Manfred Linzner, CEO of Shin’en and lead developer for FAST Racing Neo, was recently interviewed by We Are Just Gamers and talked a little bit about the small company’s relationship with Nintendo and shared a few details about FAST Racing Neo.
You can read the main quotes below, or the full interview here.
Hello Mr. Manfred Linzner. First of all can you introduce yourself and your team at Shin’en a bit?
Shin’en is doing console and handheld games since 1999. So far we released nearly 30 games for different platforms. I’m CEO of Shin’en and lead developer for FAST Racing Neo
How many people are working on Fast Racing Neo?
Around five people.
Your company Shin’en has an extensive history developing games for Nintendo systems, is this a coincidence or are you preferring to develop for Nintendo in general?
We have a very good relationship to Nintendo and love many of their 1st Party games. Nintendo always released new and interesting hardware when we were looking for new challenges. Also we like to create games for a broad audience that is interested in high quality games, and this is a perfect match with Nintendo players.
The game has been in development since 2013 and was first announced to be released in 2014. but then got delayed. “Were there any difficulties in development that lead to this delay?”
We worked on three different projects at that time (Nano Asssault Neo-X, Art of Balance and FAST Racing Neo). Therefore we decided it’s better to postpone FAST Racing Neo to 2015 because we didn’t wanted to rush the game. We wanted to give it the perfect polish it deserved and also wanted to try different new ideas.
How many tracks will there be in Fast Racing Neo?
We will announce all tracks and vehicles at a later date.
I did not play FAST: Racing League (Released in 2011 as a WiiWare Game) on the Wii myself, however FAST: Racing Neo reminds me a lot of the WipeOut series on first sight and also a bit of F-Zero.
What would you as the developer say are the biggest differences to those two racing series in FAST: Racing Neo?
Most people know only these two great futuristic racing games. So it’s just right and normal they compare FRN with these games. First of all FRN plays very differently. It’s all about amazing speed and phase switching. It was also very important for us that players get quickly a good feeling for the vehicles.
We tried to make the game very accessible from start while still hard to master in higher leagues.
I watched videos of FAST: Racing League and I liked the soundtrack a lot. As a fan of videogame music, I am interested about if the soundtrack in FAST: Racing Neo will be similar to FAST: Racing League. Will the soundtrack be available separately as well?”
For the music in FRN we tried a fresh style. We wanted something that could sound like from an 2015 Arcade Game. We really love how the music developed for the game. We plan to release the soundtrack at a later date.
FAST: Racing League had no online modes, will online multiplayer be supported in Fast Racing Neo?
FRN features online racing with up to 8 players.
What type of game modes will be in the game? Will there be any special
Multiplayer ones?We will reveal all game modes at a later time.
Can you give us a more specific release date and estimate the costs of the game?
The release date is not yet set.
Are there any plans to possibly release FAST: Racing Neo to any other systems or will it stay exclusive to the Nintendo Wii U?
We currently have no plans to bring FRN to another system. However, i think a futuristic racer on a new handheld would be great.
Is there any DLC planned for the game?
We want to release all content we created at launch of the game.