By Dylan Moran
New Zealand's always had one of the best drifting communities in the world, and now that community is helping a locally-made game and some NZ musicians get major international exposure.
Drift Legends, created by Parkside Media, went live on the iTunes store on Monday.
The game has already become the number one racing game in the New Zealand store, and is climbing up the international ranks.
"It was released on Monday, we've been working on it since August," says Parkside Media's Darren Cottingham.
"In 2008 I came up with the idea of doing this drifting game online and we made the website. Then when I went to the States I met a game developer on a train, he showed me the iPhone, iPad, and within 4 hours of getting back to work in New Zealand we began developing this game for the iPhone. I saw a massive amount of possibility."
Unlike many racing games, Drift Legends doesn't rely on the iPhone's accelerometer to run - instead, it uses a simple button or wheel system to start a drift, then the player must counter steer to maintain the slide.
Unlike many games in the iTunes store it's not one you can simply jump in, fluff around for three or four minutes, then never touch again.
"The thing with racing games is your standard racing game you turn right, you go right. Drifting doesn't work like that. A lot of people find that counter-intuitive, so it is a bit more challenging. It usually takes about five minutes before people get the hang of it. But in saying that, I've played this game over 20,000 times in development, but I still pick it up and play it," says Cottingham.
It's no Gran Turismo though - don't expect to see your ER34 Nissan Skylines with an option to swap in an RB26 engine just for giggles, or even just your stock standard Mazda any time soon.
"The main problem with that, I spoke to all the manufacturers and they want commission. We approached the likes of Mazda, and they wanted tens of thousands of dollars just to be in the game, which is like 'I'm creating a game that's gonna promote your brand, but I have to pay'," says Cottingham.
"So when you see iPhone games come out and they've got real cars in, they're basically just hoping they don't get caught."
New Zealand's had some of its top drifters turn into exports over the years - Mad Mike, Jairus Wharerau and Justin Rood, among others, have all competed overseas at some stage - and although he didn't pick up the sport here, Rhys Millen is always there or thereabouts in the D1NZ scene, and the Drift Legends team are hoping to be able to export some Kiwi music in the same fashion.
“The game features 15 tracks, and every single one of them is by a New Zealand artist," says Cottingham.
“I used to be a composer, I did that for about 10 years, so I know a few people. I used my contacts and went up to them and said 'this is an opportunity to get global exposure'. So we got all these artists, and we put them in the credits with a link through to the iTunes store. Since we launced we've had 400 clickthroughs to iTunes. These bands now have a story to tell their fanbase, and are getting some international promotion," says Cottingham.
"Some of the bands are friends, and I wanted to give them an opportunity for exposure, and other people I got through putting the word out. I wanted a mixture of music, so we've got some kinda funky stuff all the way through to some punk stuff. You need to get a name out there, you never know who's gonna see it, and it could just be picked up by a bigger company. For us and them, it's all about getting that little kinda lead-in to the big markets."
Drift Legends is available from the iTunes store now.
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