DANGER ZONE - Spiritual Successor to Burnout's Crash ModePS4 

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The following is an article/interviewdone by Eurogamer with TFE's Co-Founder, Alex Ward about DANGER ZONE.

It's very lengthy and has loads of detail about development and some of the games core aspects, as well as some details about what they plan to do for a sequel if this game is successful.

Three Fields Entertainment, the studio founded by the creators of Burnout, is making a Crash Mode spiritual successor called Danger Zone - and it's out in May priced £9.99.

Danger Zone, due out on PC and PlayStation 4, is from Criterion founders Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward, who left the EA-owned studio back in 2014 to go it alone.

Since then they've released Dangerous Golf and HTC Vive and PlayStation VR title Lethal VR. But throughout it all, Burnout fans have called on Three Fields to make a racing game. Danger Zone isn't a fully-fledged racing game, but it does rekindle memories of the much-loved Burnout and its fantastic 3D car crash puzzle mini-game.

Danger Zone works much like Crash Mode did. There are 20 junctions in Danger Zone, called "crash testing scenarios". You drive into a junction and try to create the biggest first impact that causes enough vehicles to crash to earn a "SmashBreaker". This turns your car into a bomb that explodes on command. You score points for how many cars you crash. If your car falls off the road, it's game over.

So far so very Crash Mode, but Danger Zone feature real physics, so car crashing looks a lot more realistic than it did back on the PS2.

"If you're talking about the Burnout 3: Takedown incarnation, you would crash cars on a part of a racetrack that wasn't really built for it," Alex Ward told Eurogamer in a phone interview.

"If the frame-rate ever dropped, we'd have to stop it. So it had a timer on it. Sometimes the crash was just getting going and it had to cut. We were just out of budget.

"The PS2 was a wonder machine of its time to a lot of people, but it was incredibly limited for some of the stuff we were trying to do with it. We were pretty good at it I think back then. But this game is more about seeing what can be done with today's hardware."

Unlike Burnout's Crash mode, Danger Zone has bespoke junctions. Burnout's Crash Mode was set in junctions lifted from the main game's tracks. In each junction there are three bronze, two silver and a gold medal to pick up. You have to get all the bronze and silver medals for the gold to appear. If you grab all the pickups, you get a "smash and grab" bonus. If you grab the pickups in order, so bronze, bronze, bronze, silver, silver and gold, then you get a "grand slam" bonus, which is a significant points bonus.

"It's not the same game as it was," Ward insisted. "So if you think, oh we've just knocked out what we did a long time ago, we haven't."

Elsewhere, there are connected leaderboards, so you can see high scores per junction. But there's no multiplayer. "It's something we'd love to do," Ward said. "We reckon we can pull it off. There's never been a true online multiplayer simultaneous crash experience.

"We're going to put this game out and see if there's an audience for it. If there is, the proceeds of that will fund us to be able to do a sequel and do multiplayer in it. But we think it will take a good couple of months to do. Again, we're a really small studio. There's six of us. Two platforms is the most we can handle right now. We'd love to do multiplayer if there's an audience out there."

Speaking of platforms, Danger Zone is pegged for PC and PlayStation 4 - there is no Xbox One or Nintendo Switch version in the works.

Ward said the size of the team limits the number of platforms Three Fields is able to handle. For small developers, it can be difficult to launch on multiple platforms because companies such as Microsoft and Sony have different rules and processes for getting a game cleared for launch.

"There are six of us. We can only do so much," Ward said. "Getting through submission and stuff - there are other teams out there who have recently shipped games, and they only do the PC version and they outsource the console versions. That's not us. That's not the way we would do it. So, we can get it going on PS4 very quickly after we built a lot of it on PC, but we just don't have the resource to do simultaneous... to do three all at once, we did it last year and it's incredibly challenging. That's why."

Danger Zone is a critical title for Three Fields, which relies on game sales to keep the lights on. It's fair to say Dangerous Golf and Lethal VR failed to set tills on fire, so the studio's future is dependent on Danger Zone being a relative success.

"Everything" is riding on this, Ward said. "We got together and pooled our life savings. We've put everything we have into starting a business out of pure passion and determination to succeed. We have no backing. There's no publishers bankrolling us or anything like that. We'd love it if there were. They're free to come and do so! We're just a small group of people just making games and putting them out and trying to do the best we can. Hopefully the game can find an audience."

Three Fields began working on Danger Zone in December 2016, just after it finished Lethal VR, which means its development is a quick turnaround of just four months. This is how the studio must work - from game to game, money coming in based on sales of each to fund continued development of a new title. To this end, Ward said he expects the studio to release three of four games this year.

"Three-to-four month development period is tops for us, in terms of what we can afford to do," he said. "We're self-funded. We used our own money to start the company. We're totally dependent on sales from the games we put out.

Three Fields is using Unreal Engine 4 to build Danger Zone, which means the developers can iterate much quicker than Criterion was able to on PS2 back in the 2000s.

"Unreal is incredibly powerful," Ward said. "Tuning the game right now, I can play a game and in the middle of the crash I can stop and move the pickups around, or change what traffic vehicle I want to appear in front of me, press play and do it again.

"Back in the day, that would have taken 18 minutes. To move something half an inch and then look at it again on-screen, at least between 18 and 26 minutes. And back then we were one of the fastest teams in the world. Our pipeline was incredibly fast! Other teams would be 24 hours before you could do that."

Of course, Burnout fans will wonder whether Three Fields plans on making a fully-fledged racing game. With EA seemingly uninterested in returning to the Burnout series, the hope for a spiritual successor remains.

Alas, Three Fields is not currently working on a racing game, Ward confirmed. It's not something Three Fields is currently in a position to make.

No we're not," he said. "We started that a year ago. We did a couple of weeks. Obviously a fully-fledged racing game requires a lot more artwork, and that costs money. Making a big game, making an open-world game, it costs money and it's money we don't have. We'd need backing on that.

"Support for funded projects is incredibly tough and challenging right now. We can't rely on writing ideas for games and thinking somebody's going to come along and give us lots of money to make it. In that time, we could have just put the thing out.

"This could have been a way bigger game if we'd had funding, and we could have easily done another six months on it. But it's us doing it off our own back. We can afford to do about three or four months and a game of this scope."

Looks like it is basically a modernisation of Burnout 3's crash mode, which is a great idea, since we haven't seen any game Focus on it since 2011's Burnout Crash!

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Danger Zone is planned to release digitally on PC & PS4 in May with a price tag of £9.99 ($12.99)
 
I like the small scale, and the fact that the junctions are completely bespoke is really good as well. Reminds me a lot of Revenge's junctions.

Do we know what engine this game's running? It looks quite good in those screenshots.

EDIT: Saw that it's running UE4. I mean, it's a good engine choice for pretty much anyone in the indie scene, but I'm still kind of wary of it in regards to racing games.
 
This releases tomorrow. Anybody buying it? Looks like fun. Crash mode in burnout was my favorite so I'm looking forward to this.
 
Three Fields Entertainment have announced two new games, both of which are linked to Burnout.

First up, Danger Zone 2:

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Three Fields Entertainment, which is led by Criterion founders Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward, has announced Danger Zone 2 (the sequel to the studio's 2017 game Danger Zone) and Dangerous Driving, both for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Danger Zone 2, due out in July, takes the crash testing of Danger Zone and puts onto real public roads. It's set on the freeways of the USA, the motorways of the UK and the autovias of Spain. There are 26 single-player levels set across 17 locations.

"Danger Zone 2 is a significant step up from the first game with lots more driving including drifting and boosting, a variety of objectives, brand new vehicles and even more spectacular crashes," Sperry said.

Then there is Dangerous Driving, where things start to get more interesting:

Dangerous Driving, due out this winter, is a closed track competitive racing game featuring boosts, takedowns, destruction and massive car crashes - and it's this one that sounds most like a spiritual successor to Burnout.

"We're taking all that we've learnt to develop our most ambitious title to date," Ward said of Dangerous Driving. "Dangerous Driving gets me back to making arcade racing, the kind of software I am most passionate about."
 
First GIFs emerge showing Dangerous Driving gameplay



Clearly a budget title judging by the UI, but the game seems to be running silky smooth.
 
Dangerous Driving is releasing next week (April 9th) and it has been given a serious UI Overhaul.



Game Modes Detailed

Dangerous Driving launches with a single player progression featuring 69 events and 9 different game modes:

  • Race
  • Heatwave
  • Face Off
  • Shakedown
  • Eliminator
  • GP
  • Survival
  • Pursuit
  • Road Rage

Interesting points from the FAQ:
  • The game is limited to 30fps on base consoles but runs at 60fps on the One X and PS4 Pro (1440p and 1080p respectively)
  • The game features Spotify Integration from launch.
  • 27 cars in the base game (28 with VIP sedan, obtainable from digital edition)
  • £29.99/€39.99/$39.99 For physical edition, £24.99/€29.99/$29.99 for digital pre-order.

All signs are pointing towards this being a Burnout 3 redux, I hope this game does well.
 
...Spotify integration?

Now I'm intrigued.
Only for people who have Spotify Premium sadly lol

but the game looks like a modernized Burnout so I think i will pick up the game day one next week saw gameplay and trailer and it looks like alot of fun:D
 
Dangerous Driving looks like it could be fun, it's definitely a budget game from watching the videos of it so far, but Burnout 3 was one of my favourite racers back in the day.
 
Judging by that video there doesn't seem to be any "You are 7.6 seconds ah-HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!", and that was my main concern with this game. So that in mind, 20-ish bucks for Burnout with the serial numbers filed off seems alright.
 
Quick run through all the locations in the game:



Looks ok, but fairly generic for an arcade game like this. Reminds me a lot of PS1 era NFS tracks. Needs a rural village and urban city track somewhere though.
 
I like it. Paid the full asking price money for it as well instead of waiting for a discount later on. We should support Dev's like this and give them the money so they can get back to their former glory days. Then we can have proper Burnout games again.
 
As much as I love the Burnout series and support its potential revival, I can't really see how they can get away with selling the game at this price. I get that it's a budget game, but it looks like an asset store flip and the driving physics look incredibly awkward and buggy; this is something I'd be hesitant about picking up for £15, let alone £25 (not including the Spotify integration in place of even a royalty-free soundtrack). I get that games development is expensive and that's quite literally a price that has to be paid, but I think it's impossible for me to justify picking this up in its current state, especially over other games on my wishlist.
 
I like it. Paid the full asking price money for it as well instead of waiting for a discount later on. We should support Dev's like this and give them the money so they can get back to their former glory days. Then we can have proper Burnout games again.
Indeed. Some people really need to give these guys some slack. For a team of seven of SEVEN people, this is an achievement! Yes DD is not perfect, but so is every other game. I'm going to support TFE and help them get back to the top, WITHOUT the help of EA.
 
As much as I love the Burnout series and support its potential revival, I can't really see how they can get away with selling the game at this price. I get that it's a budget game, but it looks like an asset store flip and the driving physics look incredibly awkward and buggy; this is something I'd be hesitant about picking up for £15, let alone £25 (not including the Spotify integration in place of even a royalty-free soundtrack). I get that games development is expensive and that's quite literally a price that has to be paid, but I think it's impossible for me to justify picking this up in its current state, especially over other games on my wishlist.

And that's really the ultimate irony in Dangerous Driving as a whole - it's price point as it stands just doesn't justify what I see with gameplay. It certainly doesn't help that there are other ways to play Burnout. I mean, the game that this game is obviously building itself off of - 3 - can be found dirt cheap, and I imagine with PCSX2, you can make the game, which still looks good for it's time, look even better with graphical fiddling. Burnout Revenge is now backwards compatible on Xbox One, and then there is the Paradise remaster. Why would I want to buy a Burnout revival made on the cheap, when there are better options from the *same* team?

Indeed. Some people really need to give these guys some slack. For a team of seven of SEVEN people, this is an achievement! Yes DD is not perfect, but so is every other game. I'm going to support TFE and help them get back to the top, WITHOUT the help of EA.

Oh come on.

The game is being sold for $40 CAD. For $40, I don't expect a game to look like an asset flip and basically be a straight up rehash of an older game, especially when there are better options already out there for cheaper.

Plus, this 'oh the team is made up of however many people' isn't enough of a shield to deflect away that fact. How many people are working on Spintires? Hell, one of my favorite indie games in recent memory, VA-11 Hall-A, was made by a team of two people, and it looks infinitely more interesting style wise compared to Dangerous Driving, and doesn't look like an asset flip, and isn't being sold for an exorbitant rate.

Just because you are a small or indie studio doesn't mean that you need to make a game that looks cheap and is being sold well above the price that people would expect it to be paid. And that's ultimately what dooms Dangerous Driving in my mind - it looks cheap, and the fact that it's being sold for so high a price, and it doesn't look that great for the price that I'm paying it for, isn't enough. And this 'small studio, give 'em some slack' attitude doesn't do enough to extinguish this. There are ways to make an indie game, and even an indie racing/driving game, look interesting and make it feel like the dollar is being stretched and used well. Looking like an asset flip and kind of being bare bones for the price being sold at isn't that, in the slightest.
 
Indeed. Some people really need to give these guys some slack. For a team of seven of SEVEN people, this is an achievement! Yes DD is not perfect, but so is every other game. I'm going to support TFE and help them get back to the top, WITHOUT the help of EA.

Better games have been made by smaller teams; look at something like Risk Of Rain 2, currently selling for £10 less than DD with overwhelmingly positive reviews, and as far as I'm aware that's being made by a three person team. Seven is still a small number, but it's not really an excuse to sell an arguably mobile-quality game on current gen consoles for 25 smackaroonies.
 
Better games have been made by smaller teams; look at something like Risk Of Rain 2, currently selling for £10 less than DD with overwhelmingly positive reviews, and as far as I'm aware that's being made by a three person team. Seven is still a small number, but it's not really an excuse to sell an arguably mobile-quality game on current gen consoles for 25 smackaroonies.

That's really the thing - how many people are on the development team really shouldn't excuse what a game is like and what it's being sold for. There are examples where indie developers have been able to stretch the dollar and make an awesome game with a lack of people. How many people are on Three Fields' development staff is irrelevant when they are charging so much for a game that looks like a mobile game, and is lacking in quality from just looking at it.
 
Oh come on.

The game is being sold for $40 CAD.
It was on sale for $35 CAD before the game released, which I assume you missed out on. I got the PS4 version (digitally) which is where the sale happened. So it's not a big deal to me.
For $40, I don't expect a game to look like an asset flip and basically be a straight up rehash of an older game, especially when there are better options already out there for cheaper.
Well TFE wasn't making this game FOR YOU, but for those who wanted a Burnout 3. Whatever you expected, would have probably flopped, no offence. I take a spiritual successor to Burnout over EA making a Burnout title. Improve what you're good at, and DD is a start by adding persistent wrecks and heatwaves which add more challenges to driving in game. I can only imagine how the sequel will be like with more improvements.
Plus, this 'oh the team is made up of however many people' isn't enough of a shield to deflect away that fact. How many people are working on Spintires?
I don't have Spintires and I couldn't care less, about how many worked on Spintires.
Hell, one of my favorite indie games in recent memory, VA-11 Hall-A, was made by a team of two people, and it looks infinitely more interesting style wise compared to Dangerous Driving, and doesn't look like an asset flip, and isn't being sold for an exorbitant rate.
Better games have been made by smaller teams; look at something like Risk Of Rain 2, currently selling for £10 less than DD with overwhelmingly positive reviews, and as far as I'm aware that's being made by a three person team. Seven is still a small number, but it's not really an excuse to sell an arguably mobile-quality game on current gen consoles for 25 smackaroonies.
Undertale back in 2015 was made by one person. Guess that makes it better than all three games then, right?
And that's ultimately what dooms Dangerous Driving in my mind - it looks cheap, and the fact that it's being sold for so high a price, and it doesn't look that great for the price that I'm paying it for, isn't enough.
Just like how VA-11 Hall-A and Risk of Rain 2 doesn't look all hat amazing to me either, despite how "cheap" they are in price. I don't fancy a sprite novel game or some shooter. If DD is so "cheap", go look for another game for your bucks like the two games you two mentioned? That's what I, and anyone with a brain would do if they didn't like a certain game.
And this 'small studio, give 'em some slack' attitude doesn't do enough to extinguish this. There are ways to make an indie game, and even an indie racing/driving game, look interesting and make it feel like the dollar is being stretched and used well. Looking like an asset flip and kind of being bare bones for the price being sold at isn't that, in the slightest.
You must be blind if you think DD is bare bones. Please clarify. There are 9 game modes (in total) in the game, reasonable amount of cars to unlock and several tracks with short, long and marathons to race on with online to be added at a later date. "Looks" never justify the price of games, but content does.

On topic: I can only hope DD is successful to bring TFE to the top again. Ignoring burnout, I don't want to lose Alex, Fiona and the rest of the crew. That's all I hope for.
 
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It was on sale for $35 CAD before the game released, which I assume you missed out on. I got the PS4 version (digitally) which is where the sale happened. So it's not a big deal to me.

$35 or $40 dollars, that's still way too much for a game that looks like Dangerous Driving does in video form.

Whatever you expected, would have probably flopped, no offence.

lol

I expected Burnout 3, but not a Burnout 3 that looks like a cheap knock off, right down to the exact same font type used in game as the elder title, and not a Burnout 3 that looks like a mobile title. So yeah, I guess my version would have flopped.

Undertale back in 2015 was made by one person. Guess that makes it better than all three games then, right?

The point isn't that this a dick measuring contest between which game is good based on who had less development team members. The point being made is that when it comes down to it, the fact that there are seven people that actually do development in Three Fields is really unrelated to the idea that it doesn't matter the size of the team - it comes down to how the dollar is stretched, and how the team gets used. Again, from looking at video, Dangerous Driving looks like a mobile title. The point of pointing out games like Va-11 Hall-A and Risk of Rain 2 is that seven people is really not the 'cut them some slack, guys!' bar you want to set. It should be expected to be better, especially for the prices being asked to buy the game at, pre-release sale or not.

If DD is so "cheap", go look for another game for your bucks like the two games you two mentioned?

I have. Again - Burnout 3 can be had for peanuts. Burnout Revenge is on Xbox One backwards compatibility, and it's still a fun game! The Paradise remaster is also available. All significantly cheaper then Dangerous Driving right now.

I can criticize a game for it's faults, and looking at it from a surface level, Dangerous Driving doesn't look that great if we take away the Burnout 3 angle. And I, and others as well, really probably don't want to pay the price for entry to see if such faults are true or not.

Frankly, you can enjoy the game, I think that's pretty obvious. I, alongside others in this very thread, have voiced that we don't feel the need to pay the price that Three Fields has considering how the game looks from a surface level.
 
$35 or $40 dollars, that's still way too much for a game that looks like Dangerous Driving does in video form.



lol

I expected Burnout 3, but not a Burnout 3 that looks like a cheap knock off, right down to the exact same font type used in game as the elder title, and not a Burnout 3 that looks like a mobile title. So yeah, I guess my version would have flopped.



The point isn't that this a dick measuring contest between which game is good based on who had less development team members. The point being made is that when it comes down to it, the fact that there are seven people that actually do development in Three Fields is really unrelated to the idea that it doesn't matter the size of the team - it comes down to how the dollar is stretched, and how the team gets used. Again, from looking at video, Dangerous Driving looks like a mobile title. The point of pointing out games like Va-11 Hall-A and Risk of Rain 2 is that seven people is really not the 'cut them some slack, guys!' bar you want to set. It should be expected to be better, especially for the prices being asked to buy the game at, pre-release sale or not.



I have. Again - Burnout 3 can be had for peanuts. Burnout Revenge is on Xbox One backwards compatibility, and it's still a fun game! The Paradise remaster is also available. All significantly cheaper then Dangerous Driving right now.

I can criticize a game for it's faults, and looking at it from a surface level, Dangerous Driving doesn't look that great if we take away the Burnout 3 angle. And I, and others as well, really probably don't want to pay the price for entry to see if such faults are true or not.

Frankly, you can enjoy the game, I think that's pretty obvious. I, alongside others in this very thread, have voiced that we don't feel the need to pay the price that Three Fields has considering how the game looks from a surface level.
Cool. Don't support it then. When the Developer goes under EA win and you can buy the next grindfest microtransaction from them and be done with it.
 
Cool. Don't support it then. When the Developer goes under EA win and you can buy the next grindfest microtransaction from them and be done with it.
I think it's good to suport smaller and indie developers but I also think at @Silver Arrows makes a perfectly valid point. You shouldn't support them just because, if that were the case I could knock out a cheap and not very good game and everyone would pay me for it just because I'm a one man band indie developer (I'm not an indie developer btw, I have programmed a space invaders clone in the past, I never published it or anything, it wasn't great, it was just to see if I could do it).

I personally think it's a great pick up and have a quick blast type game, it's not as complex as Burnout 3 or Paradise but it is good fun. The graphics are perfectly decent, but then where you will get most differences of opinion is the price point. If this were £10 I think very few people would consider it over priced, the higher that goes, the more people will.

To support an Indie developer the developer has to make something at least half decent, which FTE have done, but they have to make it good value as well. Whether you consider DD good value is a personal choice, I like the game, at £20 I think it's worth it, just. At £25, less so. Someone else might think that's great.
 
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