going to be similar to Sarah Northway's "Rebuild", so that was the initial spark. But then we decided to make it more of a road trip, like Oregon trail but with way more focus on the Choose Your Own Adventure stuff and with new action-adventure city exploration. Wasteland Kings was also an inspiration for the animations, and then there's stuff like River City Ransom and Walking Dead and older zombie movies where you have the group conflicts.
jdodson: Rocketcat Games is made up of 3 guys that all live in different states. How did you guys meet and at what point did you decide you needed to start making games?
Kepa Auwae: We met through an old MMO called Asheron's Call. Long after we stopped playing that game, we still hung out in a chat channel we made for it. I just kind of arbitrarily decided to make games one night, probably due to working swing shifts. I convinced the others and we just went for it. Some time later I learned of Paul Pridham through his work, and we made Punch Quest together.
jdodson: Death Road to Canada boasts that some sections will feature 200 Zombies on screen all trying for your brains. I am curious if the game will require you to kill them before you progress or if avoiding them can be a viable strategy as well?
Kepa Auwae: Avoidance is usually a better strategy than killing them. Killing them can waste time and make noise, attracting more zombies. You really want to dash through the city, fighting when you must, as you grab whatever loot you can. When you get to 200 zombies onscreen you're probably not going to survive, so it's best to get out before that happens.
jdodson: In the Kickstarter video you mention you guys wanted to add more in game content. I am curious what you have planned here?
Kepa Auwae: We want lots of different Choose Your Own Adventure events. We also want to do more survivor personality types, more Unique Survivors, and some rare locations. We'd also like to do rare easter eggs you can find in the cities while exploring. Mostly we want to make it so you can play the game many times over, and still find weird little surprises.
jdodson: One feature of Death Road to Canada is the ability to randomly acquire characters for your party. Wondering if these characters will have set abilities or if they will be randomized somewhat? Also, how will the Mounty, Panda Bear or Elvis play compared to each other?
Kepa Auwae: Many party members are randomized. Random faces, bodies, accessories, names, traits, and personalities mixed and matched to make a person. Then there are rarer Unique Survivors, that have set attributes and names and apperances. These include Mounty, Panda Bear, and Elvis. The Uniques have their own CYOA events and story events, while normal survivors have their events determined by their personality.
jdodson: How did the Zombie-pocalypse come about in the story for Death Road To Canada?
Kepa Auwae: The old classic explanation: no one knows. All the undead simply rose up from the ground, in massive numbers.
jdodson: Any chance Santa Claus may show up as an in game event and fly you to the North Pole? I imagine part of the charm could be a mini game where you make toys for the worlds remaining children. Since the world has been savaged by Zombies I don’t imagine you would have to make many toys.
Kepa Auwae: No minigames, making toys for children would be handled through a complex sequence of decision making through Choose Your Own Adventure events.
jdodson: For you guys, what games are you playing right now? Anything you have enjoyed recently that you recommend people check out?
Kepa Auwae: I haven't really played anything recently but Dark Souls. Check out Dark Souls if you haven't already. Oh and 868-Hack on iOS came out recently, that's a really good strategy game.
jdodson: What is the worst Zombie movie you’ve seen? I don’t mean campy awesome, I mean terrible.
Kepa Auwae: There was a later Romero movie where the zombies were slaves and the lead zombie was wearing a mechanic jumpsuit and leading a zombie gang and they were all slowly learning how to use weapons. That was pretty bad.
jdodson: Death Road to Canada looks like a game that would really work well with controllers, any thought to adding support for them in the PC version?
Kepa Auwae: Yeah, we plan to have controller support. Xbox controller support seems really common now.
jdodson: I have one suggestion for a random character for Death Road To Canada. Canadian born William Shatner. It might make sense to have him in a faux Star Fleet uniform so people could recognize him.
Kepa Auwae: I don't know if we could afford William Shatner. We'd probably need a bigger Kickstarter.
jdodson: When do you anticipate we might see the Kickstarter Beta for Death Road and the final game launch?
Kepa Auwae: We're shooting for the end of Fall for the final game launch, and a late beta of about a month or so before launch. Maybe a little longer beta if there are problems.
http://www.rocketcat-games.com/
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The way around paying for William Shatner is to call him Shilliam Watner. TOTALLY not based on William Shatner.
That's a great idea, i'll forward it to Kepa.