Cultural Interpretation

Creation of a Death Rally collector’s edition

 

Death Rally is a video game for PC developed by Remedy software. It was released in 1996. I got in touch with this title in 1996/1997 being 6-7 years old at the time. I loved it and I still do. After few years I lost much contact with the game. The problem was that as the time progressed Death Rally became incompatible with newer operating systems. That caused a gap in my contact with the game. I still however managed to play the game every so often. In 2009 the game was re-released to modern operating systems as a freeware. The game was extremely popular at the time of its release and its continuous popularity lead to porting of the game to modern OS.  

I have been aware of collector’s edition releases of PC games for a long time. However, I have not been that much aware of the fact that there exists something like a printed game guide (sold separately) for a specific game. I have seen this for the first time during my stay in USA. (You can squeeze money out of everything there.) Combining the two is my point here.

If there was a collector’s edition of Death Rally I would definitely buy it. Here is why. It is very nostalgic for me; the game is still great with much more originality than any other new game; I have never owned anything physical with Death Rally. And the thing is that I am not the only one. And as I mentioned earlier the game was a big hit, a great success. It is nostalgic to tens of thousands of people who would spend couple of bucks to have a great memento of that period.  

I want to create a game guide for Death Rally game. The guide would contain a detailed description of the game principles, individual characters, cars, upgrades, options, tips and tricks and so on. Imagery from the game would be greatly used in it in order to retain the feel of the game for the book as well. A copy of the game itself would be a part of the printed guide. The hard cover for the guide is a must. (I just got a great idea, armor is one of the things that can be upgraded on the cars in the game – the material of the hard cover would be an imitation of a steel armor or a plate of the real steel???) I do not want it to look as a regular manual that is included with most of the games. The hard cover need to carry and protect the disc as well.  I am thinking about other collectible items that could be part of the edition. Still, the creation of the printed guide (book) is the major goal. I will create the guide’s design, layout and content.

Depending on the final quality of the project and possible demand I would like to sell the product. Here comes the thing. Even though the game is a freeware now, the license agreement clearly says that no further distribution or copy making of the game is allowed without the approval from Remedy. After the discussion with one of PC lecturers an option came up. Selling the product on the underground scene in a limited amount. I am still thinking whether to contact the Remedy or not. As soon as I do they will know in the future who is beyond all of that.

Here is what I think is the right approach to the situation. I am going to start working on this project. This includes collecting as much in-game information as possible, playing the game a lot, summarizing the content of different sections I want to include in the guide. Creation of the book’s design and layout of all the pictures and articles will be the most difficult part. After doing all of that this project could end up in digital format only. But I want to push it further and have the printed version made. It is clear that I will not be able to do so much work in such a short time just for one single assignment for one class. But, I have professional practice class and the first assignment is “Creating an instance of Interactive Media …should be real…exist in public.” I talked to Jorge and he said it fine for him. Creating the real printed prototype of the guide according to my computer design would the part done for his class.

Week 3:

-        gathering the data and information from the game and about the game

-        creating sections and dividing the content

-        finding the sources for in-game images

Week 4:

-        gathering of the images of cars, characters, bonus icons, tracks, upgrades, weapons, making screenshots

Week 5:

-        book cover design, design of the cover/holder for CD

Week 6

-        layout of  the book, location of the pictures, articles, fonts used, color schemes

Week 7

-        research the ways how to crate/print/publish the prototype

-        research the materials (aluminum/steel cover for the book with the engraved logo of Death Rally)

Week 8

-        printing and creating of the first prototype

Week 9

-        creation of the second prototype, polishing, improving defects, avoiding mistake from the creation of the first prototype

Week 10

-        class presentation

-        handing in

-        order for 10,000 copies to be printed in China