In Drive Buy, everyone works for Buy Corp. Buy Corp are a massive corporation who control retail, advertising and a load of other stuff. Most importantly to the game, Buy Corp control the brainwashing advertisement screens that “persuade” customers to buy their products. As a driver, you have to race in your delivery vehicle to get the stuff to customers as quickly as possible.
The game world has the job of telling the story of customer retaliation against Buy Corp, in this case, graffiti that plasters the walls of buildings. The message is clear: customers don’t want to be hypnotised or spend money on stuff they don’t need, but Buy Corp is highly persuasive. It’s David (the customers) vs Goliath (Buy Corp) and you fit in somewhere in the middle.
INSPIRATION
Some sketches of early graffiti designs. Notice some that are directly related to spending like ‘Snip’ and ‘Just Browsing’ which were rejected as they weren’t pushing the message hard enough.
The graffiti styling was captured from looking around our local areas: Dalston, Clapton and Hackney Wick – it’s everywhere! Some of our favourites are ‘RED WINE’ and ‘SHITHOUSE TO PENTHOUSE’ pictured below, showing the uptick in natural wine drinkers across the city and the gentrification of Hackney Wick.
Graffiti is a perfect insight into what people are thinking.
John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ was also a big inspiration for the theme of Drive Buy, but more from the side of the corporation’s brainwashing technology.
The idea of Delivering parcels came from Deliveroo, Uber and Amazon – three companies that are always in trouble about working conditions. Human rights, modern slavery, tax evasion and zero hour contracts are all topical subjects that play a role in Drive Buy borrowed from these real world corporations.
Drive Buy brings these subjects subtly to the surface by placing drivers in the predicament we often find ourselves, going along with incremental negative change over time that leads to monumental changes in living conditions, especially for people who are most vulnerable to systems of support being removed.
However, it’s a fun to play delivery racing game that subtly hints at this subject matter through the game world and doesn’t take itself too seriously. After all, it’s meant to be an enjoyable experience.
A credit card ‘on fire’ felt like a cool way of showing spending binges.
Some coloured sketches showing dollar symbols and the word profit dripping with excess paint.
FINAL GRAFFITI
As you play Drive Buy, you’ll notice these messages around the game world. Have a look around and see if you can spot any hidden messages or finding meaning in the levels that you may otherwise speed past on the way to make your fastest delivery yet.
In the last few weeks we’ve been watching the community feedback to the The Cold As Ice Update that hit Steam last week.
Now the rhythm on these fortnightly community blog posts is picking up, we’re seeing the value in catching our breath from development. Taking a look around to see what you’ve been up to is just as important as making Drive Buy.
THE “FLING THOSE MINES!” STREAM
Last night was our weekly stream and we tried something a bit different. Hugh acted as live director like he was controlling a drone or helicopter capturing the game as it was played whilst giving live commentary.
Shout out to for Morbid_Wisp joining us on the stream and afterwards told us it was so hard playing against us “It was worse than Dark Souls 2” playing against the developers, but he did put up a great fight and was top for quite a long time.
UPCOMING EVENTS
23rd April – Drive Buy Roadshow at Payload Studios
17th May – Drive Buy Roadshow at UKIE
SHOUTOUTS
Last week we dropped 250 keys and we welcomed new drivers over the weekend. Here are a few of our favourite streams from the week by K.Doctor, Bionic Vapor (because of the little toy cars they’re sat in) and our own clip from yesterdays official stream.
PRO TIP: SHOCKWAVE DETONATOR
Found a mine somewhere dastardly? The shockwave power-up can double as a detonator and with a little bit of patience and a whole lot of luck, you might bag yourself a brag worthy kill – just like this video.
The latest Drive Buy update (2283) might be our best yet… Loads of new stuff, check the changelog. Our favourite? The updated FREEZE RAY – now you can boost through frozen rivals to take them out.
For the directors among you, there’s a new camera mode for capturing your whip from mind melting angles. It can be really helpful for capturing gameplay footage to use for stream intros, cool screenshots or whatever you need.
The last big one is so cool, a reason to jump around and throw some emotes because you can now advertise games natively in Discord to get players into your game. It’s some slick Discord integration using their awesome SDK. Thanks Discord!
WHY IS IT SO COLD IN HERE?
Powerups, that’s why. Specifically the Freeze Ray as it’s got an overhaul. Who’d of thought that boosting into frozen players would be so awesome? Well it is, and just like flicking that mine off, it’s a fine art. We’ll be watching your streams for some well timed ice smashing.
The rocket also got an update. A reticle to show who it’s going to aim at (how have we done without it so far?) and a marker to show when a rocket is behind you for all those streamers who play without audio.
Mines detonate faster, we might make them even faster too. Tell us what you think on the Discord #DriveBuy channel.
CAMERA CONTROLS
Capturing footage of Drive Buy is hard! It was for us and it’s definitely true for anyone, the game is just so fast paced, it’s a blur of stuff. But also, the perspective is also the same and we didn’t think it showed of the game properly or even showed off the assets we’d created the best.
So we made a kind of Director mode where you can follow vehicles.
Enable ‘Camera Mode’ in the Options > Game > Enable Camera Mode)
Free camera, follow target and attach camera to target modes
Option to hide UI in camera mode and in game mode for cleaner captures
Different camera speed settings for precise or quick movement in camera mode
Option to auto-attach camera to projectiles for cool kill-shots
Join our game!
DISCORD INTEGRATION
We really like Discord, it’s the place where we get to chat to you all about what’s going on in the game and where we take your feedback into our development sessions.
Now we’ve integrated the Discord SDK you can see other members of the community playing and advertise your matches directly in Discord.
The best thing is it’s possible to press ‘Join game’ right in Discord and it will boot up Drive Buy and automagically connect to the game, wherever it is in the world, regardless of region.
SALES TO TIMER
We played some more Mario Kart and saw their game modes had much better names than ours, so we renamed “Sell” mode to “Delivery Battle” so it makes more sense. But the big deal is that the sales target is now gone and has been replaced with a simple timer.
CONNECTION STATUS
Loading screen now correctly shows a live services connection status. This was a major issue on last weeks stream when Steam went down and we couldn’t play with any of you! Now it’s easier to find out why.
We had to slow this down a lot… it happens pretty fast usually.
BOOSTING INTO WALLS
You know when the boost trail got all crinkly? Well, Boosting directly into a wall continuously will now disable boost quicker (which was the problem). That’s now also true if you’re determined to drive through rival players…
Look at that pink boost trail
BUILD 2283 CHANGELOG
Updated the freeze ray powerup, players can now be killed by boosting into them
Updated freeze timer to to be less for players who smash the A escape button
Added rocket target reticule
Added rocket marker that shows rockets coming from behind
Updated Mine detonation time, reduced from 4s to 3.5s
Added camera controls (enable in the Options)
Added free look camera
Added follow target camera
Added attach camera
Added option to hide UI in camera mode and in game mode for cleaner captures
Added different camera speed settings for precise or quick movement in camera mode
Added option to auto-attach camera to projectiles for cool kill-shots
Added Discord SDK
Added Discord status message showing players in Drive Buy
Added joining game via Discord request
Added start game through Discord
Renamed “Sell mode” to “Delivery Battle”
Replace product count down with a timer (it just makes more sense, try it)
Updated boost burn rate, it now depletes faster when driving into a wall or other players
Removed tutorial requirement (Thanks BatPrince!)
Added services connection status on game load
Fixed the mouse highlighting menu items when the controller was being used
Fixed loading screen, it now correctly shows level and game mode immediately
Fixed chat options sometimes stuck on screen
Fixed rockets sometimes falling out of the air
Fixed mines could be placed outside of the level
Fixed a bug to stop the shockwave being able to detonate your own mine.
Fixed “New” text on “Drivers” on main menu showing when nothing is new.
Since we have a few new faces around here, allow me to introduce myself: I’m Hugh from Glitchers . I’ll be bringing you announcements on everything Drive Buy through our social platforms and hosting the weekly Twitch Stream. I wanted to give you a rundown of what will you can expect in upcoming Drive Buy blog posts.
Each week there will be a new blog post, alternating between either a development or community update. When there’s a new build to shout about, I’ll be letting you know about all the cool new features and between those weeks I’ll be taking the content you’ve created and writing up a community post. Pretty simple!
This is our first community blog post, so welcome! In future this post will range from player shoutouts to game play tips and tricks showing off the latest new features released in the latest Drive Buy update.
Here, you will also find details of upcoming events, competitions and announcements
This week we’ve added a new preview map for you to try called “Canary” — it’s surrounded by a breathtaking water feature and it’s really fun to see far across the map.
When driving around Canary the water is most noticeable at the northeast side, with skyscrapers surrounding it. This level is loosely based on Canary Wharf area of London which is right next to the Thames, it looks super dystopian when lit up at night
We’ve also started marked out the career section on the main menu so in the coming weeks we will be resetting the XP earned for every player so we can fully test this out. More details on that next week.
THIS WEEK IN DEVELOPMENT
Build 2247 Changelog
Added: NEW map – “Canary“
Fixed: UI issue with games list
Fixed: connecting screen not being dismissed if there was an error connecting
Drivers (previously Customisation)
Updated: Customisation section has been renamed to ‘Drivers’
Added: New items are tagged as “New” so you can easily find what you unlocked
Fixed: scrolling text for long item names
Lobby
Added: Games automatically start when everyone is ready
Added: Can view Steam profiles of people you are playing with
Added: Manage bot players directly
Added: a sound when a player joins your game
Main Menu
Updated: main menu options to read ‘Play’, ‘Drivers’ and ‘Career’
Added: “NEW” tag to show new unlocks you haven’t yet looked at
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
Follow Drive Buy on Steam
Share this insider knowledge with your friends and invite them to sign-up for the BETA.
The Join Game Update
This past week we’ve been working on improving the join game experience. We’ve made the experience of being invited to a lobby or party, less overwhelming. We want to allow for a more seamless joining experience, so joining a game in another region will automatically swap you to that region. You can also change the region without having to quit the game and navigate back to the options screen.
THIS WEEK IN DEVELOPMENT
Games List is now region free
You can view all current online games
You can change region without restarting the game
Joining a game in another region will automatically swap you to that region.
Steam Join improvements:
Join via invite
Join a friends game
Started setup for allowing other join methods i.e Discord.
The latest Drive Buy build is available Now
AND FINALLY…
250 new keys have dropped, see you in the game over the weekend! Still not got yours? Make sure you’re on the list at DriveBuyGame.com and we’ll be dropped more keys next week.
DRIVE BUY: SECOND STOP… USTWO GAMES
Our second stop for the Drive Buy Roadshow was with our friends at Ustwo, known most recently for their beautiful Monument Valley game series.
‘Dizzy Totem’ emote
Staying true to our word of bring something for the developers we visit, we created 2 custom emotes for the event, the Dizzy Totem and Laughing Crow
‘Laughing Crow’ emote
It’s always great fun playing with other development studios, the feedback is essential, but most of all, UsTwo Games enjoyed playing Drive Buy!Next stop is Payload Studios, creators of TerraTech.
If you want to take part in the closed beta, you can get yourself a key at DriveBuyGame.com
STREAMING EVERY TUESDAY, 7PM
We’re now streaming every Tuesday at 7pm GMT. If you missed this week, catch up on last Tuesdays stream on the Glitchers Youtube channel and join us next time.
The best part of our weekly streams are getting to play with the community. If you’ve already got a key then hit us up on our Discord and come play with us on the stream next Tuesday.
From now on we’ll also be streaming ad-hoc throughout the week, so keep an eye on discord and twitter for our stream announcements provided by the Restream.io service (thanks!).
EXCLUSIVE UNLOCKS!
Get exclusive unlocks for streaming Drive Buy.
We’re more than happy for you to stream Drive Buy to your audience, just mention where your viewers can join the closed beta — DriveBuyGame.com.
We’ll be rewarding streamers posting to our Discord #drive-buy a special gift card filled with some exclusive unlocks.
How can I get involved?
Post your video to YouTube or Twitch
Send us the link on the Glitchers Discord #streaming channel
We’ll post a confirmation that we see it, and the gift card will be ready to open next launch
THIS WEEK IN DEVELOPMENT
Whip mines by boosting and using handbrake
Powerup tweaks-Mine whipping
Magnet power-up now drags rival drivers towards your vehicle making it stronger and easier for new players. Escape it with… boost!
Added ‘BREAK ICE’ to the ice-beam. Reduces the length you’re stuck in ice by 2 seconds, so get MASHING that button.
Break ice by smashing the A or X button
Added table of assets for showing what items you can unlock in the closed beta. Check it out at DriveBuyGame.com
Added ‘Volume Sliders’ for fine-grain audio control
Tweaked keyboard controls, still lots of work to do here
Updated Unity to 2017.4.22f1
Planned new lobby flow and universal game list
Planned region-less game joining
The latest build is available now on Steam.
SHOUT OUTS
BionicVapour — thanks for the games, the lols and the feedback
K.Doctor — thanks for making us lose… in our own game…
[TCPZ] Iamnotdefective — thanks for joining our mid-week streams and keeping us on our toes.
TwiztedOutlaw & NekoBun — Thanks for streaming Drive Buy
And thanks to everyone else for playing, hope to see you in the upcoming weeks.
AND FINALLY…
250 new keys have dropped, see you in the game over the weekend! Still not got yours? Make sure you’re on the list at DriveBuyGame.com and we’ll be dropped more keys next week.
Show your support: Follow Drive Buy on Steam, join Glitchers on Discord and follow Drive Buy development progress on the Glitchers dev blog.
Share this insider knowledge with your friends on social media and invite them to sign-up for the BETA. Stay tuned for more details on our Discord and Twitter. More questions? Give our FAQ a read!
