Edmonton-based indie developer is close to finishing mayhem kart racer shooter.
By Cory Satermo
A local indie developer has been hard at work on taking a tried-and-true kart-racing genre and creating something different. William Sworin is the sole member of the Edmonton indie development company Exalt Studios. Silas is not your traditional kart racer but more of a sci-fi kart racer on steroids with giant weapons for good measure.
There was Crash Bandicoot and Mario Kart—that’s it. Within the first couple weeks I had the turret weapon and rocket launcher based out and I was like; ‘this is wicked fun! This is like Mario Kart with big ass weapons on the back end that you can control and shoot!’”
To be honest the first few years in development I would say that it was quite a cloned to an extend, and then I decided that I really needed to make this game different.” —William Sworin
Silas will feature online multiplayer for up to 12 players, enough to matched the 12 avatars, and battle in eight different arenas along with seven separate multiplayer modes including the usual mix of deathmatch, capture the flag, survival, but also a unique mode called capture the pipes.
Single player will have 20 levels with the standard time trails and race modes but also a mode called Mercenary, which will have objective-based gameplay doing task such as eliminating certain amount of targets while in the air.
There are a variety of weapons to blast your opponents with, 20 altogether, each with a two functions. Not only are there land-based vehicles but also you can take the combat in the air with gliders in multiplayer.
“It’s pretty cool because the flight actually gives it a unique dynamic where you can drop bombs or shoot people with the Gatling gun,” Sworin said.
Sworin described the game as a cart racer mixed with Unreal Tournament. “It runs smoothly and the people who have helped me test it says it plays a bit like Halo but fast paced and really frantic,” he added.
Silas, the name of the planet the game takes place on, will also incorporate LAN-based multiplayer, which is a sigh of relief to those annoyed with the recent trend from large game studios to remove the feature.
Sworin started working on Silas when he 14 and now six years later he is close to seeing his development materialize.
“I want to strategically place it as the mature kart racer,” he said.
GAMEPLAY TRAILER
The game will come complete with 27 soundtracks, which are also on sale if you enjoy the tunes. Sworin said he hopes to have Silas finished early this year and has already started selling pre-orders.
