Pacific Drive Interview: Creative Director Alex Dracott
Pacific Drive has been one of my most anticipated games ever since I got the chance to play it at PAX East 2023. I had the opportunity to chat with Ironwood Studios Creative Director Alex Dracott about the development of Pacific Drive and the inspiration that led to this unique and exciting game. Check out our full interview in the article below.
Luke: Awesome. Well Alex thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. I got to play Pacific Drive for the first time at PAX East and it was one of my favorite games of the show, so I was super excited to play it again today and get the chance to chat with you a little bit.
I’m first super curious to hear a little bit about the formation of Ironwood Studios. I know this is your first title, you’re based in Seattle, but I would love to hear the background of what brought the studio together and the culture and mindset you brought into developing this really unique game.
Alex: Yeah let's see, Ironwood was started in 2019. I had left Oculus shortly before that. You know, taking the big gamble of starting a studio right before a global pandemic hit, the irony is not lost on me. It was a silicon valley job and then off to the unknown.
But during the pandemic we had talked with a couple of people early on. We had a good paper presentation, a good paper pitch, but we ended up hunkering down and working on a playable demo. And it was that playable demo that grabbed people and that was you know by the end of March 2021 we were ramping up and ready to go. So we grew to 10 people pretty quickly and since then we have grown a little bit more and been working hard on the game.
Luke: That’s awesome and for listeners that maybe aren’t familiar with Pacific Drive can you give the quick elevator pitch of what this game is?
Alex: Absolutely! So Pacific Drive is a run based driving survival game. You find yourself trapped in the Olympic Exclusion Zone with only an old station wagon for survival and the game is taking these excursions out deeper into the zone while trying to unravel the mystery of what is a little bit special about this car.
Luke: I love it! I’m curious what was the inspiration behind the realistic simulation elements of the game? I think that was the first thing that really struck me were things like having to turn on the parking brake or being able to see the environment really clearly in your rearview mirror while you are driving the car. Why was that important in your design philosophy and what inspired that idea?
Alex: I think we ended up trying to strive for a balance. You hit on a bunch of stuff so I’ll try to hit it all. When it comes to the handling and feel of the car, you know we wanted you to know what you were driving on but we didn’t want to annoy you with it. We just wanted it to inform your decisions because you get to choose all of these cool upgrades, so offroad feels pretty rough. But you can get off road tires and there’s other surface types and other tires that you can get. We want those decisions to be meaningful.
In terms of the physical interactions with the car itself, this is something we have been doing for a long time because we want to connect you to the car. That’s one of our biggest priorities is building up that relationship. When we were initially starting out we were prototyping a menu based system where you could open up the equipment menu while looking at a panel and we realized early on that while its a little bit more physical and potentially more tedious, the fact that you have to take off the old panel, put it down on the ground, pickup the new one and put it on there, that’s you building the car and that’s the work that you’re putting in right. That’s the labor in the parts and labor. And it's those things that are really helping to get people attached to their car, build those relationships up and you care about it right? Because when something weird happens out in the zone and that panel pops off you’re gonna be like “aww man I did that I put it on there.”
Luke: I think it adds to these really cool branching immersive experiences that players are having. I know my partner got a chance to play it at PAX East as well and one of the highlights of the demo for us was how different our experiences were. I know I ended up exploring a mobile medical unit and she went in the complete opposite direction and ended up getting caught up in a completely different element of gameplay. How was that part of your philosophy with the game and what can players expect in terms of differences in playthrough?
Alex: So it's definitely an important part of how we wanted to set things up. We found early on that the types of stories that were helping to build relationships with the car and the player were the emergent ones. The “Oh I forgot to put my hand brake on and I’m rolling down a hill and a storm is coming and it's raining!” People remember that, they care about that far more than anything scripted that we could put together.
We do have a main story that is important for providing context to the world, you and the character, but the moment, the creation of different things is going to be very different for different players. You know everytime that you pick a different destination on your overworld map that you’re going into in our main structure, not necessarily for the demo. We are randomizing what map it's going to be, we’re gonna randomize the weather, all of the anomaly locations, much of the resources/loot. Anything we can change we do because we want you to not know what’s around the corner and that was an important thing for us. Cautious driving and being unsure of what’s going on.
Luke: That’s really cool and it definitely comes through in the game. I’m curious as the game has such a unique style, vibe and aesthetic. Is there any piece of media, whether it's a video game, film or a book that influenced the overall tone of the game that you are going for?
Alex: Yeah I would be hard pressed to find a single game. I think when it comes to a weird almost alien, isolationist perspective on stuff and I mean that as alien, isolationist not Alien Isolation.
Luke: (Laughs). Got it.
Alex: The game Stalker always blew me away when I was younger. Like the sense of place that zone had was incredible. And as I’ve read more books, I read the Southern Reach Trilogy. I’m a big fan of the Dark Tower books and there are some fantastic vibes to those spaces. Those were definitely the starting places that we looked to.
Luke: That’s awesome and was the Pacific Northwest setting because it was close to home or was there an additional reason behind choosing that?
Alex: You know I think I could say there’s additional reasons but I think it’s just padding on the main one, which is that it is close to home. It’s where I grew up and I think it is a wonderful location full of mystery that so many other mediums have taken advantage of. You got Twin Peaks, weird X-Files episodes, Gravity Falls. There is something out there in the woods in terms of a feeling right and it's an original idea that I had while I was just driving around on the Peninsula in the rain by myself.
Luke: That’s awesome! I’m also curious about the scope of the game amidst the conversation about roguelike elements and replayability. I’m not concerned with length, but I’m wondering, is this a game players will stick with and keep coming back to if that makes sense?
Alex: We certainly hope so. The base game itself is going to take a decent chunk of time to beat, but because of the nature of the game, while you may have a goal of progressing the story, you're still having your own adventures along the way. You may decide to do the next thing, you really want those fancy tires or you might need a resource that you don’t know where it is yet. That may mean exploring more, that may mean saving up or pursuing or unlocking different recipes. It's a very expansive series of “well I want this so I’m probably going to pursue that.” There’s all the permanent upgrades that you can get at the garage and then there’s a lot to find out in the zone in terms of more resources, more anomalies and things you can scan and learn more information about. So we are definitely hoping that we will keep players intrigued for quite a while.
Luke: For sure. And with that is there a throughline narrative that all players will experience in a sense? Or does that really vary from playthrough to playthrough as well?
Alex: There is a main story to the game. It starts with the start of the game and there is an end. You can play after, so if you want to keep unlocking new recipes and stuff like that it is 100% a part of the game. But yeah the main story itself will take a bit.
Luke: Very cool. I’m also curious, after I played it and I also had a couple of colleagues who also played the game we felt like it would be a really good fit in VR. Is that something you and the team would ever be interested in exploring or is that totally off the table?
Alex: You know we’ve heard that a lot. I think there’s a lot of interest in VR. I think right now we’re focusing on getting this version of the game out the door. You know I come from a background in VR so I’m pretty well versed in what is easy and what is not, but for right now we are just focusing on this version of the game.
Luke: Absolutely fair! In terms of release timeline and rollout, what do you have in terms of updates on that for players that are looking forward to it?
Alex: Coming out in Q1 of 2024! On PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Luke: Amazing! Love it! And then my closing question, across your different media interviews and previews of the game is there something that you feel like players will really be surprised by that hasn’t been discussed or showcased? Or something that you and the team are really excited for players to get their hands on?
Alex: Do you want me to tell you what it is too? There is stuff that I think will surprise players for sure.
Luke: I’ll leave it up to your judgment. What you want to put out there.
Alex: I think there’s even interactions in the car that people haven’t checked out yet. But I think overall, it’s the variety of different ways the anomalies and the car and tools that you have can interact. I think it’s gonna surprise people a lot.
Luke: That’s amazing! Well I can’t wait to play it in 2024. I highly recommend folks check it out. Thank you so much for your time! I really appreciate it.
Alex: No worries. Thanks for coming and checking out the game!
