Interview: Screamer's Game Director Talks Inspirations, Mechanics & the Return of Their Bygone Arcade Racer Series

Screamer is becoming the talk of the racing games community right now. Whether you're coming hot off the steam from watching HokiHoshi (shout out to the goat racing game YTber) and forming an opinion just from his initial impressions, or if you happen to have the morbid curiosity to check out the game's revival yourself, no matter what it is, every racing fan is paying attention.

And for good reason, because the game has heartfelt compassion written all over it, from the gameplay, anime-inspired story bits, to even minor details like actual anime references for the cultured eye to identify. So, if you happen to have any concerns about whether this is a devilish trick from a remake to pull in players, I assure you, it's far from that, especially after what I got to play via the preview event.

And to help bring my case into better perspective here, I had the chance to fire away a fair number of questions to the game director of Screamer, Federico Cardini. Suffice to say, he brought some of his own offense back with the answers, much like the fighting game-inspired mechanics of this game. So let's see what he had to say on this revitalized take on the Screamer series.

Interview with Federico Cardini, Game Director of Screamer At Milestone S.R.L

Q: Hi! So, first and foremost, a huge honor to talk to you guys, especially since I've adored arcade racing games growing up. Given your guys’ track record, it was initially surprising to learn that this game was made by the same people who handcrafted both Hot Wheels Unleashed titles! Those two were such a joy to play and really captured the feel of HW: Beat That from the PS2 for me!

Thank you for your kind words, it’s a pleasure for us too!

Q: Could you explain a brief history of the Screamer series, specifically with the older titles, and how this new, revived iteration sets itself apart from them?

Screamer is a very old franchise; the first game came out in 1995, and it was quite beloved because it brought the arcade experience to the PC. With this new iteration, we wanted to keep the same gameplay-first approach, but we adapted the rest of the game to fit within the modern gaming market.

Q: Love how my immediate impression of the gameplay was that it oozed with the style of Ridge Racer and the Burnout series. Were there any vivid inspirations behind the gameplay model that you looked at to possibly replicate from past and beloved arcade racer titles?

Outside of having really engaging gameplay, we really wanted people to look at a screenshot from the game and immediately go ‘this is Screamer,’ and to do that, we took a lot of lessons from racing games (and not) of the early 2000s.

From the soundtrack of Ridge Racers to the camera of Split Second and even going to the wild story mode of Racing Lagoon, we’ve really tapped into all our gaming expertise for this title! For example, a fun fact, the Main Menu is inspired by the 2.0 version of DJ Max Respect V!

Q: The anime art style gives this game a whole separate layer of personality! Are you generally avid fans of the medium? If so, are there any favorite shows that come to mind, and ones that (possibly) fueled the presentation direction for Screamer? Bonus points for any Akira or Gurren Lagann fans for obvious reasons!

We are indeed very avid fans of the medium! You caught some of the references. Fermi's glasses are a clear callout to Gurren Lagann and Neo Ray shows very strong Akira vibes, but we really watch a lot of anime, from older titles like Cyber City Oedo 808, Angel Egg, Cowboy Bebop, to modern classics like Samurai Champloo or Steins;Gate, to contemporary shows like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, DanDaDan, or Sousou no Frieren. This is a very strong part of the reason why we wanted to work with a Japanese animation studio!

Q: Licensed cars are fun in their own places, but the fictional ones that you’ve created here really capture a middle ground design between supercars and the motorsport types. Is it fair to assume their high-tech look on the surface was also designed on purpose to go with the whole neon-soaked cyberpunk setting you have cooked here?

That is a correct assumption! It was very important to find this middle ground that allowed us to use our knowledge of real vehicles to its full extent without compromising on personality. We have to thank the wonderful people at Plumehead Studio for working with us on these designs!

Q: I love that you are taking the gameplay-first approach here. The game’s core mechanics during the actual racing revolves around something you dubbed the Echo System — let’s pop open that hood now. Can you explain the gears and the other integral moving parts that make up the foundation of this system?

The Echo System is the source of the gameplay mechanics that the player controls on top of the actual handling of the car. As the backbone of everything, there’s the Active Shift: press the dedicated button at the right time, and you’ll gain energy, called Sync, that you can use to Boost and Shield. Boost makes you go faster, while Shield protects you from offensive actions.

What are offensive actions, I hear you ask? Well, when you Shield or Boost, you convert the energy called Sync to another type of energy, called Entropy, that’s required for you to Strike and Overdrive.

Strike is like a Boost, but if you collide with another opponent, you make them explode. Overdrive is a massive performance increase that allows you to make other cars explode. If you hit a wall, YOU explode immediately. It seems much more complicated when reading rather than when playing, and the story mode serves as an excellent introduction to everything I described and more.

Q: With how this system creates a loop of weaving and taking down opponents during team-based races to score points, it almost feels like a grounded brawler video game at that point. I have a gut feeling that this was intentional to make it feel like a fighting video game. Am I right on the nose here?

Indeed you are! We are also big fighting games fans here at Milestone. In fact, the original concept of this game, made by Michele Caletti (Creative Director) and Andrea Basilio (Executive Producer), took heavy inspiration from the King of Fighters series.

Q: It’s cool how the Echo System makes me micromanage two resources whilst I’m fighting for my life on the road against the other racers’ offensive approaches. And I know that at the end of the day, this is all meant to invoke the retro arcade feel here. I’m very interested, however, in whether you guys are still experimenting with the balancing aspect of this system, like ensuring it doesn’t feel too tenacious or that it doesn’t feel like an obnoxious chess match where you have to constantly predict when to use your boost or shields, especially in multiplayer.

While big changes only happen up to a certain development milestone, balancing is something that happens until the very last second. Especially when the system is so relevant to core gameplay, like our Echo System, you really use all the time that you have to make small tweaks!

Q: On that note, compared to the preview builds we had access to, is it safe to assume that the final game will have any finishing touch refinements made to it to improve the driving model, race pacing, or adjustments to the general mechanics based on player feedback?

Absolutely, while the builds offer a fair look at the general feeling of the game, you can expect some tweaks here and there that we collected right until the very last moment.

Q: So the story mode is all about Mr. A’s tournament and how these different teams of racers will have their own motives or justifications for taking home the glory and stakes here. With how you get to experience a taste of each squad in the preliminary episodes, can we expect any overarching narrative elements here, like dialogue choices or anything that can deviate the story in favor of another squad? Or are we just going to have to find that out for ourselves?

We decided not to go for branching dialogues/stories in favor of a more controlled environment: a specific narrative better supported our needs with characters and gameplay.

Q: How long is the single-player campaign going to be? The bulk of the introductory episodes in the preview were pretty short. Can we expect the full storyline to be longer, and for each episode to feel packed?

The story features more than 100 episodes, and if you play them all, you can expect it to last around 15 hours! Episodes vary in length, so there’s quite a bit of variety in there.

Q: I couldn’t help but gleefully grin at how you literally went for a diverse range of characters here, and with how they can easily communicate and understand each other’s native language, all thanks to the Universal Language Translator as pointed out by Gage. It low-key reminded me of Tekken’s logic, where all the characters can fluently talk and understand each other in their native tongue.

We wanted to highlight the beauty of the variety of languages that the world offers! It might sound strange at first, but you do get used to it quite quickly. Tekken was a big inspiration for us, for sure.

Q: And how can I honestly miss pointing out how both Aleks Le and Troy Baker are in this game? Troy’s inclusion here almost feels like a glimpse of his 2000s-era roles, specifically in anime. What can you tell us about their characters from the surface? Do both actors share the spotlight equally with the rest of their distinctive cast members, I hope?

Hiroshi is a young man with a lot of standing on his shoulders, while Mr. A is the mysterious mastermind who organized the Tournament. The dynamic between these two characters is very relevant to the story, and we couldn’t be happier to have Troy Baker and Aleks Le in the roles! They are quite present throughout the story and interact quite a bit with the other characters, and we hope you’ll enjoy the various exchanges.

Q: Can we still expect regional pricing for Screamer on Steam, as well as Steam Deck support for the game? If not on global release, are there any plans to ensure these two things are available to everyone in the playerbase post-launch?

For now, we’re focused on the launch. This is a big title for us, and we’ll keep evaluating things in the time after release.

Q: Bonus (last) question for everyone in the back: can we pet the Corgi?

Does Strike count as petting? If so, yes! (Please don’t Strike a Corgi in real life!)