Released last year Road 96 knew how to mark the spirits, and recently offered a port on Microsoft and Sony consoles to expand its audience even more. With multiple awards at the Pégases 2022, the title has established itself as one of the most successful French games of the past year. On the occasion of our last AG French Direct, we were therefore able to talk to Yoan Fanisecreative director of the game, to reflect on the release of the game and everything that followed, now that a little hindsight is possible.
Back to the release of the title and its reception
- The game was one of the big winners of the Pegasus ceremony, congratulations! How did you experience this evening and the fact of leaving with so many rewards? Did you expect that?
Thanks very much; no, we weren’t expecting that at all, faced with games with much larger budgets like death loop, Humankind Where Assassin’s Creed. 5 Pegasus is crazy. It’s going to be difficult to do better on the next DigixArt game, so we’re giving it our all. It’s kind of our next challenge.
- Road 96 features a whole range of characters, each with their own story. Which was, from your point of view, the most interesting/fun to develop and conversely the most complex?
It’s very personal, because we all imagined the characters together, and they reflect the sensibilities of the whole team. My favorite remains Alex, the very young hacker, left to his own devices in Pétria, the dystopian land of Road 96. He ran away from his adoptive mother a few months ago and now masters the vagabond life. He is both funny and touching, he wants to play adults but remains a 14-year-old boy.
Conversely, Jarod, the taxi driver, was much more complicated to define, to give a real reason for his violence and his desire for revenge. We didn’t want to turn him into a psychopath who can kill at any time without a real motivation. It is the fruit of the iterations of Tristan and Ian, who are designers and screenwriters at the studio.
- Looking back, would you have added or taken away anything Road 96, or did you want to do it differently? If yes, what?
It’s a good question, I would have liked to keep sequences that we cut for lack of time, one in particular where John was repairing his truck with the help of the player, and a couple called the police to report him, because he left of dissidents. The player had to do everything to prevent the policeman from approaching John, it was both crazy and serious.
But otherwise I wouldn’t have done anything differently, the coincidence of the Covid wanted us to record the voices here at AudioWorkshop in Montpellier, and that made us discover fabulous voices, to make local talents known internationally, that’s enormous satisfaction when people tell you that you have changed the course of people’s lives. You can’t imagine that when you become a video game developer.
- The game’s soundtrack is one of the highlights that has been widely acclaimed since its release. Was it a requirement to stand out on this point, did you have any doubts or certainties during the development of the playlist?
I had always dreamed of creating a Tarantino-style soundtrack, Snapto mix very different colors and associate them with each character.
The casting was quite obvious, keeping the vibe of the 90s, almost 80s with synthwave from Toxic Avenger, Volkor X, Kallax, Robert Parker. And a more acoustic and guitar side for the characters of John, Zoé with Cocoon and others. It’s a pleasure to work with such talented artists, both household names, and at the same time allowing talents like Alexis Laugier and Daniel Gadd to be discovered.
The strong themes addressed by Road 96
- The flight of these teenagers from their country has obviously resonated differently in recent weeks. But why did you want to portray teenagers and not adults?
Because in this country, unlike Ukraine, there is no war, but terrible oppression, the adults have resigned themselves, they have not seen this regime gradually install this climate. A bit like the story of the frog.
So it’s the young people whose only hope is to try to leave it. And as in North Korea, or at the time of the iron curtain, the authorities are doing everything to prevent them.
- Road 96 depicts these events within a political landscape in the throes of chaos. There was the war which was also treated with 11-11 Memories Retold. Where does this desire to build these games in a strong context come from? Will you continue in the future?
Yes, it’s a strong pillar of the studio, giving meaning to our creations, beyond games and pure entertainment. We want to entertain but to make you think, to make people curious about subjects that the gaming community will not necessarily know, the First World War, politics and its consequences…
- Failure is at the heart of the experience of Road 96, where a small decision can influence the rest of the adventure, even going so far as to endanger the lives of our characters. How did you come up with this mechanic?
The structure of the game was very complex to set up, it was a huge challenge. There are theses that explain why a “Roguelike-Narrative” cannot exist. We almost took it as a challenge.
One of the keys was to set back the player, or rather who he embodies, and to focus the stories on the NPCs. Which is very destabilizing from a writing point of view. But the result seems to please, so we probably took up this challenge.
- One of the common points between each epic is the treatment of information by Sonya, a journalist who seems little concerned by the fate of these teenagers. What was your message intended to be by adding this common thread character?
The presence of Sonya increased as we developed the game and tested it, it was necessary to strongly mark the fact of putting yourself in the shoes of another teenager, but that it was not a flashback. And then we analyzed the press in more totalitarian countries, and in particular in North Korea with almost always the same presenter, dressed in color, it was very memorable.
And then we made her look very extreme, she parties all the time and probably takes illicit substances to forget that what she’s doing is totally immoral.
Studio projects
- Now that the console versions are out, do you plan to build anything around the game, be it new content, updates etc, or are you already working on the next project?
The trick question, it’s too early for me to answer it, because a project evolves enormously, and what I can tell you is that the studio is growing a lot. We have started several projects, the success of Road 96 gives us wings, and the group we joined, Koch Media (Saints Row, Metro, Dead Island) gives us the opportunity to think big.
- Regarding future projects, would we stay on the narrative genre? Or are there other avenues in mind to explore?
We don’t want to stay confined to the narrative, it’s one of our strengths, but above all I don’t want us to lock ourselves into this genre and repeat the same “sauce”, a bit like what lived the Telltale studio. And we like the gameplay, and why not the interactions between players…
- Do you have an anecdote or an unusual story to tell? Something that stood out to you or a development story about the game?
Yes, for the launch party, I had surprised the team, at 11am, a huge white limousine like Sonya’s in the game arrived and we took turns along the beach. We put on Sonya’s music, it was huge, we thought we were in the game.
- A last word for our readers?
If you have the chance, hit the road, get out there and discover the world, random people, there are so many positive things that happen with these encounters.
We thank Yoan Fanise for his time and for his answers. Road 96 is available on PC via Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch. Do not hesitate to consult our test to find out more.