Games Starter: Featured Game - Mini Racing Adventures

Today we are featuring the excellent Mini Racing Adventures by Minimo Studios; a fun and challenging side scrolling physics based 3D racer for iOS & Android that is currently in a Kickstarter Campaign. This looks like a great way to spend a commute or play for 30 minutes on an evening. I spoke to the Team at Minimo about the game and its development.

Q. Tell us all about Mini Racing Adventures

Mini Racing Adventures is the first game we plan to launch, it's a 3D side-scrolling racing game. The game is a physic based racer where you have to break your limits to reach the furthest point throughout each level with your selected vehicles navigating through bumpy terrains. You also have the option to race vs your best time, our ghost mode. An overlapped image of your previously recorded best time vs you live. We also offer a time challenge vs the CPU which is quite the challenge to beat. We feel it's a fun game with some colourful art and packed with personality. We hope this game will bring as much enjoyment to others as it has to us throughout our development of it.

Q. What inspired you to make the game?

We love all things automotive, and we found a lack of games with the kind of world, features, and originality, which we would love to play. Actually there are other off-road games out there, but we also wanted to make one with our own style. So we brashly decided to make this game to fulfil what we would like to see and fill in what was missing from the genre.

Brings back happy memories of Micro Machines V3

Q. How long has the game been in development?

It's hard to pinpoint the exact time of development for this game, because we were also interrupted by business affairs, real life events, and other things as well. If we put all the time together we can safely say it's taken us 6 months to get where we are now.

A precarious looking jump...

Q. Have there been any particular highs or lows in development?

Since we are not a big studio, we are having trouble in human resources, as we do most of the work by ourselves. The workplace and equipment for development is also a problem for us, as we don't have the proper studio to work out of. We can only work from home and borrow office space from friends and family for so long! The highs are that we don't have a strict schedule of working hours and rules like in companies we've all worked for before. Even sometimes we have to work until we meet the next morning. And we are proud by having our own product as indie studio.

By anyone's standards, this looks awesome

Q. Do you have any advice for other indie studios?

We don't have a success story in the real world yet, so we're not sure if our advice is credible enough!. But, we can say to others to keep struggling on your product, even when your spirits are down. Just keep your head up and keep on creating, that’s the key. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel; you will hear appreciation from people regarding your efforts. And keep in contact with any people you meet as a studio, they may have opportunities that are worth to try.

Will MRA be a winner?

Q. What are your plans for the future?

We will develop this game further depending on the budget we have. We also have other games developed in parallel and we have a lot of ideas to work on in the future such as steam-punk mecha theme, classic platformers, casual battleship, and simple casual games as well.

Kickstarter Info

Minimo Studios are looking to raise $5,000 for Mini Racing Adventures by Wednesday 18^th March. The funds are to help finish the game for launch on both iOS and Android. Good value for money is the $25 reward tier that includes:

Customer Designed Postcard hand-written by the team as an honorary member of Team Minimo for supporting MRA
Digital Comic starring Martin of MRA fame written and drawn by the team, plus 1,000,000 in-game coins
Ad-free copy of the game which will include unlocked levels and unlocked vehicles
Custom designed MRA desktop wallpaper
Your name included in the in-game credits
Early access to MRA