Factsheet
Developer:
Dumpling Design
Based in Sheffield, UK
Release date:
17 December, 2015
Platforms:
Apple App Store
Website:
dashycrashy.com
Regular Price:
| FREE: pay-what-you-want |
Description
Dashy Crashy is a game about hurtling down an endless arcade highway packed with hazards to avoid and high-scores to outrun. Packed with speed, traffic and crashing - lots and lots of crashing - it’s probably what would happen if SEGA made sat-navs.
History
Conceived in the back of a Beijing taxi as a ‘quick project' to help establish the 'dumpling feel' and process. That was 3 years ago. The intervening years will make for wonderful Gamasutra reading. In summary: after a number of stop-start prototyping phases, Dashy Crashy went into full production at the start of 2015.
Features
- ENDLESS roadtrip, something new every drive.
- UNLOCK 60+ sweet rides.
- Easy SWIPE control.
- CRAZY crashes, physics driven action.
- Outrun FRIENDS, win their cars.
- FREE: pay-what-you-want.
Fun Facts
- The name DASHY CRASHY came before the game (happens a lot a Dumpling)
- Visual style inspired by staring at sat-navs while driving around Beijing and a love for SEGA blue skies.
- Chaotic traffic also inspired by Beijing traffic (the wild frontier!), and Travis' daily commute down the UK M1 to Rare.
Videos
Game Trailer YouTube
Images
Logo & Icon
Q&A
Dumpling, who?Travis: We’re new…ish! Brent and I used to work together at Rare, before that I used to make SEGA games with Sumo-Digtial. We stayed in touch, talked about new games and started working on another game (Dumpling Game#2) before deciding combine our talents into Dumpling (read more about it here).
What’s the game?Travis: Dashy Crashy, a game about dangerous driving, luck and reflexes. Perfect for anyone with 30 seconds to spare.
Sounds hard!Travis: Swipe left and right to change lanes and avoid traffic to get as far as you can before you (inevitably) crash. Simples!
What’s the hook?Travis: You can also swipe to control speed: UP to boost (speed up) or DOWN to brake (slow down). Boosting boosts your score but also the difficulty, so manage your risk/reward! We’re seeing lots of play-styles emerge; ‘speedsters’, ‘cruisers’ and ‘crawlers’...
Why make this game?Travis: We wanted to give endless games a shot in the arm; making every play a surprise with 'procedural everything’ and dynamic physics-action, while exorcising our love for arcade - making SEGA games specifically - into a pure, distilled form for a new audience.
I smell Free to Play?Travis: We’re trying a ‘pay-what-you-want’ approach. Dashy Crashy is FREE to download with extra plays awarded for watching video ads. Cars cost between $0.99 and $2.99, buying ANY car removes ads forever. All of the cars can be unlocked for FREE via the ‘highway lottery’ system.
We feel that’s a neat solution to going ‘premium’; remove ads at a price that’s right for you AND get a car you like as part of the deal.
‘Highway Lottery'?Travis: There’s no prize machine here, the stuff you win appears on the highway as you drive, all linked to score milestones and passing your friends and other players via GameCentre. Think of them as ‘loot drops while you drive'.
Wait, you can win cars from friends??Travis: Absolutely! Get friends to sign into GameCentre, they appear on your highway. If they’re driving a car you haven’t yet collected, overtake them (at their score) to unlock it for yourself!
Do all the cars handle the same?Travis: All of the cars are original designs that fall into one of 4 classes: Light, Medium, Heavy and Fast - each have subtle pros and cons to handling, speed, boost bonus and no. of hits they can take, all balanced to ensure there’s no clear ‘win car’.
Blue-skies are back! How’d you achieve the look?Travis: The style is a combination of a bunch of things; low-poly to facilitate high volume of traffic/crashes on-screen. The streamlined, almost abstract scenery is inspired in part by 3D sat-navs and by hyper-colour-palettes of SEGA classics. The visuals - as with traffic and events - are procedurally generated, even we don’t know what we’ll get to see!
Will there be updates?Travis: We're always tinkering with new content. Watch this space!
Awards & Recognition
- "Official Selection" BAFTA, Inside Arcade - March, 2015
- "Official Selection" The Guardian's Best of EGX Rezzed - March 2015
Selected Articles
- "A bright, brash homage to Sega’s arcade heritage in an utterly compulsive mobile gaming form."
- Keith Stuart, The Guardian - "Intensely colourful and breathtakingly fast."
- BAFTA, BAFTA - "Dashy Crashy is definitely a game to have on your radar, the way it plays will have many hooked."
- Luke Sanders, GameMob - "It looks like Crossy Road, but going forwards. Did you make Crossy Road? Are you a millionaire?!"
- Girl, Insomnia 55
Additional Links
About Dumpling Design
Boilerplate
Dumpling - as we’re known to our friends - is an independent games studio located in Sheffield, UK. We specialise in making smart little mobile games that pack a big punch; that means fun, casual, social games that are good to play with.
Dumpling combines the award-winning talents of Travis Ryan (Outrun2, SEGA All-Stars, Kinect Sports) and Brent Poynton (Viva Piñata, Xbox Avatars, Kinect Sports) who together share a passion for arcade, blue skies and making experiences worth talking about.
More information
More information on Dumpling Design, our logo & relevant media are available here.
Dashy Crashy Credits
Travis Ryan
Director, Design, Art & Production
Brent Poynton
Director & Development
Steve Warburton
Art
Tom Seddon, Matt Fordham, Antony Ward
Prototyping
Contact
Inquiries
hello@dumplingdesign.com
Twitter
twitter.com/dumplingdesign
Facebook
facebook.com/dumplingdesign
presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks