Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Auto Warriors’

Review Fix chats with Nick Baynes, Studio Head, Gunjin Games who lets us know why the recently released “Auto Warriors” is a customization-crazy love letter to his childhood and why you must play it.

For more on the game, click here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for Auto Warriors?

Nick Baynes: Where do I start? There are quite a few! Firstly and most obviously, we were inspired by the tabletop car combat games of yesteryear such as Car Wars, Battlecars, Dark Future and Autoduel. These were turn-based strategy games with RPG elements set in dystopian or post-apocalyptic futures. What we’ve tried to do is to take some of the best elements of this type of game and either strip out or hide the more cumbersome and unwieldy elements. So we’ve retained the gritty post-apocalyptic theme, extensive car customisation, and core strategic combat mechanisms — and made the more complex rule sets that for example governed car movement, momentum, and performance that’s invisible to the player. This makes for a much faster, satisfying, and visually rich experience for those who played the tabletop games. We were also inspired by turn-based PC and console strategy games such as XCOM and Advance Wars — series that we all love. Finally, some of the Gunjin team grew up in the ’80s during a time when post-apocalyptic media thrived off the cold war angst with movies such as Mad Max, pulp fiction such as The Survivalist, and all their many lookalikes.

Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid? How did it influence this one?

Baynes: Once I’d finally convinced my parents to upgrade my Commodore 16, I became a big C64 player as a kid and played a huge range of games — from high profile coin-op conversions to the quirkier British titles, from shoot-em-ups to isometric platformers, fighting games to lawnmower sims (Hover Bovver, of course)! I started developing games professionally back in 1992 and over the years found myself increasingly making games featuring cars and explosions (which became something of a speciality)! So for me, Auto Warriors influences have been varied — but in general, I think the focus and purity of those mid-’80s titles can be found in our core game mechanic. A love of the British comic 2000AD and dystopian action movies have probably influenced the mood and feel of the game as well.

Review Fix: What do you think makes Auto Warriors special?

Baynes: We keep being told by players that Auto Warriors is a unique game on the App Store, thanks in large part to its core turn-based gameplay — and who are we to disagree! We opted to go down this route because we wanted success to be based on the tactical decisions players make in the workshop, building and upgrading their cars and on the battlefield, and choosing their movement and combat options. We didn’t want this to be a twitch game as most iOS car combat games are — where success is based primarily on dexterity — although the three-minute tournament timer and our time limit-based 1-3 star win rating system mean that there are definitely elements of urgency to the gameplay. We’re also very proud of our video replay system, which stitches together all the two-second turns and presents the players’ actions via cinematic camera angles. These videos can then be shared socially — and we have already seen some awesome and sometime hilarious feats that players have captured and posted.

Review Fix: How is the ’80s style evident in the game and in the cars?

Baynes: The game is set 30 years after the world starts its descent into post-apocalyptic mayhem, so all of the cars are based on the sort of chassis types found in the 1980s. The same is true of all the weapons, which are broadly based on actual ’80s designs. Finally, our salvage system (a form of crafting for special weapon and car upgrades) is based on ’80s consumer products — and somewhat tongue-in-cheek with items like cassette tapes and aviator sunglasses.

Review Fix: How much time went into developing the story?

Baynes: The Auto Warriors backstory is told both in the game via the tutorial and campaign mode and outside of it via the Auto Warriors site (www.autowarriorsgame.com) and web comic (http://bit.ly/1UdDT2K). We intend to continue to expand upon the story in future updates — in particular when we add new campaign levels.

Review Fix: What are you most proud of when it comes to Auto Warriors?

Baynes: We’re proud of many aspects of Auto Warriors: quality of the graphics; depth of car customisation and upgrade options available to the player; number of different game modes, including what is already a hugely competitive PvP system; and the cinematic replay system. However, overall, I’d say that we’re most proud of the fact that we’ve developed a genuinely different, if not unique, mobile strategy game — one that stands apart within a market crowded with me-too base builders and CCGs.

Review Fix: What’s next for Gunjin Games?

Baynes: Much of our future plans will be based on what our players want. We have had a huge amount of feedback from our soft launch players — and we’ve already implemented several of the ideas and features that they’ve requested. We’re always open to ideas and suggestions, so please do continue to provide us with feedback!