[Nintendo Switch Snap]
[flashy big band music] [Karthik Bala] -My brother Guha and I started VELAN Studios,
to create breakthrough games that are magic.
[Guha Bala] -Our pretty simple approach, was to build an awesome team of developers,
who are inspired to build their ideas into playable prototypes.
The only rule, was to create something new.
-I remember summer of 2017 and we took an experiment for a little test drive.
It was an R/C car with a drone camera.
The feeling of speed was thrilling,
but the display goggles were uncomfortable.
I took the display out and held it, that's when we all realized,
Hey, this could be a Switch.
-'Course, Karthik crashed the car and damaged the camera.
Uh, we had to make the next one, more rugged,
but we felt a spark of magic.
[Dan Doptis] -We focused on the feel and driving experience early on.
That was a big breakthrough moment for us.
R/C cars, can sometimes be difficult to control,
and we wanted it to drive like a video game car.
That core fun of driving was something that came through
early on in the project,
but to make it a video game grounded in the real world,
we knew we needed mixed reality,
the technology didn't exist,
and the game design that fit this innovation, was unknown,
but it didn't matter, we had to go for it.
-It wasn't even a debate as to what we would make with this prototype,
it felt like Mario Kart.
We wanted the creators at Nintendo to feel it in their hands.
-When we first showed the demo, more and more people at Nintendo came to play.
The feedback was really positive and we could see everyone smiling.
[Jan-Erik Steel] -That was the start of an incredible partnership
with the hardware and software teams at Nintendo.
Um, throughout the project they always pushed us to be better game makers,
and the amount of support, and collaboration, and enthusiasm, that we got
from Nintendo was really, just, amazing.
In these early VELAN prototypes,
the battery life just didn't last that long.
Especially when we drove in the 150 to 200cc speed classes,
but Nintendo's hardware team was so committed to coming up with this amazing design
that really allowed for battery life to last much, much longer.
There's so much technology packed into this car,
it's essentially a mini console on wheels.
[Ed Tumbusch] -One of the early breakthrough moments
was incorporating item boxes into the game.
Getting them to look anchored and convincing in the world while moving at a high speed
was pretty challenging, but, man, getting the item boxes working
was super inspiring.
Once we had that, it became a collaborative effort
with Nintendo's Mario Kart team,
to determine the mix of classic items, and new items
to really make it a true Mario Kart experience.
What makes our game more than AR, is what we call mixed reality,
in that digital objects, like in-game items, can interact with physical objects,
like the kart, and actually effect gameplay.
For example, our Chain-Chomp item
was inspired by taking an unruly dog out for a walk.
Chain-Chomp pulls you in different directions as you're driving,
and you can actually feel him pulling the kart.
-One of my favorite memories on this project,
was on a visit to Nintendo in Kyoto,
where we showed Bullet Bill for the very first time.
I took my hands off the controls and the kart drove itself under the table
and around the chairs, steering around the course we'd just made.
It was really surprising, and there were a lot of smiles in the room.
Each step of the way, the team has figured out new ways
to take advantage of the technology, and bring something new,
and in turn, Nintendo has iterated in the hardware,
with precision control and high quality design.
It's been a really great collaboration with Nintendo.
[Jan-Erik Steel] -We are so excited about course creation which is a first
for the Mario Kart series, and now we have
the most creative level designers possible in this project
which is the players.
And it's all gonna come together with a classic Mario Kart racing experience.
-Creating a rich mixed reality game experience
is a whole new frontier in game development.
I remember when the industry first went from 2D games to 3D.
There were a lot of unexplored possibilities to discover.
It's the same sort of leap from 3D to mixed reality.
We're bringing the digital world into the real world
and creating meaningfully new interactions and experiences for players,
and as game designers this is an incredibly exciting future,
but for now, we can't wait for players to drive, build, and race,
with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.
[kart engine revving]