Sponsored Feature: The look and feel of Car Jack Streets Mobile

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Sponsored Feature: The look and feel of Car Jack Streets

How are those mean streets shaping up?

Product: Car Jack Streets | Developer: Tag Games | Publisher: I-play | Genre: Action, Racing

by Stuart Dredge

Throughout this week, we've been covering I-play and TAG Games' new mobile title, Car Jack Streets. We've told you about the gameplay, but what about the game's visual style?

"We took Chicago and New York as a starting point, but we got feedback that it was a bit gloomy, with a lot of grey everywhere," says TAG's Paul Farley. "So we took it down more of a Miami route, and ended up with something in the middle. Virginia Beach maybe!"

Creative director Jamie Bryan sheds more light on the decisions that went into the game's look. "The original influence for the game was a cel-shaded look, the [Capcom PlayStation 2 racer] Auto Modellista approach," he says.

"After a few tests, it was clear that the black outlines were too harsh at low resolution, but we still liked the vibrant colours and high contrast, which just happens to be similar to my natural art style!"

However, Bryan was also influenced by 'pixel art', going back to his days as an artist for 16-bit Amiga games back in the day.

"There are some fantastic pixel artists online at places like Pixel Joint, as well as working on games like the SNK Metal Slug series and Mr Goodliving's mobile titles," he says.

"It's great to see pixel art again getting the recognition it deserves. Eboy, Lawrence Wright and fan sites have all helped rebirth pixel art and make it cool again."

Car Jack Streets is a 2D title, but interestingly that wasn't always the sole intention.

"We did do a technical proof of concept with 3D graphics, although still in a top-down perspective," says Farley. "That's something we're keeping up our sleeves for any potential sequel. We also had a day and night visual effect with street lamps and headlights, btu had to remove it due to performance issues. Again, that's something for the sequel!"

What about full 3D? Farley says you could make Car Jack Streets fully 3D, but the game would have its limitations – he reckons we're years rather than months away from making this a reality. But he suggests that TAG has big plans for its new game.

"If it's a success, we'd like to take it cross-platform – DS and PSP – and build a brand and a franchise," he says.

"But it's very much designed for mobile play. Car Jack Streets on console wouldn't make as much sense, because there's too much competition. But knowing what we know about mobile gaming, we think we can take that genre and successfully bring it to mobile."