With a world dominated by an AI overlord called Helios inChaos on Wheels, humanity’s last hope rests on drivers willing to arm their cars with guns and wage vehicular war against the machine threat. At first glance, the hardcore vehicular combat between cars inChaos on Wheelsfeels like aTwisted Metalspinoff, only this time with more weapons and more modern cars. And while the dev team at Acodeon was indeed inspired by the classic title, the devs presentChaos on Wheelsas more of a love letter tovehicular combat gamesin general.
Acodeon’s Dominik Čondić recently spoke to Game Rant about the impact ofCarmaggedon’s car-on-car violence andTwisted Metal’s vehicular mayhem had on the development ofChaos on Wheels. According to the 25-year-old dev,theTwisted Metalfranchisemade quite an impression on him as a child.
RELATED:Every Twisted Metal Game, Ranked
Car Combat is Still Cool
While Acodeon started makingChaos on Wheelsthree years ago, Dominik and his teammates Aron Gašpić and Mislav Čondić found the idea’s roots tied to their childhood playing games such asTwisted Metal. Having been gamers since they were kids, their interest in video games grew further when they entered IT school in high school. They eventually pursued gaming side projects in college, courtesy of Aron studyingUnreal Engine game devand Dominik managing the art side.
While Aron and Dominik didn’t have much free time as they did side hustles, the team still wanted to create their own game. Upon realizing they couldn’t study and work with clients in full-time capacities, they decided to drop out of college and create their own company. It was at this time that the team put their heads together and decided on their first official project, as Dominik explained,
When we talked about what actual game we wanted to build, I remember back when I was a child that I playedTwisted MetalandCarmageddonand loved them. Today, you only haveCrossout, which is a vehicular combat game but didn’t have much of car combat.
That’s when the idea came up: let’s put guns on cars and let’s destroy stuff!
Dominik said that, despite not having played all the sequels, even the basic mechanics of driving and shooting inthe firstTwisted Metalstill feel awesome today. He also mentionedCarmageddonas anotherChaos on Wheelsinspiration, with the former’s gameplay mechanic of destroying cars upon impact adding more options for vehicular mayhem.
I thought it would be awesome not just to pick a car but also build one that you use to fight. So we took the drive-and-shoot mechanics fromTwisted Metal, butwe expanded that so you may choose a car and build it however you like. In the Chaos Garage, you can change the color of the car and the wheels and go to combat.
A Love Letter to Vehicular Combat Games' Best Mechanics
When the team decided on their vehicular combat game, Aron’s first prototype involved studying combat mechanics with a vehicle attacking a stationary turret. Although originally set with the idea of cars solely fighting cars, the team thought the added danger of environmental hazards like turrets could add more thrill to their new project. Since then, the turrets have become the go-to defenses of the story’s AI boss Helios to stop players from accomplishing their missions. Keeping the turrets inChaos on Wheelsrepresented their design philosophy of “using what works,” with the team implementing mechanics that added to theappeal ofTwisted MetalandCarmageddonwhile adding their own signature flair.
We started talking about how awesome it would be to build a game of our own - to take parts you like from one game, find things you didn’t like about other games that you’re able to change, and eventually make your perfect game.
Chaos on WheelsresemblingTwisted Metalin its mechanics ties more into what Dominik wanted the latter to have back when he was a child. According to Dominik, he distinctly remembers loving the game’s cars but still wanting the option to upgrade or change their components. This served as the motivation forChaos on Wheelsto have quite the expansive customization feature, with cars in its Chaos Garage being able to carry at least four weapons (two guns, three missile launchers) on top of stage pickups.
Moreover, Dominik said the Acodeon’s potential future updates forChaos on Wheelsare also related to features they loved and wanted to improve in the genre. For instance,Carmageddonallowed players to destroy cars by hitting them, which makes Dominik wonder if they can create a melee weapon type that can do the same inChaos on Wheels. Improving upon this idea, Dominik said that if destroying the entire car’s armor leaves their main health vulnerable, then perhaps destructible armor pieces attached to specific car parts can add a more tactical component to the experience.
I also love a feature inCarmageddonwhere you can drive and “punch” other cars to destroy them. It’s not yet implemented in our game, but we would love to have that in the future. We were thinking, what if you have in front of your car some big weapon, and when you “punch” other cars, you tear them apart? We’ll wait for player feedback and check what people will want, and then we’ll see if we’re going to implement this feature or not.
Chaos on Wheelsreleases October 20 for PC. It’s currently in Early Access onSteam.
