Developer diary · since 15 May 2026
Notes from
the garage
How a game about a will gets made: sketches, wrong turns, playtests, the occasional small victory. Written as we go, so some of it will turn out to be wrong.
Pre-alpha, and a trailer
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.
Chapter one, end to end
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.
Ink on the dashboard
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.
The Noise Registry
How do you score a race where the point is to make a scene? A notary in a helicopter, a statement of account, four ways to settle a reading and a deceased who dislikes encores.
Final viewing: Prudence
The first boss of Rally Mortis is the eldest daughter, in a hearse, in a cemetery by the water, grieving professionally. How we built a fight in three parts, and why it has wreaths.
Juno fixes the car, not the people who crash it
Valmora is full of people the will forgot. The first one you can save is a mechanic in a flooded garage in Lowmarsh. On rescue missions, a tow truck and a crew that rides with you.
Probate inherits nothing and minds everything
A bulldog in a bow tie, the back seat of a black sedan and the only member of the cast with no lines and no doubts. A short entry about the dog, by popular demand.
Lowmarsh: half town, half bath
A canal town where the water rises during the race, the roofs become roads and a bell tower rings when it floods. Building our first level that changes while you drive it.
The main title
A hundred and one beats a minute, brass, clavinet, a wah-wah guitar and a tune you can hum while committing a tort. The first finished piece of music for Rally Mortis, with forty seconds of it to hear.
Two stars, would not cross again
The townsfolk of Valmora all have a hat and an opinion. On crowds, constables, the radio and an ordinance about crossing the road during a period of mourning.
Night, rain, one lamp
The Coast Road runs from Port Saffron to Lowmarsh along a cliff, at night, in a storm, against a clock. On painting darkness, and why a race needs one warm light.
The family, in order of grudge
Eleven heirs, one fortune and nobody on speaking terms. How we built a rival family worth hating, and why the first sketch called Prudence the widow.
Four of five drove into the sea
Our first playtest. Five people, one promenade, a page of notes and a police car that may be too cute. What we learnt, and what we changed the next morning.
Port Saffron, summer 1975
The race begins in a seaside town with a promenade, a lighthouse, a hotel whose flags are always at half mast and a great many sun loungers. Building the first level, and planning to wreck it.
The rear steps out at forty
Three attempts at making a two-tonne funeral sedan fun to throw round a hairpin. On weight, handbrakes, repairs that cost money and the one number that changed everything.
The Black Tie, the Condolence and a car called Alimony
Every heir in Rally Mortis drives something that says too much about them. Meet the cars, from a chauffeur's black sedan to a hearse that does ninety.
Clause thirty-one: a ramp is deemed to exist
Vee Lark witnessed the will, was left the dog and now reads the small print out loud at ninety miles an hour. How the navigator became the rules of the game.
The right to try
Designing Wade Kessler, a driver who says very little, wears his gloves at all times and was left, in a will worth four billion, the right to try.
Wash test number fourteen
Thirteen attempts to make a game look like watercolour, and the fourteenth, which we kept. On paper grain, colour that bleeds in the rain and why a crash should leave a stain.
A will, a sedan and a bulldog
Day one of a car combat game about a family, a fortune and the most expensive drive in the history of a country that does not exist. What we are making, and the three rules we wrote on the wall.
Pre-alpha. Everything in this diary is work in progress. Things you see here will change, some of them twice.
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