Mild Peril presents
1975. A dead man’s will, four billion in the pot and a continent of roads between you and the urn. The deceased requests a little noise.
The reading
Cornelius Vane was the richest man in the Federation of Valmora, and he left the world the way he lived in it: loudly, and with a codicil.
His will was recorded on a gramophone record, because he did not trust anyone to read it with feeling. The family gathered in the house on the cliff. The executor lowered the needle. Four billion, it turned out, would go to the heir who drives the length of Valmora, from the Port Saffron promenade to Endmost Isle, and makes the most noise on the way.
You are Wade Kessler, Mr Vane’s driver of twelve years, who never once said anything interesting and was left the right to try. Beside you is Vee Lark, the late Mr Vane’s fiancée, who witnessed the will and so was left only the dog. She knows every clause. You know every road. Fifty-fifty.
“If you’re hearing this, I’m dead. Several of you will want proof.”Cornelius Vane, at 78 rpm
Pre-alpha trailer
What you inherit
A car combat game about a family, a fortune and the most expensive drive in the history of the Federation. Here is what is in the will so far.
Every frame sits on cold-press paper. Rain makes the ink run, and a crash leaves a stain on the road that stays there for the rest of the race. It is the most expensive-looking way we could find to dent a sedan.
Noise is the currency of the will. Wrecks, near misses, demolished municipal benches, a hearse doing ninety on the promenade: Mr Pell, Notary-Assessor, counts all of it from a white helicopter, and Radio Valmora reads out the Registry every evening, between the weather and the funerals. He is never impressed. He writes it down anyway.
Twin nephews with one alibi between them. An eldest daughter who drives her own hearse. A cousin with forty channels of cable television, a third ex-wife, a cook with a ladle and a stepson with a great many beads. Every rival heir has a car, a temper and a reason, and every province ends with one of them in your mirrors.
The Long Spine runs the length of Valmora: seaside resorts, a flooding canal town, jungle, salt desert, a dam, a neon bay, steelworks, mountains, a frozen lake and, at the very end, Endmost Isle. The weather has opinions in all of them.
Valmora is full of people the will forgot. A mechanic in a flooded garage, a quarry blaster, a rancher with a barn full of horses, an air-show pilot, a pirate disc jockey. Get them out alive and they ride with you, and each one changes the car, the route or the odds.
Wade drives. Vee reads the small print, out loud, at speed. Probate the bulldog takes the back seat and the moral high ground. Between the races the story plays out in painted panels and fully voiced scenes, with the dry wit of people who were left nothing and are taking it personally.
The heirs
Drove Mr Vane for twelve years and never once said anything interesting. Left the right to try. Has driven worse roads, and will again.
Former model, former fiancée, current dog owner. Witnessed the will, so legally she gets nothing. Practically, she has a plan.
Inherits nothing. Minds everything. Rides in the back, sleeps through collisions and wakes for biscuits.
The road
The Long Spine highway runs from the beaches of Port Saffron to Endmost Isle. Chapter one covers the first stretch; the rest is being painted.
Port SaffronChapter one
LowmarshChapter one
The Coast RoadChapter one
Verdance
Saltglass
Grieve Gorge
Lumen Bay
Cinderworks
The Teeth
Endmost IsleGallery
Frames from the pre-alpha build and paintings from the studio walls. Tap to enlarge.
Developer diary
Sketches, wrong turns, playtests and the occasional small victory, written up as we go. All 20 entries →
Today Rally Mortis gets a front door: this site, a list to join and our first trailer, cut from the pre-alpha build to the main title. What pre-alpha means, how we made the trailer and what happens next.
For the first time, the whole of chapter one plays from the needle dropping on the will to the last wreath landing in the canal. What is in it, what is broken and what comes next.
The interface of Rally Mortis is a solicitor's desk: paper, ink, wax and a clock. On designing a display you can read at speed, the menu in a dead man's study and the settings that let you choose black ink instead of red.
Get notified
Chapter one is nearly finished. Leave an address and we will send word when the doors open.
One email when chapter one opens to players, perhaps one more when the whole road does. No newsletter about our feelings.
