I'm Brennan Anderson, founder and lead dev of Whatnot Games and Star Racer. Ask Me Anything!

Hello, I'm Brennan, lead dev of Star Racer at Whatnot Games. I started my career at Disney Interactive and worked my up to Crystal Dynamics and Riot Games. I left AAA last year to pursue indie dev full time, and made Star Racer as my debut indie title!

Also joining me for the AMA are:

\- Brandon Rodriguez (Salt and Pixel), u/XsaltandpixelX, Artist.

\- Dmitrii Bondarev (Crossbridge Games), u/Dry-Length-4685, Producer of the Switch Port.

Here is the launch trailer for the Switch version of Star Racer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0z-5cv-Ck8

Do you have any professional race games like grid autosport coming up...

Didn't know about this game, going to buy it now. Will you release a physical version for switch 1? I tend to play more a game that I know has a physical version

I'm a huge F-Zero fan! I've loved it since GX on the GameCube. What do you think about all the F-Zero spiritual successors that have come out in recent years?

What did you have for breakfast?

I would love to release a physical version! I have to have discussions with the publisher to figure out if we will be doing that and under what circumstances, so I can't make any promises that it will happen other than I genuinely want it to happen. For now there is only the digital version available.

Hi! Unfortunately, there are currently no plans for a physical version. We hope you’ll give the digital version a try and enjoy the game! 😊

How hard is it to avoid the over use of rubber banding in a racing game while providing a decent challenge?

I usually don't eat breakfast, and I haven't eaten yet today! I normally wait until lunch unless my wife wants coffee. If she does, I'll go pick it up and get either a muffin or a mini burrito from our local coffee spot.

i’ve always sucked at these games yet i like to play them, will your game make me feel like less of a loser? 😅

To be completely honest, I haven't played most of them since I've been busy developing Star Racer. I have seen XF and AeroGPX, and I think they look really great, and I especially think AeroGPX has some legs. Now that I'm done developing Star Racer I think I'll have some time to play it. I'm looking forward to the huge jumps!

FastRMX got me excited when it came out, but I was a bit disappointed by the color switching mechanic, and I lost interest in it after a few days.

The racing game I played the most during development was F-Zero 99, which I absolutely adore. I couldn't put it down for weeks, and a few things in it inspired mechanics in Star Racer. The energy balls that you collect inspired the capsules, and the skyway helped me think through some of the flying mechanics and shortcuts.

My main issue with most of the spiritual successors, and the reason I created Star Racer, was that they mostly seem to try and emulate F-Zero X or GX. I love those games, but the original SNES F-Zero is still the GOAT for me. I still have and play it on my SNES original hardware. I was even analyzing each of the vehicle's handling to see how they made them feel good and was using that as a basis early in development for my vehicle handling.

HAHA! Well, I really don't know. I have gotten feedback from some people that the game can be really challenging. What I would say, is check out the free demo on Steam and play around to see if you like the game before purchasing it. I can also give you a few tips:

\- Try more difficulties than the lowest difficulty. Some people find that rookie and pro are sometimes a little easier than novice. I'm not 100% sure why, but maybe because you go faster, you don't get as fatigued throughout the race?

\- Try different vehicles. I worked really hard to make them each feel unique and handle very differently. They each have their own play styles. Mona is great at high speed and high grip steering, but bad at boosting, while Pippi is very slippery, but accelerates really fast. It might take a few races to figure out who you really like!

And fun fact, early in development, I had the monumentally bad idea to mock the player for losing. I was trying to be cheeky and funny. But my development partner dissuaded me from doing that. So now we have a more standard "Try Again" screen instead of any vicious mockery. So hopefully it doesn't make you feel too bad.

Nice! Yeah, I love Aero GPX! It's flight mechanics are so good.

GX is my favorite, but it is awesome to see the OG get some love as well.

Well, you've convinced me. I'm definitely going to pick this up later. Thanks!