Estimated 10-20 minutes to read
Howdy folks,
We're thrilled to announce the launch of the official Wreckfest 2 development blog!
If you're reading this, you're already part of something special: the journey to create the next generation of the definite alternative motorsports game. This blog is where we'll be pulling back the curtain on how we're building Wreckfest 2. We want to share our design philosophy, the challenges we're tackling, the systems we're creating, and most importantly, why we're making the choices we are. Game development is messy, often full of surprises, and we think that journey is worth sharing with you, our dear players.
So, what can you expect from this blog? We're not here to feed you corporate speak or vague promises. We're here to share the real deal, and yes, we're admittedly going to share some of our challenges too. When we said we wanted to develop the game with you, our community, we meant that. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and this blog is one of the ways we're going to make sure you're part of the process.
Ready to take the wheel? Let's dive into what makes Wreckfest 2 tick!
We're going to kick off the blog by diving deep into something that's going to be absolutely fundamental to how you'll experience Wreckfest 2: the career mode. This isn't going to be your typical “win races, unlock cars, rinse and repeat” setup. We've completely reimagined what a career mode can (and in our opinion, should) be like in a racing game, and we can't wait to tell you how and why.
Before we really get into the new stuff, let's talk about what we learned from the original game and what we're bringing forward from it. Wreckfest has a unique proposition, an alternative motorsports game combined with physics-based, action-packed gameplay, and much to our joy, it found its audience. Our view is that the core proposal is super solid, and we're not about to mess with what works. Instead, we're doubling down on our strengths while adding fresh elements to the mix to address the weaknesses.
To not mess this up, we've done extensive work to understand what makes Wreckfest the game that we and our players love. As far as we can see, the essence consists of three key things: alternative motorsports authenticity, best-in-business destruction, and dynamic gameplay. And these aren't just buzzwords: they're the foundation everything else is built on.
For Wreckfest 2, we've identified seven core game pillars that guide every decision we make:
Live the Alternative Motorsports Fantasy – We want you to feel like you're actually living the grassroots racing experience, from weekend warrior to recognized champion.
Every Race Different – Dynamic gameplay where anything can happen. Sudden crashes, mechanical failures, lunatic AI. No two races should ever feel the same.Best in Business Destruction – This is of course our killer feature, and we're making sure nobody can steal our thunder. More detailed deformation, better crash physics, improved effects, the works.Play the Game The Way You Want – Whether you're a racer, crasher, or just here for fun, the game should reward your playstyle or whatever else do in the game’s context without forcing you down a single path.Personalize Your Experience – Make your cars distinctly yours and show your creations to the world.Multiply the Fun in Multiplayer – Racing is best enjoyed with friends, and we're making it easier than ever to wreck together.For Players, With Players – This is going to be a living, evolving game built on your feedback. We're in this together for the long haul.Now, let's get into the meat of today's update: the career system.
Let's be honest about something: most racing game careers are, well... kind of boring once you've experienced the pattern. You start with a slow car, you win races, you earn experience points, and you unlock the next tier of races, then you rinse and repeat ad nauseam until you've climbed all the ladders there are. It works, sure, but it doesn't really reflect what real motorsport racing is all about, and even more importantly, it ends up giving all players a remarkably similar experience.
You see, one of the shortcomings of the original Wreckfest career mode is that while the individual events were often fun, there wasn't really much variation in the career structure. If you loved banger racing but didn't care about other disciplines, tough luck: to progress, you had to play through everything anyway. If you preferred crashing over racing, you still had to win races to progress, and if you happened to be the player who just wanted to race, the other way. That didn't sit right with us.Now don’t get us wrong, the original Wreckfest did its job as the career mode was functional and got you through the content. Yet, we knew we could do better. We knew we had to do better. Because here's the thing: Along the years we’ve been listening to your feedback and following the community channels to see how Wreckfest is played, and it’s clear to us that Wreckfest attracts all sorts of different kinds of players. Some of you are pure racers who live for that perfect lap time. Others are here to cause absolute carnage in demolition derbies. And some of you? You just want to see what happens when you pit a lawnmower against the fleet of school bus and enjoy the ensuing chaos.So, why should all of you follow the same path?
This really became our north star for Wreckfest 2's career mode:
Let players experience the game their way, when they want, how they want.The career mode we're building revolves around something we, for the lack of a better term, call player profiles. They represent the different ways people play Wreckfest, and we've identified three core profiles that we fell capture most of our player base:
The Racer – This player is all about competition, clean racing lines, perfect apexes, and crossing that finish line first. They want to prove they're the fastest driver on the track.
The Crasher – This player loves contact. They're here for the spectacular collisions, the tactical wrecking, the satisfaction of turning an opponent's car into scrap metal while somehow keeping theirs running.The Bonebreaker – This player just wants to have fun. They're experimenting with ridiculous vehicle scenarios, enjoying absurd game modes, and generally embracing the mayhem without worrying too much about podium finishes.
Here's what's crucial: we shouldn’t be making you pick one style and stick with it. You can be a racer in one event, switch to full demolition derby crasher mode in the next and then mess around with some ridiculous special event right after. The career mode needs to adapt to how you're playing right now, not how you played yesterday or how we think you should play tomorrow. The career system in Wreckfest 2 is built around giving you that same freedom. We want you to roleplay the career path of your fantasy motorsports counterpart, and we want to reward you for playing how you want to play.
Rather than one linear career path, Wreckfest 2 structures its career around multiple disciplines: distinct motorsport categories that represent different aspects of alternative racing culture. Right now, we're planning four core disciplines for the base game:
European Racing
This discipline captures the wild world of European grassroots racing: think rallycross-style close-quarters racing on dirt, tarmac, and mixed surfaces. This covers everything from folk racing (smaller fields, more tactical racing and less contact) to Central European style autocross and stockcar style races with 24-car chaos where wrecking is the main attraction.
One thing we learned from the original Wreckfest is that calling something “racing” and then making every event play exactly the same gets stale fast. So, within European Racing, you'll find variety. Some events reward more precise driving with fewer cars on track. Others throw you into absolute mayhem with full grids where survival is an accomplishment in itself.
Demolition Derby
This is of course Wreckfest's DNA, and it's getting the premium treatment it deserves. Demolition derby as a discipline will take you from small-town fairground derbies all the way to massive international festival events.
Thanks to improvements in our AI navigation systems, we can now create demolition derby venues with more interesting complex layouts and obstacles and that’s something we're actively pursuing and excited about.
Banger Racing
The original Wreckfest drew inspiration from banger racing, but in the sequel, we're planning to go all-in on delivering an authentic banger racing experience. Banger racing is a uniquely British motorsport where old, cheap cars are raced with full contact allowed, and as such it’s a perfect fit for a game like Wreckfest.
We're planning to structure the Banger Racing discipline to mirror real-world progression: starting with Rookie Bangers, moving up to National Bangers, and ultimately competing in Unlimited Bangers.
American Racing
This is the American equivalent of European Racing: grassroots stock car racing at its finest. We're talking about the roots of American oval racing, before it became the multi-million dollar spectacle: think beat-up sedans, figure-eight tracks, dirt speedways, and the kind of racing where contact isn't just expected, it's encouraged.
Even though we value player freedom, to give you some structure and sense of progress each discipline isn't just a collection of random events: they’re broken into a number of divisions that represent your progress from a weekend warrior to recognized champion. We're planning up to four divisions per discipline:
National Division – Local grassroots events, cheap and banged-up cars, low-pressure competition. This is where everyone starts.Regional Division – Step up to more competitive regional events with better cars and tougher opponents. Your career is starting to take off.Continental Division – Higher-profile events at premier venues with more extreme vehicles. You're becoming a name in the scene.International Division – The elite tier. International competition, the finest venues, the most extreme cars, and the toughest drivers from around the world clashing against each other.
What's critical here is that divisions aren't just cosmetic labels as they will genuinely represent progression. The cars get better, the competition gets fiercer, the venues get more prestigious, and the challenge ramps up. You'll need to upgrade your vehicles and improve your skills to compete as you move up the ranks.
But here's the real kicker: you choose which disciplines to progress in and when, and your progress in them can and will overlap. Love Demolition Derby but don't care about European Racing? Focus entirely on derby and climb those divisions. Want to dabble in everything? Spread your efforts across multiple disciplines simultaneously. The choice is entirely yours.
So how do you actually progress then? Here's where things get really interesting.Let’s get this straight right away: career (in the traditional meaning of a set of events, either linear or freeform) is just one of the many facets of metagame, and we want to contradict this as in our opinion doing pretty much anything in the context of the game should be rewarded and make you progress in your so-called career. For example, creating car paint designs and sharing those should make you progress in your “career” and what we mean by career now is not so much a fixed set of events but the whole metagame representing your fantasy motorsports career.Now getting back on track, if we’re talking about the actual career events your progression through them is based on containers of events that you must complete successfully. Doing so rewards you with unlock points that can be used to unlock further divisions and new disciplines at your discretion.In most racing games (admittedly the original Wreckfest was also guilty of this), events are often strictly pass or fail. You either win (or place high enough) and progress, or youfail and feel like you've wasted your time. This creates a frustrating experience for those players who want to experiment or play differently than the game expects. It also means that if you're struggling with a particular event, you're stuck.We're throwing that model out.Instead, each division features a collection of accomplishments, and to meet their requirements, you need to accumulate enough of specific type of score across those events. While the exact way to earn score varies depending on the discipline and game mode, here's the beautiful part: at the end of the day you decide how to earn that score and which events to play.This is now getting into the nitty-gritty details but to illustrate our point, let's use a practical example. Imagine an accomplishment called “Finnish Folk Racing Champion” that requires 10,000 points of racing score across six available events. A skilled racer might earn those points in just three events by winning and getting a bonus by posting fastest laps. A player who's less skilled at racing but enjoys the challenge might need to complete four or five events finishing somewhere mid-pack. Someone who sucks at racing but really loves drifting might earn points by finishing near the back of a race but throwing their car sideways in style.All three players succeeded, but they got there differently based on their skills and preferences. Nobody feels like they've wasted their time because every event contributes to progress as long as you're engaging with the gameplay.Like hinted at above, the scoring system itself adapts to the event type. In racing-focused folk racing events, you earn more points for finishing positions and fast laps. In more contact-focused events, the scoring balances racing and wrecking equally. In demolition derby events, only destruction matters. The game recognizes what kind of event you're in and rewards appropriate behavior.
The career mode we're building for Wreckfest 2 represents a fundamental philosophy shift. We're moving away from forcing players down a single path and toward empowering them to chart their own course through the world of alternative motorsports.
It's more complex to design and build than a traditional linear career, absolutely. But we believe it's worth it because it creates a more engaging, replayable, and personal experience. Your career will genuinely be your career, not just the same path everyone else follows.For now, we wanted to lay out the big picture: why we're doing this, what it means for the game, and how it'll let you play Wreckfest 2 the way you want. And to be honest, we can’t wait to show it all to you!
That's a hefty amount of information to digest, and we've only just scratched the surface of what we're building for Wreckfest 2. In the next blog post, Career Part 2, we will be covering these topics:
- Unlock Points: Freedom of Choice
- Side Quests and Special Events- Regional Branches: Authenticity Matters- Expandability: A living Career- What this all means for you as a player- Metagame Integration: Cars, Customization and Sharing
But before we wrap up, we want to address one important thing: we know that some of what we're sharing today is still in development and might change based on your feedback and our testing. When we show you our design plans, we're being transparent about our goals but we're also acknowledging that iterative development means things evolve, so please keep in mind that pretty much everything is subject to change if we figure a better approach. We're not going to overpromise but we're going to work with you to make this the best game we can, and rest assured, it will be Wreckfest through and through.
We're on an epic journey here, and we couldn't be more excited to have you along for the ride. This blog is just one of the ways we're going to stay connected with you throughout development. We'll also try to be active on our community forums, social media, and wherever else you want to hang out and talk about alternative motorsports mayhem.
To wrap this post up for good, here's our question for you: What playstyle appeals to you most: Racer, Crasher, or Bonebreaker? And which disciplines are you most excited to dive into? Let us know on our Discord server, the Wreckfest subreddit or wherever as we're genuinely curious to hear how you're thinking about approaching the career.
Thanks for reading our first dev blog post. We'll be back in one week with Part 2 of the Career Dev Blog. Until then, let’s keep the comms open! Drive hard and die last.— The Bugbear Team