One such game is Fabio Fontez’s Buck Up and Drive!, which combines racing and arcade fighters in an absurdly genius way. Game Rant got an opportunity to sit down and talk with the developer, who shared a number of insights about customization and balance.
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Buck Up and Drive! Customization
Buck Up and Drive! features a great deal of customization, allowing players to paint their cars as per their creativity. Developer Fabio Fontes talked about how instead of creating a number of skins all by himself, he gave the luxury of choice to players to show off their creative spirits.
It’s undoubtedly better than stifling player creativity and forcing a handful of options that prohibit player choice in the long run. Of course, this can also promote community building around Buck Up and Drive! as well, as players share their creations and texture files with others. This is Fontes’ favorite part about Buck Up and Drive!, and hopefully fans find something to love with this feature.
Game Balance in Buck Up and Drive!
Fighting games are built on the foundation of balance, as it’s an element that gives the game depth and freedom of choice. Nailing balance can be a tough job, and more so for a single person. For reference, many studios have entire departments and teams constantly working on game balance, like Street Fighter 5.
While Fontes’ choice of making his game completely symmetric might seem questionable to some, but is largely understandable nevertheless. Buck Up and Drive! features only a handful of cars, but they are identical to each other in handling and move-set. This puts freedom of choice at the center, albeit with a compromise to breadth of depth, since there isn’t much to learn once players master a certain car.
This sentiment seems to echo with Fontes’ answer when asked about the difference between the game’s cars:
His favorite car is the Bumpster, a heavy yellow vehicle featured often in Fontes’ tweets about the game. He likes it particularly for “the chonk.”
Buck Up and Drive! releases August 21, 2021, for PC.
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