WipEout Fury Developer Diary – New Game Modes (+date & price)

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Hey everyone! We’re back with number three in our series of developer diaries featuring the WipEout HD Fury add-on pack. This week we have Zico Liu, Programmer on the WipEout HD development team.

Hi everyone! This is Zico Liu, programmer on WipEout HD; you all might remember me from the “Beat Zico” trophy. Before I talk about what I’ve been up to on the WipEout HD Fury expansion pack, I would just like to let you know that the pack will be available from PlayStation Store on Thursday, July 23rd for $9.99.

The pack will provide three new race types – Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, a redesigned menu system, a new campaign to complete as well a host of new trophies to win. Oh and let’s not forget the additional ranks for you to achieve online. We are really excited about the content and hope you enjoy all the new features.

Also, on Tuesday July 21st, we are releasing a free update to the existing game. If you boot up WipEout HD at around 5pm GMT, you will be prompted to download the update. It will add a number of new features and tweaks to menus of the game including a brand new statistics section, new redesigned ship and track select screens and some new community/online features.

Now let’s get back to what I’ve been up to since HD was originally released. I’ve been busy working on the new game modes, mostly Eliminator and Zone Battle but also a bit on Detonator.

WipEout HD Fury - Detonator1

Eliminator mode was relatively easy to get in since it was taken from WipEout Pulse but we wanted to make it even better. Someone came up with the idea of having the 180 degree flip, which allows you to flip your ship, fly backwards down the track and fire your weapons at on coming opponents, like the Quake, which I know some people missed being able to do like they could in Pulse.

We also didn’t want people doing all the hard work of reducing an opponent’s shield, to then have someone else steal the kill and you receive nothing. So rather than the straight forward kills system seen in Pulse, we have introduced a points system where you are awarded points for completing laps, inflicting damage and getting the kill. The winner is the first player to reach the target score.

Playable as both a single player game as well as online we are really pleased with the end product and hope that players will enjoy the new mode.

WipEout HD Fury - Eliminator1 WipEout HD Fury - Eliminator2


Zone Battle, our 8 player version of Zone mode, was a bit more difficult to get right as it went through several iterations and name changes. We started with just a one on one duel mode, which was basically a split screen version of Zone which you played until one person lost their entire shield. The initial idea of the zone bar was to speed up the other player so they go faster which hopefully meant they would crash more often and be destroyed sooner than if they were travelling slower. Unfortunately this idea didn’t really work as we had hoped and we returned to the drawing board.

As we wanted the game to be played online with up to 8 players, we had to come up with an idea that didn’t have people sitting around waiting until everyone else had been eliminated, so we introduced the idea of racing towards a target zone which meant the race would end at the same time for everyone.

With this in mind the zone bar was changed to increase your own zones so you can reach the target quicker. To add a bit of variety we wanted some obstacles on the track which is where the zone barrier idea came from.

Every time you use your zone bar to boost you leave a zone barrier on the track to try and slow down your opponents. This means that players have to constantly look out for the barriers and try to avoid them or use up their zone bar to shield themselves.

I think it turned out very well and hopefully people will enjoy playing it in the Fury expansion pack!

WipEout HD Fury - ZoneBattle1 WipEout HD Fury - ZoneBattle2

Other stuff that I was working on was the new ship, track and campaign cell selection screens for the new front-end, and also the HUD’s for the new modes.

Finally I hope everyone enjoys this expansion and please don’t hate me too much, it’s not really that hard to Beat Zico.

So there you have it! Be sure to check out the update on Tuesday, and watch out for the Fury add-on, coming Thursday July 23!

Comments are closed.

67 Comments

  • Cant wait to play this, i really enjoyed the first part….Good work guys it look awesome!!!!

  • Cannot wait for eliminator! Although I do have to say that it does sadden me it wasn’t just patched in. I mean the guy did say “Eliminator mode was relatively easy to get in since it was taken from WipEout Pulse”. Yeah yeah I know they added some functionality but that should have been expected either way.

    Still with the new ships/tracks I’m definitely looking forward to this.

    Thanks for the update Daimion and Zico!

  • Wow, that many adds in one update… that’s essentially doubling the game’s content. Will have to strongly consider this one.

  • Cool!
    Sounds like tons of fun!

  • Awesome! Zone Battle in particular has me stoked, and I also can’t wait to collect all of the new trophies :D

    Thanks guys.

  • Zone battle? Count me in! Consider your pack bought!… And damn you Zico! I can never get your time xD

  • Thank you, My $11 bucks have been waiting in the virtual wallet just for this!

  • sounds awesome

  • Really looking forward to it!

  • Is there going to be Beat Zico 2.0 Trophy in the expansion pack?

  • Thanks Zico for all the new info this add-on came out of no where for me at E3 and I’ve been waiting ever since to know when it would be out. Now that I know its gonna be a long 7 days lol.

    Oh and I hope some of the trophies are equally as hard(well not to bad for the kiddies) as Beat Zico took me 3 days of non stop playing to get it.

  • This is impressive! All of this is very impressive. One of the best games on PSN is about to get even better.

  • I would love to be psyched about this, but I really really suck at WipEout HD, so I already feel like it was a waste of money (though definitely not a waste of effort/time).

    I unfortunately doubt I’ll be partaking in this expansion.

  • For the amount of content I think that the price is fair. I wish a lot of devs follow your leads in the pricing…yeah…guerrilla games……yeah. Too bad my PS3 will be getting fixed at Sony by then…TT__TT

  • With the ways things have been going, how many delays can we expect?

  • Awesome! Can’t wait. I need to go out and by some funds now!

  • 12 NEW TRACKS!!? That’s awesome. Day One

  • Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, (that is like making a new Wipeout HD game) I will be picking this up day one!!!!

  • GREAAAAAAAAAAT, now I need more money for this Fat princess and the K2 map..

  • Bought, day 1.

    Really hoping that one of the new zone tracks makes the “Zone Zeus” trophy easier to get (Last trophy to platinum).

  • I hated you for so long Zico!

    Wow, I’m really impressed by the content of this DLC, I believe it’s really worth it!

    2 new modes, new tracks, a real new gameplay for just 10 bucks.

    Like Rbanke said: SOLD!

  • I can’t wait!!!!!

  • I’d like to echo the comments about pricing– you guys know how to put maximum value into a game at a reasonable price point. There is no barrier to my getting this game, although I’ve resisted up to this point because I have yet to beat the campaign mode in Pulse. Yes, I suck at this game as well!

    What’s got me sold? What’s shaping up to be an excellent expansion to an already rock solid game. Other PSN titles at the same launch price don’t appear to offer anywhere near the same value.

    I have one request: Please take a bit of time to put together a brief Powerpoint Presentation to be offered in seminars to other Developers who don’t seem to get how to offer a quality product without gouging their customers (I won’t name names at this point, because you guys have me in my happy place :)

  • AWESOME!!!

    Now that’s a good deal.

  • Only racing game I play.

  • Great news and a really fun game.

  • Sounds awesome!

    I don’t have the Beat Zico trophy yet but I think I am still more worried about getting gold on every campaign level on Elite… ;)

  • Well if it ain’t Zico, my old nemesis…

    The price was exactly what I thought it would be. Looks like I’ll only be getting Crash Commando from this week’s sale, though.

  • LOL i always thought Zico was just a fake name.

  • Hey Zico, I hate you =)

    j/k, hope we can play together one day =)

  • Can’t freakin’ wait….

  • Looking forward to Zone Battles, that’s gonna be fun! >:)

  • What are the new music tracks?!
    This is the best news of the summer!

  • Doesn’t get much better than this.
    What a great summer.

  • Hello Daimion, I can’t play WipEout HD online.
    I hope this upcoming patch will fix this and allow me to play online!

    Could you ‘please’ tell the developers to fix this?

  • 12 totally different tracks, or 6 new tracks with backwards versions?

    Either way, insta-buy.

  • I’m loving the price.

  • I HATE YOU ZICO 4 UR IMPOSSIBLE TROPHY!

  • Thank you for it only being $10.00. I can’t wait for this awesome expansion.

  • Love this game, but haven’t played anything but zone mode the last couple of months, since the online community is on life support.

    But with the $5 price drop and DLC coming it is gonna get a nice kick in the ass and live longer

  • Great Update!!!

  • You guys are nuts. This isn’t a reasonable price, it’s a downright steal. Only $9.99 for all that? That’s incredible.

    I’m still dyin to know if the new eliminator mode will count towards the AG Assassin trophy.

  • I need Fury now!!!!!!!

  • The update sounds amazing, while you’re at it maybe you can patch the game so the difficulty isn’t so impossible?!?

    ….please

    ……honestly I would love to play more of this game but will not buy anymore content until I can actually play all of the content that was in the original game.

  • Day one purchase. Keep up the great work!

    Add a REPLAY/SAVE mode next. PLEASE. Now that there will be eliminator mayhem the ability to save and replay races makes even more sense. Also it would be easier to snap screen shots.

    Rockets… Mines…

  • Any chance do add Citadel from Ladytron into main soundtrack? (Yea, I know about the custom soundtrack, but hey, Citadel is a perfect track for Wipeout)

  • Will there be a bundle or will I be better off buying the game now with the 5 dollars off and buying Fury when it comes out?

  • Hi guys, do you think WipEout HD + Fury arrive in Blu-Ray version?
    Thank you & Bye !

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